Card Show: Pocketful of Dimes

When I went to the card show in Jackson, Michigan a few weeks ago, my pockets were jangling with dimes. I had tons of those shiny little Roosevelts and was ready to turn them into cardboard. Bring on the fuzzy-corned vintage, the forgotten sparkly '90s inserts, the under-appreciated rookies, and, of course, all your Ripkens. I had dimes, and there were boxes.

But no one really wanted my dimes. Everything was in between. There were the nickel boxes:

Full of recent inserts.

And there were quarter boxes:

There's the creases and wear we all love. Mossi's big ears, Cash's leading home runs, and Piniella's rookie grimace can attest to the joys of this box.

And the 50 cent boxes made an appearance:

Lots of favorites here. Some great Vic Wertz cards, a Norm Cash base, Murray's second-year card. This was my first 1951 Topps card, but unfortunately it's a foul ball.

So where were the dime boxes?

Don't worry. I dug into those, too.

Actually, only a few of these came out of the dime box, but let's just pretend for the sake of this post's flow. Like a numbered Kaline would end up in a Michigan dime box. Ha!

Who doesn't love a Matt Stairs rookie for a dime. I have no idea what this Bo Jackson card is. Anyone recognize this card?

More great dime box finds. I've been needing Nolan's tux card for a while, which is completely ridiculous. The Hoyt is one of the refractory Reserve parallels. Lamont's a fool, but he's gold, and so is Moyer. Glad to see the old guy pitching again.

The card show was before Pudge's retirement, though I bet he'll still be a mainstay of the dime boxes, which is good for me. His GU cards on eBay are slowly moving out of my cheap-ass price range.

And where would a Vealtone card show dime box post be without an obligatory slew of Ripkens? I'm digging the French's card, which I hadn't seen before. The Sports Cards Ripken in the bottom row seems to be indefinable, some unlicensed set from the early '90s. And the '92 Topps Ripken up top is actually a CYMT insert. A dealer found this for me while I was looking through his dime boxes, and tossed it my way as a bonus. Gotta love that.

These horizontal Ripkens wrap up this card show's discount box extravaganza. Not too shabby, though, eh? Next post, I'll go over the rest of my finds.