I moved last summer, and wound up around the corner from a hobby shop. I'd been in there a couple of times before, but just for brief visits, and not for a few years. Yesterday I decided to check it out again, and I'm really glad I did.
First off, they've been there for over 20 years, which is saying something in itself. They had boxes of packs along the walls along with some Mets and yankees trinkets and some boxes of candy. They had the typical display cases with a bunch of inserts/GU/Autos in there, and the full boxes behind the counter. Pretty standard there. But it got better.
We started talking, and I told him I was a Vlad fan, and he perked up and said he had some Vlads I could look through. He brought out one of those 50-card plastic cases, and at that point I was already surprised, since very few places seem to carry any base and inserts anymore. Then he brought out a monster box, where one row was Gwynn, one Guerrero, and the rest Griffey. So I had about 500 Vlads to look through.
Long story short, I found 8 Vlads (turns out I needed 7 of them), got them for $3 total, and couldn't be happier. There were some 2010 Finest Refractors (#/599, #/299, and #/99), a couple of late 90s inserts, and a pretty tough to find UD MVP Gold #/125. Just the fact that he had them all was one thing, but the price he gave me was a good deal lower than I expected.
I went back in later to get a box of Gypsy Queen, and he remembered my son's name, and gave him a Tootsie Roll, so my son's a fan too. I'm glad to finally find a shop that does more than just sell boxes and high-end cards, and I'm even happier that it's 2 minutes from my house!
Plus, it's called "The Baseball Card Store", which is the perfect name. It's in Midland Park, so if anyone is in North Jersey and wants to hunt down some singles, it's worth a shot. Let me know when you go, and I'll see if I can stop by
First off, they've been there for over 20 years, which is saying something in itself. They had boxes of packs along the walls along with some Mets and yankees trinkets and some boxes of candy. They had the typical display cases with a bunch of inserts/GU/Autos in there, and the full boxes behind the counter. Pretty standard there. But it got better.
We started talking, and I told him I was a Vlad fan, and he perked up and said he had some Vlads I could look through. He brought out one of those 50-card plastic cases, and at that point I was already surprised, since very few places seem to carry any base and inserts anymore. Then he brought out a monster box, where one row was Gwynn, one Guerrero, and the rest Griffey. So I had about 500 Vlads to look through.
Long story short, I found 8 Vlads (turns out I needed 7 of them), got them for $3 total, and couldn't be happier. There were some 2010 Finest Refractors (#/599, #/299, and #/99), a couple of late 90s inserts, and a pretty tough to find UD MVP Gold #/125. Just the fact that he had them all was one thing, but the price he gave me was a good deal lower than I expected.
I went back in later to get a box of Gypsy Queen, and he remembered my son's name, and gave him a Tootsie Roll, so my son's a fan too. I'm glad to finally find a shop that does more than just sell boxes and high-end cards, and I'm even happier that it's 2 minutes from my house!
Plus, it's called "The Baseball Card Store", which is the perfect name. It's in Midland Park, so if anyone is in North Jersey and wants to hunt down some singles, it's worth a shot. Let me know when you go, and I'll see if I can stop by
