Card Show Show-off: Kaline, Rollie, and Ambiguous Keller

I usually start off my card show reviews with the dime boxes, but I'll flip things around this time and start with the big purchases. I went to this show a little over a month ago. It was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a mall show, but still good despite proximity to Gap mannequins and mind-numbing muzak.

Here's my big splurge. A pretty epic Kaline get for the player collection. I'm not a hug fan of 1960 Topps and all the extreme close-up portraits, but I love this card. There's some whimsy in Kaline's eyes and an awkward half-smirk. The color design really works well here, too, the yellows against the red, the old Tigers logo pulling it all together.

Here's the back, just for fun, complete with goofy cartoon rendition of Kaline catching a fly ball. Who knew he had so little hair under his cap?

This Kaline card was marked for $6, but I talked the guy down to $5 and got him to throw in this card for free:

I just always like these combo cards from the early Topps sets, and getting this card for free made the above Kaline all the sweeter.

I also picked up some game-used for a hell of a bargain:

My Rollie Fingers collection is quite casual, but he just looks so damn cool on cards I can't turn down a good deal. I love the green jersey here, which obviously is not from a Brewers uniform. I usually hate these kind of team mash-ups, but it works for this card.

When I first started collecting, as a kid, Boggs was my guy. The reason I liked him is kind of ridiculous: his mustache looked like my uncle's facial hair. Well, that was enough for me. And now I have a little bit of jersey from Mr. Flaming Mustache Fried Chicken Eater.

I also found a great dollar box from a guy dealing almost exclusively Tigers cards. Usually in Michigan Tigers cards are way over-priced, but I found some crazy bargains.

A 2005 Verlander rookie for a buck? Yes, sir, I'll take it. Plus it's from one of my favorite mid-2000s sets, Diamond Kings. I have to say, though, that this is just a horrible portrait of Verlander. I don't think it's just because he's missing his facial hair. There's something seriously wrong with Verly's mouth.

This was in the dollar box, too, a 1950 Bowman Charlie Keller. It's in fantastic shape. I couldn't believe this card was in the dollar box, and I even dared to ask the dealer if this was a reprint or an original. He gave it a glance, said it was original, and the whole time I was worrying he'd say, Oops, that's not supposed to be in there. But, no, he sold it to me for a buck. I still can't really believe this is an original, but I can't see anything that screams reprint on it.

The size is right, the printing and color look correct. There is a weird thing going on with the five stars logo at the top right crowding into the text. Here's a comparison with a card up on COMC:

The "Charlie Keller" in red at the top also looks like it's spaced a bit different. So, what do you guys think? Reprint or the real thing? I'd greatly appreciate your sagely insights. Regardless, for a buck, it's certainly worth the gamble. Hell, I might have still paid a buck for a reprint.

So, pretty nice hits from the card show. I stayed on target pretty well, mostly picking up cards that actually fit into the collection. Next post, I'll show off those sweet cheapo boxes.