The First Card Shop Trip of 2025

     Due to some forseeable expenses coming up this year, I'm not really going to be able to spend as much money on cards. That doesn't mean that I'm going to hit the card shop less than usual -- I'm just going to have to spend less money there.

    The first of my trips to the LCS in 2025 came a couple days ago, on the eleventh. While I didn't spend as much money there as I may usually have, this wasn't really due to expenses; there were errands to be run, which limited time to pick through boxes and really look at cards.

    I had a few objectives with the card store trip, these being a couple birthday gifts. Once presents were through, then I could have some real fun picking through boxes for a few minutes before continuing the rest of the errands on the agenda.

    By now I'm probably boring y'all to death, so I'll just get down to the cards acquired (not including the birthday gifts, of course).

    The quarter boxes did well, yielding some chrome and a few refractors. Could you not tell that I like shiny? The Woodruff is my favorite card in the small stack. If I had more time to spend, I probably would have liked to sit down and find some more goodies, but as they say, tempus fugit.

    Another Merrill for my PC, in the form of a Bowman Chrome rookie. This card was in the dollar box; it may have been a little bit much, but whatever. It's great to get another Merrill pickup, and it's a goal of mine to come away with another Merrill card with each visit to the card store. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the card out of its penny sleeve yet (which is why the image is blurred), and don't want to damage the actual card.

    This card made me the most happy of them all. I didn't actually buy the card - in fact, it had been sitting on a shelf since my last birthday, which was forever ago. I've been waiting to post it on the blog until I got the proper protection for it, which was found with this trip to the LCS. The card is from the 2024 Topps -  Postseason Performance Relic Gold set (thank you TCDB), and is numbered 16/25. I considered getting it graded, but opted not to. The grading process costs too much money, and the card probably wouldn't get an amazing grade, having been pulled from a hanger box from Amazon. Nonetheless, it remains a favorite in my collection.

    I got the pack of Comic Ball cards for 50 cents. I liked the 1990 Comic Ball set I received for Christmas a year or two back, so it was worth less than a dollar to pick up this 12-card pack from the 1992 set. 

         

    I love the use of major-leaguers on these cards -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Jim Abbott are visible on these ones. These are always fun cards to have. However, there were three dupes in this pack (cards 22, 128, and 134) which I am happy to give away to whoever wants to claim one in the comments.

    And, as promised, I finished out the trip with a pack of hockey cards (Upper Deck MVP). My collection has gotten a few nice little boosts these past few weeks, and I was hoping to get a few more here. The pack wasn't opened until the night before the publication of this post.

    I was surprised that I recognized more than half the names on the cards. Most notably was Brent Burns, who was once described to me as 'Santa Claus without teeth.' The other big name for me was Thatcher Demko. I think the design and coloration of the cards goes really well with the sport they represent. This was a nice eight-card addition to my still slowly progressing hockey collection.

    That'll wrap up the entirity of the first LCS visit of the new year! The whole deal cost me $10, which I'm more than happy to pay with my new card budget. 

    It was crowded in the store, which is good because I like to see small businesses succeed. It looks like they'll be expanding pretty soon, which is awesome.

    Thank y'all for reading, have a great start to the week, and happy collecting!