The Wind-up: National Card Show Weekend at Hofstra

Hi Folks,
   Twice a year, collectors in the baseball card world get to experience a smorgasboard of all kinds of cards displayed before them. As far as your eyes can see, it seems, the nearly endless tables of vendors are lined up, and from the moment you walk in, you have that feeling that you've arrived, both physically and mentally.

 

   The same joy the collector's have at these shows is also experienced from a different perspective by the vendors; they get that little ping in their stomach when you walk in the door! Customers were in full force and everyone was buying.

   A fun thing for everyone was the high-powered autograph line up of Wade Boggs, Dennis Eckersley, Fergie Jenkins, Bud Harrelson, and a few others on Saturday, and on Sunday, my favorite player, Pete Rose, along with Jose Canseco, Dave Kingman, and a few others. It was baseball bliss!

   I have to wonder; Would that bliss have been shattered if Bud Harrelson signed Sunday instead, and sat close to Rose, the two guys who knuckled it out in a bench-clearning brawl in the 1973 NLCS. I like Bud, but after I saw the ageless powerhouse Rose and the cannon-armed Canseco sitting right next to each other, almost like a man-made wall, I'd say Bud chose the right day to sign.

   It's great walking around and chatting with all of the vendors I've befriended in my years in the industry, but this was not strictly business. I made some great purchases this weekend, such as:
   * 1971 Topps Tom Seaver
   * 1968 Topps Joe Morgan
   * Some very NM++ 1971 & 1972 Topps High Numbers.

   My 8 year old son bought a 1973 Topps Reggie Jackson, as close to Mint as I've seen one, and he even negotiated the price down about 20%. WOW, 3rd grade is really working for him ! He also got, with some help, a "4256" inscribed official bat with Pete Rose signing it for him. I've sworn him to agree to hold on to it and not sell!

   A big Shout-out goes to JP’s Sports & Rock Solid Promotions’ (JPRS) for coordinating one heck of a show and their massive All-Star Autograph line-up. Kudos, Guys!!

Stay Tuned for more industry news!
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Thanks!
Rob Eisenstein
http://www.CardboardandCoins.com




TAGS: #PeteRose #HallofFame #Cooperstown #BaseballCards #JoseCanseco #ReggieJackson #TomSeaver #Hofstra #CardShow

Why Card Sleeves contribute to Low Population!!

Hello Everyone,
   Welcome to CardboardandCoins.com, a site that was created to join two great hobbies, Card collecting and Coin collecting.

   I've been in the hobby, or "hobbies" I should say, for close to 30 years. I grew up during a time when Saturday meant cartoons in the morning, bowling with the Cub Scouts, a trip to the arcade, and baseball cards on the way home. Later in the day, it was time to go through the big change bucket from the past week, and to sort through all of the years of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, and to put them in the Whitman folders I was filling for each type of coin. Yes, I was...and I still am...a proud dork!

   As far as baseball cards, I remember laughing at some of the cards from the 1983 Topps baseball set, and in particular, the Wade Boggs card (his rookie). Well, as the title of this post reads, let me explain and use the Boggs rookie as the perfect example.

   Just last week, I decided to remove some old school sleeves off some cards and replace them with the new Penny Sleeves. Simple enough, right? I get to good ole' Wade and the darn penny sleeve lifted up the first layer in the lower left corner of the card! Really? How could these little plastic slips cause such destruction? It makes me wonder that if this happened to me (it does happen from time to time), then think of how many others are having the same issue.

   Perhaps some of you were trying to sleeve a 1977 Don Money card, but then this mishap prevents the card from fetching a 10. The end result is the 1977 Topps card of Don Money (a lifetime .261 hitter) being more valuable than the 1977 Topps card of Rod Carew (a lifetime .328 hitter). Oh, bittersweet population. For those of you who are not aware of population, it means the total amount of a certain card that was graded a "10" for example, by a specific grading company. So when you see a low population of high-grades for a specific card, just blame the Sleeves!

   Now, the alternative would be life without the penny sleeves. Think of all of the cards out there with scuffed up surfaces and greasy finger marks. No thanks. Penny sleeves are very important, and when used properly in a controlled environment with some peer supervision, they can prove to be quite helpful.

   Remember: do NOT top-load your card without putting the card in a sleeve first. It pays to have an extra layer of friction to hold the card in place, or you might have the same incident that happened to me with the 1985 McGwire Rookie (It's too painful; I don't want to get into it, but let's just say cards slide out of top loaders when they're not sleeved). Cards also have a tendency to fall with precision accuracy right onto one of their 4 corners. I know what you are about to ask; Yes, it did happen to me. Learn from that sad incident. Sorry, Mr. McGwire. I know you'd probably pick me up by the throat with one hand. Umm, but please kindly refrain.

   So, with all of that said, welcome to our site. Going forward, you'll probably notice I refer to our hobbies as our "industry". In the coming months, we have a lot of surprises planned for you here, including some Blog posts written by (and also written about) some pretty influential folks in our industry. We are in talks with a few different webstore providers, and our inventory should start appearing on the site within a few weeks. Be sure to bookmark us and check back often!

   In closing, who's going to the National at Hofstra University in Long Island this weekend?

Best Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
www.CardboardandCoins.com



TAGS: #Aaron #baseballcards #cardshow #coins #Donruss #Fleer #football #Jeter #Mantle #Mays #pokemon #charizard #PSA #BGS #rookiecards #sports #Trout #UpperDeck