Hitting a local card show

Yesterday was the monthly local show near my house and I picked up more things for others than for myself (an minor aftershock to #BombBob may occur), but I do have a couple of things for myself to show. There just isn't enough football at these shows for me, but a few dealers have said that they will look around to see if they have any Browns stuff back home.

L: 1999 Pacific Crown Royale - Gold Crown Die-Cuts #1 (#/976)
R: 2003 Bowman Chrome #205

I had never seen these oversized Gold Crown Die-Cuts so I was surprised when a dealer pulled it out for me with the oversized card in the picture below.


He also had a couple of other Browns cards that I picked up, including a Terrance West autograph, but as it turned out I already had all the regular size cards that I bought from him.

L: 2000 Pacific Crown Royale - Cramer's Choice Awards #1
R: 2015 Bowman - Rookies Rainbow Blue #32 (#/499)

I had seen photos of the Cramer's Choice Awards but had never seen one in person until the dealer showed it to me. I think the two cards are nice additions to my collection.


The Hybl and Johnson cards came from another dealer that had seen me walking around the hall in my Browns jersey and jacket. He also had a couple of other cards that it turned out I already had.


There was one final item that I picked up from a dealer that usually has a lot of hockey and baseball oddballs. He was eager to point this item out to me, and I added it to the other items that I ended up buying from him.

This becomes the first matchbook cover in my Browns collection. The dealer didn't know what year the matchbook was from but he said that I could probably figure it out from the schedule inside.

 When I got home I did a quick Google search using the Cowboys/Browns game as a search tool. I  quickly found out that the Browns lost to the Cowboys 6-2 on December 12, 1970. (46 years ago today!)


Looking at the Browns results for the 1970 season, I did find that it matched this schedule. So this matchbook cover is from my birth year. Pretty sweet!


I find it really interesting that the Cardinals and Chargers played one of the their pre-season games in Cleveland as part of a doubleheader on September 5. I wonder why they decided to do that. I can understand playing games in neutral markets where they don't have a team but this seems odd.


For those interested, the Browns finished the 1970 season with a 7-7 record. It was only the second non-winning season since the Browns franchise started in 1946. To contrast that, the current Browns have only had two winning seasons since returning in 1999. Sigh.