Dollar store update

I went to the dollar store yesterday.

There are probably 15 to 20 dollar stores within easy driving distance from where I am, but I think by now everyone knows which store I'm talking about when I say I went to the dollar store.

It means I went to the dollar store with BASEBALL CARDS!

(Proceed with party dance. ... OK, stop now. You're just embarrassing yourself).

I was there to pick up some prize winnings for zman, who won my 700th post contest. But as usual, I have to grab a few cards for myself.

The football and basketball cards have taken over the whole card display at the store. They're like cancer cells, growing unchecked, burying the baseball cards all the way to the back of the display. But they do not deter me. I still leaf through all those bags for as long as it takes, until it's freakishly obvious that the dude with the baseball cap over there has been standing in front of the same display for 40 minutes. I swear he has not moved. ... But don't get your granny panties in a bunch, ma'am. And don't call the manager. I will be buying something. In fact, you may have to restock.

When I knocked aside all the football and basketball bags (don't worry, I put them back), I found the usual good stuff, mostly mid-90s cards. There were a few junk-wax era bags, 1990 Donruss, mostly, and a bunch of 1992 Upper Deck. But I also found something that I hadn't seen much of in my previous trips.

Early 1980s Topps.

They always find a way to keep me coming back.

I have completed the 1980 and 1983 Topps sets already, and there were plenty of cards from both of those years. But I still need 21 cards from the 1981 set and I need a good 150 or more from the 1982 set. So, I went right for those bags that displayed the 1982 cards.

The 1982 set is like the 1979 and 1977 Topps sets for me. I'm not actively collecting it. But those sets are all from my early collecting days, so every card that I don't have produces an "Oh, wow." I found several "oh, wow" cards for my '82 binder. Here they are:

Floyd Bannister looks like he's trying not to tear up as he tells the story about how his dog died last night.

The Orioles and Dodgers sure knew how to use their pinch-hitters. Morales was such a good pinch-hitter for the Orioles that I thought he would make a good Dodger. And then the Dodgers went and acquired him.

Dave Chalk is featuring a hairstyle that every boy in my class had in 1981. He seems quite proud of it. We were, too.

I adopted the Blue Jays as one of my favorite teams when they first started. I eventually grew to dislike them, but in the early days, I wanted the Jays' young expansion pitchers, like Jerry Garvin here, to become stars. Dave Stieb was the only one who didn't let me down.

Believe it or not, that is not a wig. No, maybe it is. No, it's not. That's real. That's his hair. No, it can't be. It's a wig, it's definitely a wig. No, no it's not. Oh, for the love of God, John Henry, put your cap on.

A star of the '83 postseason. The Yankees let him get away. Hee-hee.

One of my brother's favorites. Flanagan, I believe, is still a front office guy, although I don't think he's making decisions with the Orioles anymore. It's hard to figure out what's going on in that organization. As a Dodger fan, I'm starting to feel the same way about my own team.

Mickey Hatcher, during his exile with the Twins. He did have his best seasons with Minnesota, but he had to come back to the Dodgers to win a World Series title. I felt a bit sorry for him after he left the Twins, because the team went and won a World Series the next year. But then Hatcher and the Dodgers won the title the following year. Problem solved.

Finally, the last Dodger from the 1982 flagship set that I need for the Dodger binder. Woo-hoo! This card would have been worth a dollar in itself. Instead, I paid 11 bucks and got like 300-400 cards.

I love my dollar store.

Meanwhile, I've added the 1982 Topps set to the "Define the Design" part of the sidebar. It is now the "hockey stick" set.

And I think I'm going to take dayf's suggestion and call the 1973 Topps set the "silhouette position" set, or maybe just the "silhouette" set.

I'm still taking suggestions for the 1976 set. This seems to be a tough one.