Hobby Shop Blaster

Recently I stumbled across a link on The Real DFG to an interesting (and quite bitter) post by a gentleman with a very negative view of sport card collecting. Everyone is entitled to their own point of view, and I do feel badly for the author who, though he claims this is not the case in the opening portion of his post, clearly feels burned because his childhood cards didn't end up being "worth" what he thought they would be. What bothered me particularly was a line towards the end of the post that read "Baseball card shops are dead and they're not coming back".

A few months ago I would've tended to agree with this statement. There were only a couple of hobby shops within driving distance of my house, and both were run by stingy, frugal old men who thought their product was worth much more than it actually is. Beckett pricing was the law and it was pretty clear that neither of these owners knew anything about the internet at all, forget eBay.

After I discovered a great hobby shop a few months back though, my viewpoint changed. My spending went from about 90% eBay/10% retail to about 90% hobby shop/10% eBay. The shop, JC Sports World in North Providence, RI, is run by a couple of guys who understand the discrepancy between book value and actual value, run an eBay store, have a great selection, and most importantly maintain a friendly atmosphere. As collectors themselves, they are more than willing to answer questions or talk cards for hours. They know what I like and what I don't, and almost every time I go in they've set something aside that they think I'd like to look through.

Friday after work I swung by the shop and spent exactly $20, so I figured to I would show off my "hobby shop blaster" to illustrate why the shop is so much better than the big box retail stores. I brought a want list with me for the first time ever, and was able to knock off a huge chunk of the 2009-10 Champs base set, which has been on my radar for quite some time.

I really liked these cards when they came out, but the set focuses largely on the mini cards, which I don't care for. I would like to complete the base set of full size cards though (numbers 1-100), and I was able to knock over 40 cards off my list. Along with the Bobby Orr above, here are a few of my favorites:

Scotty Bowman in his Montreal Canadiens days. I love this card, it's the only coach card featured in the 100-card full size set.


Lanny's is one of the better looking cards in the set.

I really hope that Lucic has a bounce-back season this year for Boston. He did suffer a pretty tough injury last year but Bruins fans are looking for this guy to score some goals and log some penalty minutes in 2010-2011.


A few of the cards were the bigger stars from the set, like this Patrick Roy...

...and this Gretzky.

Finally we have Mr. Hockey himself. I still think this is a great looking set, and the lot I picked up has me within 3 cards of completion. If you have an extra #37 (Lidstrom), #71 (Leetch) or #89 (Stamkos) let me know! I also grabbed a few of the colored parallels. I came home with 10 of the most common green parallels:

Scotty Bowman is my favorite of the bunch. I added 3 red parallels to my collection as well:

I also snagged a one-per-box yellow parallel:

This is my third yellow parallel card. I'd love to complete a set in all 4 colors someday but at one-per-box the yellows can get pricey for the big stars.

I casually collect Sergei Fedorov, and I added 6 new Fedorov cards this trip, including:

The final 3 cards I needed to complete his 10-card Performance Highlights insert set from 1994-95 Fleer Ultra.

A 1995-96 Fleer Ultra Premier Pivot insert.

A 1994-95 Ultra Premier Pivot insert, I think this one looks much better than the one above it.

Finally, we have a 1995-96 Upper Deck Be A Player Lethal Lines insert. I didn't realize it at first, but this insert set is arranged so that you can fit the 3 die-cut cards that form a line together. Fedorov is a center, so he has two arcs die-cut in his card, one on each side. The two wingers that belong on his "lethal line" are die cut with a small bubble on one side so that they fit together like a puzzle. Kind of cheesy but I like the card anyway.

I have probably half of the 1986-87 Topps set, but this Francis was inexcusably missing from my collection until this trip. I miss the Whalers.

I was still burnt out on O-Pee-Chee from the 2008-09 set, so I picked up very little of the 2009-10 product last year. In fact, I think I purchased a single rack pack and that was about it. Even though the Retro parallels don't mirror a design from O-Pee-Chee's past like they did in 2008-09, I still grabbed two of them from the quarter box.

I just couldn't say no to this card for a quarter.

I also grabbed 10 of the aforementioned 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee retro parallels. I only needed these 3, but these are popular inserts and I'll have no trouble unloading the other 7 in trade. These 3 bring me to 393/600, just about 2/3 of the way there. Some day!

I also grabbed this card from the original 79-80 Topps set. It's a bit scuffed and has one dinged corner but Trottier, Dionne and Lafleur for a buck isn't too bad, and it gets me one card closer to completing this classic set. I'm about 2/3 of the way done with this one as well, not too shabby...

My last post was about my desire to complete the 1994-95 Upper Deck SP hockey set, and Sal stepped up big time with a package this week that got me a lot closer (separate post coming soon). To add to it though, I was able to snag four of the more valuable cards that I was still missing, including this Steve Yzerman...

Peter Forsberg...

Martin Brodeur...

...and Patrick Roy. Two of the best goalies of all time in the lot. The Roy, Forsberg and Yzerman are the 3rd, 4th and 5th most valuable cards in the set. I'm extremely close to finishing this one off now.

I also got two of the die-cut parallels, although I'm not actively chasing them.

That does it for hockey, which was where the majority of my $20 budget went, but I didn't neglect baseball entirely. I picked up 4 singles:

I believe this is a 2002 Topps 206 card, this is a set that I didn't have any cards from. Some day I'd love to own an original, it's definitely on my "white whale" list, but in the meantime this one's good enough. I also grabbed 2 cards I needed from the 1977 Topps baseball set:

Goose!

Late career, post-Baltimore card of Boog. Finally, perhaps my favorite card of the entire trip:

A 1973 Topps Rod Carew, in great condition. Clean, glossy front, good centering and 4 sharp corners. This one cost me $4 but I thought that was pretty reasonable. The '73 set is really growing on me.

Well there you have it. I haven't seen a lot like that in Target that I recall! Maybe the hobby shop is falling victim to the retail giants, but I'm trying to spend most of my card budget there to make sure that's not the case...

Hartford Whalers Want List

This is my Want List for my Hartford Whalers collection. Cards in bold are on the way via trade. Sets for which I have already accumulated every possible Whalers card are listed at the end.

1985-86 Topps
19, 34, 43, 58, 74, 88, 103, 118, 140, 162
Stickers: #25

1990-91 Score
21, 83, 99, 134, 172, 192, 212, 237, 259, 276, 302

1990-91 Score Rookie/Traded
10T

1991-92 Bowman
15, 17

1994-95 Parkhurst
92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 100, 274

1995-96 Skybox Impact
73, 74, 77

1996-97 Upper Deck Collector's Choice
MVP Gold: UD26 (Brendan Shanahan)

2001-02 Topps Archives
26

2006-07 Parkhurst
50, 139

2008-09 In the Game Between the Pipes
95

2008-09 Upper Deck Champ's
31

2009-10 In the Game 1972 The Year in Hockey
147, 149, 150

2009-10 In the Game Between the Pipes
130

2011-12 O-Pee-Chee
Main Set: #530


*For my reference, all sets that have been either completed or added to the above want list:

1985-86 Topps (Master Set)
1990-91 Score (Main Set)
1991-92 Upper Deck (Euro Stars)
1992-93 Upper Deck (Main Set)
1994-95 Parkhurst (Main Set)

On the Radar - 1994-95 Upper Deck SP Hockey

A little while ago I picked up a huge stack of 1994-95 Upper Deck SP hockey for about the price of a pack. I really like the cards and it's only a 195 card set, so hand collating it isn't entirely overwhelming. I probably ended up with over 200 cards altogether, and I finally got around to sorting and scanning them. Here are a just a handful of favorites:

Roenick vs. Tkachuk, not a bad faceoff duo.

Awesome photo of Nicholls scooting the puck across the goal line from behind the net.

Sean Burke showing a Senator who's boss.

Hextall taking a rest in front of the Flyers' bench. I love all the spare sticks behind the players.

This card is all about facial expression. Not only Pavel's, but check out that woman in the audience right behind the glass.

Finally, we have a very young Jarome Iginla in the Premier Prospects subset.

I've added all of the cards I need to my Want List, if anyone's looking to get rid of some let's trade! I've collected a few of the Die Cut inserts and would be willing to trade for any of those as well.

My Share of the Million

I was watching the MLB Network the other day and saw an advertisement for the Topps Million Card Giveaway. I had nearly forgotten that I redeemed a few of these codes that I pulled from 2010 Series 1 Topps packs earlier in the year. I neglected the site after obtaining my cards, never did any trading or shipping. I redeemed 7 cards in all, and actually did reasonably well. I decided to ship 5 of them and within a couple of days they were on my doorstep. Not bad Topps.

We'll start with the oldest of the 5, a 1958 Topps Tony Taylor. Pretty cool card, it's actually Taylor's rookie. He had an 19 year career in the bigs, a good portion of it spent playing second base with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played in over 2,000 games, had more than 2,000 hits and was an All-Star in 1960.

This card was clearly loved by it's previous owner(s), it's the most beat up of the cards I had shipped. I don't mind though, it's better than nothing, which is the version of the card I had before. Here are the other 4 from worst to best:

2005 Topps Tim Wakefield. I went back and forth on whether to bother shipping this one. This set doesn't do much for me, but I don't think I have any of the Red Sox from this one and it's got a pretty nice shot of Wake throwing his signature knuckleball.

The back is kind of nice too. They got the vital player info, full career stats and little blurb about the player, and still managed to fit in a photo. I like the little career strikeout box, I'm not sure what the little field diagram next to it signifies. Anyone?

1975 Topps Mike Anderson. Getting a little better. I know nothing about Anderson but I'll gladly add a '75 Topps to my collection. The card is mint too. Sort of a strange photo, looks like it may have been taken at a training complex or something.

1967 Topps Smoky Burgess. I was definitely looking forward to getting this one. Shortly after I redeemed it Steve of White Sox Cards posted about it.

It's easier to tell looking at the back, but it's definitely miscut. Other than that it's in good shape, sharp corners, no creases and good color. Finally, my favorite card in the bunch:

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I love the 1959 Topps set and that I plan to start picking up more of them. This one's in great shape and features your 1960 National League MVP Dick Groat. The Pirates logo is awesome as well.

As much as I like the '59 fronts, the backs are definitely lacking in my opinion. I like the cartoon though. Well there you have it. I thought this was a fun promotion that worked really well for Topps. I know I purchased more packs of 2010 Topps than I would've without the redemption program. Considering I only redeemed 7 codes I think I did great with a Red Sox need, a '75 Topps, a card from the 60's and two cards from the 50's. Here are the two cards I didn't bother shipping:

Anyone want to trade?

The Cardinals in the Background

Here's a 1960 Topps card of Bob Miller I recently added to the collection for a measly 2 bucks. The two things I liked most about the card were the Rawlings patch on Bob's glove and the background scenery featuring a few Cardinals players in what would appear to be pre-game warm-ups.

Anyone know who any of the 3 players in the background are? At first I thought the guy on the left just might be Bob Gibson, who wore #58 but now I'm not so sure. I'm not a very good sleuth and this is a particularly challenging one. Anyway, here's the back of the card:

As you see from the cartoon, Bob was a local guy who signed with the hometown Cards. In fact, he was a star high school pitcher who signed after graduating with St. Louis and received a $20,000 signing bonus. He was never a superstar at the Major League level but he was a decent pitcher who managed an 18 year career.