Sunday, May 20, 2007

What I got at the White Plains Show: 5/19/07

Site: Westchester County Center; White Plains, NY


Yeah, I know. It's been six weeks since my last post. Sorry about that. Time flies when your trying to get into a halfway decent grad school.


First off, I didn't wake up until 12:30 PM. I went ten rounds with one Mr. Jack Daniels at the Phillies-Blue Jays game the night before. Let's just say, I lost. That, combined with the bad weather, meant that I didn't arrive in White Plains until 4:00 PM -- an hour before the show's closing.


Pulling off the Bronx River Parkway, the lot was nearly empty, and the attendant let me by for free. (Normally you have to pay $4 to park). I still had to pay the $7 admission to get in show though.

With my elusive six-year quest for the mysterious 2001 Donruss Albert Pujols RC finally completed, I've moved on to my next "white whale:" The equally elusive twelve-year quest for the mysterious 1994 Score Rookie/Traded Alex Rodriguez Call-Up redemption card. The backstory on this card is worthy of an entire post (hmmm...), but much like the Donruss Pujols, the SR/TCU is one of those cards that I've always wanted, but have never actually seen for myself. Granted, I didn't have time to look at every table, but I didn't find the A-Rod SR/TCU here.


One Box of 2007 Upper Deck Series One (paid $59)
One Box of 2006 Flair Showcase (paid $49)


These were my fourth and third boxes, respectively, of '07 UD and '06 Flair.

I was debating on whether to buy either a box of last years Topps Heritage; a box of this year's Topps Heritage; or the box of last year's Flair Showcase -- as the going rate for all three the same. I was one Eric Chavez card short of completing the 100-card Flair short set, and only bought it just to see what fracture cards and inserts I could get. This particular Flair Showcase box yielded a Dice-K WBC insert, and a David Wright Fresh Ink autograph. It wasn't until after I looked it up in the Beckett, that I discovered that the Wright was short-printed to 100 copies and worth $60! I still didn't get that Chavez card I needed to finish the short-set. In three boxes I've pulled two Billy Wagner Legacy parallels, each numbered to 150 copies, but zero Eric Chavez's base set cards.

A stack of '05-'07 commons and short-prints. (paid $40)

This was mostly '07 Fleer singles and '06 Ultra Lucky 13s. I also got the last few cards I needed to finish off '06 Topps Updates and Highlights and '06 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects.

A stack of various inserts, and short-prints. (paid $30)

Among these were three '00 SPx autographed "rookies" (Octavio Dotel and a pair of scrubs), and a bunch of '06 Topps inserts. However, the big find was a Roy Oswalt 2000 Black Diamond Rookie Edition jersey card that books for $25. Not bad.

Total Spent on Cards: $178
Admission: $7
Parking: FREE
Tolls: $12
Grand Total: $197