Striking Out at the Card Show

This weekend's card show was a bust for me.  I got there with about 2 hours left in the show and it was pretty slow, which I don't mind as it's much easier to view everything offered up.  Unfortunately about 1/2 the vendors were offering Pokemon (those things are everywhere) and some of the dealers -whom I had just seen a week or so ago at a different show - didn't have anything new.

I was able to meander through open aisles fairly quickly, looking for anything vintage or cards I might add to my PC.  

First card I picked up was this Ant rookie base Prizm.  The price for this raw card has come down recently, and this set me back $20.

Next up I found this Billy Ripken FF scribble out variation.  Demand for this card has climbed and so have the prices.  This card was priced to sell as the corners were soft.  One of these days I'll hunt down the white out version.

A friend of mine who is not a regular vendor had setup a table at this show and I found the only Ant card he had for sale.  This 2024-25 Court Kings Water Color is numbered to 99.

That was it for the show.  If I wanted to do some serious digging I probably could have come home with more, but it was getting late and vendors were starting to pack up.

Fortunately when I got home and checked the mail, there were some goodies in there to lift my spirits.  Like these two needs for my '72 set build.  I've never seen the Carew IA in the wild so I grabbed one online when I saw it.  The base issue of Carew I do see often and will try to upgrade this.

I don't chase rainbows of players, but I'll make an exception for Ant.  I need to track down the blue parallel as well as the teal explosion (I'm sure there are others I'm not aware of).

I picked up a reasonably priced Ohtani rookie cup (holiday version) because we all need more of him.

These two PSA 10's of Ant's are from Panini's Mosaic set.  I actually thought I had ordered the same card not realizing there were 2 versions in the set.  What's interesting is that in the large hexagon of card #201, you can make out the outline of a player and it makes it look like Ant is dunking over him.

I tried to enhance the photo, but look closely.  You can see the defender's head and his raised left arm as if trying to defend against Ant.

In the middle hexagon, you can almost make out the silhouette of  Ant (presumably) bringing the ball up court.  Or maybe it's another defender.  It's very difficult to see but it's there.

I couldn't make out any of these features on card #261, and I have no idea if these images are present on any other Mosaic cards since I'm not collecting this set.  But it does kind of explain what the heck those hexagons are doing there.

Until next time happy hunting!