we'll just call it a 'grand finale'

So I worked the card shop on Saturday. The owner went to a wrestling convention in New York and asked if I would be able to watch the store while he was gone. I had to work my regular job 6 to 12 that morning so I let him know I'd be there for 12:30. The shop closes at 5 so I got in a few good hours there. I went through some boxes, found some more cards I liked and put them aside for us to discuss at a later date. When he had returned to the shop we were talking for a bit. I had expressed my disinterest in Tier One but he decided to bust one anyway. He ended up with a Thurman Munson dual bat relic (which he was pleased with, Yankees do well for him), an Albert Belle auto and a rookie auto I forget the name of. While discussing Tier One, I had compared it to Triple Threads and he informed me that the last two boxes on his shelf, would be the FINAL boxes on the shelves. The price had gone up through his distributor so he decided to stop carrying them. Too high a price point scares some buyers off and he didn't want those boxes sitting on the shelf forever (even though I doubt they would have if he did buy them). So I decided to go for it. The hours I worked and the rest on the credit card (man, I hope I don't regret these card purchases later), equaled two more boxes of Threads for me to bust. I was able to justify it by knowing that I won't be doing Tier One, or anything for that matter until around February, when Series one hits. Plus I've been pretty good as far as card purchases have gone in the past couple months, save for the tow Threads before and a few misc. singles on eBay. All I can say about them is that both were great and one box included a questionable bat relic (like I had talked about a few days ago) from a Hall of Fame player and the other box included a new cornerstone to my collection. It's not a 1/1 but it's damn close. I plan on showing these over the next two posts and I realize talking about them now and not showing them isn't very fun of me. I would like to go over the cards in at least a little detail with nice big scans to show them off (and they're pretty much all worth showing). You will see some crazy stuff come from these boxes, as I could barely believe what I had myself. Easily one of the best products of the year and I hate to say it but I'm kind of hooked on them. Too bad there aren't any left for the season.

card shop pick-ups

I went to the local card shop today to pick up some more card boxes and he showed me a sweet box full of stuff he had just bought from a customer. This box held many great autos and jersey cards (one of the best being a numbered to 10 Cal Ripken auto from 2007 Fleer Ultra), and included the cards below:

He gave me a great deal on these (along with the two other cards I got, just a Mel Ott Tribute and a numbered Wells card) and he said he immediately thought of me when he saw them. Pretty cool! Well...it isn't hidden that I'm a Jays seeker and he knows this of course. The cards though: this makes Lind auto number three for me. I only collect him part time. When I see good stuff, I grab it, but I don't go seeking it like Wells. The black swatch on the Icons card is good though, not boring old white like on Vernon's. The plate is really great though, namely due to it being the black. It also brings me to plate number 8 for Vernon Wells. I also picked up a couple of random packs too (2009 Topps Heritage, love the 1960 design, 2010 Topps 206, still don't care for it, and 2010 Topps Chrome, ended up with a USA Baseball auto of Brian Johnson) but nothing really worth noting besides the auto. Overall a good trip to the shop!

allen & gintaaaarrrrrggghh!!

Ginter's will not be something I buy regularly. I just always get disappointed with each pack I open. Its expensive, kinda blah and overall just plain weird sometimes. I know I bought a box, but I purchased two packs today from my local card shop (at 7 bucks per pack, but I'll get into that in a minute). I won't bore you with what I got in each of them, but my minis were of a dinosaur and a Greek God. With the lone exception of that rip card I pulled (more on that card in a future post), I end up with nothing but, well, nothing in my packs of A&G. Its definitely not a fun set for me to collect. As for the card shops prices, seven bucks is steep. His boxes are $120. Too much? Yes. In his defense though, he is the only shop around, and his prices on things that aren't hot (ie; anything without Strasburg) are always great. I fully understand and get behind him raising prices on hot products. If the fools want to speculate and shell out tons just to maybe pull a card they may never see in their lives, then so be it. While it may hurt the casual buyers, like myself, I would be more than willing to possibly collect some more when this set is forgotten and the next one is on fire. Prices will go down, and I'm more than willing to wait. This is a perfect reason as to why prices are as they are: Right here. Anyone willing to shell out that much for that card deserves to be taken advantage of. Many dealers are opening up those hobby factory sets and finding yet ANOTHER parallel set from Topps, this time in the form of red bordered numbered to 299 cards. Not a horrible idea and they do look nice (I'm in the process of finding a Vernon), but I wouldn't be opening up factory set after factory set chasing Strasburgs. Silliness. I'm glad that Topps is seemingly seeing a raise in interest in their products, as its good for the hobby as a whole. I just don't like seeing it in the form of overinflated prices and underwhelming product.