The Other Side of the Table

Being a vendor at a card show yesterday reinvigorated my interest in baseball cards.  My interest was waning slightly and I began trading less with my blogging comrades.  It wasn't dipping to the point of quitting and selling off my collection.  I was just on a little break from doing something card related everyday such as organizing, blogging or compiling a stack for a trade.

Selling cards to other collectors gave me a different perspective on the card collecting hobby.  I was usually always the guy haggling and searching to find the proper deal for my collection.  This time around I got to be the one offering sweet deals to folks and hopefully making them happy with their purchase.  Making another collector happy, in turn put a smile on my face.

I will now wear two hats as a collector, so to speak.  I will probably set up at another card show this fall with some other Doyer bloggers.  The hat of a Dodger and player collector will always be worn by me.  The new hat of seeking deals on larger lots for resell will also be worn.  I think this will make me a more well rounded hobbyist as a dealer and collector.  I never want to lose the collecting aspect of the hobby and only think about dollars as a seller.  There is more to selling than strictly maximizing profit.  The well being of the collector is also important to me when I am wearing my vendor hat.

By the way, both hats are Dodger hats and my Oakland Raider hat is only worn when I go on crime sprees. So, I guess I am a man that wears three hats.

I also have a new found energy when it comes to blogging.  The show gave me a sense of pride as a proud member of our baseball card collecting cult.  I do have blogger pride and I love the sense of community that we have with each other when we meet up in person.  I may have never met some of my new blogger friends if the Platter never existed.  The community that we have makes me want to type more words for those people to enjoy.

A blogger buddy of mine that I have yet to meet is Napkin Doon.  Actually, I may have met him before as I don't know his name or his face.  He may have crossed my path before and I would have no idea.  Napkin Doon is a mysterious fellow.

This post is the second part of a trade that we made recently.  I wrote about the first part last week and had promised a sequel since his package to me was really awesome.

The dude included a 3-D Kellogg's Steve Garvey card.  Cards like this may even deserve an entire post on its own.  The 70s and 80s had a ton of these multi-purpose, astro turf circular stadiums all around baseball.  They all seemed to look the same.  Is Garvey posing in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia?  It is very hard to tell.

I also wonder if people of the future will wonder why so many stadiums in the 90s and 2000s were built to look retro.  Will future baseball fans wonder why so many ballparks resemble Camden Yards?  Why hasn't a team built a stadium that looks futuristic like something from outer space?  Did we really need a new Yankee Stadium that looks like a bigger, crappier version of the old Yankee Stadium?

Those are just some questions for my readers to ponder.  Those are also some questions that I think about when sitting in class learning about the beginnings of ancient civilizations.

 
I opened up a decent amount of Heritage this collecting season and haven't pulled any of these refractor looking cards.  I don't believe I even pulled one of a crummy ballplayer like Brandon League.

An entire set that looks like this may work in our hobby.  It combines the past of the 60s with something shiny and 90s-like.  Maybe an entire set with a blue color scheme would look nice.  Topps combining colors like purple, red and blue doesn't quite work.  If someone dressed with those colors, they would get mistaken for a pimp.  I don't mean a pimp, like a dude that nails tons of chicks.  I mean an actual pimp that sells peoples bodies while wearing some gaudy styled garb.

Napkin Doon sent me this neat vintage Brooklyn Dodgers card of Billy Herman.  My collection lacks some genuine Brooklyn cards and this is much appreciated.  I am not sure why someone spent the money to get this graded.  Is a "4" even considered okay for a '55 Topps card?

I have mentioned this before at the Platter, that I wish a back story would accompany every graded card.  The back story would detail why someone submitted a card for grading, what was the collectors goal after getting this card back and if it met their expectations as far as the graded number.

Who wouldn't want to know why someone sent in a '92 Topps Chris Gwynn to PSA?  The back story for finding a graded card like that may make the card more worthy of a purchase.  The back story may add some humor and life to a graded card of some random dude.

I will probably keep this Herman encased.  I am too scared to crack it open and risk damaging a true Brooklyn card.  I may also forge a back story about this card for future Spiegels to find if they are curious about such things.

This was a fun trade with one of my favorite bloggers.  Now that I am back and focused on collecting, lets get some trades going.  I am heading to the post office this week to mail a few bubble mailers out.  Let me add a few more to the pile.