Treasures From the Storage Bins

I fully recognize how unbelievably fortunate I am to have 4 sports card shops within proximity of my house.

Many collectors, from what I've read on other blogs/forums, don't have a card shop within an hour of where they live, yet here I am, sitting with 4.

There's my go-to hobby shop, a 10-minute drive from me, where I go for all my supplies and an occasional box. There's another store near Fenway Park in Boston that sells a wide range of hobby boxes dating back to the late 2000s, and there are 2 stores about 20 minutes west of where I live.

I've posted about each of these LCS' numerous times since I started blogging back in August of 2017, but there's one shop that I've only talked about once. That's because, before Saturday, I had only visited the store 1 time when I purchased a jumbo box of 2018 Topps Chrome for my birthday last year.

From the moment I walked into Gilbert's Sports Nostalgia, both 2 days ago and a year back, I was slightly overwhelmed. More so, however, I was impressed, amazed at the sheer variety of boxes, packs, individual cards, memorabilia, and craziness that this store entailed.

From the wall of individual 2010s packs to the entire room dedicated to Boston sports cards and memorabilia, one could easily spend hours at this store, but the hours simply haven't allowed for me to return in quite a while.

In need of some guidance, I spoke with the owner who couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. He directed me to a couple of plastic storage bins that housed all sorts of consigned memorabilia and cards.

The variety was unlike anything I've seen before with cards ranging from .50 cents in price all the way up to hundreds of dollars.

I figured the best and easiest place to start was to grab some inexpensive cards for my player collections and build off from that. Technically speaking, nothing in the boxes was priced, but the owner said he'd be very reasonable and give out a discount if I made a reasonable purchase.

At the end of things, for instance, these 2 Sammy Sosa cards became throw-ins along with the '81 Fleer Robin Yount, and a couple of other cards that you'd typically find in a quarter box.

In addition to the Yount and Sosa cards, this duo of Yankees cards was included with my purchase with no added cost. Until I stumbled upon this card, I had no idea that Joe DiMaggio was a coach for the Oakland Athletics.

Unbeknownst to me, he coached the newly-relocated team from 1968-1970, just before the height of the club's success. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to picture Joltin' Joe in anything but Yankee pinstripes.

The latter of the 2 Yankees is a rather elegant 2003 Fleer Showcase card of Yogi Berra. I've always loved the look of the Showcase cards, particularly this one with the combination of a silver border and Yankee pinstripes.

Now, I'll start moving into more of the heavy hitters, starting with these 2 Roberto Clemente reprints from a set that I'm not familiar with whatsoever. Nonetheless, I rarely come across affordable cards of the 12-time All-Star, so it was an easy choice for me to pick up these reprints from '61 and '71 Topps.

I collect a reasonable number of players who, despite my semi-frequent searches, don't turn up in the bins at card shows/shops as much as other guys that I collect. George Foster is a prime example of one of those players.

There are 24 cards in my Foster player collection, and I can't even recall when the last addition was made. The scarcity of his cards only makes it more rewarding when I come across a new one, like this '74 Topps Flagship, for just $1.

The majority of this purchase was centered around 3 total cards, the first of which is Eddie Murray's iconic 1978 Topps All-Star rookie card which I've seen reprinted many a time.

Throughout the years that I've been collecting his cards, I've always considered Murray one of my favorite players to collect. The decades in which he played and the teams whose jerseys he wore allowed for oddballs, reprints, and fantastic cards galore.

Though it also has the All-Star rookie symbol, this '78 Topps card counts for Murray's rookie card as well. He also has a '78 Kellogg's rookie year card which I'd love to, someday, get my hands on.

Out of all the trips to card shows, shops, and online purchases over the years, I never had an original 1952 Topps card in my collection. All of that, thankfully, changed on Saturday, thanks to these loaded storage bins at this crazy card shop.

Better yet, my first card from the initial Topps Flagship set is a Chicago Cub, Paul Minner, graded by PSA at a 3. Considering how old this card is, I'm quite content with the grade it received, not to mention it allows the slightly-oversized card to be preserved.

Now, if I can find a way to check an original '53 Topps card off my list, I'll have a card from every single Flagship set.

Despite all the fabulous finds that I came across last Saturday, I'll stand by that this 1969 Topps card of Rod Carew was the greatest pickup of the group. Seriously, you never see such crisp corners on a piece of cardboard that's 50 years old.

The centering, clearly, is a major issue with this card, but everything else looks pristine. Carew has just 3 cards from the 1960s ('67-'69), the latter of the group being the most reasonably priced. The condition is so superb that, if I submit cards to Beckett for grading in the future, I'll have to consider this card for the group.

At the end of my visit when I was checking out and getting ready to go, the owner offered my Dad and I a $10 credit for our next visit and promised to show us the basement where he said there's so much stuff that "you can barely move down there."

I have a feeling this will be continued sometime soon.

I'm Back (With Baseball Cards)

Hello viewers, it sure has been a while. I got back from my vacation yesterday and even though I thoroughly enjoyed my time away, it was odd to be absent from the blog for 2 weeks. 

Before this vacation, the longest I'd gone between blog posts is 2 full days which happened twice in November of 2017 when I had just begun blogging. As a result, it was strange to take such a prolonged break away from blogging and commenting.

Even now, I find myself struggling to find the proper wording for what I'm trying to say. It's been 2 weeks since I've written a post, so I'm going to be a little rusty at first.

Anyways, I'm back home for around 10 days before I head to Chicago for The National, but I fully expect to get back into my typical posting schedule immediately. 

While I was away, some new releases, most notably Allen & Ginter, hit the market. I'll likely be holding off on buying any more cards until the end of the month, but I won't rule out a 1 or 2-pack overview of the recently released A&G set.

Throughout the month or so leading up to the 2018 National, I refrained from purchasing Baseball cards, for the most part, as I wanted to save funds for the show. I've done a reasonable job with that so far this July, but I made one exception while browsing through an antique store in Asheville, NC.

There weren't any sports card shops near where I was staying in North Carolina, so my best bet for Baseball cards turned out to be one of the antique stores situated in the city. It didn't take much time for me to find one of these stores, and the same goes for the Baseball card bin located by checkout.

While the majority of the 2/$1 cards were Hockey or junk wax, I was able to find some true gems scattered throughout the box. This was my very first time shopping for Baseball cards at an antique store, so I really didn't know what to expect.

With that being said, I'm certain that I didn't expect to find 4 vintage cards of Hall of Famers who I collect, including Jim Palmer's 1973 Topps card which I hadn't seen before this trip. I initially expected to find some over-priced 90s cards, not vintage legends for only 2 quarters apiece.

The HOF cards didn't stop there, however, as I stumbled upon a couple of league leaders cards from 1969 and 1970 Topps respectively. Per my rules, the cards above will go to Willie McCovey and Harmon Killebrew so long as those 2 PCs don't already have that particular card.

At this point, this mere trip to an Asheville antique store had become a massive success. Even some Baseball card shows don't have this caliber of vintage cards for 50 cents each. While the condition of the cards is far from perfect, I don't consider that overly important given the caliber of the cards.

For 50 cents, I'm not going to let the condition (especially the upper left corner) of Joe Morgan's 1976 Topps card bother me considering that I need it to complete the '76 set. After all, I can always purchase an upgraded version if I feel it's necessary, but that's far from my #1 priority.

Out of all the cards that I purchased from this store for 50 cents apiece, the Morgan card will go down as my favorite solely because of how symbolic it is of the 1970s. Along with Johnny Bench and Dennis Eckersley, Morgan's '76 card ranks among the best from this classic Topps set, in my opinion.

While I was impressed with the sheer number of vintage cards scattered throughout the box, my purchase consisted of more than just cards from the 1970s. There were a ton of 90s cards throughout the box, and I was able to narrow them down to a select few for my player collections.

One of my newest player collections, the Tony Gwynn PC is hovering around the 15-20 card mark as I speak, and I was able to further boost that total thanks to 2 cards from the antique store. 1 of them is a colorful card from (I believe) the 1994 Topps Finest set while the other is an oddball Collect-A-Book.

Despite the negative feelings that often surround Baseball cards from the 90s, I found some awesome oddballs for my player collections. In addition to the Tony Gwynn cards, there were 2 cards from Upper Deck HoloGrFX, a criminally underrated product, featuring players that I collect.

As much as I love the Glavine card, the Griffey Jr, especially with the Seattle Mariners uniform, symbolizes the 90s just as the Joe Morgan card is a fabulous representation of 1970s Baseball.

That didn't spell the end of my Griffey Jr oddballs, however, as I found 2 more awesome cards for my 3rd largest PC (behind Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux). The Tetley oddball on the left was a last-minute pickup to bring my total number of cards to 16 and is from the 1990 season.

Conversely, the card on the right is from 1995 Pinnacle and shows The Kid blowing an enormous bubble of gum while making crazy facial expressions, because why shouldn't a photo like this end up on a Baseball card?

Suffice to say, my first ever Baseball card purchase at an antique shop was a successful endeavor. I got to add some epic cards to a few of my player collections, and that's something that I strive to accomplish almost every time I purchase cards.

So yeah, it's great to be back, especially when I've got new Baseball cards.