What I Got at the Card Show: 5/20/06

Site: Westchester County Center; White Plains, NY.

I decided to pull a roadie to White Plains, New York this weekend for a card show. It had been almost five years since I'd been to the White Plains show, and I had nothing to do this weekend. Sounded like a good way to kill an otherwise boring Saturday afternoon.

White Plains is kind of like the Ft. Washington show, but roughly half the size. Another difference is the venue. Unlike the generic Ft. Washington Expo Center, this show is held in a beautiful WPA-era mini-arena/convention center, right off the Bronx River Parkway. Pretty neat place for a show. Thank God Expo Center is closing soon.

Many of the Ft. Washington regulars also set up here, with a few locals sprinkled in for good measure. Although I must say that there are probably more New York area dealers here, than there are Philly area dealers at Ft. Washington.

A had $200 in my wallet, and here's what I got:

A box of 2006 Bowman (Paid $65)

Man, is 2006 Bowman flying off the shelves, or what? This is my second box of '06 Bowman, and given the structure of the product, you'll have to buy two boxes to come even close to completing the short set. The dealer I bought it from said that he had already sold six-cases of Hobby in the first three days, and was well into his seventh! You can chalk up the demand to one man: Alex Gordon. Looks like Gordo-mania is running wild in The Hobby, brother.

I had already cracked open a hobby box, so I was looking for an HTA. After all, you get two autographs in each HTA box. Unfortunately, that second autograph is not from the base set, but rather from an HTA-only insert. Since there really are no other differences between hobby and HTA, do yourself a favor and stick with hobby boxes.

Albert Pujols 2001 Donruss The Rookies Rookie Diamond King ($80)

Yes, I overpaid for this card. But I needed it to complete my 2001 Donruss master set, and I just had to have it. This particular card was randomly inserted into every fifth Donruss The Rookies factory set, and because of this, you don't see many of these broken up for singles. I just couldn't help myself.

Speaking of Pujols RCs, the same dealer also had another one of his cards that I had never seen before, and on my wantlist: his 2001 Fleer Futures Update RC. He also wanted $80 for it.

Ryan Howard 2003 Donruss Elite Extra Edition ($25, # to 900)

Now my Ryan Howard RC collection is complete. I got his Diamond King Update card a couple of weeks ago for $12, and now his Donruss E³. For $5 below Beckett HI no less! Horray for me!

Ronny Cedeno 2004 Flair Class of '04 ($5, # to 699)

I found this card in the same stack as the Howard. The only reason I bought it was to fill out my set. Five bucks is probably more than this card will ever be worth anyway. I mean, come on. It's Ronny Fucking Cedeno!

Total Spent on Cards: $175
Admission and Parking: $11
Bridge and Turnpike Tolls: $15
Grand Total: $201