This morning I made the hour-long drive to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, known to its friends as The Philly Show. The show has a legitimate official sponsor (eBay) and the advertisement for the event notes the show is in its 50th year. I hadn't attended a baseball card show since the last Philly Show in December, and I was flying solo to this one as our oldest son is in his first month of college at Villanova. (One of the perks of having him so close is that I was able to stop by and see him on my way home, and he even "bought" me a coffee.)
The showroom floor is ginormous and even though I was there for over three hours, I still didn't visit every table. Vintage cardboard is still well-represented, although there were more tables selling Pokemon cards or nothing but slabs of graded cards than I remember from past shows. I had two goals for this show - come close to completing my 1969 Topps set and look for any old and/or oddball Phillies stuff. I succeeded in my first goal, but failed in my second. When the final score was tallied, I had added 91 cards to my 1969 Topps set, leaving me with needing just 16 more. I'm collecting 666 cards - the base 664, plus the variations for Clay Dalrymple and Donn Clendenon. I have no interest in the white letter variations or the checklist anomalies.
- The first place I stopped was a table with well-organized and well-marked binders of commons and semi-stars with 20% Off notes across the front of each binder. I took my time and found 32 common and semi-stars needed before asking to see the dealer's star cards from the set. It turned out this first purchase was also my biggest, as I spent over half my allotted budget here, America's Pastime from Fair Lawn, New Jersey, before moving on to the next table. I paid a nicely discounted sum for the star cards of Harmon Killebrew, Tug McGraw, Bobby Cox (rookie card) and Rod Carew. Set progress - 36 added, 71 still needed.
- My next stop was the aptly named Vintage Sports table. I always appreciate a dealer with clear signage explaining their pricing method, and Vintage Sports had a marker in their selection of 1969 Topps cards laying out that cards without a sleeve were $1 and cards with a sleeve were $2. I had one "high number" in a sleeve, and that was a whopping $4. Set progress - 28 added, 43 to go. Appreciating the deal, I also added 10 cards to my not-yet-officially-collecting 1959 Topps set build.
- I next found a smaller table with the impossible to pass up offer of 1969 Topps commons that were only $1, unless marked. The binder was right at the end of the table, making it an even easier sell. The prices on some of the cards were stunningly low, so I was even more surprised when the dealer gave me an even deeper discount upon tallying up my total. I made sure to ask for a card, and I'll be making Niagara Sports Cards one of my first stops when I return to the Philly Show, hopefully in December. Set progress - 12 added, 31 to go.
- After about 90 minutes of walking and buying, while running low on funds, and even lower on stamina, I found a nice display of vintage Topps star cards at Richie's Sports Cards, from Manalpan, New Jersey. I quickly and easily picked up six more star cards needed for our set. Set progress - 6 added, 25 to go.
- I'm not even sure how best to describe the next table I visited. I typically steer clear of tables that look incredibly disorganized or tables that look as if the dealer put minimal effort into his/her display. This table was both. But the crudely designed, hand-made sign advertising "Entire Table is 50% Off" made me stop and at least look at what was in the 1969 Topps hodgepodge of cards. And I'm glad I did. It took me a solid 20-25 minutes to go through the cards that were loosely in order, but I found seven cards I needed with either mislabeled prices (?) or prices that hadn't been updated since the 1980s. I paid $7.50 for a perfectly decent Carl Yastrzemski card, and I suddenly wished I had made this table my first stop. Set progress - 7 added, 18 to go.
- And finally, I made one last stop at Uncle Dick's, the source of 486 cards in our set, or almost 75% of my entire set build. I wanted to make sure I had completely cleaned him out of all 1969 Topps cards I needed, and I was able to add two more cards from the neon green binder, the last two cards I'll likely purchase from Uncle Dick's for our 1969 Topps set - the Ray Fosse rookie and the Al Kaline card. Set progress - 2 added, 16 to go.
The 16 cards I need to complete the set are superstars, stars or semi-stars with nary a common in the bunch. I have a feeling the Nolan Ryan card will be the last to fall, as I don't think I saw any 1969 Ryan cards at the show unslabbed. I probably won't wait until adding the remaining 14 cards to officially start collecting the 1959 Topps set, the next set on deck. I've enjoyed collecting this set over the past three-plus years, and I've definitely enjoyed blogging about each of the cards added, but I already have my sights set on moving backwards into the 1950s.
The last 16 cards needed:
82 Richie Hebner / Al Oliver Rookie
85 Lou Brock
90 Jerry Koosman
100 Hank Aaron
150 Denny McLain
190 Willie Mays
270 Mickey Lolich
394 Lou Piniella Rookie
533 Nolan Ryan
540 Curt Flood
547 Billy Martin
570 Ron Santo
573 Jim Palmer
600 Tony Oliva
630 Bobby Bonds
640 Fergie Jenkins