Now THAT was a Card Show - Part 5 - Batman & Count Carrigan!

I didn't set any official goals or bring any want lists to last weekend's card show. I get to them so infrequently that I just wanted to soak it all in and browse around.  Heading to the show, one of the things I knew I did want to look for was something oddball or out of left field.  With my final purchase of the day I think I succeeded:

I finally got around to picking up a few 1966 Topps Batman cards!  While the '60s TV show was before my time, I've been a fan of the franchise since I was a kid thanks to Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.  I've been meaning to pick up one of these cards for years but can never seem to find them at a decent price.  I found a vendor with a decent sized rubber-banded stack of these and picked out a handful.  There was no way I was leaving this bat signal card behind.

This one's from the "black bat" set, which has the best card back design in my opinion.  Clear card number, small summary, and of course the Caped Crusader himself at right.  Simple, but effective.

Probably my least favorite of the cards I ended up purchasing, but it's a small enough set that I might try to build it someday, and aside from a small surface crease just above Robin the condition is very solid for a card that's about to turn 50 years old.

I was attracted to this one for the robot, which looks like a child's toy from the '50s.

Of course I added this one to my stack.  I only wish we got to see a little more of the Batmobile, still an interesting card though.

Here's one from the red bat set.  Batman and the Statue of Liberty on one card, this one screams America.

My second favorite out of the few that I picked out was this Batman in Action card.  I love that it features the classic comic-book-style 'POW!'.  Finally, the clear cut winner for best of the lot...

Baseball and Batman (well, Robin anyway) combined on one card!  Robin's got a mean fastball, and pinpoint accuracy too I guess.  The ballpark background makes this card, with the flags and stadium bunting flapping in the breeze and even a ballplayer behind Robin.  This is definitely one of my favorite non-sports cards in my entire collection.

The red bat cards have a summary and a portion of a larger picture on the back that can be formed by putting multiple cards together.  A good chunk of The Joker's mug is visible on this one.  My price for 7 of these '66 Topps Batman cards in really great shape?  $12, more than reasonable as far as I'm concerned.

Alright, here's my final card from the show and my largest single purchase of the day:

This may not be the most recognizable, or expensive (I paid $50) card, but to me I was more excited to find it at the show than anything else I came home with.  I do not see these 1909 Philadelphia Caramel cards that often at all, whether in person or even online.  It's just a 24-card set, and Bill Carrigan represents one of three Red Sox on the checklist.

To me, the uniform style of the day almost makes Bill look like he keeps an off-season home in Transylvania.  These don't look a whole lot different than T206s, maybe a slightly larger white border.  This is exactly the type of rarer card that I was hoping I would find at a show this large, and honestly in my mind this alone (plus meeting Mark Hoyle!) made the two and a half hour round trip drive worth it.

A great experience for sure, hopefully I'll be able to hit up the next one in November...