A warm February Sunday afternoon gave way for the chance to visit the Card Show at the Neshamity Mall hosted by George’s Collectibles.

This is the 2nd card show I’ve attended this February, and the first card shows that I have attended in over 20 years. Once again visions of vendors with hoardes of junk wax at bargain basement prices compelled me to swing by the show, although the last show at the Palmer Park Mall demonstrated that is likely not the case.

Pulled into the Neshamity Mall, never having been to this mall before, it is a one story mall that also houses an AMC theatre. It was pretty big inside, as looks can be deceiving in this case. Being that it was in the afternoon when I arrived on Sunday, I was worried folks might be packing up when I got there.

Once I side I saw George’s Collectibles’ table, the same vendor which I purchased the 1995 Topps, and 2003 Series 1 & 2 at the Palmer Park Mall. I quickly scanned the table for any other wax boxes, but it was mostly modern selection. I had grabbed the oldest boxes the last time I saw him.

Looking past the next few tables I didn’t see any wax boxes at all, so my first priority was to locate any junk wax boxes at the show.

Dynamite Packs

First vendor that caught my eye was a booth run by DynamitePacks.com and Tim was excellent to talk to about cards. He is passionate about customers having fun with what they purchase. I found some junk wax packs for $1 each, so I bought as many as I saw there. Here is the breakdown:

• 1987 Topps – 5
• 1988 Donruss – 7
• 1989 Donruss – 3
• 1990 Fleer – 13
• 1993 Fleer Ultra Series 2 – 1
• 1993 Topps Cello Super Pack? – 4
• 1994 Fleer – 3
• 1996 Fleer – 2

The big item to take away from this was the 1993 Topps Super Packs with 5 Black Gold cards each! I didn’t pick these up until I went back to the booth a second time, but he cut me a deal where I got 4 packs for $15 instead of $20. Great dealer, and was great with the kids who were there.

Always bring cash

I came across one vendor who had 1988 Fleer, 3 wax boxes $20 each, and a rack pack for $40. He was cash only and I forgot to grab cash before I left. Unfortunately this mall did not have an ATM. I would have bought at least the 3 wax boxes as I love the 1988 Fleer design. It still stings that I didn’t get any of these boxes from this show.

Weird vendor, Pizza, and Crazy Junk Wax prices

I took awhile walking around, and did end up seeing people packing up, which gave me some urgency. I finally saw what I was looking for, wax boxes from the junk wax era. 1989 Donruss, 1988 Score, 1989 Score, and more!! I asked the gentleman behind the table about the junk wax and he mentioned that the owner stepped out and will be back from Pizza Hut.

Luckily the owner showed up as we were talking, and the guy behind the counter looked confused. “A personal pan Pizza for the both of us?!” The owner opened the box and the guy goes “What is that?!” It looked like half pepperoni and half meat lovers. The owner replies, “I don’t know they just gave it to me.” I should have known then these guys were off.

So I ask about the 1989 Donruss, expecting around the $20 mark from the 1988 Fleer I saw earlier. When he told me the price I had to clarify twice what he said. He wanted fifty dollars. 5-0. $50 for 1989 Donruss. How much was the 1988 Score? $40. I was crushed. They had a few others I wanted and they asked if I wanted to see anymore and I declined. Devastated. I could see the owner would ask the year and then give the price. It was almost like he thought they got more expensive with age. As my good friend pointed out you can find better deals with shipping on ebay. I was utterly disappointed. That pizza made me think of lunch to clear my head.

New gameplan – 2023 Team Set!

Didn’t expect to walk away from the card show with a full team set of 2023 Phillies, but the opportunity was there and I jumped in. For about $15 I had the team set, and to be honest I still feel like I cheated the system. I don’t have to get a whole hobby box, I have the entire Phillies team set! They were great as the cards for 2023 were in this huge binder, and they read off the numbers for each card as I flipped through the binder. Truly great to work with and I look forward to dealing with them again.

Love the cards, really love everything about the Topps 2023 design, and the inserts are amazing. I am missing the Aaron Nola aces card, and the Kyle Schwarber home run contest card which I’ve since ordered off Ebay. I most likely will be getting some sort of 2023 box since I like the design so much. Not sure what level of box we are talking about just yet.

Before I picked up the 2023 team set I went through their Phillies card section for a grab bag of miscellaneous Phillies cards, got these for about $2-3:

• 1996 Topps – #205 – Prospects – Kevin Brown, Ben Davis, Bobby Estaella
• 2006 Topps – #582 – Gavin Floyd
• 2014 Topps – #345 – Darin Ruf
• 2019 Topps – #187 – Citizens Bank Park
• 2019 Topps – #291 – Engel De Los Santos – Rookie Card
• 2019 Topps – #455 – Zach Eflin
• 2019 Topps – #619 – Tommy Hunter
• 2017 Topps Archive – #133 – Jake  Thompson – Rookie Card
• 2017 Topps – #US95 – Hector Neris
• 2011 Bowman – #111 – Chase Utley
• 2018 Topps – #219 – J.P. Crawford – Rookie Card
• 2018 Topps – #339 – Phillies Team Card
• 2018 Topps – #563 – Hector Neris
• 2015 Topps – #143 – Jonathan Papelbon
• 2015 Topps – #624 – Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez – Rookie Card
• 2017 Topps – #12 – Jerad Eickoff
• 2017 Topps – #US160 – Knapp & Lively – Rookie Sensations
• 2017 Topps – #352 – Cameron Rupp
• 2022 Topps – #501 – Philadelphia Phillies
• 2022 Topps – #386 – Ranger Suarez

Back to DynamitePacks

As promised, went back to DynamitePacks for some vintage-esque cards, and we ended up getting these:

• 1980 Topps – #6 – Del Unser – 1979 Highlight
• 1980 Topps – #27 – Del Unser
• 1980 Topps – #682 – Phillies Future Stars – Ramon Aviles, Dickie Noles, Kevin Saucier
• 1979 Topps – #317 – Jose Cardenal
• 1979 Topps – #675 – Tim McCarver
• 1979 Topps – #653 – Warren Brusstar
• 1979 Topps – #382 – Jerry Martin
• 1979 Topps – #639 – Manny Trillo (Cubs)
• 1979 Topps – #694 – Burt Hooton
• 1979 Topps – #390 – Rollie Fingers

Also picked up the 1993 Topps Super packs, not sure if they are just jumbo packs or what, but they have 5 Black Gold cards in them which is just amazing. Had to get those.

Could not resist getting a mystery Pack, and he gave me a buy one get one free deal on that, so I left a pretty happy camper there.

All told Neshamity Mall Card Show was worth the trip, they have another show in April I believe, and I’ll most likely go to that show as well. Each show I am learning more and more, and the next show for me may be the Philly Card Show in Oaks next weekend.

Our collection is getting rounded out on the modern front, and we are making progress on those mid 2000s cards as well. We got the 2022 cards into the binder, and that was a good feeling to get those from the show into the binder. Need to get some sheets for the 2023 cards yet.

Thanks for going on this journey with me.