Cards I purchased at the 2013 National

howeTruth be told, I did not enjoy the 2013 National as much as I enjoyed the 2011 National.This was because I had less money to spend this time around. However, there was far less hockey this time around too. So, I had less to spend — and less to spend it on. I couldn’t be impulsive and had to carefully weight anybig purchases, but I dug around and still found a few treasures for bargain prices.

jagr_epixI bought about 100 inserts from the 1990s and 2000s for 25-cents each. Since I went to the National for all five days, I had lots of time to rummage in quarter boxes.

chelios_team_pinnacleThis Team Pinnacle card of Chris Chelios was an absolute steal for a quarter. I always find this card from dealers who want $10 for it. I figured that sooner or later, I’d find it for a better price. Mission accomplished. (I found one of Bill Ranford too for the same price).

bryzgalov_rcA Topps Chrome rookie card of Ilya Bryzgalov for a quarter is a HUMONGOUS SUPER DEAL.

mcdonadlSo is this Topps rookie card of Lanny McDonald. A little rough, but still worth a quarter.

roenick_rcI found 13 Jeremy Roenick rookie cards, ranging from a quarter to a dollar each. One of my resolutions this year was to try and collect 1,000 Roenick rookie cards. This brings me 13 steps closer.

all-rookieOne dealer, who specialized in football cards, had a box that said “Anything in this box for $1.00.” I looked inside and found a complete set of 1994-95 Fleer Ultra All-Rookie insert cards. These have foil lettering and are printed on clear plastic. Finding a whole 10-card insert set for $1.00 is a good deal,

So I kept digging in that box of mostly football and found this:

howeThat’s right — a 1979-80 Topps Gordie Howe card for $1.00. Is the card perfect? No. The corners are a little touched, but otherwise this card looks fantastic. And it was a buck!

baseballDo not adjust your computer monitors. This is indeed a baseball card — and it is much larger than the other cards. I found the complete 60-card set of 1985 Topps Super Baseball. These cards measure 5″ x 7″. Though I am a die-hard hockey fan, it was 1985 Topps Baseball cards that got me into sports. The set was only $8.

nintendoMore nostalgia from the 1980s. I snapped up a full box (48 packs) of Nintendo “Game Packs” Trading Cards for $5.

mikita_1-100This “Blue Mirror Parallel” 2010-11 Certified card of Stan Mikita is numbered 1/100. This card is for my “1 in a…” collection, where I try to get any serial-numbered card where the first number is 1 (be it 1/1, 1/2, 1/5000, etc.).

hockeymagThis card was FREE. I found it at the bottom of the “goodie bag” that VIP attendees got at the National. Beckett made cards reprinting a magazine from each sport. I was lucky enough to get the Beckett Hockey Magazine card, instead of a different sport.

martinI picked up seven cards from the 1964-65 Topps “Tall Boys” Hockey set. Six of the cards were commons. The Pit Martin card you see here is not a common, as it is the first card in the set and a rookie card. The high book is $125. I got it for $25, which is 20% of book price. Like I said many times over, deals can be had if you are patient and know where to look.

1963-64 Parkhurst #97 - Dale Balon

Unfortunately, this Dale Balon card was the only 1963-64 Parkie that I could find at the show, so I did not make much progress on this set (more on this here).

sportscasterI bought five hockey-themed Sportscaster cards for a buck each. No big names, but still a neat find.

catCAT! CAT! CAT! CAT! OMG! DON’T LOOK HIM IN THE EYES. HE’S GONNA EAT YOU!!!!!!! (also a dollar)

lemieux mario_wrapper

It is exciting to find hockey cards that I do not know anything about. One dealer had a complete set of 1997 Pinnacle Mario Lemieux Moments trading cards — a set I had no prior knowledge of. He wanted $7 for a complete 18-card set, which also included 17 unopened packs. But the dealer ended up “throwing in” the set and packs because I bought some other items from him.

While I wish I had more funds, I honestly don’t think there would have been too much more that I would have purchased, other than a few more of those 196-65 Tall Boys.

Oh, I did get a few other odd items, but I will save those for future blog posts.

I also got some unopened hockey boxes. I’ll post the breaks of those next week.

Check back tomorrow for a set review.

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Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

8 thoughts on “Cards I purchased at the 2013 National”

  1. Wish I had the time and patience that you do. I probably missed half the tables with anything relatively interesting, only picked up a few singles, and mainly focused on wax. The kids make it difficult to search the quarter boxes sometimes but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    1. Quarter boxes save money, but not time. And time is money, so I guess it all evens out. Sure, there will always be a few great finds in a quarter box or dollar box, but most of it is stuff you can find easily online.

  2. Nice catch on the Lemieux cards! I would have jumped on those as well.

    The Pit Martin card is also a nice catch. I bought one myself last year and paid around the same price as you did.

      1. Lol I hope not! I thought I got lucky and managed to find one of those rare steals that seem to happen about once a year.

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