Card Show Pickups: Someone's "High School Hero"

Yesterday was the February edition of a local card show. I've gone to enough of these shows to know that it was going to be a small dinky show in the basement that would never really offer me anything I want. But of course I went because I wanted an autograph. Of who?

Of former Los Angeles Dodger legend, Pedro Guerrero.

Guerrero isn't exactly someone I'd normally spring to get an autograph of but there were two compelling reasons.

1). He was a free signer

Whether or not you can consider his autograph "free" when it merely comes attached to the $10 entrance fee is debatable but for now let's just say that one signature was automatically going to be "free". Sure, I'm not going to turn that down.

Of course anything beyond one autograph was going to cost $10 each, and inscriptions (if I chose to get them) were $5. But I was oddly okay with spending a little more. Not the least because I promised a certain someone an autograph for their collection too, but because I kinda wanted more than one this time.

2). I immediately knew where to turn to for cards

Back in 2017 another former Dodger named Alex Guerrero (no relation to Pedro) signed with the Chunichi Dragons, naturally I asked Night Owl Cards to send me any dupes he had. He didn't have too many of Alex but he did mention that he had a ton of Pedro dupes. Three years later I saw that Pedro was going to be a guest signer and I remembered NOC's tweet. So I asked him for dupes right off the bat and about a week afterwards two dozen cards arrived in my mailbox. This trade was basically me getting NOC a card signed in exchange for the stack. Sure, no problem.

Then came the task of picking what to get signed. I knew what I wanted to get signed for NOC as he recommended three cards, of which a '86 Topps glossy All Star card which won out because it had ample room for an inscription. You can read more about that on NOC's blog when he eventually gets to blog about it (note, NOC, I'll try and have this shipped out this weekend) here. In the meantime you can all read about how Pedro was one of the few players NOC was close to being a fanboy of during his high school years in this post from 2013. The title of today's post is a reference to that BTW.

For me though I wanted to go with NOC's other suggestions ('81 Topps and '83 Topps), but the ONE card that I had immediately saved for myself was this.

A 1984 Ralston Purina oddball issued by Topps. According to the card itself this is from a brand of cereals. I'm a sucker for seeing oddballs and cards you normally don't see signed get signed, and this obviously fit the bill. Add in how it had a ton of good real estate to house an autograph and it was a no brainer.

I also got this 1983 Topps card signed. NOC's suggestion had a lot to do with that but it more came down to how I don't really have a ton of signed 1983 Topps cards in my collection. Also I do really like the card from a visual perspective, the blue and green has no business looking as good as it actually does. The 1981 Topps card is great too, but unfortunately it lost out.

As always I gave the rest of the cards to Pedro himself as a thank you gift. After all, NOC wasn't going to necessarily need them back and I think them ending up in Pedro/Pedro's family's hands is the best case scenario.

So with two autographs of a Dodgers legend and World Series co-MVP, the 2020 IP autograph season for me begins with a tremendous bang. I'm also pretty grateful because I learned after the fact that he had suffered a stroke back in 2017. He looked pretty healthy when I met him, but of course he was also being very steady with his time and I had zero intention to rush him or anything (and I'm glad I didn't knowing what I know now).

So with the autographs out of the way it came time for the obligatory "is there anything else of note here?" search with the other tables. Normally I'd say no and shit talk the show, BUT to its credit it did have two cards I willingly paid for for myself that even I'm impressed with.

A 1/1 printing plate of soon-to-be-former New York Ranger Chris Kreider. I bought this for $15 knowing full well that Kreider was likely going to be traded not long after (Update: Kreider was not traded and instead signed an extension with the Rangers). Reason being that if there is ever a time to drop $15 and feel reasonably justified for it, it's on a 1/1 card of a player you kinda like on your favorite team.

Which is basically my way of saying that $15 is likely what this would've gone for on eBay anyway ($10 + $4 shipping sounds about right) and it really puts into perspective how I whenever I'm in Target or wherever I could spend $20 or so on a blaster box, but why should I when a 1/1 is just that cheap?

Which of course makes my final purchase, a 2019 Bowman Sterling base auto of Anthony Seigler, for $10 very hard to justify. I just picked up a printing plate for $15 and I'm immediately dishing out two-thirds of that on a base auto? Why?

Honestly it's because I fucking love Seigler. This card in particular I like because it features him in catching gear, it's on-card, and most of all it was a redemption card. I've tried and failed a lot of times to secure a copy on eBay because a lot of the time it came down to "why would I want to spend Anthony Davis 1/1 money on this?". The argument still stands here obviously but there's something about instant gratification that just grabbed me by the balls. I handed the vendor $10 in like two seconds.

Beyond that though, I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear how the show did not have any rare Luis Torrens cards, any 1/1 Anthony Davis cards, or a Filip Chytil printing plate. I did get some input on the value of my raw card reviewed Mike Trout though and it's probably about a $500 card. Great. That means I'll trade it for a Jasson Dominguez BoChro auto like an idiot.

Speaking of money, here's a breakdown of what I spent so you can all laugh at me.

$10.00 Entrance Fee
$20.00 Two Extra Pedro Guerrero Autograph Tickets
$5.00 One Pedro Guerrero Inscription
$15.00 Chris Kreider Printing Plate
$10.00 Anthony Seigler BoSter Base Auto
$1.00 One 3-for-$1 lot
$0.40 Four cards out of dime boxes
$2.00 One 8x10 Toploader

$63.40 total. Ouch.

So big thanks to Night Owl Cards for the assist and his hero Pedro Guerrero for the awesome autographs.

And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by :). Take care.

2020 IP Auto Count: 2