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Photos: National Go Topless Day in NYC

Last weekend in New York, the people behind GoTopless.org staged a "protest" to fight for the "constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public."

Sounded like a fun time and a good photo opportunity, and here is my gallery from Go Topless Day in Central Park.

Part serious and part goofy, the funky music and dance mixed with weighty speeches left me confused about the overall message, and I was even more puzzled when I read that "GoTopless was founded by the Raelian Movement, which recognizes that life on Earth was created by advanced extraterrestrial scientists."

This point was also missed (or ignored) in a wrap-up by the Daily News.

Rick Ross has republished a series of articles on Raelians, including a 2003 piece from the Edmonton Sun charging that Realians use sex to recruit. Skeptoid writer Brian Dunning asks, Who Are the Raelians, and Why Are They Naked?

Truth be told, I never caught wind of any spiritual or religious agendas when talking to some of the participants. Seemed like typical hippie/free lovers who live by rules not always embraced by more uptight segments of society.

And then everyone flew away in their UFOs.

Photos: Pin-Up Meetup — American Airpower Museum

Last weekend, I braved LIE traffic to join the New York Pin-Up Photography Meetup Group at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, Long Island. The museum hosts a squadron of operational World War II aircrafts, serving as the perfect locale at which to make some retro pictures.

Here is a gallery of my best photos, and here's the group pool, where other photogs are sharing their select shots.

Today I Bought the Ugliest Baseball Card Ever

Friday at the East Coast National sports card show in White Plains, I was flipping through a box of cheap cards from the '50s-'80s when I came across a $2 gem that should be instantly recognizable to anyone who ever argued whether Willie McGee or Otis Nixon was more dangerous on the basepaths or in front of a mirror.

Lest you think this 1958 Topps #35 card is just Mossi showing his bad side, there are images of others online that make you wonder why Topps didn't instead feature a wide-angle action shot.

OTHER NOTES FROM THE SHOW

• If you attended any of the Westchester County Center shows over the past 20 years, you'll be happy to know that little has changed. Three hundred tables of sports collectibles flood the entire main room. Everything from new and old cards to autographed memorabilia to publications to collecting supplies.

• Nobody is buying. I literally saw no one buy anything in the hour I was there. Granted, my focus was on scouring the selection for my own interest, but I can't name one thing I saw being purchased (aside from my own meager $15 in spending). When I did overhear talk among dealers, it hinted at the same disappointing sales pace that's been plaguing these shows since the early '90s.

• It seemed to me that the supply (of everything) greatly outweighed the demand. The industry is in need of a huge price adjustment, among autographs and insert cards especially. Each year brings another flood of product signed by athletes, another wave of "limited edition" cards. Demand simply cannot keep up, and it only makes sense that a Dave Winfield autograph (he's a guest Saturday for $79 a signature) should go down as he pumps hundreds more autographed items into the market with each highly compensated show appearance.

• Remember, the value of anything is $0 until someone is willing to pay more for it. A number on a sticker is not what something is "worth," it's what someone is asking. A "completed items" search on eBay is always the best way to survey value.

• Soon there will be more grading/authentication companies than there are collectors. They can't all succeed, not unless they share exact standards. That's not going to happen, and it'll be no different than when each dealer just marked his own grade on a top loader that protected a card. At the end of the day, it's up to the buyer to assign his own grade/value and agree on a price.

• Space considerations in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment make it easy to pass up on all the cool figurines, artwork, game-used equipment and other large items. But if I had a house with a Man Cave ... wow, there would be some serious thought on what to bring home.

• Check out Bill Simmons' account of his trip to the National Sports Convention, and don't miss the great pictures and captions in his huge photo essay.