Congrats to the Brewers on their first ever NL championship (and their second league title) I'm not a Dodger hater by any means, but it's great the see the Brew Crew finally break through. I'm rooting for Cleveland in the AL (mostly for Jose Ramirez) but I'd be fine with Tampa winning that series.
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Last weekend I visited my mom in Connecticut. She was fine Friday night and early Saturday but even the slightest movements are so difficult that she wails and whimpers in pain. She has medication that dulls the pain somewhat, and she is mostly comfortable when she isn't trying to move. But everything - answering the phone, holding a cup of water, petting her dog, turning to one side on the couch - is hard for her. And her short term memory is fading as well. It's tough to witness and tough to think about.
I probably should not have left her to do my own thing three times in two days, but she insisted. In reverse order - I walked around the mall Sunday morning; got there at 10am but it didn't open until 11. Hit the GameStop for card supplies and accidentally got a free pack of 500-count sleeves. I put two packs on the counter but the kid at the counter only charged me for one. :)
Also picked up a bunch of Asian snacks and out of market candy/soda things. Oh, and hand soap from Bath & Body works. None of it was necessary, I just needed to get out of the house and clear my head.
Saturday night I went out to dinner with my best friend - who had a DJ gig that night and wanted me to come watch him at Goth night (and meet his girlfriend) I would have liked to, but I couldn't leave Mom alone all night in her condition. I was already pushing it that day.
We hadn't picked a place and just kinda drove around to the end of a very busy road loaded with shops and restaurants. We pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall with a takeout pizza place and a fancy looking restaurant, checked the meus of places we'd passed, and decided to go to the one right in front of us.
I was quite familiar with that strip mall as I'd just been there a few hours prior.
My goal for this LCS visit was to scour the monster boxes by year (starting with the 1970s) and find as many Red Sox singles in Ex condition as possible. At a quarter per card I could afford to pick up some non-Sox as well. Stars and Hall of Famers were nearly non-existent, the cards were not at all in numerical order, and the condition was about what you'd expect for 50+ year old cards that have been tossed around in giant boxes dozens of times. Yet I managed to find a few interesting singles:
The '71 Tom Grieve was one of the oldest cards I had as a kid. I've wanted a '73 Fred Norman for a while; that empty stadium in San Diego tells you why they nearly moved to Washington DC a year later. I have a buyback of the '73 Phil Gagliano, now I have an (unstamped) original.
Not long after reading Tom's blog post about acquiring multiple copies of memorable Angels cards, I doubled up on some posed shots by the old Anaheim Stadium sign. The Billy Cowan in particular is fantastic; I would have picked up two more copies but they were not in decent shape. Darrell Evans looked to be in acceptable condition until I got it home. Should have looked closer I guess.
I would have liked to bring home more '75 Topps singles but the borders were off-center on about 90% of them. Great set, but man does it flare up my OCD. The '76 Biff barely has a bottom border but I didn't mind. Amos Otis is about as good a player as you'll find in these commons boxes.
Some '77s here. Not much to say about 'em except that they were in better shape than previous years.
1978 was the last year I took time going through; after that I grabbed a box and quickly thumbed through one row before moving on. There were a handful of O-Pee-Chee singles mixed in; mostly in poor shape but I found a couple notable cards. The last year with its own monster box was 1986; I upgraded a couple cards for my set, found this OPC Graig Nettles, and moved on to a box called "90-93 inserts & misc"
Then I skimmed through more recent singles. I always liked the 2011 Topps/Chrome Braun, the retro uniform in particular. Banks and Bieber are nice ones, too.
2020s commons boxes yielded some interesting stuff. I picked up a few cards of (future Red Sox?) Randy Arozarena, a neat Denzel Clarke, and a Trevor Hoffman bat rack card in addition to another Adley.
Allen & Ginter isn't really my jam but there were some nice looking quarter cards and I had room in the budget(and my storage boxes.) Not pictured: two 2025 Topps Heritage high numbers I managed to find. JB's doesn't seem to care about card numbers, and I've been able to pick up a couple pricey SPs at common card prices. Unfortunately I've still got about 70 more to go. Probably a pointless pursuit.
Once I rounded up all the singles I could find in two hours' worth of searching I picked up some supplies and placed everything on the counter before taking one thorough lap around the store. This was certain to be my last visit of the year, and if I really follow through on that retirement promise/threat, it would be my last visit ever.
Some things that caught my eye included: unpriced retail boxes of 2021-22 O-Pee-Chee hockey. These were the only unpriced boxes in the hockey section and I have about 1/6 of the set, so I was tempted to pick one up. But even if the boxes were $60 apiece it wouldn't have yielded a complete set, and there isn't a lot of value there. It's very tough to find hockey card collectors on TCDB who 1) have the singles I need, 2) are active traders on the site, and 3) don't mind dealing with Americans.
In the corner across from the hockey cards there was a showcase with autographed memorabilia. I glanced up and noticed a Packers mini-helmet. Assuming it was out of my price range I moved on - but the Super Bowl MVP label caught my eye. For $75 I could have bought a slightly faded Desmond Howard autograph. [should have taken a picture. sorry] Tempting for sure, but I don't really have room for memorabilia. If I do go back there one day I'll reconsider...
JB's had some showcases with single cards scattered throughout the store. One door had mainly vintage singles, and two cards in particular grabbed my attention: a 1952 Bowman Ralph Kiner and a 1953 Bowman Color Eddie Mathews.
I asked for a closer look and the cashier opened the showcase door and handed them to me. The Mathews looked really clean - until I spotted the crease at the bottom right. Probably a good value at $40 regardless, but I passed on it and saved my money for the Miz at the top of this post.
The Kiner card looked good upon inspection. But when I took it out of the top loader I could feel something bumpy.
Yup, there it is. But I bought it anyway because it was $25 rather than $40. Also I had a copy of this card, listed it on eBay, and ended up selling it to our old friend Shane aka former blogger and current YouTuber Shoebox Legends.
All in, I spent about $130 at JB's - and that includes the Miz refractor and a dud of a Mystery pack. I was willing to spend more but the shop would not take my money. They were doing some kid-friendly events like a prize wheel and free packs with purchase. There was also a toy bin with sports-themed toys for kids on the floor. I saw this on my wat out - not on my way in. So when I spied bagged Starting Lineup figures from 1988 and 1989 my eyes lit up. Randall Cunningham!! Bernie Kosar!!! Mike Singletary!!!
I dropped the armful of figures on the counter, but before I could ask "How much?" the guy told me they were for kids. The sign was on the other side - Kids box! Take one toy! Free!
Why would a ten year old boy want a 38 year-old action figure of a player he's never heard of? Bruh...
Would have looked great on my SLU shelf..
That's it. I'm never coming back here again! ::Stomps away alike a ten-year old::
In other news...
Update has arrived. I won't spoil the results here, except to say a Hobby box and a Jumbo box aren't enough to complete a 350-card set. Good thing I didn't buy that O-Pee-Chee hockey box from JB's huh?
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