Everett, WA Twin Oaks Show Sat-Sun (July 31, Aug 1) - Everett Mall

[mrmopar]

Any other locals thinking about attending? Post up and maybe it's worth a meet up. I have not met any local collectors, especially from a site like this, it a while. I may just go. I do not remember the last show I attended. It might be a good 5 years or more for me at this point.

10A-4PM at the Everett Mall. They say to go to the back side of the mall by I-5 and enter there, but any entrance works. it's a mall, after all!

 

[gitarst182]

I guess there was a card show at the Auburn Seattle Outlet Collection (Supermall) this last weekend? I was out of town and didn't even know about it. I haven't been to a show in probably 10-15 years. I think it was the Totem Lake Mall I went to last. Maybe I will venture a trip up to Everett.

 

[mrmopar]

I guess there was a card show at the Auburn Seattle Outlet Collection (Supermall) this last weekend? I was out of town and didn't even know about it. I haven't been to a show in probably 10-15 years. I think it was the Totem Lake Mall I went to last. Maybe I will venture a trip up to Everett.

If you have not been to Kirkland in a while, the Totem Lake Mall was bulldozed and has been redeveloped into mixed use. It looks like what you'd expect for the Eastside these days. Have only driven by a handful of times though, never checked it out up close.

 

[metallicalex777]

I’m at the show now with my kiddo, not sure if any of you are around.

 

[mrmopar]

Missed your message. I left around noon. Interesting experience for my first show in quite a long time. I can't even remember when I was last at one, possibly the WSSCA show years ago. I know it has been anywhere from 5-10 years though...

I'll scan my goodies and do a little write up later on.

 

[mrmopar]

So, hit my first show in many years. I have grown comfortable buying online, but the one huge advantage of a shop/shop is to be able to get a variety of stuff, in bulk, and not have to pay the USPS to deliver it to you. Probably the only disadvantage to the internet is the whole shipping angle. As much as I try to combine shopping with fewer sellers, there just isn't anyone who has everything you would want or need in one spot. COMC filled that roll very well, until their meltdown of late. Until they recover completely, the in person experience is the best for bulk buying. however, because the audience is much wider online, selling scrubs to people can be easier. Maybe in Seattle nobody cares for scrub Cubs, but someone in Chicago wants them.

I looked at a LOT of scrub autos. I was diving into the $1 and $2 boxes, so it was to be expected. Still, I managed to find enough across 3 sellers to drop $65 total. Not bad considering how small the show actually was. I'd guess maybe 20 tables. Lots of Pokeman/Magic and that kind of stuff. It was very reminiscent of the 90s when Beanie Babies were scooping up valuable space at card shows.

I am infatuated with autograph cards. I love the concept and have 1000s of them. If collecting cards was only going to expand one way beyond the plain old cardboard, my vote would be for autographs. I will buy just about anyone I think was semi-decent. When I have purchased or traded for large lots, I would scour baseball-reference, looking for a reason to keep every single card in my collection. Alas, sometimes players are so scrubby that I can't even keep them. If they didn't string together a few decent seasosn, play for the Dodgers or ever won an award, made an AS roster, etc, then I pass. Still, that includes a lot of stuff most people would pass on from the start. There are more than enough big hit collectors who could care less for a player like Mike Stanley, for example. Good for them, but I like quantity over quality sometimes. Meaning, I'd rather have 100 $3 autographs than 1 $1000 card in many cases. I am not ashamed to admit I am a bargain hunter. I have some good stuff too, but nothing is beneath me when it comes to collecting. Lots of Dodger connection to what I got, but not everything. I am not completely one dimensional.

Now that you know you won't be seeing any superstars let's start with the big spending. These set me back $2 each.

Pedro Astacio (Silver)
Paul Bako
Lance Berkman
Giovanni Carrara
Charlie Hayes (Gold)
Todd Hundley
Ricky Ledee
Justin Miller (Deceased)
Ismael Valdes (Gold)
Greg Vaughn

Nothing super exciting, but each one fills a spot in the collection. I may even have more than one of these already. Still worth a dupe at $2.



The next seller had $2 each, or 10 for $15. Always cool to get quantity discounts, especially if you are willing to pay the original price per card anyway. Sometimes I struggle to reach the discount point, but I actually put back a couple cards than I didn't want to pay $2 for once I hit 10. It's amazing how cheap I can be at a shop or show sometimes, yet on ebay I let it fly, plus I gotta pay $4-5 to get the damn cards shipped to me too!

This guy was a little tighter with his $2 cards though, so that explains why I put a few back. In fact, at $1.50 each I still feel good about all of them.

Reggie Abercrombie
Brett Anderson
Andrew Brown
Lance Cormier
Caleb Ferguson
Koyie Hill
Sheldon Neuse

I don't normally care much for GU cards anymore. That was a concept they overplayed. Still, at $1.50 I was happy, especially the Dirt cards. I think I actually paid about $10 for the Brown last year. Now I have 3!

Hyun-Jin Ryu
Kevin Brown (x2)



The last seller had auto/GU boxes for $1 each. I ended up buying 33 cards, but he rounded down and let me have them for $30! Before I continue, let me explain my stance on autographs. I figure that the MINIMUM that you should expect to pay for an autograph you don't obtain free in person is $1. Even if you send a card off to a player for signature, you are spending $1 just on stamps/postage, even if the player signed your card for free. When it comes to certified autos, I will buy them all day at $1 if it fits my criteria. As I said before, there are many autos that I will never add to my collection because they just weren't good, never played for the Dodgers or have no other special interest link to me, even at a buck. Same goes for GU cards. At a buck, I figure if I like the player, it's worth it. So to start out this part of the haul, I did buy several GU cards. I debated, but at $1, I figure I could not go wrong. I ended up with 12 GU cards, mostly Dodgers...

Rafael Furcal (x2)
Shawn Green (x5)
Jeff Kent
Rafael Palmiero (x2)
Gary Sheffield
Mark Sweeney (#/25)


That left 21 autographs from the $1 box:

Alberto Callaspo
Matt Clement
Francisco Cordero
Jason Frasor
Nick Green
Ben Grieve
Tim Hamulack
Ramon Hernandez
Roberto Kelly (Bronze)
Mike Kinkade
Andy Laroche
Ricky Ledee
Justin Miller (Deceased)
Dean Palmer (Silver)
Jhonny Peralta
Carlos Perez (Silver)
Mel Rojas (Silver)
Dennis Santana
Mike Stanley (Silver)
Bubba Trammell
Scott Williamson



2 hours browsing and chatting, $65 spent. 53 cards purchased. 15 GU, 38 autos. $1.23 per card average. I am pretty happy with my return to shows.

 

[Dilferules]

Holy cow a Lance Berkman Autographics in a $2 box is a steal. I saw that Grieve Topps auto in that seller's boxes at the Auburn show last weekend and it pained me to pass on it because it's a great card, but I already had one. Glad you got it.

 

[metallicalex777]

Awesome write up @mrmopar and excellent job with your choice of pickups! 2 hours of searching cards, chatting, and spending under $70 for all that takeaway is a pretty great win. I'm guessing your jackpot boxes were the hoards of monster boxes at the back table? I was way too overwhelmed to flip through those as it was the last table my kid and I got to. I had a very similar experience as well yesterday. I took my son with me, and it was his first card show. He is still pretty young, but he had a ton of fun and picked out some of his own cards along with some hopeful lifetime memories to be had for his first time.

Like @mrmopar said, there weren't a whole lot of tables to begin with, and most were filled with overpriced blasters and hobby wax. I'm a baseball only collector, and there just wasn't much to offer let alone up my interest alley. Lots of Pokemon, modern basketball, and modern football. I was looking for 2007 Sweet Spot Classic jersey/bat pieces as I'm slowly building that set (found a couple), Felix Hernandez (there was nothing), HOF game used/patch pieces (hardly anything, and the stuff available was super overpriced with no wiggle room). Even with that, the show was pretty fun as it has been over 8 years since I've been to a show.

I made a trade which I think I got the better part of and I spent $100 at a table with a seller who was more than fair priced. He didn't have any of the stuff I got laid out on his table as he had mostly comic books. Here are the cards I ended up getting:

My kiddo was on the hunt for a Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson card. He got into the Sandlot earlier this year and also learned about both of them reading the Magic Tree House. He was pumped to find what he was looking for and he got some Star Wars cards (good choice kid!) and really liked the Royals Herzog IP auto card. It was tagged at $10 and he said "it has the whole team and has an autograph!" so we picked that up and I hope that is a memory of his for some time.

Kiddo's haul:

I traded away a Mike Zunino Panini RC booklet auto card that had a logo patch on it. I have a pretty extensive Zunino PC, and that particular card I picked up for $40 at a local shop when he was sent down a third time years ago. This happened at the first table we visited, and it was a fun and friendly trade and seemed super simple all around. Besides the kiddo's pickups, I only spent money at one other table before we left.

My haul...not pictured is a 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Dave Winfield jersey for my set build and a 2008 Sweet Spot Ron Guidry jersey that I mistakenly got for the 2007 set:

A Julio paper camo and a couple of Trout Topps cards...obvious reprint, but looks great and is /150:

2021 Topps 35th Anniversary Ronald Acuna patch 02/25:

2005 Absolute Phil Nierko patch/patch/bat 31/50 and 2005 Leaf Fabrics of the Game Don Sutton jersey with stitching 4/5:

2005 Upper Deck Artifacts Gary Carter jersey on card autograph 19/30, 2005 Upper Deck Heroes Paul Molitor on card auto 48/49, and 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Roger Maris jersey (for the set build):

All in all it was a great time and worth the over 1 hour drive for me and the kiddo. Don't think I'll go to the same one again for some time, but I'm super happy we went and even more so to bring home some PC cards

 

[mrmopar]

@metallicalex777 It was the older guy (who was a talker) at that table at the North end of the strip. A few tables to his left and you were out the door at the rear end of the mall.

I saw the guy that had the Circle K cards all spread out and don't think I gave him much thought. You can quickly tell who you are dealing with when you see what they put out for display. I think he must have had a dozen or more laid out. I figure that set is probably a buck or two, so I figured he was either way low end or was asking stupid prices for common cards.

All three sellers happened to be at that end of the show for me. The $2 autos were directly across from the guy at the end. The other dealer was a few tables further down. He was playing cribbage behind the table while a buddy watched the table.

Yes, not sure I'd drive an hour for a show like this. Thankfully, I was only about 15 minutes away. I'd probably come back in a few months or a year, allowing for some inventory build-up, but not expecting much. Everyone collects differently, but I feel I cleaned out the buy with the $1 boxes of any autos that were worth while, unless you are a team player like me. I'll pay $1 for scrub Dodgers that had no career, just to get unique cards, but no other team gets the same treatment. Everyone else needs to have had some sort of accomplishment for me to want it.

@Dilferules I actually thought of you as I pulled it out. I think I had it already, but that set is such a nice clean design and for a buck, you can't lose.