Three strikes and I'm out

 

How many times is too many times to go to the Dave and Adam's store when you're in Buffalo? Turns out the answer to that is "three times," at least for me.

 

I didn't realize it over the weekend, but my latest trip on Sunday was my third visit there this year. I've blogged about each instance, too. ... And my enthusiasm has waned with each visit.

 

This is more because of the way I collect but also due to the state of the hobby today and, probably, the state of buying and selling in general today. There was stuff there for me -- but it wasn't syncing up.

 

As I mentioned the last visit, Dave and Adam's store is half apparel (Bills, Sabres and Topps) and half cards and collectibles. I only care about the cards. Because I still collect modern cards, I usually find stuff there and am often impressed with the stock -- blasters and blasters of whatever Topps/Panini has available at the time.

 

But here's the thing: Topps doesn't have a lot available as far as 2025. There's Bowman, but I don't care about that. There is Chrome -- good luck finding it. There's Series 2, but I've decided I'm not buying it anymore. And there's Heritage, which is in my sweet spot. However, all that's left for me is short-prints, so I can't see myself spending $25 or $50 to find a couple SPs and a handful of parallels. As far as finding Allen & Ginter, Archives, Big League, Stadium Club, any of the other products Topps has issued in the past -- they just don't exist. (There were boxes of 2022 and 2023 Topps brands available -- nothing that drew my eye though).

 

So, the current packaged product isn't for me. Let's pivot to singles. No dice. The in-store D&A's I knew three years ago, isn't there anymore. Dave & Adam's has never been a place to go through discount boxes, at least as long as I've known them. Even back in 2009 when I stopped there, it was all about new products and buying boxes and blasters, but I could find single cards for $2 or $3. In my visit Sunday, there were no singles, not even under glass, that you could buy for a few dollars. Every single I saw was not only under glass, but under plastic -- every, last card, graded. And inflated.

 

I won't buy graded cards, unless the price is similar to what I'd spend for an unconfined card. And in 95% of the cases, you're paying more because it's graded.

 

That's all that was available to me -- outside of lots and lots of football, basketball and hockey (boxes and singles). I didn't look to see if any of those singles weren't graded but I bet they were all sealed up. Even the options for card supplies have diminished, which I noticed the last visit.

 

Someone mentioned that's the way the hobby, or even commerce, is now. Businesses focus on big-ticket items and don't even bother with the other stuff. That sucks for people like me who just want to see a nice quarter or dollar box. Hell, I'll spend $100 if your dollar box is really good. I've got money. Make me spend it!!

 

So I walked out of that previously glorious place without buying a thing. The only item that seemed like a bargain were the Josh Allen jerseys for $50 (All the other Bills name jerseys were the same price). And I've never said that about memorabilia before.

 

Fortunately, I was visiting my sister-in-law during the visit and she's found an always useful item:

 

A binder and pages.

 

This is a common gift from her -- usually at Christmastime. It often is accompanied by packs of cards, but this time there was none.

 

Because she couldn't find any. Fanatics is killing small-time collectors like me.