About 18 months ago I discovered a new-to-me card shop about 45 miles from my home.  The first time I went there it was awesome.  The shop did things differently.  They sold items of their own, and they did a little consignment among their better customers.  The end result was binders upon binders of cards that were decently priced.

On Monday I decided to venture out that way and incorporate a trip to another shop that is about 35 miles from my home.  I’ve made this trek before to both stores, but my trips always seem to be about six months apart.  Henceforth, I am dubbing this journey from here on out as the “Semiannual Card Shop Tour.”

There was nothing I was looking for in particular except for a deal.

Let me start off by saying that the card shop that was furthest from my house was a complete waste of time. There was nothing new in terms of bargain singles, and judging by the conversation I overheard between employees things didn’t sound too promising for this card shop.

The only thing I bought there were two packs of 2011 Topps Update and a single pack of 2011 Topps Heritage MILB.  The card shop doesn’t allow you to pick your own packs out of fear that someone might be searching, so they do all the grabbing for you.

Here are the results:

2011 Topps Update Pack One:

201 Topps Update Pack Two:

2011 Topps Heritage MILB

Despite the fact that I really don;t like other people picking my packs, I guess I can;t complain much.  Got a short print diamond parallel from the first Topps pack and a blue tint relic from my Heritage MILB pack.  Nothing major, but much better than a pack of commons.

*  *  *

One of the great things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there are quite a few card shops to choose from.  It might take a bit of driving to get to them all, but they are out there.  In particular there are three stores in my area that are owned by the same guys, but each store is unique.  One deals heavily in vintage, the other has a good mix of both, and the third has a pretty good size collection of bargain game used and relic cards among a mix of everything else.

The latter of the three shops was my destination on Monday.

I went through a handful of binders of autographs and relics, and then hit a showcase with better autos and relics that were all marked half off.  I also picked up the same cocktail of packs that I got at the first store.

Here are the results:

2011 Topps Update Pack Three:

2011 Topps Update Pack Four:

2011 Topps Heritage MILB Pack Two:

Pretty solid results from these packs.  I got to pick my own, which I had mixed emotions about.  There were only six or seven packs in each of the boxes remaining.  My expectations were low, and the result was a Paul Goldschmidt rookie, a Roger Maris  short print variation and an autograph.

So, wanna see the singles I brought home?

Stay tuned, Part Two is coming shortly … Part Two HERE.

This entry was posted on October 17, 2011 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Semiannual Card Shop Tour with tags autograph, baseball, baseball cards, game-used, Gary Brown, Roger Maris, sports, Topps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.