The Return to the Local Card Shop

It had been four years, four months and twelve days since I had last been to the local card shop, the one ten or fifteen minutes away, filled with more ten cent bins than I could count. I wasn't optimistic. I figured that, in the four years since, he'd have closed up shop.

He hadn't.

So, today, with the intention of getting more long skinny boxes for cards, I browsed my way through his supply of ten cent bins, and needless to say, I was quite satisfied.

I got numerous amounts of cards for numerous areas of my collection. I'll start with the most prominent:

90's Stars:

 

I mean, this kinda goes without saying. Any ten cent bin you find will likely have some semblance of 90's stuff. I was in luck, as I'm a sucker for old Topps sets. This Alomar was one of a few old Topps ones. Besides, that photo is pretty nice.

 

Two Hall of Famers and two Future Hall of Famers round out the Topps.

A lot of mid-90's Donruss, when Donruss was consistent for likely the last time in its run, was also in there.

Some higher-end Donruss sets, including people like Molitor and Murray on their last legs of their careers. I found a lot of different Eddie Murray cards through these boxes.

Some nice early Upper Deck poses.

This one is a terrific sideways shot of Eddie Murray. Man, those first few years of Upper Deck were pretty cool.

While the front of this one's pretty nice, the back photo is ultra-cool. You know, even if Darryl looks like he's on something here.

1995 Upper Deck is a severely underrated set with nice photography, and a simple, subtle design. Always a favorite of mine.

Back in 1999, Upper Deck threw 10th anniversary inserts into its products, including this one, declaring Eck as the finest reliever of the last decade. Sounds about right.

Continuing my quest to find cards of Rickey Henderson in uniforms that are not Oakland or Yankee ones, I nabbed a nice Mets card from 1999 Victory. Nicely done.

Surprisingly, the guy had a lot of 1996 Score. I only say surprisingly because it isn't very well-received around the blogospohere. But it does have some very nice photography, especially Ozzie.

One last Eddie Murray for the road, looking pretty pissed there.

 

 

I was kinda hoping he'd have some 00's Diamond Kings from the actual set, but the guy instead had the insert versions, which...aren't...bad, they're just not the textured ones. Still they're always nice to pull.

 

2000's Upper Deck:

I never collected too much back in the day, because I was so fixated on Topps. Looking back, Upper Deck still had some nice sets toward the end of their run, especially the 2007 and 2008 ones. I threw in this 06 Greinke because that throwback is pretty cool.

 

A page full of stars from 2007 UD. Only Phillips, Cabrera and Lee are still around.

 

A fantastic shot of a pre-superstardom Prince Fielder taking some autograph time.

 

Some 2008 Upper Deck. Some great shots of Glavine and Holliday.

 

More evidence of 2008 UD's awesome photography: Hall of Fame Class of 2015 member Randy Johnson, in his last year with the Diamondbacks.

Two awesome sideways shots. I couldn't decide which one was better.

 

This was also a nice find, a reminder that before Adrian Gonzalez became an awesome first baseman, he was just a prospect toiling around for six years. Here he is right before the trade to San Diego, in Arlington.

 

Retro Sets:

You don't expect to see too much of Bowman Heritage when scrolling through dime bins, but you run into it eventually somehow. I found a whole crapload of the stuff.

 

These are all from the 2003 set, and it looks pretty nice.

 

Two rookies from 2006 Bowman Heritage. The guy on the left is probably worth a bit more.

 

Two big hitters from the 2007 set, the last time they put it out. I actually ripped some packs of this one back in the day.

 

A few inserts from 2007 Topps '52 Rookies. Very good photography in this one. Remember: Back in '07, a set of completely rookies was 100% okay.

 

Nothing wrong with regular heritage, too. Cards from the 2007, 2003 and 2006 sets.

 

Some sideways cards, from 2009 and 2005 Heritage.

 

One last Heritage card, of current versatile star R.A. Dickey, back in his "younger" years in Texas.

 

There was a nice amount of Turkey Red here too. The top is from the 2005/2006 sets, the bottom is from the 2010 insert set.

 

Retired stars were usually a nice find in Turkey Red. I can't decide which one's my favorite, though the Seaver and Carter certainly stand out.

 

That's really the end of the categorizations, though there were some tinier finds I took note of.

 

Brick Cards were abound. Like, cards that are thicker than effing cheese. A lot of those in Bowman Heritage, a lot of those in the Bazooka sets. I picked up a few sentimental players.

 

This card is a pretty nice final tribute for Barry Larkin, who retired after the previous season.

 

An awesome sketch card from Dick Perez, from 2007 A&G

 

A really cool die-cut card from 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings.

 

Four players who were pretty huge in 2007. Only the guy on the bottom right is still that relevant.

 

Two last minute surprises. Swisher's, from 2007 Finest, is #'d to 199. Delgado's, from 2006 Topps CO-Signers, is #'d to 150. Two fantastic cards, and both for ten cents each. THAT is why I love this place.

 

Will likely be back sometime soon, as he's still open, and will probably continue to be still open. All in all, a great day for cards.