Made my way to a nice little card show yesterday in Escondido, CA thrown by Nostalgia.Avenue and I thought I’d walk you through the events that transpired while I was there. Overall, I had such a great time and everybody including the dealers and those in attendance were super cool. Welcome to an adventure of rookie cards, parallels, and action figures amongst a collection of likeminded collectors.
Views from the show floor
I laid eyes on the red, white, and blue Tom Brady card at the first table I went to in the morning. $50 was the price and I was into the card but not that into the card. I calmly side stepped to the dollar bins but Touchdown Tommy was on the mind. A little red, white, and blue action to go with that clean Bucs jersey?? I hated Brady when I was a Chargers fan but now I’m all about him since I have no team allegiance. Dude just wins… and wins… and wins. And what is he now? 43 years old? A true model of consistency day in and day out.
Just another ring to rock for the 🐐
Next I made my way to the cheap bins to see what I could find. The 2016 Panini Derrick Henry Rated Rookie Card busted through the stack with a pic looking like he’s ready to do some damage. The card was calling my name. Derrick Henry was a great college RB at Alabama and he has put up some dominating games and seasons with Tennessee. No way he’s slowing down either. Dude is a beast.
The next card in that dollar bin that caught my eye was a 2020 Panini Chronicles Donruss Clear Chase Claypool Rated Rookie Card. Chase Claypool was nasty last year for the Steelers and showed he wasn’t a flash in the pan. I loved how the card was clear and had the iconic Rookie Card stamp which I’ve known since I was a kid. I believe this was $1 as well but honestly I don’t remember. I bought it and didn’t worry about the price
Ended up negotiating with the dealer and he came down off of his asking price on the Tom Brady Bucs card. I got all of these cards and a few more for $40. So yes I literally dropped cash at the first booth I was at but I didn’t blow my load…. at least yet.
I walked around a bit checking out the different tables just seeing what people were offering. A starting lineup or two caught the corner of my eye but I didn’t take action on that immediately. But that 1983 Topps Rickey Henderson? $10 was a no brainer on this one so I mentally set it aside as I looked through this dealer’s cards. Shout out to Del Mar Sportscards who had a lot of dope vintage cards! He had a 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings Rickey Henderson that I also had to swoop. And the Rollie Fingers Diamond Kings from the same year with the stache? Yup…. that’s going right to the PC as well. One Ozzie Smith 1983 Donruss later and I was ready to pay up. A whopping $15 is what I owed for some straight fire for my collection.
Kept walking along the show floor until I ran into a dealer selling the dopest Randy Moss Todd McFarlane action figure that I needed for my storage space. I say storage space because my wife and I are currently in a battle on what I can put on the walls at my work from home section of our bedroom. Don’t you worry though…. All the figures are going to go up when she least expects it and she won’t be able to make me take them down when she sees the heat I’m sitting on. Banger after banger still in the OG packaging. Moss with the fro on this figure though? All day.
The Moss was at $40 and this dealer had a lot more that I liked so I was in a pickle. I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend so I asked him if he was down to trade. He was skeptical until I unzipped that Herschel cross body bag and pulled the cards out that I had brought. That’s when he laid eyes on the 2014 Topps Update Mookie Betts rookie card I had as a gem mint. We quickly agreed to a trade and I kept digging through his stacks. And there it was…. The 1993 Jordan, Bugs Bunny, and Marvin the Martian Nike card that I obviously had to have. I grabbed another Marvin the Martian x Nike card along with some 1991 Marvel Cards and a 1992-93 Shaq Topps Stadium Club rookie to round out my end of the trade. Happy with all of this. And I didn’t spend a dime? Brilliant!
My last 2 stops at this show were to pick up more action figures still sealed in their original packaging. I found a guy with some fresh starting lineups so I quickly grabbed the 1995 Barry Bonds he had on display for $5. How could I not buy Barry from the Mid90s with the headfirst slide with the iconic #25 across his back? Look, I’m a diehard Padres fan but I admire greatness. Bonds was the best I ever saw. He did everything. Yeah he was on roids and wasn’t the friendliest dude but who cares… DUDE BALLED OUT. Bonds on the Pirates??? Cmon now. Tools for days. And when he was on the Giants, he got all those intentional walks and still went yard time and time again. I loved watching Barry play.
Then the dealer gets all excited because he brought a bunch of starting lineups but didn’t know if people would be into them. Well, guess I was the outlier. He grabbed a box from the floor and brought it out to the main aisleway. This dealer was sitting on some heat so you know your boy came up. Deion Sanders on the Reds with the headfirst dive? Yes, I’ll take it. The Patrick Ewing Knicks jumpsuit figure? Yup, Tatistrader2103 gets that. A Randall Cunningham Eagles starting lineup? Yes, I’ll take that too. I think I spent like $25 with that vendor and cleaned up on some fresh action figures.
As I was walking out the door, I heard a yell saying, I’ll give it to you for $15! I quickly turned knowing exactly what this last dealer was talking about and picked up the LeBron James Space Jam Stretch Armstrong action figure. I’m fired up for the new Space Jam movie so this was a total no-brainer. I mean look at that thing…. You tell me you’re not walking out of that card show with that in your possession? Now that I look at this toy, I realize that I need to keep it on ice but then buy another one for my baby boy. He could do some damage to stretchy Bron Bron.
Walked out of the show with my homie and we caught up for a good 20 minutes. Then I went to my car to set everything down and ended up rapping out with my new homie from Brooklyn who pulled up to go to the show. He came with his girlfriend but he ignored her as the two of us became instabros talking sports cards and business. I got his business card and will be hitting him up this week on some 9-5 talk. A perfect ending to a nice morning at a sports card show. I spent about $100 and rapped out with fellow sports cards and collectables nerds like myself for a couple of hours. Loving the community….
If you haven’t made it out to a sports card show yet, I’ll leave you with some footage from Brad aka The Comeback Cards Investor. There are a lot of sports card influencers out there but Brad and Dustin The Personal Finance Dad are two of my favorites. Just regular dudes who are into sports cards and investing without all the ego that some of the big guys have.