San Leandro Card Show Report - Oddball City!

The show of the year.. or half-year....... umm...

The best semi-annual show in the Bay Area was held yesterday in San Leandro. As expected, there was vintage all over the place. And by vintage, I don't just mean poor-condition late 1960s Topps low numbers. This show has cards you don't see anywhere else. As Jim put it, there are cards here that you don't even see at the National. If you're looking for regional pre-Topps issues, you're in the right place. If I had $1000 to blow at the show, I could come away with a hefty stack of cards that would make most of you jealous. Or a Goudey Babe Ruth. I didn't have $1000, but I still made a major dent in my want lists via discounts.

My first stop was the show promoter's table. He has a couple display cases with inexpensive lots and sets, and found a good number of cards that fit my wants. I picked up a few vintage lots, plus several oddball lots and sets. The scan above is from a large-size issue that is folded like a greeting card, but the inside is blank. The scan below is from a 1989 postcard set. I picked up both as part of 6-card lots.

From there, I headed across the floor and bought some 2011 Topps singles. My series 2 set is complete. Update was nowhere to be found, so when I go to the card shop Wednesday I'll try my luck there before heading to Sportlots. I also picked up singles for a couple of you guys. Matt of Card Anathema, I have all four series 2 cards you have listed on your site, as well as an Allen & Ginter single. Reader Kenny of Japan, I have all three base cards you were looking for from series 1 (Braun, Bautista, Jeter).

After those two essential stops, I began my strolling of the floor. I picked up a 1947 Centennial Flour card of a Seattle Rainiers player, a 1950 Hollywood Stars "card" that's printed on glossy paper, and several other random old sets. I grabbed a few Prime Nine singles (including the two seen below) and nearly finished the 2011 awards and leaders collection. All I need now are (long retired) Sam Thompson and Cap Anson, Jason Isringhausen, George Kottaras, Joe Maddon, and Matt Wieters, and all the additions from this year's awards and statistical leaders are complete! I'm going to see what I can find at the card store.

Other than the above-listed players, I need exactly 999 cards to complete the Awards/Leaders Collection. This is thanks to a seller who had a "Bargain Box" of vintage priced as low as 10c. I have a 1956 Topps (in well-loved condition) that was a quarter, and a whole mess of 1960s through 1980s regional stars and semistars that have been elusive until this point.

As for the set run for my projects, I tackled that and a few other needs with another dealer. I now only need '52 Topps (2 copies), '64 Topps, and a light handful of early 2000s. I can't see spending $10 or more on a '52 Topps card for this project, so I continue to hold out for better. I thought I had 2 '64s today but I was wrong.

Mr. Diamond King (Kevin), I picked up some Mark McGwire inserts that I hope you'll like.

I struck out looking for stuff for Sam. By the way, your package came today! Thanks! I gotta get yours in the mail still. The same goes for several others I'm still looking for: Jeff L, Hackenbush, and Kyle.

But those negatives aside, this was a good finish to my baseball card year. There are collecting "loose ends" to tie up (including those mentioned above), but I'm happy with my finds.

The show wasn't the only part of my day, though! Dan (The Other World) and friend/reader Jim made plans to meet up, and along with Jim's friend, we all headed over to a pub for drinks and food. It's always fun to talk baseball cards with fellow collectors. My cousin told me she read my blog today, and while she supports me, she has no interest.

I need to thank Jim for a nice plastic case full of even more 1973s - I'm now over 50% and I think I've bought a total of 10 cards from the set myself! I almost picked up some singles at the show, but put my money towards other collections.

And thank you Jim, Dan, and James for a great afternoon! I threatened to post this card, which was at the entrance to the restaurant, so here it is:

Nothing like a little Police set to really hit those oddball sets! Honestly, this has no place in my collection, but I still had to take one. Mr. Rendez is Canadian, and apparently likes riding his cop bicycle without a helmet.

Oh, yes, Dan also asked about where I find my videos. They usually come from Attack of the Show, but I find more through suggested videos and other videos from the same users. WolfgoreShow has been a user I've pulled heavily from this past month, and I have one of the longer videos he put together.

This is truly disturbing. You will need hours of ponies to clean your soul after watching this satanic video.

Disclaimer: I don't do drugs, legal or otherwise.

When I worked at Blockbuster, the Olsen Twins videos were always checked out, including videos from this series, based around mysteries and adventures. I'm not exactly sure what the point was other than letting Mary-Kate and Ashley sing (badly) while doing fun things, like having parties and going to space camp. In the highly profitable world of children's programming, the Dualstar twins were co-queens.

This video clip isn't the best WolfgoreShow clip, by any means, but the slow speed, crazy video jump cuts, and added sound effects (especially at the beginning) turn a harmless child's show into a sometimes suggestive, sometimes rude, and sometimes just downright wrong trip.

Just what you need on a Sunday morning, right?