Weekend card show - Syracuse Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to two card shows last weekend. 

Saturday saw me wake up early, and make the two hour drive to meet up with Night Owl. He was then kind enough to do the rest of the driving to the Syracuse card show.

I will say that it was better that the Syracuse show was on the Saturday as the weather was a lot better on Saturday. There was more snow on Sunday, and I probably wouldn't have made the drive then.

Before going into the show, Night Owl gave me a team bag of cards, and apologized that there were so few Browns cards in it.

There were four.

The first was a nice 1993 Topps Gold card of Touchdown Tommy. I already have a copy of this Tommy Vardell card in my collecction, but it was good to see the card again.

The next card was a Prospector Emerald insert card of Tim Couch from the 2000 SAGE HIT series. It is numbered out of 999 on the front.

I needed this card, and am more than happy to add another Tim Couch card to my collection.

The third Browns card was this Retrospective Jerseys card of Braylon Edwards from the 2006 Fleer Hot Prospects set.

I also needed this card.

The last of the four Browns cards was this Rated Rookies Autograph Bronze insert card of Rashard Higgins from the 2016 Donruss Optics set.

This card was another one that I needed in my collection. I'm not generally like the Sportscards From the Dollar Store blog in reviewing penmanship and autographs, but this one seems a little weak. I guess I can see that the first part of the scribble may be a R, but after that, let's just swirl the pen a bit?

It turns out that I needed three of the four Browns that Night Owl found for me. I'm very happy with that.

Along with those Browns, I was also given a number of Mets cards.

I know that Night Owl is working on his 2025 Topps Heritage set. He provided me with some Mets from it.

I really think that last year's team missed the energy that Jose Iglesias brought to the team in 2024, especially with his OMG song.

I've always liked Brandon Nimmo, and his style of game, and wish him well with the Rangers. I'm going to miss watching him regularly.

I was hoping that the Mets would re-sign Edwin Diaz. As much as my nerves may have been tested when he came into games, he usually came out of it with the save. He often came up with big strikeouts when he needed them. (Sometimes after allowing walks and stolen bases to make me nervous.)

As I'm typing this, I just heard that Pete Alonso  has signed with Baltimore. Wow!

I don't fully understand all the criticism towards Alonso's defense. His throwing was bad at times, and he may not have had the greatest range, but I saw him scoop a lot of poor throws up to save the defense. The fact that he was always in the lineup, and the runs he produced overcame those flaws.

I guess it is easy for me as a fan to be upset with Alonso, Diaz and Nimmo being gone from last year's team, but it isn't my money paying them. I just hope there is a plan to replace them.

I still like all three players and hope they have much individual success.

I liked seeing the two 2024 Topps Holiday cards in the bag, with the regular card and Christmas tree variation of Jeff McNeil. Cool!

And this photo definitely shows that the lighting in my room wasn't good when I was taking them.

I know that everyone thinks of Tom Glavine as a Mets pitcher since he did win his 300th game there. He had a solid five seasons with the team.

I'm not very familiar with Chuck Estrada, but did see that he pitched seven seasons in the Majors. His final season was 1967 with the Mets.

I had heard of Tommie Agee for being on the 1969 Miracle Mets, but I didn't know until a few years back that he hit the only home run to the upper deck in left field at Shea Stadium.

Here are a couple of numbered cards. I think Curtis Granderson was a favorite wherever he played, and this is a nice Gypsy Queen card to own.

I think that the Mets are going to try playing with a  bunch of their younger talent this year. Brett Baty has shown flashes of really good play with the Mets, and he will need to play consistently to help the team.

Again, the lighting in the room sure didn't help the top card look good in the photo that I took.

I loved watching R.A. Dickey pitch with those knuckleballs, and was happy to see him win 20 games and the Cy Young in 2012.

And I'll end the Mets cards with a Mike Piazza card.  That always puts me in a better mood.

As Night Owl mentioned in his show recap, upon entering the show, we saw tables being run by his former colleague's family. I spent some money there on Browns cards, which will be among the cards in the second part of my show recap. 

A little further down there was a table that had a lot of interesting Bills stuff. It caught my eye and I wandered over to it. When the dealer there saw my Browns jacket, he said he had something that I might be interested in just around the corner of his table. I was intrigued, so I moved over to take a look.

It was a custom art piece/print that a friend of his made. It sounds as though his friend has done athletes and musicians. Coming in a cheap frame with a $5.00 price tag, I was in.

And once again, I didn't really notice my shadow in the picture until I put it into the blog.

In my recent Detroit card show blog, I picked up the 1989 and 1990 Pro Set Final Update sets.

For the original cover price, I added the 1991 Pro Set Final Update set. Again, I probably have an open one somewhere.

The seller also had a number of 3 sheet team sets for the 1993 McDonalds Gameday cards.

I already have the Browns set, and they didn't have Bills or Raiders sets that would have been nice to pick up for friends, but they did have a Packers set that I will be giving to a friend as part of her Christmas present.

He also had another set of pages that I had never seen before.

For another $5 I picked up the six sheets that Fleer and Sports Cards Magazine put out in 2001, with six cards on each page.

The seller had a bunch of other interesting items that I didn't buy, but I really wanted to make sure I was getting some Browns cards at the show, and this was one of the first tables that I had visited.

I'll continue my show post later with a part two, mostly of Browns cards but with a few other different items that caught my eye.

Weekend card show - Ottawa

I went to two card shows this past weekend.

The first was in Syracuse with Night Owl on Saturday, and then there was a local card show in Ottawa on Sunday.

I had less purchases at the Ottawa show so it will make an easier post. I'll get to the Syracuse show afterwards.

I was happy to find these two Mason Graham cards. They bring the start of his cards in my collection to three. Graham was the Browns first round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, from Michigan.

I've been happy with his play as a rookie. He has helped the middle of their defensive line, and I expect him to only get better.

A couple more Nick Chubb cards for the collection. The Panini Select card is a Silver parallel from 2020, while the card on the right is a Power House insert card from the 2021 Panini Prestige set.

With my recent purchases (including the Syracuse purchases), I wondered how many different Nick Chubb cards I own. I'm up to 186 cards, which places him 8th in my collection.

This made me look to see where I ranked for Chubb on TCDB, knowing that really isn't that much for how many cards he has. I'm 4th, over 100 cards behind 3rd, and only one card ahead of 5th. The top ranked collector has 880 cards.

A pair of 2021 Panini Illusions cards, both different parallels.

The Schwartz card is a Trophy Collection Emerald card, while the Mayfield card is a Trophy Collection Dots. 

The dealer made sure to show me that it was dots, and that it wasn't just a plain image. It really didn't seem to affect how much I paid for it, so, sure, it's dots. I really wonder if I would have noticed it on my own. In certain light, in person, you can see it better. You can see them around the uniform number on the larger background image.

And here are a pair of David Njoku parallel cards. To the best of my knowledge, the one on the left is a Mosaic Green parallel from the 2022 Panini Mosaic set. The card on the right is a Black and White Checker insert from the 2023 Panini Prizm set.

I don't think I had ever seen a Black and White Checker parallel card before. I like the look. And that it fits the description, not like all the Mosaic parallels.

Here are a couple of Amari Cooper parallel cards. On the left is another Trophy Collection Emerald card, but this one is from the 2022 Panini Illusions set. The card on the right is a Lazer parallel from the 2023 Panini Prizm set.

Showing the Lazer card at different angles shows more laser-like lines on the card. In the photo, they mostly seem to be appearing in the bottom right of the card.

How was Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah a rookie in 2021? I know he's missed this whole season due to a severe injury last year, but it doesn't seem like he's been on the team that long. His card is a Neon Green Pulsar parallel from the 2021 Panini Prizm set.

Cedric Tillman has also battled his share of injuries with the Browns. His card, on the right, is an Elite Series Rookies insert card from the 2023 Donruss set.

We finish this post with two Browns stars. 

Ozzie Newsome had a Hall of Fame career with the Browns, and this card is, I guess, a Reactive Blue Mosaic parallel card from the 2023 Panini Mosaic set.

The card on the right is from an insert set that celebrates (honors?) the best of Panini Instant cards.  This card is from the 2024 Donruss set, and the Instant card celebrated Garrett being named the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Garrett is a bright spot on this year's Browns team. Barring injury, he will probably set the single season sack record this year. He has 20 sacks this year, and needs three more in the final four games to break the record of 22.5.

That was it for additions to my collection at the Ottawa show. I tried to keep it a little lighter on the wallet after my Syracuse trip.