Dime Box Heroes: Mark it, dude

2002 Topps Chrome "1952 Topps World Series Reprints Refractors" #52R-16 Johnny Sain

Ooooh, shiny.

Refractors and serial numbered cards are few and far between when dealing with dime boxes. I don't go into a dime box expecting to find any of them. Any time I do happen to come across one I need, it's a pleasant surprise.

I don't know that I have a shinier card than this one in my collection. It almost blinds me whenever I shine it in the light. 

As you might expect, it stuck out amongst all the other dime cards. 

There's usually an open spot for me to start digging when I come across a dime box. Sometimes, I'll be the only collector browsing through the vast amount of dime cards. Other times, there will be a couple other attendees at the table. On some occasions, there will barely be a spot to squeeze in, but I manage to find a spot and start looking.

Rarely do I come across a table with dime boxes that are being absolutely mobbed. The table that originally possessed this beautiful Johnny Sain card had a few dime boxes. The draw was that they were originally quarter boxes, marked down to a dime either as a marketing ploy or to simply unload some cardboard. (I think it was the latter.)

I saw the "mark-down" right away when I got to the table. But I also saw that there was absolutely nowhere to squeeze in. I walked a few aisles down and came back. Still mobbed.

I walked through a few more aisles and came back. No room.

I did it again. This time, there was a space to start digging. I found a ton of great cards, though none better than this Johnny Sain.

I find it amazing that with all those people looking through those boxes, none of them bought this card. Hey, I'm not complaining.

Am I crazy for waiting about a half hour to look through a couple of quarter-turned-dime boxes? Possibly.

But therein lies the dedication of a low-end baseball card collector.