A popular card shop, Attack of the Baseball Cards, recently relocated to my town/neighborhood/block. The "soft open" was Friday, 11/11. I get out of work at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays - which is when the shop closed. Couldn't make it yesterday, as I had to go to a birthday party. Today was my first visit.
It had been more than a decade since I'd shopped in a baseball card store. The closest one to me moved a half hour farther away, in a smaller store, and closed shortly after.
I was very excited and anxious about when this shop would open, when I would be able to get there, and how I would adhere to a reasonable budget after so much time away. Would I feel like the proverbial kid in a candy store? Well... kinda.
As I approached the shop, a car pulled up and parked in front. A mom and her young son entered in front of me. Two or three other customers were already inside. I turned and noticed the kid walked right past everyone and tossed his coat behind the counter. Apparently he works there.
The store is smaller than it looks in pictures. I was following the move on social media and didn't realize how much of the empty space would be swallowed up by showcases and shelves.
Lots of great singles were displayed in the three showcases. Mostly higher-end vintage in the first two. The third had current baseball singles and relics, with a heavy emphasis on Yankees and Mets. One customer inquired about the 1993 SP Derek Jeter RC. Steve the shop owner asked for $600. I have no idea if that's a fair price or not, I haven't looked in a Beckett for years and my BGS 9 copy of the DJ RC cost me just over $500.
The rows of white boxes you see behind the glass are full of vintage baseball and football singles, from the late 1950s to early 1980s. I would love to spend an afternoon sorting through all of them but I'm not working on any vintage sets at the moment (except 1956 Topps of course). The Giants game had just kicked off and the store was crowded. Now that I know what's there I'll bring a wantlist on my next trip - hopefully on a quiet weekday.
If you're working on any vintage sets, let me know and I'll try to find a few singles for you in the future.
I was hoping to see more supplies, but there wasn't much room. I will need 9-pocket pages soon, but now I can ask my wife to get them for Christmas :) maybe some small storage boxes, too.
A pile of 2022-23 Upper Deck hockey hobby boxes rested on the counter by the cash register. I wasn't even aware it was released; all my card buying nowadays is done on Sportlots and COMC.
Btw, does anyone know what's up with COMC's Black Friday sale this year? I haven't seen an announcement and it's less than two weeks out.
This maiden voyage was sort of a scout mission, to see what the shop had in stock and plan accordingly. I was disappointed in the lack of a dollar box. Sifting through random hits would be a great way to find gifts for my team collector friends who aren't Yankees or Giants fans. This means I have to hope that COMC can ship my Xmas 'cards' in time to forward them before 12/24.
I didn't buy any singles this time, but I grabbed a few packs staying under budget to save for Black Friday:
Hobby packs! It's been sooo long since I've bought these. From about 2008 to 2016 I had every Upper Deck hockey set, complete with all the Young Guns. It got too hard to keep up with them. I don't even know which rookies are in '22-23 series 1 - aside from Seattle Kraken star Matty Beniers.
I also asked for two packs of 2022 Topps baseball series 2. This will likely be the last Topps set I put together since 2023 doesn't interest me, and who knows what Fanatics is going to come up with after that. Series 1 is complete, and I've got about 1/3 of series two. The shopkeep grabbed Update initially, which I'm sure he's selling a lot more of lately. But I'm not messing with Update.. yet.
These five packs totaled just over $32 after tax. I also got a free gift with purchase:
Oooh two top loaders! I've been needing some clean cases. And the cards are cool too, I guess. Anyone need a Joey Gallo RC?
All right let's rip open these hobby packs, shall we?
Pack 1 highlights:
Pack 2:
Yeah, that wasn't the best way to spend $10-12. Ugh. At least I got ...12 needs for the set build. 😒
Perhaps I'll have some puck luck, eh?
Pack 1:
These are sharp, one of the best UD flagship designs in a while. Makar is a stud and the Gibson is a nice card, but ePack has devalued Canvas commons to about 28 cents each.
Pack 2:
A Devil and a former Devil (Johnsson was waived/demoted before the season; Vanecek is NJ's current starter in net.) Defense Mechanism inserts are new, I think. Kylington is pronounced Shil-ling-ton, which will never make sense to me.
One pack to go. Come on Young Guns....
Whammy. 😡
I am not going to miss this when I finally retire from the hobby. Here's what I could have purchased with that $32 and change:
Welp, I'm never going there again.
(That's a lie, of course I am. I'm just going to avoid packs next time.)
Someone wake up COMC HQ so I don't spend another dime before their Black Friday sales.
Thanks for reading!
~
That's very cool that you have a new shop so close. Sorry you didn't have any luck pulling a Beniers (I'd be jealous!) but you did score two other Wolverines in Compher and Larkin :)
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ReplyDeleteThere used to be a card shop at the mall in my town back in the early days of my blog. It's been gone for years and the only other card shop I can think of that was near me is when I was a teenager. The mall shop is the only one where I've bought packs. It was kind of cool, but also deflating.
ReplyDeleteCOMC just sent out an email today about the the pre-Black Friday sale starting tomorrow through the 20th, so I'm assuming we'll get details about the actual BF sale sometime in the next week.
ReplyDeleteAt the prices I'm willing to pay per card, I very rarely find cards I'm willing to pay for in an LCS. Would be interested to know if they have beat up old vintage for a quarter or less, but I highly doubt it.
ReplyDeleteI might have to swing by this some day, although I have at least two shops closer to me.
ReplyDeleteI would like to send you my lists Chris maybe you can try to tackle them lmk where I need to send it to & which sport you like to try to work on I have Vintage needs as well present stuff btw The little man in Khakis is getting a little nervous in 2 weeks lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad small card shops like this are still around and able to succeed. I wish there was one in my area, although my pocketbook would suffer from it!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the price of unopened material is just too high these days.
ReplyDeleteThere's a card shop in my town which I only became aware of this year, and haven't been to yet. I've been to a couple other shops around the area and generally the prices just aren't reasonable compared to shows and even eBay. I really want this shop to have some stuff priced well, and I'm nervous to go and learn otherwise.
You got a Ryan Reaves card so it was successful!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that experience, Chris! Smart idea to do that scouting mission first. Keep us posted on the next visit.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a card shop closer to my place. There's one about 15 miles away... but depending on the time of day it can take 20 to 40 minutes to get there. That's why I only go there once a year (if that). Hope your shop ends up putting out some dollar boxes for you to sift through. My LCS doesn't have them... but if they did, I'd probably go a little more frequently.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recap! Bummer about the Hobby packs, hopefully future visits will be more successful!
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