Visting a Detroit Card Show and Meeting a Fellow Blogger

So, it has been a couple of years...

I've still been collecting, reading blogs, and even leaving the odd comment or two. I have stacks of cards to send out to fellow collectors/bloggers, and plan to risk Canada Post and possible extra postal charges to send to the US.

However, over the Hallowe'en weekend, I had a family wedding to attend in Windsor, and reached out to Dennis at the Too Many Verlanders blog to see if he wanted to meet in order to save myself from having to mail a package.

Dennis informed me that there was a three day card show going on at the Taylor Town Center, and wondered if we could meet there. I had to try and convince some family that I didn't need to be with them the whole day after the wedding, and after they agreed, I knew I could meet Dennis for a few hours at a card show.

Before going in to the show, Dennis gave me a nice box of about 100 Browns cards, and I gave him a box of stuff.

Dennis informed me that I wouldn't be able to bring my backpack into the show, so we went back to my sister's car to put my stuff in it...

Or at least I thought it was my sisters car. I don't know who was more surprised, me, or the lady sitting in the passenger seat of the similar colored vehicle sitting right next to where I parked. Ooops.

Upon entering the show, Dennis wanted to take me over to a dealer from Ohio, where he had a few cards that he wanted to buy me if I needed them.

It was nice to add these three 1975 Fleer Immortal Roll cards to my collection.

Dennis also spotted this 1965 Stancraft playing card of Otto Graham that I needed for my collection.

These cards come with red and green backs. This is the red back.

There are also Jim Brown, Lou Groza and Dante Lavelli cards to be found in the deck.

On the way to the Ohio dealer's table, I saw a couple of bins of sets of cards that were marked at $1.00 each, or 6 for $5.00. I spotted one set that I knew that I wanted, so I knew I was going to dig through the bin for more interesting things.

The first thing that I had spotted was the 1989 Pro Set Football Update set. I know I bought one years ago that I broke up to give cards to some friends (there are no Browns in this update set), but I couldn't remember if I had ever bought a second one. Some day I may work on completing the 1989 set, and will definitely want this.

With it, I also found a set of all 30 Announcer insert cards for the same 1989 set. I probably had about half the set, but picking up the full set for a buck was a no-brainer.

Here are some baseball items that I picked up for a buck each.

I'm not sure if I have a complete set of 1990 Donruss or not, and am not really going to go looking through my boxes to find out, but I couldn't resist adding the set of 12 Grand Slammers. I may have had one or two before.

And I figured that I could find someone that would want the 11 1981 Boston Red Sox Coke cards. Sadly, it doesn't have the cover card for the set.

Finally, a Kmart box set for a buck. The gum inside has kind of warped the back of the box a bit, and left a gum stain on the back of the Rich Allen card.

I wasn't fully sure what the stamps were that were wrapped up together with Fernando Valenzuela on top. I found out that they were 1982 Fleer Stamps. I assume it is the whole set, but I didn't feel like opening it up to check. With Valenzuela on top, I offered the set to Night Owl, and will just give it to him sealed like I got it.

Looking at the rest of the dealer's table, I found two more items at $5.00 each.

The 1990 Pro Set Update set is probably a double. I'm pretty sure that I bought one that got opened and shared (there is a Browns coach in this one), and then bought a second for a set, but I don't remember. I didn't really think too much about this one. (Woo hoo! Cover price!)

The 1986 Fleer Star Stickers set was something I had seen on other blogs, but never really owned. I figured why not? I mean, 1986 was a good year for a Mets fan. It also came with 22 stickers, to give me all the different sticker backs. I'll probably look to pick up missing sticker front/back combinations but they won't be a priority.

Wandering around the show, I spent a bunch of time in a dime box, grabbing Browns for myself, and Packers and Raiders for friends at home. And I bought other cards from various dollar, or 3 for $5.00 boxes. I'm going to show those purchases in another post, along with some cards that I bought in Windsor.

Now, I'm going to show most of the cards that I got from Dennis.

This decal/window cling from 2005 Bazooka might be my favorite of the bunch:

A William Green card that was needed from 2002 Upper Deck, along with a James Jackson card from the 2004 Topps 1st Edition set:

A pair of cards from 2014. The first being a Prizm Fuchsia parallel numbered out of 199 from the Panini Select set, and the other being a Retail parallel from the 2014 Topps Valor set. (Two things. I never would have known how to spell fuchsia without seeing it spelled out on the TCDB checklist; and I would have bet money that I already owned the Isaiah Crowell Topps Valor Retail card. I probably would have left it behind in a dime box.)

I was very happy ot see the Championship Ticket parallel (numbered out of 99) of Travis Benjamin from the 2015 Panini Contenders set. (Sorry about the pictures, the cards don't look as nice in my pictures taken in poor light compared to in hand.)

The Carlos Hyde card is a base card from the 2018 Panini Prizm set.

Here are some Odell Beckham Jr. cards from 2019:

And Ozzie Newsome and Myles Garrett from 2019:

Generally, I like the veteran cards being added to Panini football sets. I'm not going to complain about a new Ozzie Newsome card.

Here are a few 2020 cards:

I'm very happy to see the success that Baker Mayfield is having in Tampa Bay. I really don't think he got a fair chance at the end of his stint in Cleveland. 

Some nice parallels from 2021:

Again, the light in the room was on the right. The two cards to the right are the same Xtra Points Astral parallel. (Who names these things?)

From 2022, here are a couple of Myles Garrett cards that I needed:

Along with three other cards I needed from 2022:

With Peoples-Jones being a Michigan alum, I know that I'll only get doubles from Dennis. But, hey, he's only going to get any doubles I have too.

The 2023 cards bring me a Browns card of Joe Flacco. I was very happy to add it to my collection. I really appreciated his first stint with the Browns, taking them to the playoffs.

Here are some needed Amari Cooper cards from 2023:

That is the red parallel of Myles Garrett for the 2023 Panini Contenders set.

I was glad the Browns didn't trade David Njoku at the trade deadline. He seems to like playing in Cleveland. 

There were a lot of 2024 cards that I needed among the cards. I really didn't buy much new and haven't seen many base cards locally.

The first seven cards here are all Nick Chubb cards. The thing that I find funny with them is that they are all showing him in the alternate white uniform with the white helmet. They wore the white helmets for three games in 2023. I wonder if all the photos are from the same game, or whether they came from different games. The Optic and Certified cards seem to have the same stain on the inside of the left knee of his pants.

Eight more Amari Cooper cards for the collection:

Although Jeff Garcia didn't have the greatest run with the Browns, I remember his CFL days very well before he went to San Francisco. It is nice to add a new Browns card of him.

Nine new Myles Garrett cards, in various combinations of the uniform:

Myles Garrett gets to celebrate a number of sacks, and is being paid very well, but I feel sorry that his play seems to be wasted year after year.

Jerry Jeudy had a very good first season with the Browns.

Two more veterans cards from Browns teams before they moved.

Pepper Johnson played for Bill Belichick with the Giants before the coach came to Cleveland. He brought a few Giants with him.

And, of course, Bill Belichick cut Bernie Kosar. To me, I still don't understand why, if he wanted to cut him, he did it while Vinnie Testaverde was hurt. Things worked out fine for Bernie, as it got him his Super Bowl ring with Dallas.

I said earlier in this post that I mostly liked seeingold veterans included in the new sets. I just wonder why Johnny Manziel is still included in so many of them.

I kept waiting for Elijah Moore to break out with the Browns.

I'm never going to complain about adding another Joe Thomas card to the collection. This is the red parallel of the Score set.

I'll finish what I'm showing from Dennis with these David Njoku cards from 2024:

There were a few more cards from Dennis that I didn't show. They were of an injured Browns quarterback that I don't want to play another down for the team. I'll put his cards in my collections, as they are Browns cards, but I don't need to show them.

Finally, I said that I was in Windsor to attend a wedding. It was black tie preferred. I decided not to rent a tux.

For your amusement:

After seeing it on a mannequin, I decided to try the black on black look for the shirt. I thought it looked sharp. It really fit in with the formality of the wedding reception. That is the Black Watch tartan for the kilt.

It won't be two years for my next post. I've still got cards to show from the show and a store in Windsor.