Hallelujah!

No. Not this one. This will actually be an Olympic free post. I think.



The actual reason for my rejoicing is I found another card shop within 2 hours driving distance.
Most of you remember my anxiety a few weeks back when I found out my favourite cardshop closed it's doors and went to Vancouver. Not to mention the other shop in town refusing to sell packs. Remember that?

Anyways. I found out about another shop in the north end of the city. So I packed a lunch, gassed up the family truckster, and off I went. After my snack, I found myself at Maple Leaf Sports. I walked in the door to a small, but very clean and well laid out shop. Even though they had just opened five minutes before, there was already a customer at the counter making a purchase. Inside, the whole right side wall was devoted to McFarlane figures. The left wall, nothing but wax. A long L shaped group of glass cases filled with various singles.

I picked out a couple of boxes for review here later on, and joy of joys, actually got to pick up some new baseball packs. 2010 Topps Heritage. Right off of the counter. Just sitting there. In Calgary! 3 packs for $10. I have no idea if that's good or not, I just grabbed them. All you Yanks have seen them already, so I'll just hit a couple of highlights.

First card out of the pack. ROY Chris Coghlan. Hmmm... not too exciting...
Hey! My first brave of 2010!!! Not topps, not Upper Deck, but a Heritage Martin Prado. Smile Martin.
Ian Desmond. Is it really necessary to have both RC logos? I long for the day where we had to figure it out for ourselves.
My first SP! A scary picture of Jason Giambi Juice.
I also had to pick up two packs of series 2 UD hockey. After my box break a couple of days ago leaving me without any doubles... this was a must.
another Moose.

I added three cards to my set. Now I have a few doubles for people.

A big thanks to Darren of Maple Leaf Sports for the conversation. I couldn't stay long because I had an appointment to go to, but he's a friendly, knowledgable guy. (despite being a Rams fan) I can't wait to go back and see what else he has. He might even have commons boxes! (dare to dream)

If you're near Calgary, check him out. He also does mail order. I'll get that info and pass it along.

Oh the Humanity!

Thanks for the comments on the last post... I had a few ideas of how to make a fun post out of them, but I'm too depressed.
Yeah. My card shop is closing it's doors. Tomorrow is it's last day.
Well, technically no. It's moving to Vancouver. This shop is part of a larger wholesale card store chain from back east, and moved into Calgary over a year ago. Unfortunately, Calgary, the nations second largest city, cannot support it the way other cities can.

So they are moving their western Canadian distribution to Vancouver. Apparently it's a lot better there. More hobby enthusiasts. And a lot more card shops / places that sell cards. It's tough trying to make it in a city where there are only two card shops I guess. I know it's tough shopping here.

So there wasn't anything really left to buy... most of it was packed up. I did grab one box, which I will share later. Kind of an oddball set. And pages. Six boxes of pages. He sold them at $15 each instead of the normal $20-$22 each at the other places. So I stocked up. I'm a set collector remember.

Now I have to go back to getting everything online. And waiting.

Crap.

Going to the cardstore...

The good one. The one where he doesn't expect you to sign over your mortgage for a box of '91 Donruss. It's about 50 - 60 minutes away, so I don't get there as often as I'd like.

What will I come back with? Any guesses?

And no, typhoid is not a guess.

What Really Grinds My Gears...

It's time for Wednesday's rant.... you want to know What Really Grinds My Gears? Here's this week's story.
As some of you may know, I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Not exactly the hot spot for card collecting. I only knew of two card shops in this city of over a million people. The largest city in North America. (land area wise) These two shops are kind of, well, pathetic to be honest. One I don't even bother going to, and the other is going even further into the tank as the owner passed away and his grandson is ruining what business he did have. So it's a lot of online buying for me. It's the only way to get anything you want... and a heckuva lot cheaper than buying local.
So when I found out about a third shop, I was thrilled. I patiently waited for my day off, and drove the 45 minutes to this new, uncharted wonderland. And was the wait worth it! I walked in and there lay before me 900 square feet of yummy collecting goodness. The man behind the counter in his Calgary Flames jersey, Flames sweat pants, and surprise! Flames hat, asked if he could help me. I mumbled something about being okay for now.... while I wandered around in amazement. There were two walls of wax boxes.... he promised that if it came out in the last two years, he had it on the wall. Baseball, Hockey, Football, and even basketball.

Figurines, autographed photos, and every supply one could ever need was here, waiting to be scooped up and taken to a good home. My home. My wife would understand. Right? The only thing he didn't have was boxes of cards to sort through to fill sets. But that was okay. I have never seen that in any card shop here in Calgary. No biggie.

After an hour of drooling and ogling... I was ready to start purchasing. I began piling up supplies on the counter.

2 boxes of 9 count pages... check

1 box of 8 count pages... check

8 more ball cubes, UV protected... check

4 packages of top loaders... check

And now, the wax... by this time the store employee had come back over... "anything else?" he says. Oh yes. Oh yes. I'll take 2 packs of that, and 3 packs of that, and a pack.........

Wait. He's interupting me. What is he saying? Why isn't he getting me my packs?

WHAT? No. That can't be right. "Um, excuse me, can you repeat that?" I say.

"We don't sell packs." he says. "Well," I say, "What are those?" pointing to the thousand or so wax boxes on the wall. "We sell boxes, not packs" he says.

I blurt out, rather rudely, " you're kidding me, right?" "Nope." he says. "Only boxes."

The room is now spinning. I feel light headed. I look for someone to tell me it's all a joke. but no one is around. And then it hits me. In the hour plus I've been there... I haven't seen anyone.

"How many kids do you get buying stuff?" I ask... "oh.... none. We never get kids in here. They can't afford it" he says.

I turn around, and slowly walk out.

So coming in at #4 is retarded card shops and their owners. Dooming themselves, and the hobby in one fell swoop.

And that, is What Really Grinds My Gears.