Scoring a random card show lot for $40

I was eager to spend time at this particular show, probably held at least once a month - where I was expecting to rummage through a bunch of loose cards and pick up cards that caught my eye like some of the card blogging aces or card vloggers on YouTube.

When I got inside the show, I was trying see if there was that first accessible table, but maybe the first random, quarter bin type monster box I stumbled upon may have been strictly NBA cards - there might not have been any baseball at all as a tease for me to dig through and while I could have interest in other sports, baseball is my ride-or-die focus.

Unlike last month at the same spot, maybe there wasn't as many tables crammed into the gymnasium and while it was less congested - I had to look harder to find what I was looking for.

I stopped at a table and going through a stash of top loaded singles partially filling one side of a two row shoebox - I asked how much a Mike Trout card was just to see how the pricing might be for random cards I might like.

I hadn’t gone through everything but the person at the table offered me the ‘lot’ for $40 - I saw a run of basic Trout cards but also spotted a Jim Rice certified autograph.

Rice seems to be a fairly common certified autograph subject and while he’s probably considered by millennial baseball experts a mistake selection - he is in the Hall of Fame and based on reputation, wasn’t ever an easy autograph.

Presumably the seller just didn’t want to waste time with his baseball low-end, but why [?] - maybe he didn’t have any money into the stack at all and didn’t want to be in a situation where he had to price every rinky-dinky card out, worrying about selling them.

On my end, I wanted to take my chances with the mystery aspect and if nothing else to show - the right mix could just make this assortment a fun challenge to rummage through.

I might be looking at keeping 15-20 Trouts I might not have, the Rice autograph and presumably ‘other’ cards that may be interesting - in my mind, I wondered why this person was offering me the stack.

As I dug out my money, the seller said something like, "it’s all about being able to help each other out."

I counted out 35 Trouts and 28 other cards - maybe the more unique cards are the Topps image variations, a 2020 Topps Heritage French parallel of Will Smith and a Topps Transcendent Party stamped 1/1 buyback of Yu Darvish.

Other interesting cards I found were relics, some autographs [even one of an NBA guy], a winning Home Run Challenge card of Cody Bellinger - random inserts and a Topps Vintage stock parallel of journeyman Zack Godley.