Reggie's still dominating the conversation

 

The first thing I scoped out before my trip to Cooperstown were the card shops and souvenir stores.

I'm assuming card shops were around in Cooperstown when I was there as a kid. But there probably wasn't the quantity, and if there was, my family wasn't there to shop. I discovered card shops during my trip there around 1991, don't remember the year exactly. I do recall discovering team-set bags in some store that visit and gleefully completing my 1989 and 1990 Score Dodgers sets in one shot.

Ever since, card shops have become almost the star feature in visits to the Hall of Fame and the influx of cards in Hall of Fame exhibits is a certain sign of the popularity of card collecting since the 1980s. I was eager to see what I could find now that I was fully back into the hobby with much more control of my cash.

However, I've never been much of a shopper. I go immediately into targeting mode, and when I find what I want, it's going to take a lot to pull me out of there.

So, I don't have a lot to say about what was there, except that I spent a lot of time at Yastrzemski Sports.

During our quick trip down the street when we arrived on Thursday, I stopped into that store and knew immediately that I'd find cards I wanted.

I took a couple of quick pictures that day.

This is a stash of current product that I haven't seen in a display in at least three years, maybe five years, possibly never.

Either I got here at the right time, or Cooperstown is immune to the supply issues that burdened every Walmart and Target for two years, or both.

 

There were various hanger packs of current product in a couple other areas near the front of the store, too.

 

Also at the front of the store are the latest Beckett magazine issues, including the one with my latest article in Vintage Collector! How cool is that? My words for sale in Cooperstown!

But enough of that, I was there for cards.

Yaz Sports seemed to have everything anyone could want -- my wife marveled at the reasonable prices of the clothing for sale in the store. Meanwhile, I noted dollar boxes, $5 boxes, $10 boxes, a $15 box and a number of individual player boxes, which looked completely pawed over and nobody had any chance -- or desire -- to sort things out again.

The following day I set up camp at the $5 boxes, for no particular reason. I figured I'd move on to the others after a bit. I never did.

 

I stayed there and stayed there. My wife left the store, came back to find me in the same spot, left the store again, came back to find me in the same spot, left the store for good this time, and when I finally emerged, she was seated at a bench outside the store, waiting.

 

The cards were a mix of all sports. It's pretty annoying sifting through basketball and football, but for the cards I found, it was worth it. 

 

I only wish I had a better handle on my collection.

 

These are both dupes.

I bought the Morgan because I had not erased it off my want list. I was patting myself on the back the whole time for checking my online want list while sifting through cards, but that bit me on the butt. Another thing that bit me was getting cocky about my knowledge of my collection. The Robinson All-Star card did not look familiar to me at all, which makes me automatically think I don't have it. But I did.

At least the Robinson is an upgrade. The Morgan is not.

 

This card was purchased with upgrading in mind. I have owned this card, with a crease through it, since I was a teenager. It has been the lone blemish from my all-time favorite World Series subset (although none of the cards are in top-shelf shape).

That's a look at the new one next to the old one.

This card is also an upgrade over the Lynn rookie that I've owned for at least 18 years, which has a blotch immediately to the left of Lynn.

OK, the rest of the $5 cards were new to me.

A couple of off-condition stars for my ridiculous 1967 Topps set pursuit! The Gibby has obvious issues, but who knows if I'll ever be willing to pay the price for an excellent-conditioned version.

 

Here's a '60s Joe Morgan card that I actually needed! Those '69 cards have more gum-stain-residue issues than any other set I've come across. Was gum different that year?

 

Another one of those annoying Gyspy Queen short-prints secured. This is from the 2020 set.

 

There weren't a lot of '70s oddballs in these bins, a few '76 Hostess and 1 or 2 Kellogg's cards. But this is a key one for my many-cards-to-go 1977 Hostess build.

 

Doc Gooden for the '85 Fleer quest! If I had found a Don Mattingly, too, I might've gone on an '85 Fleer binge to get all the rest that I need, but at least I don't have to worry about this one anymore.

 

A pretty Fleer Ultra insert. The amount of Mike Piazza '90s inserts I have is shocking. The amount that are still out there is even more shocking.

 

This was 13 cards for 5 bucks. I am familiar with this 1987 Star set. I have two of the cards from it, but all the others are new.

 

There is the entire set. Unlike some of these Star sets, there is a little more variety with this Fernando one. Some fun cards.

That's what I grabbed from the $5 boxes. I actually pulled a number of other cards, but the whole time I was scouring I was thinking about whether there was a 1970 Reggie Jackson to purchase.

Behind me were several glass cases with cards of stars from the '50s, '60s and '70s. (There was a case on the left with even older cards). I guessed that Reggie was in there.

I brought the cards I had collected to the register and asked the guy if he had that Reggie card. "A second-year Jackson, I think I do," he said.

He went over to the cases, opened the one on the right, pulled out a stack of Jacksons (the '76 was on top) and at the bottom, he pulled out four 1970 Jacksons, all with different prices.

It was never more clear to me what a scam grading is than in that moment. Two of the cards were graded. The prices were not stratospheric though. (I did see a graded Kershaw rookie gold parallel for $1,500). One graded Jackson was $85 and one was $65. But the two other Reggies were $35 and $25. I did a brief eye comparison on the two ungraded Reggies and selected the $25 one, as there was little difference in the $35 one.

It came in one of those comical screwdowns.

 

There it is, free. It's in wonderful shape, far nicer than what I thought I would end up landing. I am amazed that someone would pay $60 more just for some plastic around it. But I should be happy. It means people are ignoring perfectly decent cardboard like this.

The Reggie find meant that I had to put some of the $5 cards back. I was briefly flustered, because while I was deciding which cards to put back, some other customers came in and were noisily asking questions of the guy who helped me. Amid the commotion and the Reggie, I put back too many cards, and when I finally paid for Reggie and company, I had more money left than I thought.

That's very much like Reggie, dominating everything. I sometimes think I'm not made to own such weighty cards.

But now I have all the Topps Reggies except the '69 rookie!

From there, we walked more of the street. We went into another store that had a few cards, but not many. It was mostly clothes and MLB caps of every kind (some very cool Expos ones), and team-themed waste baskets and charcoal grill spatulas and shot glasses and, gosh, every damn thing possible. "I could really do a number on my card room with all the Dodgers paraphernalia in here," I said.

But I bought only one thing there:

It's the wildly-inappropriate-today 1970 Dodgers yearbook.

There were a bunch of team yearbooks, and an abundance of Dodgers ones. I actually picked up the 1971 one and then saw this and put '71 down.

And that was all the excitement. I did see a couple other shops with cards. One or two were closed. And the others? Well, I was getting hungry at that point, and it was more about where we could find some food.

But Cooperstown isn't that far away, and now that I know what's there, heck, maybe a road trip is in order that doesn't even involve the Baseball Hall of Fame!