I was wrong about the show. It wasn't 99% hockey. It was 99.75% hockey. *sigh* There were 3 wax boxes of baseball there. Period. A box of '08 A&G for $110. And two unmarked boxes of '09 Heritage. I held them up to get the attention of the dealer. "How much?" I asked. Looking over, he says "$160".
"You're selling them as a pair?" I asked. He gives me a strange look. "you mean, $80 each, $160 for the pair..."
"No." he says. "$160 each... they're new, and highly sought after... really rare right now."
I'll leave that rant for another post...
So with no baseball or football wax to buy, I changed tactics and went for some vintage singles. Out of over 75 tables, only three had any baseball. Fine. I grabbed what I could, along with two boxes of hockey, which I'll share later, and got out.
The singles I ended up with? This is the first. I found it in the bottom of a monster box filled with late '80s Topps singles. No namers mostly.
"How much for this?" I ask. "Oh, that's a special card there. It's from the 1963 set... that's before you were born"
Should I bother correcting him? 1963? Really? Let's try another tactic first.
"If it's a special card, why was it tossed in the bottom of this commons box?" Put him on the defensive.
"well, uh... I must have misplaced it." He knows defeat.
"it's got four dented corners... I'll give you a loonie for it" (that's a canadian dollar)
"uh, okay... you're getting a really good deal there. It's unmarked. That's rare from the '63's"
I turn it over. "Nope", I say, "it's been marked with a dull pencil, and someone has erased the marks."
Leaving him with his mouth hanging open, I leave with my new 1959 Braves check list.
The rest of my loot to come.