It Was A Card Shop Kind of Day

I have tried to explain my teaching schedule before in previous posts, so I am not going to completely rehash the whole thing. I am currently in one of those windows where I do not teach for a few weeks. Most teachers have summer vacation. I have "track out" a few times a year. Earlier in the week, I did a bunch of stuff around the house, so I decided to treat my productivity with a trip to the card shop on Friday afternoon.  

Besides, I needed some supplies to help me put away some cards. I really need to make a sorting post one of these days. Maybe next week.  

Beyond the supplies, I also went home with a few new baseball cards. I hope you're in the mood to look at pictures of cards, because I am not in the mood to do a ton of typing today.  

Did I mention there are basketball cards too.  

I will start out with the basketball cards. I found these McDonald's All-American cards in a quarter bin. I found two cards of Zoe Brooks, who goes to NC State, and a Hannah Hidalgo, who goes to Notre Dame.  I saw Zoe Brooks record a triple-double earlier in the season. 

Big showing for the 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠 - Zoe Brooks, @PackWomensBball ‼️

🏀 Recorded 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the win over Liberty, earning the first triple-double by an ACC player this season

📰 https://t.co/81akC4qRWi pic.twitter.com/YcLOmQFYMs

— ACC Women's Basketball (@accwbb) December 11, 2023

It's March. Go Pack!!! 

Both Hidalgo and Brooks are freshman, so they are going to be around for awhile.  

Onto baseball. There were no new Blake Snell cards at the shop, but I did find two new cards of former Durham Bulls star, Jake Cronenworth. It's been a minute since I added a new Cronenworth card, but these two looked pretty sweet. They were also just fifty cents. Pretty good deal.  

I also found a pair of Pujols and Goldschmidt cards.  

 

An Adley Rutschman rookie card.  Big fan, you should be too.  

A cheap copy of the 1987 Topps Barry Bonds rookie card.  I can't believe these are a few dollars.  

Which brings us to the vintage portion of the post.  All of these are former Cardinals, former Durham Bulls, or in the case of Vada Pinson and Robin Roberts, older players I like.  

One final card for the post.  

I also picked up a Bowman Platinum autograph of Orioles pitcher Grayson Rodriguez.  

I have been really impressed with him in the Minors and his work in the Majors at the end of last season. I think he is going to have a really good season and his autographs are really inexpensive given his talent. I do not often advocate for people to spend money on autographs of prospects, but this is one of those moments.  

A New Card Shop.

My track out from school started this past Friday. I really want to be productive with my time and accomplish a lot of stuff around my house, which includes getting some cards sorted out and boxed up. I recently finished putting together a few sets, so those are the top priority. However, in attempting to purchase boxes for my completed sets I got a little aggravated at the card shop that is near my house.  

I am not going to name names, but they are now stamping their boxes with their store name, contact information, and a QR code, which leads to their website. My collection is my collection, not an advertisement for your card shop, so I took a pass on buying the boxes. I figured I was going to have to order boxes online, but just in case I did a quick Google search looking to see if any new shops had popped up in the area.  

I was in luck.  

Triangle Area Sports Cards is located in Cary, North Carolina, which is about a fifteen minute drive from my house. If you're a local, it's off of Tryon Road and Buck Jones. It has been a minute since I have had a favorite local card shop, but this one won me over in a single visit. 

Here is the inside of Triangle Area Sports Cards.  

The owner is a nice guy. We talked off and on during my time in the store. Really helpful, but low pressure on buying and very friendly. He shared his vision for the store, this is going to be a good store.  

There were tons of cards to look through and things were clearly and fairly priced. I was able to walk away with my boxes for my sets, plus I ended up with a huge stack of cards. There are wax boxes behind the counter, but I was not in the market for wax. I also don't want to spend my entire morning scanning, so I am giving you the highlights.  

There were single cards everywhere in the store with a wide variety of price ranges. I decided to flip through the single cards of Blake Snell, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado. Again, just the highlights, but these were all either fifty cents or a quarter.  

All those Snell autographs, figured I should probably start trying to collect some of his base cards. I am sure he has a ton, but it's a project I am thinking about taking up for 2024. More on that later this month.  

Here are the highlights of the Goldschmidt cards.  

Love that Stadium Club card in the top row on the left with the Arch in the background.  

The highlights from my Arenado stack......

The $1 is one of those wavy refractors. I actually found a bunch of parallel cards from Topps Platinum Anniversary set in various boxes around the store. The Arenado is probably my favorite, but I also found a Juan Gonzalez numbered out of 25 and an Edgar Renteria numbered out of 150.  

I also picked up a handful of Jordan Walker singles, but I did not scan those.  

Next up is a relic card of Ozzie Smith. My scan flipped out here, it's not the card.  

This is a Jersey Fusion card. I did not know much about them, but I rolled the dice. Basically the company has authentic game-used jerseys and they attach them to existing sports cards by encasing them. The back has a QR code wear you can go see the actual jersey that was used to make your card.  

These two pieces come from a 1994 Cardinals road uniform.  Here are the pictures from the company website.......

There are a bunch of these on Ebay, some pretty crazy patch pieces too.  

The remainder of the cards I am going to post are autographs that fit into my collection for various reasons. Three were pretty inexpensive, the last was the big card I purchased on this shopping venture.  

First up, Cooper Criswell.  

Cooper Criswell went to the local light blue school, but spent last year pitching for the Durham Bulls. He was a solid starting pitcher in Triple A, but really struggled during his time in the Majors with the Rays. I believe he is a Minor League Free Agent at the moment, but he still played for the Bulls, so for a few dollars I now own his autograph.  

A.J. Puk is now on the Marlins. I dabble in his cards since I saw him throw a no-hitter while he was in college playing for the USA Baseball College Summer team.  I cannot even remember the last time I ran into one of his cards.  Anyway, for a few dollars, this one has a new home.  

Alec Burleson is a local kid, went to East Carolina. The Cardinals drafted him and used him as an outfielder last year. Probably more of a first baseman or DH in the long-run. Since I finally bought his autograph, I am sure the Cardinals will trade him within the next two weeks.  Book it.  

Last card and my big purchase for this card shop visit.  

It's been a minute since I have added a Scott Rolen card. He's been signing like crazy the past few years and I have missed more than a few good looking Rolen autographs. Figured this one kind of made up for a few of those missed opportunities. 

Overall, this was a really good card shop experience. If you are a local reader, I highly recommend you visit this Triangle Area Sportscards. I know you will enjoy it.  

Pujols Post - 2023 Topps Archives 1989 Doubleheader

Pack fresh from the local Target.  

The 1989 Topps set might be completely worthless and one of the junkiest junk wax products of all-time, but I do love it's design. It has long been one of my favorite Topps sets from my childhood. I was excited the other day when I checked out a few packs of Archives and landed a Pujols insert on a 1989 Topps designed card.  

Here is the front.....

I love this photograph Topps used of Pujols standing in Busch Stadium II. All the important elements of the Cardinals former home stadium are present in the photograph. The arches at the top of the stadium, which set it apart from other concrete bowls from the 1960s and 1970s, an advertisement for an Anheuser-Busch product, and the giant outfield scoreboard that was installed in the late 1990s. Obviously, I don't count the giant scoreboard on all Busch II baseball cards, but it's a must on anything from the final years of the stadium. 

You can see the leg of the Arch in the arch just below Pujols' right ear. While the Arch is easy to see from the current rendition of Busch Stadium, it was hard to see at Busch II with the upper deck extending all the way around the stadium.  

Well done, Topps.

Back of the card.......

It's Paul Goldschmidt.  

He's at Spring Training and there is some website on the side of the card where you can view some legal disclaimers about the 2023 Topps Archives product.  

I want to see all 20 years of Albert Pujols statistics, nothing against Paul Goldschmidt.  

It's Been A Minute

One of my favorite phrases in life.  

So much has happened over the past month and a half. Unfortunately, most of it involves me working, which nobody really wants to hear about. I am just going to skip ahead to the part where I talk about baseball cards and pretend that I still do this on a regular basis.  

I still have the time to purchase baseball cards, just not write about the baseball cards. I have narrowed this post down to 4 cards. There are some large stacks of cards sitting around my house at the moment and it's not because my wife repainted and refurnished my baseball card room in a day while I was at work.  

The stacks of cards are out of the frame, but I am actually going to make a post about the state and condition of my card room at the moment assuming I don't disappear for another six weeks.  

As I was saying, picking out just 4 cards was a bit of an accomplishment.  

The first three are all from the 2021 Topps Chrome Anniversary set.  Two former Durham Bulls players and a backup catcher for the Cardinals.  

First, former Durham Bulls player Greg Luzinski.  Great power hitter and a great signature too.  

Next up is Cardinals backup catcher Gene Tenace. Earlier in his career he was not a backup for the Oakland A's. Tenace was the 1972 World Series MVP. I do not have a Padres autograph of Tenace, but he was also a starting catcher in San Diego.  In 1980, Gene Tenace hit .222, but walked 30 more times than he struck out and had an on-base percentage of .399. 

Amazing. 

Last up on the Topps Chrome cards is former Durham Bulls player and current Minnesota Twins manager, Rocco Baldelli.  The green Rays jerseys were horrible.  

Last card is a Paul Goldschmidt autograph.  

He's been on the Cardinals a few years now, but I rarely buy any of his cards and I never post them when I do. Nothing too special, just usually cool looking parallels or base cards from when he played with the Diamondbacks. Nothing this nice.  

The Old Mall Card Shop

I am approaching ten years now in this space. During that time, I have made several vague references to a "mall card shop" near my house that I never really visited. I am not going to name names for this post.  Maybe in a future post. Mall card shops are not really ideal, I do not want to spend a lot of time rehashing all the various reasons. 

The mall with the card shop was in the process of closing prior to the pandemic.  The anchor stores were closed and the mall was filled with all sorts of odd shops.  One of the local high schools had even landed a space in the mall for their robotics teams.  I am not sure exactly when the mall officially closed, but the most recent pictures I can find show it completely shuttered. 

 

I had actually been to the mall card shop several times while the remaining stores were in the process of holding clearance and closeout sales, but it was primarily for a few large card boxes. I discovered a sweet table of old wax boxes on the last trip. I ended up buying a box of 1995 Emotion cards, which was a fun product back in the day.  

At some point in the last year, the mall card shop reappeared within a five minute drive of my house in a new development.  I was curious about the store, but did not make a visit. I figured it was likely going to be similar to its identity as a mall card shop and it's in a little bit of an odd place. The only thing I knew that was on that same street was a trailer park.  

Well, I needed some card boxes a few weeks back, so I loaded the little man in the car and made a visit to the card store.  Not my picture, but it looks nice from the exterior.  Yes, the trailer park is still there, just to the left in this picture. 

I dare say, I was impressed with the store. They had a decent selection of single baseball cards and a lot of wax. The little man spent a good thirty minutes looking through the boxes trying to find some Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt cards. He ended up with a nice stack of cards. I also ended up buying a few inexpensive Jake Cronenworth cards, but I was just more impressed that the store had card supplies.

Enter this week. We have been in the process of replacing the floors in our house. Our furniture has been moved around. On Wednesday, the little man could not hang out in his room, because our contractor was working on our staircase. 

 

What to do?  

We made another trip to the former mall card shop. Again, I was impressed by the store. The little man was able to track down a few single cards from the Cardinals, Tigers, and Rays players he collects. Those are his three favorite teams. I also ended up with a bunch of single cards that I am posting now, but also ended up picking up some Topps Heritage Minors. That's for a different post.

Here was my haul. All of these cards averaged out to roughly a dollar per card minus the last card. 

I have not really done much with collecting Paul Goldschmidt cards since the Cardinals traded for him in 2019. He was a nice player on the Diamondbacks, but I was not a huge fan. I feel like I have come around a bit after this past year.  Good player, borderline Hall of Famer.  I will try harder on Goldschmidt in the coming year. 

Next up is a MacKenzie Gore. He's from North Carolina and I have a connection to him through work. Not the best year in 2021, but I still think he has a bright future. 

The late 90s Gold Label sets were much better, but still not bad cards.  Picked up a Pujols and Goldschmidt. Not sure if the Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 cards are the same as the original sets.  Pujols is a Class 3 card, which is why I asked. I believe those were short-printed back in the day.

Next three are all of the newest Cardinal, Steven Matz. Just a bunch of Topps Chrome singles, nothing too fancy. 

 

 

The bottom 1984 style card from the 2019 Topps set is my favorite Matz card out of this group.  I need to go through my Mets and Blue Jays singles from the last few years and see what other Matz cards I have hanging around.   

The next three are cards are all NC State players.  First up is Russell Wilson and Trea Turner.

 

 

Nice to see Russell Wilson shown as a position player with a bat in his hands. There are several Panini cards floating around where he is shown as a pitcher.  Russ was actually a second baseman. Heard he also played for the football team.   

Two T.J. Warren cards.....

I am a team behind on T.J.. The last time I posted one of his cards he was still on the Phoenix Suns. That was two years ago. He's played well on the Pacers so far, although T.J. has still had problems staying on the court due to injuries. Last year, T.J only played four games. This season, he has already missed a game or two with a foot injury. Still my favorite former NC State basketball player.  

Last card for this post.  

An old Durham Bulls favorite, Anthony Banda.  

He was really good for the Bulls a few years back, but has had a few arm injuries and bounced around to the Giants, Mets, and Pirates.  The Pirates used him as a reliever during the second half of 2021 and he seemed to find his stuff again. 

I picked up two boxes of Topps Heritage Minors while I was there. Not very mall-like prices on the boxes, plus I love Minor League baseball cards. That post is for another day. 

A Break For Cards

I am taking a break for cards.

It is going to take a few minutes to scan the cards that were in my mailbox this afternoon.

I am taking a break, because it has been a busy day.  

I spent my morning teaching my own third grader reading and math.  

This afternoon, I spent time making rules for a Google Meet that I am having with the group of third graders that I teach for my day job.  Here are the rules.  

No, you cannot show up for the meeting, but please continue reading.

My third graders were actually supposed to be reading with a kindergarten class today.  Reading buddies.  Everyone loves reading buddies.  Since we are not in school, I found my own reading buddy.

I could not find a kindergartener, so I settled for a student from the 3 year old Preschool room that is currently meeting everyday in my living room.  

We made a grainy video reading the book "Dragons Love Tacos 2".  Earlier in the week, I read "Dragons Love Tacos".  Great books, if you are currently teaching kids I highly recommend both.  My reading buddy enjoyed these books.  

The three year old room is generally a pretty good class, unless it's nap time.  

I am going to call that kid's parents later tonight.  

The scanner has stopped.  I hope these cards were worth the wait.  

First up is a Brandon Lowe card.  This is from last year's Topps Tek set.  Nice card.  His cards have become a little more affordable over the last few months, so I am starting to loop back and pick up a few of the ones I missed out on.  

Similar story with this Ryan Helsley autograph.  I like the design too.  That's a huge draw to this card.  I wish the airbrushing on the front of his jersey was a little better, but overall still a really good card.  

Last two are 2020 Topps cards.  I am not putting together the complete set of these, but I am trying to pick up a bunch of the Cardinals and former Durham Bulls players.  I have picked up a few from the few packs that I have opened.  I also picked up a Snell from COMC before it all but closed down.  

Love the detail with the team's keep the same color schemes as they had in the 1985 set.  Wish they would have used the 1985 logos though.  That would have been a nice touch.  

Picked up a Pujols too, so I guess I am also collecting former Cardinals players.