I absolutely love the third weekend of January.  It is simply wonderful.  It is the time of year the big sportscard show comes into town!  It is one of the very, very few times, I unman my desk during work time for a few hours and drive out of my comfort zone to a far away land known as downtown Houston, to search for cards and collectibles I can either have fun with, sell for profit or both. 

It is also a wonderful time that I can take my son with me.  He is 9 years old and has gone with me for probably 5 years in a row or so.  It is a time where he looks for star wars things (though I suspect he’ll be on the lookout for legos this time!), we get our hot dogs and orange sodas and shop!  The past few years, my dad has gone with us too since my folks have lived here.  I typically try to go when it opens on Friday afternoon to stay until night to get the best cards, and then again on Sunday morning and stay until the afternoon to get the best deals. 

Years past, I have scored some cool deals on vintage cards, massive amounts of cheap-o complete sets, autographs and one year – even graded britney spears cards with a piece of her clothing on them.  I figured at a buck a pop, someone out there would want them.  Sure enough, some guy in Canada bought them all from me. 

One year, I picked up 5 Pete Rose autographed bats that I was able to sell pretty easily.  Another year, I picked up autographed balls of Thomas, Snider, Kaline, and a few other folks – they didn’t sell too quickly. 

I absolutely love going there and diving into the boxes.  I always feel like I would be much better suited with having 5 of me going out and looking at the same time.  Can’t wait to see what I come up with this year!