A Brief Card Show Visit: LB Coin Show and My Only Purchase

I wanted to put up a brief post here covering my visit this past Saturday to the Long Beach Coin Expo.  As the name suggest, the show is mostly about coins and stamps, but for the first time in a decade there would be some sports related memorabilia available for sale.  So, I decided to head to Long Beach with a my free pass in hand and the hope that I'll have a chance to browse through table after table of cards.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. 

I don't quite know what I was thinking.  I already knew it was a coin-centric show.  Did I really believe there would be an overflow of cards and memorabilia to gaze at?  Yes, I did.  So, the inevitable letdown came on strong.

If you saw my post from last week mentioning the show and decided to visit Long Beach for the afternoon, then I want to apologize now.  It clearly was not what I expected.  There were just a handful of card tables at the show - and when I say handful I mean no more than 5.  Heck, it was more like 3 actual dealer set-ups, an auction house and PSA card grading.  That was it.  Really, just that.

Fortunately, the afternoon was not all lost.  I did see some awesome Babe Ruth memorabilia at the Memory Lane Auctions booth and picked up a Dodger vintage card to add to my collection.  Check out some photos I took below.

From Memory Lane Auctions, below is a Babe Ruth game-used bat, and a Ruth rookie card just below it.

This was pretty cool.  A kid sent a letter to Babe Ruth asking him to fill out his questionnaire, sign it, and send it back.  Ruth is asked his full name, the name of his wife, and what year he is going to hit 60 home runs- Babe wrote in 1927.  It is undated, so it isn't clear if he predicted this feat, or if he was only able to respond to the kid after he had already set the home run record.

A circa 1920's Yankees team photo.  Murderer's Row.

A Ruth autograph on a really cool card.  I'm not sure what card this is.

Here are more random Ruth photos and autographs.

More random Ruth photos and autographs.  BTW, I had to be a little sneaky when taking the pics.  I had asked permission and told that it would be OK, but was later told to be a little more inconspicuous. 

Now, on to my only purchase of the day.  Since the tables that were in attendance focused on vintage cards I was at least able to see enough to keep me interested in browsing around.  I spotted a small stack 1955 Topps Doubleheaders and decided to take a closer look.  These are fun little cards with great drawings.  It is much skinnier than a typical Baseball card, but about 25% longer.  Drawings are on both sides, and they can be folded over to complete the smaller drawing on the reverse. 

There was a graded Jim Hughes/ Karl Spooner card at (what I thought was) a lofty price.  It was, in my mind, also overgraded by PSA, so I passed on it.  There was a noticeable wrinkle/corner crease along where the card is folded, and was much worse than what you would normally see from a card that has a fold right through the middle of it.

Then I found a Don Zimmer card that looked just right.  Check out the pics above and below.  As you can see, the Zimmer is the folded smaller card while Preston Ward of the Pirates is the elongated portion of the card.  Stats for both players are also on the reverse.  Click on any pic to embiggen.