Last month's road trip card show with Night Owl

As seen in Night Owl's post from last month, I once again drove down to meet up with him in order to go to a Syracuse card show together.

It was a small hotel show but it had plenty of cards for me to spend my money on.

First, though, Night Owl gave me a few cards and an unopened pack of football cards for my enjoyment.

I love the Polar Bear insert card. Alonso became a favorite really early in his rookie season, and I can't imagine him playing on another team.

That brings us to the deGrom cards.

Although I didn't want to see deGrom leave the Mets, I understood them not wanting to spend as much (in money and term) as the Rangers signed him for. When he pitched, it was amazing but he was hurt quite a bit, and didn't give very long starts when he was pitching.

I'm very happy to have this year's Topps card that will act as a sunset card for his Mets career.

I was also given this pack to open, but sadly there were no Browns cards in there to enjoy.

I also picked up a few Mets cards at the show.

These were found by Night Owl in fifty cent boxes that we were looking through. I was looking through football boxes.

There were two other Mets cards that I picked up.

I was happy to pick up a David Wright rookie card. It is weird seeing him in a number 2 uniform.

The last Mets card that I purchased may have been my favorite card that I left the show with.

How can you go wrong with a meal, umm, I mean a card like this!

I've now got an on-card autograph of the last member of the 1962 expansion Mets to play in the major leagues.

Ed Kranepool played three games, as a 17 year old, with the expansion Mets, and played with the franchise until his retirement after the 1979 season.

That's it for the baseball cards I added to my collection.

I did a pretty good job of not buying too many Browns at the show that I already owned. (That's always a danger going through monster boxes and just pulling cards with no want lists with me.)

I was happy to pull this 2008 Topps Chrome Beau Bell X-Fractor parallel. Sadly it was the oldest Browns card that I picked up at the show.

The Greg Little autographed relic card is from the 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia set, and is numbered out of 299.

I always enjoyed watching Travis Benjamin play, and miss his return ability on kicks. This card is the True Blue parallel from the 2012 Panini Rookies & Stars set.

I wouldn't have been surprised if I had previously owned a copy of the 2014 Topps Chrome - Rookie Relics X-Fractor card of Terrance West when I bought it, but it was cheap so I wasn't worried about whether I did or not.  

As it turned out, I needed it and owned his regular Rookie Relics card. This parallel is numbered out of 99.

Pierre Desir played the 2014 and 2015 seasons with the Browns after being drafted in the fourth round. This card is a Sapphire parallel from the 2014 Topps Strata set, and is numbered out of 50.

The die-cut Duke Johnson card is the gold parallel, numbered out of 199, of the 2015 Panini Contenders - Rookie of the Year Contenders insert set.

Chad Thomas, shown on this 2018 Panini Playbook card, played two seasons with the Browns, and released a rap album in December 2018. For his music, he is known as Major Nine. He was with the Browns for two seasons.

This 2019 Score - Epic Moment card commemorates Baker Mayfield's first points in the NFL, catching a 2 point conversion thrown by Jarvis Landry against the Jets in Week 3 of the 2018 season.

These two pink parallels of Anthony Schwartz confused me. They both looked to be from the 2021 Donruss Optic set, but I didn't that that Schwartz would be a big enough rookie to have a variant.

Seeing the backs, the one on the left had a different number, and I saw it was from the regular Donruss set. Turns out it was a pink parallel of  the Optic Rated Rookie Preview inserts into the regular Donruss set. 

I would say that I don't know what to think of getting a parallel of a preview card in a set, but I do know what I think. I don't like it. There are entirely too many parallels to collect.

Here are the other 2021 cards that I picked up.

I've always like the Panini Illusions cards like the Nick Chubb one above. I believe this is the Retail version as opposed to the Hobby version.

The Panini Chronicles card of Kareem Hunt is a pink parallel.

Three different autographs of Demetric Felton. None were very expensive to get. All are welcome in my collection. Felton has not had much of an impact in his two years with the Browns.

The three cards are the Black Autograph parallel from the SAGE Premier Draft set, the Bronze parallel from the SAGE Aspire set, and a Threads - Rookie Signatures card from the Panini Chronicles Draft Picks set.

Here are a couple of Myles Garrett parallels, the first being a red parallel of the Panini Absolute Memorabilia set, and the second being a Kickoff parallel of the Panini Playoff set.

Two players that weren't with the Browns last season. 

The Jarvis Landry card is a base card from the Panini Select set.

I like the Donruss Road to the Super Bowl Wildcard card of Baker Mayfield. It commemorates the playoff win against the Steelers. One tiny point of light since the Browns came back into the league in 1999.

I was happy when the Browns drafted Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoha. I just don't want to have to spell his name out all the time. I can see why he is referred to as JOK.

These cards are a Prizm Camo Pink parallel (where do they come up with these names?) from the Panini Mosaic set, the Kickoff parallel from Panini Playbook, and a card from the Wild Card Alumination football set.

Here are two more inexpensive autographs that I was able to find 

The Anthony Schwartz autograph is not actually from the Score set as it appears, but rather from the Panini Chronicles Draft Picks set - the same set as the Felton autograph from earlier.

Also from a same set of a Felton autograph, the Tommy Togiai card is a Black Autograph parallel from the SAGE Premier Draft set.

Based on the Browns off-season acquisitions, I think both Schwartz and Togiai may be in for a fight for a roster spot this upcoming season.

Finally, I picked up a bunch of 2022 Browns cards that I needed. Most were from the fifty cent box that one dealer had. The others really weren't that expensive. I guess that is one good thing about being a Browns fan, they don't have too many premium players to chase since 1999.

Although I think there are too many inserts and parallels out there, I do like the Huddle Up insert that acts as a team card.

These are the first four cards of David Bell that I've added to my collection. He was a third round pick that caught 24 passes during his rookie season.

The top-left card is a green parallel of the Panini Absolute set, while the bottom right card Score card is a Blue Explosion parallel numbered out of 20. 

I'm always happy to see a Joel Bitonio card.

Jadeveon Clowney made some critical comments towards the organization and coaching staff near the end of the season. He was released and won't be back with the team.

Some Nick Chubb base cards from the Donruss Elite and Panini Illusions sets.

Two inserts from the Panini Mosaic set. One of my friends that was looking through my cards liked the bobblehead look to the Touchdown Masters card.

I'm glad to find the promo cards like the Panini Player of the Day card because I really don't find them in local card stores.

The second card is a Blue parallel from the Panini Select Draft Picks set, and show Chubb in his Georgia days.

We have a bunch of Amari Cooper cards with one being the purple parallel, numbered out of 50, of the Panini Classics - Timeless Tributes insert set.

This is the first Jerome Ford card in my collection. He was a fifth round pick for the Browns in 2022.

I like Austin Hooper, but for whatever reason he didn't live up to the contract he signed as a free agent in 2020. After playing with Tennessee last year, he signed with the Raiders as a free agent in the off-season. I hope he does well.

Some more Myles Garrett cards. I'm looking forward to seeing if the change of defensive coordinator and the other additions to the defensive line help free him up more this year and allow him to play at an even higher level than he has played at.

Don't you like it when they use the same photo in different sets? Oh, wait, looking at Hunt's left arm, they are different. But they must have been snapped pretty close to each other.

It's nice when you find the base card and a parallel at the same time. I'm not a big fan of owning a parallel without having its base card.

Some more Baker Mayfield cards for my collection. He may be gone from the team but there are still thousands of his cards for me to look for.

I always like adding new Eric Metcalf cards to my collection. He was one of my favorites during his playing days.

David Njoku had a good season last year, but I keep expecting a breakout season from him. 

There were five Browns cards that I bought that I'm not going to show.

More often than not, a team's quarterback is the face of the franchise. However, I don't want the current quarterback to be seen as any sort of representative for the team. I won't deny his physical talent, but I don't care for the actions in Houston that led to his suspension. His cards are still Browns cards, so I'll collect them, but I'm not going to show them.

After that, I'll end my Browns cards from the show with a couple of cards of a player that I'm happy was a Brown.

I don't think I'll ever be disappointed to add more Joe Thomas cards to my collection. I look forward to seeing the Hall of Fame ceremony this year and his induction to the Hall.

I did get a few other odds and ends football cards out of the fifty cent box.

I wasn't going to pass up this insert of the late Steve Sabol. 

The card on the left is a business card, not what I would expect to see in a box of football cards, but interesting enough for me to pick it up.

For more information on the camp, I'll show the back of the business card.

I wonder if they made other cards for the other camps listed on the back.

A couple of Hall of Fame division rivals.

I think I primarily bought the Bradshaw card because of the 50 year patch on the jersey.

The Munoz Starting Lineup card is just pretty cool, and he is someone that I always respected during his career.

This may have been my favorite football card that I picked up at the show. An autographed card, numbered out of 99, of probably the most versatile offensive lineman in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for $3.00.

During Bruce Matthews' career, the Oilers were division rivals of the Browns and their games were highlighted by Bruce playing against his brother Clay. 

I've read articles where Bruce has said that Clay should be in the Hall of Fame with him, and that the Oilers knew they always had to account for where he was on the field.

Looking back at this, I probably should have broken this up into two posts. 

Thank you for anyone that has made it to the end of this post, and a big THANK YOU to Night Owl for still wanting to go to card shows with me, for doing the driving between Watertown and Syracuse, for buying me a drink at the show's hotel when they wouldn't take cash, for spending time having dinner with me, and for just being an all-round good guy! I look forward to doing it again.