card show recap - for just a quarter more

i went to the card show yesterday with two goals.  the first was to get my son's twins yearbooks signed by john gordon, the twinkies' retiring radio play-by-play guy ("touch 'em all kirby puckett!") and to find a 1967 topps john werhas card.  the first part was easy.  there were only three or four people lined up when gordo arrived at 1130.  he was nice and added the "touch 'em all" to each of his signatures.

the werhas was a little tougher.  werhas is a high number (514) in that set and has been on my mind for a while as one of the few cards i still need for my 1967 topps dodger set.  unfortunately for me, the vintage bargain bin guy i usually spend most of my time (and money) with was at the national.  the other vintage not-so bargain bin guy was there, but he didn't have a werhas.  i asked a couple other guys who had some stacks of highly priced high numbers, but they were fresh out of werhas. i figured i would be sol. 

then i stopped at a table where a guy had three big boxes of stuff marked at 25-cents per card.  he said he was trying to get out of the hobby and had no qualms about doing so.  the second handful of cards i shuffled through yielded this

it's kinda rough with what looks like some gum staining and tape residue.  after i scanned it, i was able to rub most of the stain above the tree line off, so that's nice.  i spent about $14 at the quarter table and picked up a bunch of 1973 topps high numbers (for the set) including this marvelous bill hands card

didn't realize the twinkies played at wrigley.

i also took a few other vintage cards off the guy's hands along with some early '90's dodgers and a bunch of 1998 topps tek variations that i will try to flip.  i also picked up this gem for a quarter - a 1997 topps karim garcia card, purportedly signed by garcia himself

along with a 2001 upper deck decade 1970's ron guidry insert.

why would i buy a card of louisiana lightnin', the guy who was 3-1 with a 1.69 era against the dodgers in three world series?  i bought it because it features a photo taken during one of those series in dodger stadium.  too bad it doesn't scan well - you'll just have to take my word for it.

that was the story from the quarter box guy.  i did buy a few other cards on the cheap - i got this 1956 topps walter alston card for $1

thanks to the guy who cut the corner off (and put his initials on the back).  i also picked up some 1979 topps singles at a nickel apiece (for the low priority upgrade set) as well as a few 1971 topps singles (also for the set).  this high number (729) set me back $2, but it was the most expensive '71 i purchased.

it's nice to know rich/dick allen wasn't the only one vacillating between first names.

after the show, i headed over to mauer chevrolet (joe's brother's dealership) where dan gladden, jack morris and scott erickson were signing.   i had each of them sign my son's yearbook and morris also signed his helmet.  all three were very nice and personable - even though gladden and morris hinted at having had a pretty rough friday night/saturday morning on the town with their former teammates.  there was probably enough time to get through erickson's line again at the end of the day but i didn't bring any cards (i had forgotten that erickson pitched for the dodgers in 2005, but there's not a card of him in dodger blue that i know of anyway) so i passed.  maybe i should have gone through just to get another look at erickson's wife.  very pretty.