the patron saint of card shops

i don't really think there is such a thing as a patron saint for card shops, but after a semi-recent work related visit to st. cloud, i think ol' clodoald for whom the minnesota city is named might fit the bill. a few times over the last couple of years i have driven through and seen the "sports cards - cafe" sign from the highway, but i've never stopped in. this time, i had about fifteen minutes to spare and so made the stop. i am glad i did.

note that the shop "the fan zone" is not also a cafe, and it is actually in waite park and not st. cloud, but it's close enough. it's in an enclosed strip mall (minnesota has many of these for obvious reasons) and there is a cafe within the strip mall as well, hence the sign. there's also a quilting shop. anyway, this particular card shop is huge. it's the biggest shop i've been in for quite some time. and, for a shop that size, it is really well organized. sure, there are random dig boxes throughout, but it's not a mess.

there was a table right when i walked in that had a large amount of 2026 topps product, and the further i ventured there were long glass cases, more tables and cases with a variety of stuff, and then shelves of monster dig boxes. so many shelves and so many boxes. all sports by sport, plus some labeled as "miscellaneous". it looked like most were fifty cent boxes, with some "as priced". as i mentioned, i did not have much time, so i looked at one of the "as priced" boxes that had cards in toploaders.

i wound up taking three cards from the box. first, a 2026 topps shohei ohtani profiles insert

which includes a quote attributed to ken griffey jr on the back

the kid is not as verbose as tony gwynn was back in 1996

the second card was a 2008 topps moment & milestones gary sheffield black parallel numbered to 25

and the third was a 2023 topps cody bellinger 1988 relic card

the most interesting thing i saw in this box was this

that's a business card from hall of famer harmon killebrew, complete with his home address and a phone number. i would love to know who he gave this card to - i can't imagine he handed them out willy-nilly. if it had been signed, i might have gone for it (of course the price would have been higher). i do have a bob watson mlb business card signed by the former astro back from when he worked in the league offices. this would have made a nice counterpart.

after leaving harmon behind, i decided to look at one of the vintage dig boxes closer to the entrance to the store, and found a 1965 topps don drysdale embossed insert

i guess i am collecting these now, as big d gives me half of the dodger team set (i picked up the tommy davis at a mall show last year) with only ron fairly and sandy koufax left to obtain.

there were a couple of other cards that interested me, but the condition was not quite where i wanted it to be.

it's been a bit since i opened any new product, so i looked at a couple of items on the bargain table, which were mostly 2025 topps holiday (christmas) balls and boxes. instead, i went for a 2025 topps series 1 holiday egg that was listed at $14.99 but rang up at $12.99. in fact, the four singles i picked also showed up at a reduced price once rang up. in all, i spent $24.09. not bad for a brick and mortar setting.

the egg wasn't too interesting until i got to the end where the parallels and inserts are, and even then there is just one card i will show

i guess i picked the proper egg for a dodger collector. i don't pick up too many ohtani parallels on the secondary market, so finding this holiday foil parallel in a "pack" was a nice surprise.

i was sort of hoping to find a 2026 topps celebration mega box, but didn't see any (i didn't look at the product behind the counters, nor did i ask). instead, i bought some of those inserts from sportlots around the same time as this visit.

mookie betts game day drip

mookie betts perennial all-stars

and alex freeland 8 bit ballers

those inserts came along with some other "regular" series 1 inserts from sportlots

stars of mlb mookie betts

2025 greatest hits freddie freeman

clayton kershaw rainbow foil

and jackie robinson profiles

with another succinct statement from ken griffey jr

which says it all, really.

i think i am ready for series 2 as well as another trip to that card shop!

send in the crowd

space is at a premium on gary sheffield's 1998 upper deck ud3 card

which is actually the third of three different sheffield cards in the base set.

the photo used comes from camera day, which featured a pregame opportunity to get on the field at dodger stadium and take photos of players as they wandered by. i've been to this event a couple of times, although i don't believe it is still a thing.

it's nice to see matt luke, the kttv microphone, and the handheld tv camera in addition to the pavilion roof and the throngs of dodger fans. and speaking of throngs of people, i have found myself in texas this weekend and will be hitting up a card show. i am hoping to find lots of dodger cards in the bargain bins!

the second show successes

last saturday, i wrote about the choices i had in card shows the previous weekend. i ended the post with a note that i was heading to the second show of the day - the monthly club show. i didn't bother going to the third show option i had (the mall show), but did find some cards to take home at the club show. take a look...

i had mentioned that the church show wasn't too crowded, and the attendance in terms of both sellers and buyers was down at this show as well., and there were some regular sellers that i didn't see at either show. one guy who was at this one was the guy who always has a couple of dime boxes under his super disorganized table. he's the guy who also sells a dime box for a friend, so you have to keep the cards separate, but he doesn't tell you this until the end. anyway, this time his friend's box was a quarter box so i guess it was at least distinguishable from the dime boxes. i wound up with 17 cards for $2.

the dime box focus was rookies, and i found a 2018 panini donruss optic walker buehler holo prizm parallel

for the dodger collection plus a variety of other rookie cards, including these nine

the quarter box had a hall of famer theme, and i took a burleigh grimes card and this cal ripken jr oddball

home with me. this card is from a 1996 classic cal ripken jr baseball's all-time ironman set. it's the certifcate of limited edition card, to be exact, and it certifies that "only" 21,310 sets were made

and i am just learning that the "king of collectibles" was the chairman and ceo of the score board.

i continued around the room and stopped at a table that had a few dollar boxes out. the seller was chatty, in a good way, so i went through the boxes and wound up with 53 cards for $45. only nine cards were dodgers, but they were all needs

ranging from a rainbow foil parallel of joc pederson's 2015 topps rookie card to a 2023 topps black & white james outman rookie card. as you can tell, there was a lot of online product in these boxes. i wound up with more than dodgers

and of course there is a color background parallel in a black & white set. the outlier there is the topps tribute sixto sanchez green parallel, and it represents a number of numbered parallels that were available. one of the first i came across was this 2020 topps uk nick castellanos purple parallel

which is numbered to 50. the lowest number i saw in the boxes was 25 which is not bad for a dollar box. i also grabbed some sort of george brett oddball

i believe spot-bilt is now saucony, but i could be wrong. it's shoes, anyway.

the next stop i made was at a table that was staffed by a younger seller who i recognized from years of attending these shows. he has gone from a collector at the shows to having tables of his own, which is something. anyway, he had dollar boxes or 10 for $8 and i decided to take a look. then i saw buybacks.

topps heritage buybacks

topps 75th anniversary buybacks

topps originals buybacks

topps 65th anniversary buybacks

and rediscover topps buybacks

i had actually hoped to find some 2024 topps heritage buybacks at the show, but i really didn't see any new heritage product. however, with this array of buybacks, i was so certain i was going to stumble across a 2015 topps originals 1978 elias sosa or terry forster or tommy lasorda buyback that i couldn't get through the boxes fast enough. i didn't find any of those most wanted buybacks, but i did find a bunch of others that i liked.

for some reason, i dig stamped buybacks. in all, i took 54 cards from this seller for $45. 43 were buybacks, and the other 11 included a variety of stuff like 2014 topps future stars short print variations.

good stuff.

the last purchase at the club show was a lot of six 1955 bowman cards for $13. one of the cards was earl torgeson

who is trying to figure out how to get out of tv land.

what a fun way to spend a saturday morning! i think next weekend i'll tell you about the huge show i went to last weekend. stay tuned!

now for the almost

i believe that, for the first time, one of my "almost free fridays" has concluded with all parties receiving and returning cards. awesome. i hope everyone was satsified with the cards that they claimed, as i was certainly pleased with what came back my way. while i only requried one card (or "at least one card"), nobody took that literally.

here's what i received from diamond jesters, starting with the guy that i thought probably should have been named world series mvp, mookie betts

julio urias

and mitch(ell) white

these were the first 2021 topps cards i received, but they weren't the last.

here's what i received from card hemorrhage, starting with the guy who did win the world series mvp award, corey seager:

a man and his truck.

keibert ruiz

plus a couple of vladimir guerrero cards for the pc - 2003 fleer platinum

and 2003 upper deck honor roll

here's what i received from baseball cards come to life:

1998 ud collector's choice chuck knoblauch

with a new-to-me double play turn on the front, and bunny ears on the back.

plus some new dodger stadium backgrounds for my mini-collection, including 1986 donruss highlights kevin bass

and mike scott

1988 donruss baseball's best floyd youmans

2001 fleer platinum joe pineiro

and 2007 fleer ultra bartolo colon

plus we've got darin erstad and mariano duncan there in the background.

here's what i received from gtt:

some nice vintage duke snider cards from 1979 tcma 

and 1980 tcma all-time dodgers

duke brought his manager along in the all-time dodgers set, walter alston

here's a great lurker card

that's a 2007 upper deck chris carpenter card featuring a cameo by tony larussa. i figured that this photo was from a game on september 11, 2006 due to the flag patch on larussa's cap, and i was correct. it's crazy to me that larussa is managing again in 2021.

here's what i received from night owl:

1999 upper deck spx gary sheffield

2003 playoff prestige shawn green

2006 topps update & highlights julio lugo gold parallel

2016 panini donruss jose peraza

2016 panini donruss optic corey seager

2016 bowman's best stat lines corey seager 

2017 topps allen & ginter adrian gonzalez

2017 topps bunt kenta maeda blue parallel

as far as i am concerned, that's a lot of great cards in return for stuff that didn't fit in my collection. i'll likely do another round in the coming weeks. thanks everyone!