Wednesday, September 23, 2015

WALLET CARD - Card Show Pickup

I got excited earlier in the baseball season when I saw tweets showing the great Oscar Gamble signing his Topps Archives cards to be then inserted into the product.  A few more cards on the wantlist and the longshot chance of pack-pulling one of his signatures.  Sweet.

I bought a couple packs when the product came out (yeah....I gave myself no real shot at hitting a Gamble) and was shocked to find a gold border Harold Baines sig /50.  I stopped busting packs after that.

But I heard soon after that a local collector pulled the popular Gamble auto and I knew he sets up at the monthly card show.  Sure enough, it's the first card he mentioned when I saw him on Saturday.

He pulled the card out of one of his boxes and flung it my way.  I was very excited at the chance to land another Oscar Gamble auto locally....but was a little cautious initially.

The card was priced - and priced high.  $25.

Now I'm more than happy to pay a little bit of a premium to secure a card locally or buy off of a person whom I've done many transactions with in the past, but I'm talking a couple bucks.  This card consistently goes for $5 these days on the open market.

I let the card sit for a bit while I checked out his other offerings.  Eventually, I had to ask - "Are you firm on this price?"

To his credit, he immediately went to the trusted interwebs and checked the completed sales on ebay.  He knew quite quickly that he had overpriced his card.

He threw out a new number (which is the same number I had in mind) and the deal was done.  Easy peasy.

2015 Topps Archives
#FFA-OG Fan Favorites Autograph

Awesome card.  Super happy to add it to the growing collection.  But even happier that I was able to pick it up in person.

We chatted about that component of my Oscar Gamble pc.  I told him that Gamble had about 150 cards out there and most were simple base offerings.  If I really wanted to, I could drop $100 and snag the bulk of his cards out there.  But where's the fun in that?

Living in Canada, the card shows here are mostly hockey related, leaving in-person Gamble pickups a tough task.

So I explained that I'm going about things a little slower - and am having a real fun time doing so.  Finding cards locally is so much more fun than "click, click, click, click, click".

Now, will I be able to find the silver or gold parallel of this Topps card?  Not likely.  There will always be a place for the online shopping world in my hobby.

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