It’s been a really long time since I’ve been to an actual card show. I remember going to a huge one in the 90’s in Atlanta and being on the budget of a 14 year old. As in, I got what mom and dad agreed to buy. I remember the tables and seeing cards I assumed I would never own. I’ve always wanted to replay that day and take my time and let it soak in. I’ve been to every card shop in Georgia, or so it seems. I’ve turned over 100 rocks at antique shops looking for interesting finds. But none of that searching could bring back the excitement and wonder of that card show.
That’s where Charlie Heinisch and Middle Georgia Sports Cards comes in to play. I’ve mentioned Charlie and his card shop in Warner Robins here before. It’s the best shop I’ve been to in a long time. Charlie cares about the hobby and the collectors in it. He helped jumpstart an area of Georgia that had really fallen behind in collecting. Along with the card shop, he formed a Facebook page with trading and auction days and general helpful info for collectors interested in the Braves, Hawks, Falcons and UGA.
Charlie has also brought back card shows to our area. He has a card show in McDonough, Ga every month and tries to have one in Macon a couple times a year. McDonough is still a decent haul for me (about 2 hours) but is a little closer than Atlanta. But 2 hours is as close as a card show has been to me in the last 15 years. He’s been having them for a little while now but I’ve never been able to make it. I have a wife and 2 kids and the weekend is the only time we really have to unwind. So asking them to take off with me to McDonough to look at cards is not really an option. And I’ve not been able to take off and just leave them with nothing to do either. This weekend worked out perfectly as my wife had a women’s retreat (literally a day at the beach) and my girls went to grandma’s for the weekend. So there was nothing standing between me and that sweet hotel conference room of cardboard this time!
I’ve actually been planning this day all week. The show started at 10 so I would get up and leave the house around 7, allowing time for a good breakfast and leisurely stroll up I-75 North. I’d spend half the day planted in front of quarter boxes digging to my hearts content. Mrs. Dub was leaving at 6:30 so it timed out perfect. When this morning finally arrived, she asked me for some help around 5:30 and I laid back down to just catch a few winks before having to get up and ready. After what I thought were a few winks, I woke up and the clock read 9:32. Bad start. I jumped up, hopped in the shower and rolled out about as quickly as I’ve ever moved. I had the truck gassed up, a McGriddle in my hand and was northbound by 10. Only 3 hours later than I had planned.
The ride was nice because I had some Beckett Radio and Wax Ecstatic podcasts to listen to. I made it to the Hilton in McDonough around 12:30 thanks to some heavy traffic for the last few miles and my heart actually started racing when I went to get out of the truck. I am not kidding when I tell you that I was full on excited like it was Christmas morning! I was at a card show, had some change in my pocket and had nothing on my schedule for the rest of the day. Totally unfettered. So let’s get to the fun!
When I walked in, it was hard not to quickly become overwhelmed. I had to slow down and realize that I had all afternoon. I had to pace myself. The first thing I had to do was find Charlie’s table. Another thing about Charlie is that he is the king of the sweet hobby boxes! I have had more luck with his product than any other CS or website. I went ahead and set aside a couple of boxes and started sifting through his quarter boxes. Here are the finds.
I picked up a box of 2017 Classics, which is one of my favorite affordable football card sets. I also picked up my second box of Archives. Maybe a Jeter Auto in this one, who knows? I’ll be working on a review post for Classics as soon as I bust it.
I picked up these 2 Fleer Gwynns that I needed for my 80’s collection.
These vintage football cards had my name written all over them for 25 cents! ’78 White Shoes and Joiner – ’80 William Andrews and ’81 Winslow.
I nabbed this ’80 Largent specifically to try the TTM address that Alex Kent recently shared with me.
How about a couple of ’88 Rookies of Tecmo Super Bowl Legends? The Boz and The Nightmare!
I couldn’t pass up this sweet Pro Vision!
My last .25 pick up was this Eric Lindros ’90 Score Baseball Rookie. Always loved this card! Then I found some autographs at Charlie’s booth!
This would have been the purchase of the day if not for the next Auto that I found! A Tony Pena autograph in the amazing Yellow Pirates uni! Unbelievable!
The Pena finished a close second to this beauty. Yes, your eyes are seeing this! A 1990 design Kevin Maas autograph. If you collected baseball cards in 1990, you know how momentous this actually is. I could have left when I found this and the day would have been complete. But, there’s more goodness to show.
A couple of booths over, I found another Archives Auto to add to my collection. Tony Fernandez was a great name from the late 80’s. Easy call to purchase this.
Then there’s this half naked Willie Gault Pro Line Auto. I won’t spend too much time looking at the front but if you put a Pro Line Auto in front of me, I’m going to buy it 100% of the time.
I then found the vintage booth and shopped there for quite a while. I don’t have much to show because a lot of that got packaged up to ship out to some of my friends when I got home. I did get this ’77 Dave Parker. I think ’77 will be my 70’s PC since it was my year of birth.
I picked up this ’84 Oriole’s checklist because it had Ripken on the front. Couldn’t pass it up for .50 cents.
Very proud of this pick up of a 1958 Curt Flood RC for $2.50. Its vintage and it’s also a very pivotal player in MLB history. Score!
My best pickup at the vintage table was this 1955 Ernie Banks for $10. I did not care about condition as I snapped this up the minute I saw it and the price tag. The price tag was a little higher but the seller cut me a deal when I bought multiple cards. The rest of the vintage cards will be turning up on Twitter over the next week or so.
The next booth was a “Junk Wax” booth so I picked up this ’90 Pro Set and ’91 Pro Set Platinum for $3 apiece. He had ’91 Fleer Baseball too but I just couldn’t pull the trigger.
The final piece for the day was this lot of Junk Wax packs that I bought to refill my “When I Was A Kid” box that gets heavy usage for giveaways. I picked up 15 packs of ’89 Donruss and 5 packs of ’91-’92 Skybox for a total of $4. No brainer.
Well, this was my day at the card show, for the most part. Like I said, there are some things that I can’t really show because it would ruin the surprise for those that are getting envelopes this week. I can’t wait until the next show and I will beg and plead with Mrs. Dub to let me go. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I’m going to bask in the glory of what was a truly successful day for me and my card habit!
J-Dub
