I contacted
Night Owl last week to see if he was planning on attending last Sunday's card show in Syracuse. When he indicated that he was planning on going, I asked if he wanted to meet up again, and go to the show together. We agreed that we would meet in Watertown at 10:00 and drive the last hour together to the Syracuse show.
I woke up nice and early, and made the two hour drive to our meeting. The drive went well, going through customs went smoothly, and soon we were meeting at our usual Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot meeting place. I was greeted with some pre-card show cards.
The top card in the team bag was Brandon Nimmo's smiling face.
I love Nimmo's hustle, and was very happy that he signed his long-term extension with the Mets. I guess the only thing that I would have preferred to see with him was more stolen bases. I like my leadoff hitter to steal bases.
The package also contained some Polar Bears.
Speaking of signing extensions... Alonso is a player the Mets need to extend. The talk about him being on the trade market was very disturbing. Not only is he one of the premier power hitters in the game, but he is a face of the Mets who understands the fans. It isn't as though he is a fan favorite that struggles to find a spot in the lineup. He is a star for the team. Even if, after signing with Scott Boras, he plays out the final year of his contract, the Mets can't let him go, or trade him.
The package also contained a couple of Vogel-monsters.
I don't buy much baseball, so these are my first two cards of Vogelbach as a Met. I love the foil shiny Topps card.
There were a couple of Pitchers from Topps Heritage.
Carlos Carrasco's contract was up at the end of the season. I don't expect him back with the Mets last year, but I'm thankful for his three years with the team.
Jose Butto started seven games for the Mets this year, I don't know what the Mets plans will be for him next season.
There were also some Allen & Ginter cards for me.
It is nice to get cards of two of the young Mets. I look forward to seeing how they are used next year.
While reading other blogs that were showing their Allen & Ginter, I saw one card that I knew that I wanted to get.
I was saved the trouble of looking or asking for it.
No matter what happens in the future, I will always have fond memories of Timmy Trumpet from the 2022 baseball season.
Greg also gave me some Browns cards, and then picked up a few more for me while going through boxes at the card show. For simplicity, I'm adding those Browns here.
These Browns cards included my first from the 2023 sets. (I guess I'm a horrible collector, not buying any new product yet this year.)
The Myles Garrett card was the first of this year's cards that I came across among the cards, which makes me consider it my first Browns card of the year.
Two receivers with different roles on the team. Rookie third round draft pick, Cedric Tillman, is just starting his career, and has one catch this season.
Amari Cooper is the unquestioned number one receiver for the Browns. The trade to acquire him from the Cowboys was a definite steal.
I'll never complain about getting a Nick Chubb rookie card, especially one that has a nice photo like this one.
The Olivier Vernon Press Proof Blue parallel was one of the cards that Greg found for me and bought at the show.
I'm pretty sure that this Myles Garrett Star Gazing insert card came from the show as well.
The next card was also bought for me at the show. When asked if I had it, I had to think about it as to whether I owned it or not.
If you look at the first photo in my last post, there is a 2017 Panini Contenders autographed Matthew Dayes card there. The other card is vertical, however, while this one is horizontal. They also have different card numbers.
Can you believe that Panini would make two copies of each rookie in the same set, and give them different numbers so they aren't just variants? Oh, who am I kidding, of course you can believe that.
I bought a number of new Browns cards for my collection, including some vintage just before we left the show.
I'm going to start with the newer cards.
I don't have many cards to show for Carlos Hyde's six games that he played with the Browns after signing a three-year free agent contract before the 2018 season. Hyde was traded to the Jaguars for a fifth round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. His card is a 2018 Donruss - Press Proof Red parallel.
I like die cut cards, and was happy to find this 2020 Panini Select - Blue Prizm Die Cut card of Baker Mayfield at the show.
A couple of neat Myles Garrett cards for my collection, with the one on the left being a 2018 Donruss - Gridiron Kings insert card, and the one on the right being a Championship Ticket parallel from the 2020 Panini Contenders set, numbered out of 99.
A nice 2018 Donruss Optic rookie card of Denzel Ward.
A couple of cards of a second round draft pick of the Browns from the 2020 NFL Draft. Here is his Panini Prestige rookie card, and a Prizm Red White and Blue parallel from the Panini Prizm set.
Delpit has been playing very well for the Browns defense this year.
I don't think you'll ever hear me complain about adding a new Joe Thomas card to my collection. This All-Time Gridiron Kings card comes from the 2021 Donruss set.
I accidentally bought two of the 2021 Donruss - Retro 1991 card of Baker Mayfield. I think that Night Owl was telling me how much he liked that design. Maybe he'll want the extra. (Or he might have been telling me that he never wants to see that design again. I'll let you, the reader, decide.)
Also from the 2021 Donruss set, the Demetric Felton card is a Rated Rookies Portrait card, while the Anthony Schwartz card is a Press Proof Blue parallel.
A 2021 Panini Playbook Demetric Felton rookie card, along with what I believe is a Silver parallel of Kareem Hunt from 2021 Panini Prizm.
Some more Anthony Schwartz cards. On the left is a Green parallel from 2021 Panini Absolute, and on the right is a Black and Gold Prizm Die Cut parallel from 2021 Panini Select.
Surprisingly, this Nick Chubb card is the second, and last, numbered card that I picked up at the show. It is a Purple parallel, numbered out of 175, from the 2022 Clearly Donruss set.
Perrion Winfrey was a fourth round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and played the 2022 season with the Browns. He was released last summer after running into some legal issues in April and July. This is his 2022 Donruss rookie card.
Mike Woods was drafted in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He caught five passes during the 2022 season, and also played special teams for the Browns. Unfortunately, he suffered a ruptured Achilles while working out in the off-season and is on injury reserve. This is his rookie card from 2022 Panini Mosaic.
I came across a number of Yellow Press Proof parallels from the 2022 Donruss set.
A pair of receivers.
A pair of running backs.
Another new Joe Thomas card, along with tight end David Njoku. (I can't think of how to pair them.)
And finish with a pair of cornerbacks.
The light above the cards kind of throws off the color of these Pink parallels from the 2020 Donruss Optic set.
The David Bell card on the left is from the Retail version of the 2022 Panini Absolute set, while his card on the right is from the 2022 Panini Chronicles set. It is a Gridiron King insert card.
The David Bell card on the left is a Playoff Momentum Rookies insert card from 2022 Panini Chronicles, while his card on the right is a rookie card from 2022 Panini Prestige.
I like the look of this Game Day Ticket insert card of Nick Chubb from 2022 Panini Contenders.
I would imagine that the photo of Nick Chubb in this 2022 Panini Chronicles - Photogenic insert card was taken at the same game against the Steelers as the previous Game Day Ticket card.
The Denzel Ward card on the right is a Mosaic Reactive Orange parallel card from 2022 Panini Mosaic. The Mosaic set has waaaay too many parallels that I don't like having to figure out.
These two cards are from 2022 Panini Prizm. The Myles Garrett card is a Green parallel, while the Cade York card is a regular base card.
The Cade York card is his first that will have been shown in this blog, but is his second that I own. I have a parallel that will appear in an upcoming Catching up with my Collection post.
A new Johnny Manziel card starts off the 2023 cards that I purchased. It is a clear acetate card that allows you to see through it to the surface that I photographed it on. It is a Clearly Donruss insert card from the college 2023 Panini Chronicles Draft Picks set.
The card on the right is a 2023 Donruss Elite card of Nick Chubb. I didn't really notice the scratches on the front of the card in hand that I can see in the photo.
I managed to get my first three cards of Browns rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson. I saw two nice autographed cards of him at one dealer's table, but I think the dealer told me that they were each in the $75-85 range.
I don't care that DTR played well in the pre-season, and won the back-up quarterback job. He is still stuck behind the current starting quarterback's multi-year guaranteed contract. I don't that DTR will be starting any time soon, and those prices are way more than I will pay for them.
These cards are his base cards from 2023 Panini Mosaic, and 2023 Score.
Also from 2023 Panini Mosaic, is this NFL Debut card of Thompson-Robinson. I like the look of it.
Hey, it's that same pair of running backs from earlier, but this time from 2023 Score.
I like these two 2023 Score cards. These are my first cards of both undrafted rookie Ronnie Hickman, and Right Guard Wyatt Teller.
I'm so happy to see Teller get a card in this year's Score set. It's nice when they finally include a starting offensive lineman.
I also bought five cards from 2022 and 2023 of the Browns' current regular starting quarterback. I may find the need to collect his cards for completeness of my Browns collection, but I don't think I want to show any of his cards.
With the modern cards having been shown, I'm now going to move on to the vintage cards that I bought just before Greg and I left the show.
The following card is one that I passed on at a store in Arizona a few Christmases ago. I thought it was a little overpriced, and didn't buy it.
Back then I didn't know it was the last card in the set, and from a second series that was harder to find.
The one I didn't buy was in better shape than this one, but I'm thrilled to have finished my 1957 Topps Browns team set with this card of Fred Morrison.
The sticker on this card was for three dollars, and along with all the others to follow, they were discounted a bit more.
I know many collectors like the cartoons on the back, and that everyone isn't probably as familiar with the vintage football card backs, so I figured I can show them as well.
The next two cards come from the 1964 Philadelphia set.
The card on the left is Gary Collins' rookie card, and the card on the right has Jim Brown's cadillac in the background. These cards were priced at three dollars each.
Frank Ryan was the quarterback of the last Browns Championship team in 1964.
When this card came out, Frank Ryan was taking his PhD. He earned it in 1965, and he taught at Rice, and became an assistant professor at the Case Institute of Technolgy during his playing career.
This John Morrow card, from 1967 Philadelphia, was the last card for the Browns team set on my wantlist. When I added it, the card was listed as a Browns card on the Trading Card Database.
Imagine my surprise when I saw that this card showed Morrow as a New Orleans Saint.
I looked back at the TCDB, and found that the team was changed to the Saints in the Change Log quite a while ago. But it was after I created my wantlist.
In any case, Morrow is in a Browns uniform, so this card still fits my collection. I was very happy to get it with a two dollar price sticker.
I have sometimes wondered whether the image would still appear if I were to run a coin over it now, but there is no way that I am going to do so. (The back image on TCDB doesn't show the answer. I haven't looked on COMC yet.)
I bought the next card knowing that it is a double. I just wasn't sure whether it would be an upgrade or not, and if it isn't I don't mind having a nice double like this of a Hall of Famer.
This 1962 Topps card was priced at five dollars.
Neither of us knew, but Greg wondered if this was the original black border card set.
The total of these vintage cards was sixteen dollars. The dealer asked for twelve. Not going to complain about 25% off each of those cards.
After buying these cards, Greg and I decided to leave the show, at a much earlier time than we were used to. Yes, we did get there earlier, but it still seemed so early.
However, all of a sudden I wanted to check out one last table where I bought some used eight pocket card sheets. (I was looking to see if he had tobacco size sheets.)
As I was paying the dealer, whether it was because of the lighting, or whether it was because the card was in a card saver, and looked smaller than I expected it to, I thought I spotted a long desired card in his showcase.
I could have sworn the card was a 1975 Topps Mini Gary Carter rookie card. I own the Topps and O-Pee-Chee versions, but need to add the mini.
I paid the dealer for it, thinking it was the mini. The dealer thought it was the mini, and it was sitting pretty close to a Dave Winfield mini so there was at least one mini in his showcase. But when I went to add the card to the rest of my purchases, I realized it was a regular sized card. Oops.
The dealer was good about it, because he fell into my line of thinking that it was the mini. When we held the card up next to a regular card, we laughed about it and he refunded my money.
Maybe next time.
After that, Greg drove us back to Buffalo Wild Wings where we always have our post-show dinner together.
Now, I knew I was going to the show during a Browns game, but I really didn't expect them to stay close to the 49ers. At the show, I heard one dealer tell another that the 49ers had scored a touchdown minutes into the game, and that fed into my confirmation bias.
I didn't check my phone for the score until we got to Buffalo Wild Wings, and then was surprised that it was 10-10 halfway through the third quarter.
From then on, I was splitting my attention between Greg, the game, and eventually dinner.
There was a little bit (okay, a lot) of emotion swings at the end of the game. The Browns may have benefitted from a couple of calls that went their way (a rarity), but I watched the 49ers finally move the ball in the second half, and get into field goal range. I was shocked to see the field goal miss. That never seems to happen in favor of the Browns.
The surprise win made for a happy Angus on the two hour drive home.
Greg, thanks again for doing the driving between Watertown and Syracuse. I had a great time, and can't wait until we get to do it again.
