Die-Cuts and Gold Cards, Courtesy of My LCS

It's almost become a routine for me to pick up a handful of individual cards at my LCS every time I head over there to pick up supplies to store my collection. 

I appreciate having multiple Baseball card shops near my house, for they make it incredibly easy for me to purchase penny sleeves, sheets, and other supplies for the card collection. 

I've always had at least 1 LCS within 25 minutes of my house and judging by what I've heard from other collectors and bloggers, this isn't common across most of the country.

Specifically, my favorite sports card shop is about 20 minutes away from me in Framingham, MA. In addition to the typical hobby boxes that you can expect to see at an LCS, this store has a plethora of framed memorabilia, a few dime bins, and cards on display cases throughout the entire shop.

Ever since my Dad and I discovered this shop back in Fall of 2017, we've routinely visited the store to scan through the dime bins, pick out a few individual cards, ranging from 50 cents to a few bucks, and, of course, purchase much-needed supplies for our ever-growing card collection.

And on today, Father's Day, we just so happened to need some thick top loaders and penny sleeves, so we decided to take a trip to the LCS together. While we were there, we continued our tradition and searched through the various Baseball card boxes scattered throughout the store.

I gave my Dad the last say in everything that we purchased today, and we ended up with some nice cards from some recently released products as well as the needed supplies and a box of cards that he chose for himself to celebrate this day together. 

Directly next to the Baseball dime bins was a 2-row box of 50 cent cards from all 4 major sports. The box featured predominantly Baseball cards, especially cards from 2018 and 2019 sets. The sepia Adam Jones card is exclusive to Topps Chrome blaster boxes, so I'm intrigued as to how the card ended up at this card shop. 

The 2 cards at the bottom of the photo above are from the recently released 2019 Topps Finest set, a high-end product. Both inserts, to my knowledge, recreate a past Topps Finest design from the 90s Baseball and Basketball products.

Given how beautiful these chrome cards look, it was a no-brainer for me to pick up 2 awesome inserts of 2 of my favorite modern day players to collect.

Speaking of recently released sets, I selected a few die-cut cards from the brand new 2019 Panini Leather & Lumber set, another high-end product that debuted this year. 

Due to the exorbitant hobby box prices and that the set doesn't appeal all that much to me, I made the decision to completely stay away from buying packs of this new product.

Even though I'd never buy a pack of Panini Leather & Lumber myself, the die-cut cards from the hobby boxes look phenomenal, for I watched a few box breaks around a week ago. The cards above feature 2 of the game's best sluggers, Judge and Bellinger, in a design called Knot Hole Gang.

The set features a surplus of different die-cut cards, and they all, from what I've seen, have leather or wood-like finishes. The cards that I stumbled upon seemed to embody the lumber part of the Leather & Lumber product, including the Ken Griffey Jr and Yogi Berra cards above.

For only 50 cents-$1 each, I didn't hesitate whatsoever to pick up these 2 HOF die-cut cards for their respective player collections. While I appreciate the silver and yellow color combo on the Benchmarks card, I absolutely love Griffey Jr Naturals die-cut, from the font to the color combinations.

The price range for all of the cards that we purchased today was extremely reasonable, but perhaps the greatest bargain of them all was paying just a buck for this 1968 Topps team card of the Oakland Athletics, commemorating their first year in Oakland.

Not only is their '68 team card a high-numbered card in the set (#554), but the card is also from one of my favorite Topps Flagship sets of all-time. 

The "burlap" bordered '68 design ranks as one of my 10 favorites base sets ever produced, and the combination of the burlap with the purple name and the beautiful uniforms make for a winning card.

I know not everyone is as fond of the 1968 Topps set as I am, but you have to applaud Topps for taking a risk. When I see cards like this, I believe even more strongly that the gamble paid off. 

None of the cards that we purchased up until this point had been particularly expensive, and that barely even changed when we found 3 different gold cards of Nolan Ryan in another 2-row box. It just so happened that they were slightly more expensive than the previous cards that we settled on, but they were still a bargain, especially as far as Nolan Ryan cards are concerned.

I was impressed to see all 3 cards from this 1992 Bleachers mini-set, featuring gold cards of the all-time strikeout leader and the largest PC in my collection, Nolan Ryan. The 3 cards all feature him on a different minor league team, and the backs are practically identical with the same serial numbering.

I recall picking up a 3-card panel of Ryne Sandberg in this same design many years back at the Baseball card show, so I assume that these 3 cards originally came from a panel as well. 

The images, especially on the card above, might not be the most flattering, but I'm an avid collector of all things Nolan Ryan. These cards are going to help me towards my goal of having a 500-card Ryan PC by the end of the year, and now I'm inching even closer.

I had a great time today, doing what I usually do with my Dad, acquiring some individual cards for our player collections in addition to much-needed supplies. Moreover, the fact that we were able to do this on Father's Day made today's quick visit to the card shop even more special.