Today I took about a two hour drive and went to the 30+ year and running Philadelphia Baseball Card and Sports Memorabilia Show in King of Prussia, PA at the Valley Forge Convention Center. I spent about five hours looking at cards and memorabilia, and I'm pretty beat (hence, the Post 1.0 in the title). I picked up some nice stuff from the show, and will be posting it in the upcoming days. In addition to single cards, I got a hobby box of 2010 Topps 206, and a hobby box of 2008 Topps Series 2 that I will be breaking. If the boxes are correct I should be pulling at least two relics/autos from the 206 and one from the 2008 box.
Since I got to go to The National this past August, I am pretty sure any sports card show I go to from now on will pale in comparison in size and scope, both literally and figuratively. But this show is quite large, as it spans a convention center floor with vendors. It was also crazy crowded. There was a line that snaked around the building outside just to get in to the show. There was an eight dollar admission fee (which I didn't have to pay...thanks to Roy) and only two or three workers taking money. So after waiting in line for about ten minutes, I went in to the show.
Ok, so Roy did me a favor today by not showing up to the show. There were tons of Phillies there signing autographs, and Roy Halladay was supposed to be one of them. About two months ago I pre-paid for a ticket to get his autograph in person at the show. At the time, I paid 129 bucks (outrageous, yes, but there is no price on meeting my favorite player), and that was before he pitched the no-hitter in the playoffs. The next day they jacked the prices up to 149 or 179 depending on what you got signed. I was glad I got in when I did.
Three days ago I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. The person on the phone identified themself as a representative from MAB Celebrity Services, and was calling each person who pre-paid to tell them that "Mr. Halladay has postponed his appearance, blah blah blah..." He is contractually obligated to sign still, so he will be appearing, we just don't know when. The woman informed me that all who pre-paid for a Halladay autograph ticket would get free admission to the show (an extra 8 bucks to spend on cards!). Favor #1 from Roy. She also said that we can now do the autos via mail order for no extra charge, so I guess that is a plus too if I choose to not drive to Philly again on the rescheduled date. Or, we can get a full refund. I will wait to see what the next date is and whether or not I can make it before deciding which way to go.
Because there were so many signers, there were TONS of people in line at the signing area, even though they were calling ticket numbers. I would have wasted a lot of time in line and not on checking out cards, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world that Roy wasn't there. Another favor.
Here are a few pics from the show. I will post more in the days to come on what I scored.
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| List of Signers |
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| Shane Victorino |
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| Michael Jack Schmidt |
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| Phillies Game Worn Jerseys for Auction |
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| One of many, many vendors |
Thats great! Glad you had more time to look at cards! Hope you got some great stuff.
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