A Card Show in the Fair Town of Raleigh

It just seems like I was at the State Fairgrounds a few weeks ago picking up a few things at a card show. I went again this past Saturday.  Just to review here are my card show rules:

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show
2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget
3. We never buy cards of the home team

Last time I went I failed on the whole budget thing.  So, here's how I did this week.

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show

I actually went in the morning, so I did not each lunch and no dinner either.  I did eat breakfast however.  I had a bowl of Rice Krispies, a banana smoothie with almond milk and peanut butter (Elvis would approve), and a glass of orange juice.  Quick plug...I make all of my smoothies with a Ninja blender.  If you don't have a blender, you should buy a Ninja Blender.  If you own a blender, but it's not a Ninja Blender, perhaps it's time to buy one.  If you own a Ninja Blender, high five.  

2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget

$25 and only $25 this time.  

3. We never buy cards of the home team

Raleigh is a city of transplants.  Is there a home team?  Maybe Russell Wilson.  Maybe.  

I actually decided to go for quantity this time. Just the way I felt going in. Sometimes I spend my money on a card or two, this time I spread out my purchases, and spent a lot of time combing through a lot of boxes for $1 cards.  I ended up with a nice stack of cards at the end of the morning.  

Since this was a stack I decided to make a quick pair of Instagram movies with my pick-ups instead of making you scroll down a page full of cards.  

Cards from the Raleigh card show Part 2

A video posted by The Snorting Bull (@thesnortingbull) on Jan 9, 2016 at 2:42pm PST

and 

Cards from the Raleigh card show Part 1

A video posted by The Snorting Bull (@thesnortingbull) on Jan 9, 2016 at 2:41pm PST

Raleigh Card Show

I took a little bit of time out of my Sunday morning to walk around the card show at the State Fairground in Raleigh.  I've only made one other post on my blog about attending a card and that was a few months back.  So let's run through the card show rules one more time:

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show
2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget
3. We never buy cards of the home team

Let's break down how I did on my rules:

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show

Not this time.  I actually made my appearance at the card show on Sunday morning.  It's pretty hard to eat lunch/dinner before 10am on a weekend.  I guess we could have found a diner or something, but my son is a stickler for rule following and food.  In my son's mind decisions are broken down into two categories:  Red Choices and Green Choices.   Drink a smoothie for dinner, eat a slice of pizza for breakfast...all food fouls, and a clear red choice, in the eyes of my son.  We ate cereal and then went out to lunch after the card show.  Green choice.

We went to the Players Retreat in Raleigh across from the NC State Belltower.  It's a huge NC State hang out and they have some tasty burgers.  Although my assistant prefers the hot dog on the kids menu.  Green choice.  The PBR is cheap.  Red choice.

2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget

Are we being honest?  No.  See below.  Red Choice.  

3. We never buy cards of the home team

Here's where I ran off the tracks at this card show.  I came to the show planning on buying a nice card or two, perhaps a small box of something like Topps Tek or Topps Archives Signature.  I walked one row with my son when I ran across the parent of a former student.  I've run into him at other card shows, nice guy, and he had bought out a booth the day before.  Long story short, he had some really nice looking cards of local guys.  

First card I bought.....

Chris Archer is from Clayton, near Raleigh, and he played for the Durham Bulls.  The 3rd rule of card shows was shattered, but I ended up with a cool Tier One Black autograph serial numbered out of 10.  It's pretty hard to say no to a card like this.  Which brings me to the second card.....

Carlos Rodon is from Holly Springs, near Raleigh, and he pitched at NC State and for USA Baseball.  The 3rd rule of card shows was shattered again, but I ended up with this cool Carlos Rodon Bowman Inception card serial numbered out of 25.  Is that orange?  Leaning towards yes. 

Now that it's been established that the rules were completely broken for this card show I might as well show you the last card I ended up picking up.  I bought a box of Topps Archives Signatures.  Which is a per pack autograph box.  That's a huge no-no in my world.   More rules.  Here's the card....

It's an Andruw Jones (Local Connection: He played for the Durham Bulls), but it's also a 1/1.  It's also a Ginter.  On the negative it's Andruw Jones on the Dodgers.  

All in all I picked up three nice cards and shattered all of my card show rules and pack buying rules.  I am going to go find the video clip from the end of Cider House rules when Heavy D and Spiderman burn the workplace rules because they are stupid and watch it a few dozen times.  Perhaps the card show rules should be burned.....