10th anniversary giveaway continues: Target's card section returns

I freaked out a bit prematurely last week.

My local Target did not do away with cards as I had feared when I saw that the aisle on the far end of the registers had been transformed into gift card heaven (by the way, the previous gift card station near the greeting cards is still there, which leads me to believe this is a temporary set-up).

No, I followed my online friends' advice and traveled to the back of the store near the electronics section. To the right of electronics sits books and CDs and other obsolete ways of consuming media. Directly behind those shelves are Funkos and Disney stuff and what appears to be a now-smaller section of cards. It reminds me a bit of my local Walmart set-up.

The picture above includes most of what was displayed in the card section. There are a couple more boxes off camera to the left. One thing I noticed right away is many of the loosies are up very high, definitely out of reach of pint-sized collectors. I can't help but think there's a reason for that.

In fact my obsession with the perception that retail outlets think of collectors as criminals made me wonder why the cards were moved so far away from the greatest concentration of Target workers. I'm assuming it's because the loss prevention folks are already monitoring the electronics section closely, so why not add the cards to that section?

Anyway, the card selection when I visited was OK. You can see blasters of Archives and Allen and Ginter. There are also hanger boxes of Heritage High Numbers and Series 2. My Target still hasn't gotten Update, which means it's behind the Walmart across the street. But it's got lots and lots and lots of Donruss stuff! Holy, moly, that's half the section!

Way up in the top right corner, far, far away from 10-year-old Jimmy's grimy stealing hands, is a hanger pack of Topps Fire. I stretched and grabbed it just for the sake of proving someone can reach it.

The pack was pretty boring. Nothing of note.

Both of these shiny guys (trust me, they're shiny) are White Sox because earlier in the day I sealed a package for 2x3 Heroes because this is why you don't buy cards after sealing packages. Now I've got to open the thing again. My life is so haaaaaarrrrd.

But Target is selling cards again, so yay!

So, let's continue with this 10th Anniversary Giveaway.

When we last left off, Michael Ott selected the '78 Topps Nolan Ryan, carlsonjok picked the Babe Ruth insert, Jim from Downingtown passed and EP grabbed the 1971 Topps six-pack.

So, next up is Henry Blanchette who is no doubt still celebrating his Red Sox's victory (bleah). He has until 7 p.m. Wednesday to make his selection.

This is what's left on the big board:

Once he picks, gcrl is up next. And so everyone else can follow along, here is who follows gcrl:

26. Bo
27. kcjays
28. sg488

A reminder: if you aren't a regular trader with me -- meaning you haven't traded with me more than once --  please email your mailing address to: nightlite77@yahoo.com. Some of you have already done so. Thank you.

OK, so that's it. And remember, if you suddenly see your Target card aisle transformed into a wall of Olive Garden/Chili's/Lowe's/chain-o-rama gift cards, DON'T FREAK OUT and send angry tweets to customer service like a certain night owl. It will not get you free stuff from Target! Just walk calmly to the back of the store where all your trading card dreams await.

(P.S.: It just occurred to me that many people think sports trading cards are no longer relevant and Target has now placed them with relics like books and CDs. Perhaps Target has already unofficially named this section the "Irrelevant, Old People section" and since it now resides right next to the stock room door are now snickering about us on the opposite side of the wall? Seems about right.)