The 2018 National Sports Collectors Convention

Welcome old friends.  I thought i would honor the poll I ran on Twitter asking how you guys wanted to see my haul revealed.  The people have spoken.

I had a ridiculous run of fun things happen at the National aside from buying cards and getting cards from fellow collectors and bloggers.  I will start with that since it's about doing cool things with the hobby aside from spending a paycheck.

Sometimes you meet the right people out at a bar on a Thursday night and end up getting snuck into the autograph pavilion to meet one of your all-time favorites.

Other times you pay $70 to meet your idol who turns out to be all you could have hoped for in a short conversation of which I told him he was always my favorite player as a kid even though all my friends gave me hell for liking a Red Sox guy.  Also told him that was one of my favorite trades as a kid and still is to this day.

I saw a new stadium, Progressive Field and love that so much.  We sat in row two behind the dugout, so close to Albert and the Angels.  Best seats I have had to a baseball game in years.  Twas awesome.

Crossed many things off the Bucket List, including on non-hobby related item, The Christmas Story House and museum.  Well worth $11.  Thanks to Suzy for coming along and being my photographer.

Now my time at the National was spent walking around, chatting with old friends, meeting some new ones and of course searching for things to add to my 401K, I mean PC.  Not pictured are 164 Wade Boggs cards I picked up from a dude selling them at 100 for $10, same dude also had Jeter cards 15 for $10 of which I bought 30 including 6 of the same card. We will go in no particular order, I am not going through and labeling everything because we all know what is what.

The next four are all Jumbo cards.

In terms of city, Cleveland is not my favorite host.  IX Center is in the middle of no where, only food choices while at the show are in the convention center, and the food is TERRIBLE.  You can either Uber to other places or take shuttle back to hotel unless you rent a car.  I'm excited to go back to Chicago next year.  Gibsons, pizza, and ability to leave the convention center and walk to hotel, shopping and food/bars.

Overall, this is one of my favorite trips and how could it not be?

Any cool stories from your trip this year?  Let us know.  Any cool cards?  Also interested.

Heading to Toys R Us for purple parallels

Once upon a time I had to make excuses to go to Toys R Us. These days, I'm hit up the combo Toys R Us/Babies R Us more often than I would like to admit. But having a baby is ever so convienant for "needing" a TRU run.

In this case, there was something we actually needed. So we took the long way around the store to pass the trading card kiosk. 2018 Topps Baseball Series 1 packs were in stock. Each of $3.49 blister packs comes with one pack and two exclusive Purple parallel cards - yep, that means the only place to get a Purple parallel is at Toys R Us (when not using an intermediary like EBay).

I generally like these parallels. Part of the appeal of the Purple parallels is knowing that you can't get them in any other type of packs. They are specific to the Toys R Us blister packs.

I picked up three (though only two are shown). The six purple cards were:

- Wil Myers
- Scott Feldman
- CC Sabathia
- Matt Barnes
- Texas Rangers team card (now in my hsband's possession)
- Houston Astros combo card

The Purple parallels do carry a small premium on the secondary market. Although there is no numbering on the cards, they tend to be a little tougher to get for some collectors since they are only found at TRU, which not everyone has access to.

Currently, the lower-end players are selling for $5-$6 while more popular players and rookies are closer to $20.

An Amed Rosario rookie sold for $28.

The asking price for Rhys Hoskins right now is pretty steep.

These prices will likely come down a bit as more of them enter the market, but these parallels always seem to do well in holding value.