Checking Out Another Card Shop

Chris and I were bored this morning and decided that after we ate some lunch, we would take a ride out to Kinston and check out a card shop we had heard about.  The shop is located in Vernon Park Mall in Kinston, which is about 30 minutes away from our house.  I didn't go there with any expectations as I have driven around to check out card shops in the past only to find that they either had closed down or didn't have much of anything to offer.  I remember when I came out here to Greenville 3 years ago, I was happy to see that an actual card shop was in town and was a great place to get most of what I needed.  The only drawback about the Greenville shop is that the shop owner has pretty much sold out of his vintage stuff.

The Kinston shop we went to today is a candy store/card shop.  Interesting combination.  They had plenty of supplies as well as a nice assortment of all kinds of cards.  I took my time looking through the boxes they had set up and found a few things for myself and a couple cards for Chris.  They also had a nice selection of vintage Topps from 1955 to 1970.

I found the above Pineda/Britton dual relic in a 3/$10.00 box.  Since I didn't get 3 cards out of it, it ended up costing me $4.00, which still wasn't bad.  They had a lot of Team USA relics which I know a certain blogger would like.  I also found a nice vintage Yankee card for my buddy Drew.  I just wish there was a nice vintage Red Sox card for Scott.

 They had a box of $0.50 stars, and I was fairly sure I didn't have this Cal Ripken.  I went ahead and picked it up.

 Chris and I also bought 90s junk wax, he got a pack of 1991 Leaf for $0.50 and I got a pack of 1994 Studio for $1.00.  The Barry Larkin and Frank Thomas cards pictured are trade bait if anyone would like them.

In all, I was very satisfied with the shop.  The shopkeeper was a really nice guy who was patient with Chris and I as we searched his boxes.  Chris was able to come away with two Tim Lincecums that he didn't already have.  I also bought him a new baseball card album and a box of 100 sheets.  He and I are going to take his Lincecum cards and are going to put all of them together in one album.

Trip to the Card Shop - 2011 Topps Finest

It's rare when I can afford to spend money on a bunch of packs of cards, but when my friend Babe is in town, we always try to bust packs whenever possible.  This weekend was no exception.  She and I both picked up packs of 2011 Topps Finest. 

This was my first in person look at this year's version of Finest.  I was very impressed with how the base cards looked.

This Josh Hamilton is an example of the base card.  They look really sharp.  Finest always looks good, so I was certain this year's would as well and I wasn't disappointed.

Babe pulled this Orange Parallel Michael Pineda RC and gave it to me, just because.  I think it looks great.  I'm a big fan of the color orange... I wonder why?

One thing about the finest we didn't like was that the mini boxes weren't available.  I don't know if it was just that this shop didn't have them, or they didn't do that with them this year.  I would have liked to have busted a mini box, but oh well.  I had fun with this pack, anyway.