Philly Baseball Card Show Report - 1969 Topps Commons Explosion

On Sunday, Doug and I drove an hour north to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks for the March Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, known to its friends as the Philly Show.  This could be our last show for a while, as baseball schedules along with a packed summer and fall tend to keep us away from any June or September shows.  We were happy we had decided to attend on Sunday, as we both heard from dealers and other collectors that Saturday's show was, "way too crowded, "a madhouse" and "chaos."  There were still a lot of people there on Sunday, but we were able to leisurely browse the dealer tables and we both came away with hauls that had us smiling all the way home.

• Doug's collecting habits are geared towards cards he thinks are cool, which is usually some combination of a signature, a relic and/or a low serial number for a favorite baseball or basketball player.  He's got quite the display going on his bedroom desk, and he added the cards shown below to his collection after a few hours of scouting and negotiating.
• After being a big spender on star cards at the December show, and completing our 1965 Topps set, I was focused on volume this time around.  I pulled up a chair at Uncle Dick's table, found the first binder of 1969 Topps commons (1-300) and plowed through it.  I stopped after each 100 cards to ask for a price check, and with the understanding I'd buy more if there was as a discount in play for volume, I soldiered on.  I added 193 cards to our 1969 Topps set, which is most likely the highest single set tally since the 1980s when my Dad and me were collecting the 1976 Topps set and we bought most of the commons needed for that set at an Ocean City baseball card show.
• I was happy to find quite a few dealers with Diamond Stars cards for sale.  I visited three separate dealers, making three separate purchases, all of which came in a little lower than the advertised prices. With five more cards added to that set, I'm down to needing 38 cards out of the 119 I'm collecting as my version of a master set.

I purchased one Phillies card, a 1987 team-issued variation card of the Phillie Phanatic, and we didn't purchase autographs from any of the dozens of autograph signers.  It was another great show, and it may need to hold us over until December.

Doug's Haul

New Diamond Stars cards

Memory Lane

Valley Forge 1 - September 2010 - Thinking of my Dad
Valley Forge 2 - October 2012 - Doug's first baseball card show
Valley Forge 3 - September 2014 - Meeting Darren Daulton
Oaks 1 - October 2015 - Meeting Pete Rose and Steve Carlton
Valley Forge 4 - September 2016 - Phillies acquisitions and 4 Phillies Legends
Valley Forge 5 - December 2016 - Meeting Don Money
Valley Forge 6 - September 2017 - Doug's big day
Valley Forge 7 - December 2017 - Ben's first baseball card show with Mike Schmidt and Rhys Hoskins!
Oaks 2 - December 2018 - Meeting Matt Stairs and Cole Hamels
Valley Forge 8 - March 2019 - 5 Phillies Autographs and Vintage Phillies Additions
Valley Forge 9 - September 2019 - Closing in on 1971 Topps set and Andrew McCutchen
Valley Forge 10 - December 2019 - Finishing 1971 Topps set, Starting 1965 Topps set, adding key autographs from Ryan Howard and Brad Lidge
Valley Forge 11 - February 2020 - More 1965 Topps cards, Jimmy Rollins, Mike Lieberthal and Jim Kaat

Valley Forge 12 - December 2021 - Huge haul of 1965 Topps, Jim Thome

Valley Forge 13 - March 2022 - Easy like Sunday morning, close to completing 1965 Topps

Oaks 3 - December 2022 - 1965 Topps set completed, dent made in 1969 Topps, Schwarber, Vierling and Stott

Oaks 4 - March 2023 - Huge haul of 1969 Topps and five Diamond Stars cards added

Blue Jays 8, Phillies 3
Spring Training Game 16 - Sunday Afternoon, March 12th in Clearwater
Record - 7-8-1

One Sentence Summary:  Further south, the Phillies dropped a spring training game to the Blue Jays.

What It Means:  With our fresh spoils in hand, we listened to the start of this game on our ride home from the Philly Show.

What Happened:  Starting pitcher Bailey Falter got hit early and often, allowing seven hits and three runs (two earned) in 2 2/3 innings of work.  Jake Jewell was the recipient of four unearned runs in the ninth due to a costly error by second baseman Hao-Yu Lee.  Josh Harrison hit a two-run home run in the fifth.

Featured Card:  See above!

Camp Head Count:  65 - 7 - 3 = 55

Before the game, James McArthur (rhp) was optioned and Mick Abel (rhp), Andrew Baker (rhp), Jon Duplantier (rhp), Griff McGarry (rhp), Francisco Morales (rhp) and Billy Sullivan (rhp) were all assigned to minor league camp.  Following the game, Jhailyn Ortiz (of) and Simon Muzziotti (of) were optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and Johan Rojas (of) was optioned to Double-A Reading.