Card Show in Raleigh, NC

I made the hour and fifteen minute trek to Raleigh to a card and memorabilia show. I went to a show in Charlotte in December and the trip took about the same time. Do they ever do card shows here in Greensboro or Winston-Salem? Seriously.

Anyway, it was myself, Kim, and her brother were at the Fair Grounds in Raleigh very close to the coliseum where the Carolina Hurricanes play hockey. We walked around the fairgrounds because we went right past the building the card show was in. I don't know how the heck it was colder in Raleigh than in Greensboro but the two native North Carolinians with me had a hard time handling the cold while walking outside.

We finally made our way inside and it was a decent size show. Kim and I were looking to complete some of our sets and it wasn't long before we found a guy with commons. I was able to get card #50 Matt Garza to complete my Topps Update & Highlights, some 2008 Masterpieces cards, and the two common Goudey cards I needed to complete the base (non-short print) set. Kim was finally able to find the last cards to complete her 2008 Allen & Ginter set which is her first official complete set of baseball cards.

As we walked around I was pretty amazed at all the cards from the 50's and 60's. Especially the ones with 5000 count boxes of commons for each of those sets. Plenty of people had Mantles at high prices. I saw a Roger Maris rookie that intrigued me as well as other cards from yesteryear.

Early in the show I saw an awesome card that I really wanted. I walked all around the show thinking about that card and contemplated buying it. While I pondered the purchase of such a poignant card, I found a dealer who had some old cards for decent prices. I picked out a few cards I was interested in and this is what I ended up with:






I love the 1960's Topps set. I almost bought more but I didn't want to go overboard. I don't have any Bob Gibson cards so I got him, I always loved Duke Snider so I got his card as well. I almost picked up a Drysdale and Brooks Robison 1960 card but I didn't want to go overboard. I really like the 1960 set and I thought to myself, "ya know, that's an old set I should try to complete." I already have the Roger Maris, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente for 1960. As for the 1966 Whitey, I've seen that card all over the place and I didn't own any Whitey cards so I picked that one up as well. And finally, the 1959 Yogi Berra card. I didn't have any Yogi cards and after much consideration I decided to go ahead and get the card.

After visiting that table, I turned around and went back to the first table I saw "the card" at. I began to look around and noticed a Don Mattingly patch card as well as a Don Larsen and Johnny Mize.





I went through his stack of rookies and pulled some Phil Hughes cards and Kim picked up a few A-Rod cards (rolls eyes). And I found another Mattingly I didn't have.





A-Rod cards not pictured for obvious reason

Then I told the guy, give me..."the card"



It cost me a bit of money but I really wanted to get it because Lincecum cards have hit the roof since his Cy Young win. I think it's an awesome card. Kim, her brother and I had conversed with the guy about Jake Delhome's failure as a quarterback. Kim's brother, who I never considered a big sports fan, was quite adamant about his hatred for Delhome and went as far as to say "my team has no quarterback, he's dead to me." The dealer was pretty cool and told us a story about him going to Yankee Stadium to see that Epic Fail 22 - 0 Indians win (he was a Cleveland fan) over the Yankees. And I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about without even having to look it up. After chit-chatting, I handed him my stack of cards and he analyzed the prices and did some math. In the end, I made out pretty damn good. After that, I turned to Kim and said "Let's go before I spend more money."

I had a great time and picked up some cool cards. The only things that I was disappointed was with my not picking up any toploaders (wtf was I thinking) and the fact that there was not one dealer with Yankee Stadium Legacy cards (to my knowledge). I wasted boatloads of time printing out my list just so I could go dig for some and not one person had them. I thought that was strange but I am in North Carolina so that may be it.

I look forward to going back to Raleigh the next time they have a show. I thought it was just the right size. When I was a kid I went to card shows in my local area and they were really small. VFW's and such. This was big enough to have competition and a bit of variety but small enough to where you weren't completely overwhelmed. I look forward to the next one which will probably be an hour and a half away. Who knows, maybe I'll cross paths with the famous Dave next time :)