The National brings home a LOST CARD!!!

Yesterday I attended my very first National Sports Collectors Convention AKA "The National" in my hometown of Baltimore, MD and as soon as I stepped inside I was just taken aback.  I mean I've been to Cooperstown and was slack jawed by the history housed in that building, but when you're an avid Baseball Card Collector this honestly made that experience almost pale in comparison.

My friend and co-worker over at Eutaw Street Cardboard was also in attendance and we had planned to meet up, but when I got there he gave me the best advice... "Just take your time and take it all in".  Kirk is a pro by comparison as he has been to this in the past and would be attending almost every day this week.  I however had no idea what to expect and was just dumb founded by all of the amazing memorabilia displayed in front of me.

The first display I came to was of iconic photographer Charles M. Conlon.  If you're a baseball fan then you have seen his work.  Here is one such image.

This actual photo was at The National as well as many other iconic pictures he took.  I must have stared at these images for at least the first 20 minutes I was there.  However, that was only the tip of the ice burg so to speak.  Laid out before me were hundreds of dealers from all over this great Nation and all had something special or unique to bring to The National.  I didn't have any real agenda when i got there... I just knew I'd like to try and maybe find some Lineage cards I needed but more importantly some Lost Cards. 

The thing about it was that I only have about a dozen Lost Cards and that was like finding a needle in a haystack for any one of them.  Not to mention the fact that there was just way to much incredible stuff for me to look at to even really find the stuff I was looking for.

I saw at least a dozen different Babe Ruth Autographs, countless game worn uniforms from some of the greatest players of all time, the rarest cards and memorabilia with the price tags to boot.  I saw a rare Ty Cobb ad going for $100K, as well as a game used Honus Wagner bat.  Just incredible riches that I never would've dreamed of being privileged enough to look at.

Needless to say I will be returning in the future.

So after filling my eye balls with all the rare historic items they could take in I decided to make my way to the back of the convention where they were selling mostly boxes and cases and where all of the major booths could be found like Topps and Panini and Tri Star.  This is when I met up with Kirk and we started the great debate of what box I was going to buy.  Kirk doesn't do boxes and almost broke his rule but like a true Zen Master he was able to maintain control of his urges and didn't break his own rule.  Instead he helped me narrow down my selections to a box of 2011 Topps Tier 1.  The price was only $75 and I decided I wanted to go high risk/high reward as opposed to a standard box with base and sub sets and one or two hits.  When I went to AZ the last shop I went to had a box for $110 and I thought he was nuts.  So when I saw it for $75 I decided it was the right price.  Needless to say it wasn't an amazing box, but still I can say I busted a box at The National.  Check out what I pulled!

(NOTE: Kirk of Eutaw Street Blog Fame is clearly an O's fan and actually picked the box for me... let's just say it had a little of his flavor in it)

First off the base cards...

Roger Maris, Frank Thomas, and Jose Reyes all numbered out of /799.

My 2 Autos left much to be desired...

Brett Wallace and Jordan Schaefer.  Wallace is out of /399 and Schafer /999. 

I think it's dumb that they had autos out of /999 when all the normal base is out of /799, D-U-M-B.

My Relic Card was nice however

Sure he is having a down year but its still Pujols damn it! /399

This was the first bit of Eutaw flavor... Kirk gave me my first Pujols relic card and this happens to now be my second!

However this was the REAL Eutaw flavor...

Zach Britton RC 199/199 (ebay 1/1 lol)

All in all I was okay with how the box turned out.  I wasn't expecting gold or anything.

After we broke that box we parted ways again as I was going to look for anything that caught me eyes that I would be able to trade for and Kirk left to look for cards for his never ending quest at Oriole Autograph dominance.

It finally happened.

I had found a Lost Card!

I acquired it from Mr. Mark Butler of Ruthian Sports Cards out of Bristow, VA.  He has some amazing cards... tons of game used Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle to name a few.  In fact his tag line is "Specializing in High End Modern Insert Cards".  Hit him up at ruthiansports@yahoo.com

However this price was steep.  I mean to some it might be anyway, but honestly the cards I gave up meant nothing to me compared to the card I got in return. 

First let me tell you what I gave up. In total a dozen cards for just the one.  Some will be missed greatly, and non will be forgotten.

I will certainly miss the King of Kings Patch Card of Rickey Henderson and that Fergie Jenkins Titanic Threads had to be one of my sickest pulls in recent memory.  Bobby Richardson is a Yankee... So Fug him... and the Tribute Relic lot was a really neat group of cards that struck a chord with him.

I also gave up some of my more favorite autos like the Monte Irvin (which is one of my most favorite posts I've written when I pulled that) as well as the Ron Santo.  That card grew on me, but I was more then ready to let him go.  The Trumbo card is also super nice, but I'm not really that in love with the guy and I'm sure I could find that card easily if I wanted to.

THIS CARD HOWEVER I WOULD NOT

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN

(who am I kidding... ain't no ladies reading this shiz)

THE LOST CARD

2008 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Dual Memorabilia DS-RM Cal Ripken Jr, Eddie Murray Dual Patches 23/25

This card is a HUGE upgrade over the one I used to have as the one I had was not serial numbered and the Ripken swatch was a black jersey and the Murray was a white jersey with a seam in it.

The way I judged if this was a good trade for me was the fact that you couldn't wipe the smile off of my face when we completed this trade.

I LOVE THIS CARD

 Don't ever count on this seeing another collectors hands as long as I'm alive.

Now for the fun part...

You think I got had on this trade or do you love this card as much as I do?  Feel free to post your comments!  Thanks to Eutaw Street Cardboard for kicking it with me at The National and again thanks to Ruthian Sports for doing a straight up trade with no cash involved.

Until next time...