After all the fun I had at the National 2 weeks ago, I have had a bit of sportscard fever. A few of our fellow members let me know there was going to be "the East Coast National" show in White Plains, NY this weekend.

Just before I left, I realized I won a 1953 Bowman Dante Lavelli for $4.06. It's a card I keep bidding on and losing out on over and over - it was a great way to start out.

So I woke up early and picked up Mike, another SCN member I recently met who lives about 10 minutes away. He is a pretty big NY sports fan (Yanks, Giants, Knicks) and has gotten back into the hobby after a layoff, so he was also really excited. He shares a lot of my collecting interests - 70's NBA and 50's-70's football cards.

So I printed directions off Google Maps that said it should take 45 minutes. Of course the directions were very wrong and we wound up eventualy making it to the convention center at around 10:30 (in about 90 minutes).

When we get to the convention center, there was a decent sized line out the door. After about 15 minutes, we paid $7 admission and got in. What I didn't realize (because I didn't fully read the info on the web site - I suck), every paid admission entitled you to a free Bob Feller autograph.

The other signers there were Gaylord Perry ($20 flats), Kevin McReynolds ($25 flats), Rusty Staub ($25 flats), and Harmon Killebrew ($25 flats).

So we walk into a pretty decent sized room with all the action. This was a lot like I remembered card shows to be, lots of people in the tight aisles shopping at about 200-300 tables. There was a decent mix of items available - new stuff, dime/quarter boxes, really high end vintage, tons of graded stuff, and auto'd balls & pics. It was probably about 20% the size of the National as far amount of cards on the floor.

I noticed a ton of really high priced vintage Yankee stuff - which didn't surprise me. I saw a couple of guys who looked like they were in their mid 50's buying various 1950's and 1960's Topps Mickey Mantle cards - including a 1956 Topps in probably EX condition. When one of the dealers brought up the book value of $600 for a 1965 Mantle, I choked and moved on.

Once again, I was on a hunt for 1950's football Hall of Famers for under $3. One guy had a bargain box - I got 1959 Topps Marchetti (2 copies), 1959 Topps Robustelli, 1970 Bobby Clarke rookie (with 2 small holes), and  1970 Darryl Sittler rookie (with 2 small holes) for $8.

The only other purchase I made was 120 cards from a dime box for $11. The highlights included 1989 Hoops David Robinson, 1986 Fleer Paul O'neill, 1987 OPC Al MacInnis, a bunch of 80's OPC Phil Housley and Michel Goulet, various early Shaq and Garnett, and 4 Robert Swift rookie cards (from before he thugged out with the tattoos, peachfuzz goatee, and afro).

All the players were only singing from 12 until 2. Since I didn't have anything good, I chose to pass on Feller - the line for him was INSANELY long. I heard they had Guy Lafleur signing for free the day before, and it was even worse.

Luckily another member (Shawn from Mass who drove down) messaged me the night before that Gaylord Perry was going to be there - thanks Shawn. I know I can get him easily for $15 by mail, so getting him for $20 in person didn't sound bad. This was especially key for me, as I had a 1967 Topps NL Wins Leaders card I got signed by Sandy Koufax in the 1980's. I am too paraniod to mail this one out, so I brought it to the show (the black spots on the scan below are on the case and not the card - I was too lazy to remove it when I scanned it in).

I stood on a very short line to get Perry to sign my card for about 10 minutes. It was awesome the reactions I got from other collectors when they saw the Koufax signature. So now that Perry and Koufax are signed, I only need Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal to finish it - so I need to be on the hunt for these two at a upcoming show in the NY/NJ/PA area.

The funny part is that my buddy Darrin has the same card signed by Perry, Marichal, and Gibson. He is on a mad hunt to find Koufax, good luck... I think this would become my favorite signed card if I can get it signed by all four HOFers.

So after the Perry signing, I find Mike and he shows me the treasures he found. He did fantastic with 1950's-1970's football. He got loads of stars, HOFers, and HOF rookies in the $1-5 range.

He completely blindsinded me with the big deal of the day - a 1958 Topps Jim Brown rookie with a small pen mark on the front for $30. I did a quadruple take when I realized it was a Jim Brown rookie. At a quick glance, it had decent corners, no creases, good centering, and nice color. I was in too much shock too get a really close look at it.

Before this month, I had went to exactly 2 card shows in 10 years. Shows are a lot different than I remember as a kid:

• I don't even consider the "Book" value, as we all know it is not relevant. These days I just buy what I like. I often get more enjoyment buying multi-player commons to get signed than stars and rookies.
• The internet has changed everything, especially eBay.
• SCN has helped me focus my collecting and I find myself talking about the site to other collectors
• Graded cards are everywhere, but I have little to no interest. However I almost did break down and buy a 1987 Donruss Greg Maddux PSA 9 for $3.

The day was a lot of fun and I'm happy we went, but not nearly on par with the Cleveland National. During the ride home (only 45 minutes), Mike and I talked about how much things changed and how much fun we have with the hobby. I think most of the members of this site would agree the addiction of checking the mail every day - and how good we all feel when we get autographs back.

Shawn had a fantastic collecting story (I hope he doesn't mind that I share it here). His 5 year old son is a HUGE Johnny Damon fan. Shawn writes Johnny a letter and receives no response. As his son's birthday approaches, he tries again. Even though Johnny left our beloved Red Sox for the Evil Empire, he is a great guy and came through for Shawn - as a nice response including a birthday card signed by Johnny arrived on his son's birthday. The timing was perfect, and it just doesn't get any better than that!

In other news, I saw a story on ESPN today about a kid from the Texas Little League team named Garrett Williams. He struck 17 batters in 5 2/3 inning (17 outs) when he reached the 85 pitch maximun and had to be removed. This lefty is a 12 year throwing consistently 74-75 mph from 45 feet away and he had a nasty curveball in the 60's. The kids on the opposing team looked so overwhelmed. He has to be the story of the year, but doesn't quite measure up to 6'8, 240lb kid from the Saudi Arabian team last year.

Update to story on 8/24 - yesterday Williams hit 77mph in the 8-2 win where he had off day with only 11 K's. That is the equivalent of throwing 100mph from 60 feet 6 inches. I believe that is the fastest pitch in Little League WS history.

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