Trip Report: Card show in Bordentown, N.J.
By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor
Many of us woke up New Year’s Day with a little bit of a headache. I woke with the idea of driving 90 minutes to a card show.
Why not? It seemed like the perfect way to start 2013.
We headed to the card show within 20 minutes of getting out of bed. I’ve never been to the card show in Bordentown, N.J., but this area has plenty of Derek Jeter cards, so I try to hit as many card shows as I can.
The show was in a spare room at the Ramada Inn in Bordentown. There were about 50 tables set up, but only about half had dealers. I got through the room in about 30 minutes and bought six Jeter cards, a couple football cards and another 2-3 for my boyfriend, who is a Texas Rangers fan. I spent $25 (I think gas and tolls cost more).
But going to a card show isn’t just about finding cards for collection.
I love searching the tables. There are cards or memorabilia I don’t want to own, but I can appreciate them regardless.
One table had just vintage items on it, some of them had nothing to do with sports. I spent more time looking here than most of the others. It had a Mickey Mouse xylophone that seemingly played itself and other old toys.
The table next to that had what appeared to be signed boxing gloves of Muhammad Ali and old comics and magazines, including some early editions of Playboy, which were more amusing than appealing.
Of course, there were cards, but it was an odd assortment. Usually at bigger shows, there is a lot of vintage, probably 80 percent of the booths are vintage cards.
This card show was different.
There were maybe 2-3 dealers with vintage, one dealer with newer cards – although he took up several tables – and another dealer had a bunch of minor league and oddball cards. There were a couple of guys – all guys, by the way – with some newer hits, but if you were looking for high-end autograph cards, this was not the place.
It was a nice card show, which comes around a couple of times a month. I’ll try to head out to another one that isn’t on a national holiday to see if more dealers show up.
Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here.
I miss small shows like this. We used to have one every other week at the hotel down the street, but that stopped sometime in the mod 90s. The only shows we really have now are ones at the malls — which consists mostly of MMA, hot wheels and other stuff; not a ton of cards. Sad, really.
we use to have card shows all the time here. where i live its kinda a small town. most people are into the dungeon and dragon card games. theres been a ton of those shows around my area. not to many sports card collectors around her any more
I went to a lot of card shows back in the 90′ s in that town. Your article brougth to me memories of tose days, usually I traveled from Venezuela searching cards of venezuelan players, I found a lot, I still keep it.
My last visited was 3 years ago. Nice article!
This is a nice little show put on once a month I think, usually on Sundays. Think you just picked the wrong day to attend. Also, you won’t find much high end stuff here and it does tend to draw the “newer” card dealers.
Susan, Great article! Here’s hoping you do more of these. Thanks for sharing. If you ever make your way down to Maryland, there is a show down here every month on the second Saturday. It’s a small show (40-50 tables) but always pretty full. It’s in Glen Burnie at a local school and always listed on the Beckett Show Calendar. Maybe we’ll see you there sometime!
I attended the Bordentown NJ show today (Jan 27, 2013). The show was jam packed and every table was full. I normally attend this show and it is always very crowded and the tables are sold out. The Jan 1 show was a special show and did not do the show justice. I advise you to come out again (the next one is Feb 17) and check it out. I can guarantee you that you will NOT be disappointed.
This past fall I attended this show. First the location is awful it is located in a sketchy motel. But the people in the show where friendly and easy to make deals with I definitely recommend this show everything is great besides the location