My Weekend: First Card Show in 20+ Years and Visit to Cards-R-Fun

On Saturday, I went to the Middle Tennessee Sports Card Show in Nashville, my first show in over 20 years. It wasn't a large show--only nine dealers, I think--held in a small gymnasium, but I did come away with some Cardinals cards and a great start on 2010 and 2011 Topps Heritage team sets. I also discovered some cards I'd really like to start collecting: the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends.

I love these cards! Jackie Robinson on a 1976 Topps design...Thurman Munson as a '59 card...Jimmie Foxx on an '86 card! I think they're really cool and even though they're not Cardinals, I'd like to finish the set.

I did OK on my spending at the show ($24)...but then I stopped by Cards-R-Fun about five minutes down the road. What started out as "just a few minutes" became four hours! (If you've ever been to this store, you'll know why.) It's a great place to find tons of commons, but man, it's disorganized! I went with the intention of finding some Topps Heritage Cardinals--and a found a few from different years--but you have to search through boxes that contain multiple years and sets. You pretty much have to dive in and find whatever cards you've never seen before. When it was over, I had 150+ cards and a $33 bill. Yikes! There goes my card budget for March.

Overall, it was great to go to the show and one dealer from whom I bought most of my cards said he would bring more Cardinals for the March show. I only wish there had been more dealers to choose from.