Blogging the Reading Card Show...Part I

I have to admit something: I'm a baseball card fanatic. Always have been.

Why baseball cards? For me, the cards are a link to my childhood. Early 80s. Paying 27 cents a pack for the baseball cards, praying you'd get a good New York Yankee, preferably a Nettles, Righetti, or Gossage. Those were my guys. More often, I got the likes of journeymen pitchers Rudy May or a Tom Underwood. But that only made me want to buy more. "I could get Goose Gossage this time!" The thrill of opening the wax pack.... I used to give the stale gum to my brother. Those were good times--before people gave a shit about the worth of card. Today, it's all about the dollars, less about sentimentality.

Over the weekend, I attended a regional baseball card show in Reading, PA with friends Tommy and Joe. Most of the heavy hitters in the card collecting industry descend on this sleepy town each Spring bringing with them some of the rarest and most expensive baseball cards available anywhere. Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays. All the greats of the game are represented. Even the Mona Lisa of the card collecting--the T2o6 Honus Wagner-was on display in Reading.

Judging by the attendance on the floor, baseball card collectors are an odd lot. Cultish and quirky, these are the kind of guys calling WFAN at four in the morning. They're more like evolved Trekkies. There's no women in sight--sort of a real-life Glengarry Glen Ross. It's amusing to see grown men scurrying from table-to-table--paper lists in hand---trying to complete baseball card sets from the 50s, 60s, 70s. And there are rows and rows of card tables--each with their own twist on memorabilia.