Attending The Burbank Card Show!

I attended the Burbank Card Show in Ontario, California two days ago (branding has a way, kids). It's the first show I've been able to go to since before Covid hit and I was excited to be in that environment again. I was going to make the journey despite not anticipating being a buyer. My pessimism on buying was twofold -- one, the show was likely going to be mostly ultra-modern and finding a Zack Wheat was unlikely. Two is the fact that I am currently trying to sell a bunch to finance a super rare Wheat card I have on hold. So if you've ever seen something on my site or you have general collecting interests, e-mail me or drop a comment. Who knows!

I met up with some friends, saw some old friends and acquaintances, and was treated to a nice dinner. That alone would be a win in my book. Add in seeing some truly awesome and unexpected vintage gems and meeting a former major leaguer (albeit it a Giant 😉, but a Giant who had a minor league deal from the Dodgers once upon a time) and it was a great day indeed! But I snagged some stuff too!

I assisted some of my friends in finding cards for their business and in doing so found a couple I wanted to buy myself. My efforts to help them ended up persuading them to give me the four cards I eyed for free as a thank you for my help. I'm a cheap date, really.

All four came from the former major leaguer's table (Ryan Sadowski, super nice as were his folks) and all four hit different areas of my vintage collecting passions. First up, a trimmed but beautiful 1966 Topps Sandy Koufax. It was in Ryan's $10 bin originally and even with the trim at the upper left it presents nicely.

Next up, long-time friends of the blog may remember I have a very soft spot for 1800s Allen & Ginter. It was one of the earliest vintage areas I became interested in as 2010 Ginter got me into collecting cards in general. I could not pass up setting aside another card from the $10 bin in this 1889 N19 A&G Pirates of the Spanish Main. William Fly is the English Pirate featured and even with some paper loss on the reverse and some specks of p.l. on the front it is gorgeous as can be for a 134-year-old piece of cardboard.

Fly was killed by hanging in Boston and his body was put on display to warn other pirates. Here are his reported final words:

"Our Captain and his Mate used us Barbarously. We poor Men can’t have Justice done us. There is nothing said to our Commanders, let them never so much abuse us, and use us like Dogs."

Another $10 gem now in my clutches is this trimmed strip card of President Teddy Roosevelt. It hails from the 1924 W562 Strip Card set featuring Presidents and Presidents alone. I picked up an 1800s card of Honest Abe a while back and Teddy was just a cool find in the midst of so many sports cards at Sadowski's table. I am not going to start collecting Presidential cards and if I ever did they would most definitely be of the 19th century variety. Into the random vintage PC it goes!

The final item I desired and worked off like a child laborer is this Jack Dempsey....something. I have not been able to identify it yet but whatever it is, it has certainly seen better days from a condition standpoint. Pinholes, creasing, minor paper loss, and a dog bite -- what hasn't happened to old Jack here. It's a stellar item nonetheless and I really liked it when I dug it out of the $15 pile. It is indeed a fine addition to my very modest Boxing PC.

Well, there's my show recap. Fun, free-ish cards, free food, and friends made for a stellar 14-hour day. Hopefully more shows will be in my 2023 future and word is a big one is coming to Anaheim later this year. Whether I am still a Californian by then remains to be seen, but one way or another I'll be at another show this year!