Well, That Was Interesting...

So I finally made it to the lone card shop within a 1,000 mile radius of me (slight exaggeration) on Tuesday. I mentioned a few posts ago, that he is only open on Tuesday and Friday evenings from 4:30pm-?, so if for some reason he wasn't there, I may not have another chance to get there for months (less of an exaggeration). Well, luckily he was open, so I went down the stairs, opened the door and found a shell of a store. You could tell this was a huge outfit at some point, but what I was looking at was empty glass cases, old concrete floors with old dried up glue from where carpet used to be. Numerous empty book shelves, falling apart and seemingly thrown into the back room until it was full to the point that it took up space in the store front. There were a few half filled vending machines and a cooler with store brand sodas and a bucket with an assortment of air-heads (.25 cents each, fucking sweet!). There was a folding table in the back corner where some guys, about my age, were doing something, playing that card game Magic I think? I carry a small knife with me at all times. It's bigger than a pocket knife but smaller than a hunting knife and it clips to the inside of your pocket. Well at this point, my hand was firmly, yet discreetly, around my knife because I really don't know what the fuck I just walked into.

I finally saw something that resembled something, so I took a look. It was a huge glass case, about 20-30ft I'd say, but only one section contained any cards and they had to be spread out to "fill" up the section. They were singles, a few Greg Maddux and Pujlos, but mostly commons and from sets I had never even heard of before. Above that, was a spinny thing with some GU cards in it and there was some interesting stuff, but nothing I was looking for. Finally there were shelves behind the counter that were just, empty. There were a few boxes of whatever for that Magic game and then I saw the lone box of baseball cards. A brand new box, of 2010 Topps Opening Day.

"Fuck it, I'm out..."

As I started to leave, I saw an older guy walk into the back "office" lookin' room. I thought this might be the owner, so I figured I'd ask if there was anything else around. I hate being "that guy", but I'll be damned if I came all the way out there and didn't at least try everything. I asked him if he had any packs, or boxes of baseball cards and he immediately started rambling on about how there's no business and the sports card industry is shit and blah fucking blah. So now I'm starting to get annoyed and I say to him "So, is that a no then? Cuz that would have worked just fine." He then tells me that he's not interested in buying and blah blah blah.

"Oh, no. I'm not looking to sell anything. I'm looking to buy, I'm a collector and I'm looking for a shop around here."

His entire demeanor changes and he sat back down in a chair behind the counter. He then starts telling me how he's been collecting for years upon years and that he still loves it and that he'll be collecting until the day he dies. He reiterates that there's really no business anymore, but he has cards from what he's collected and from people dropping boxes of cards off and leaving them at the shop.

He walks into that office lookin' room and tells me to come in. I take a quick look and there's no door to the room and this guy is easily in his 80's so if he tries to get a little fresh, there won't be much of a struggle. I walk in and the entire room is filled wall to wall with cards. He hands me a business card and asks me to write down what I collect. I write down (obviously) Mets and Piazza along with my name and number and tell him that I have people I trade with, so I may be interested in alot more than just that. He smiles and says "Ahh, I have alot of Mike."

He walks over to a large file cabinet and opens one of the drawers and the entire thing is filled with cards, laid horizontally in snap cases. I couldn't even begin to guess how many were there and he tells me "These are all Pedros. And this drawer here, all Perdo as well." He said that he has over 1,000 Pedro Martinez cards and that there are over 250,000 cards in that one cabinet alone. One bookshelf in the back of the rooms had a bunch of random factory sets and there was what looked like a shallow sandbox with dividers filled with cards. If someone told me there were less than 1 million cards in that room, I'd be shocked and that is absolutely NOT an exaggeration!

He starts telling me some more stories about past employees and some players he's met and the hobby in general. I take a seat and he pulls out a Beckett Almanac, only it's a different company (not Tuff Stuff either) and asked me if I've ever used one of these. I told him I have a 2008 Almanac that I use for reference and to learn about new sets and what not. I mentioned that it's well used, both covers are long gone and some pages are starting to fall out, but it's fine for what I do with it. He walks over to another bookshelf and pulls out a 2004 Beckett Almanac, still in the plastic and tells me I can have it. No charge, he's just looking to get rid of it. Obviously, I have no use for this at all, but these things cost $40, so I didn't wanna say thanks but no thanks. I took it, pretended I was excited and said thanks. He then continuned to tell me employee stories, hobby stories and war stories.

Before I knew it I looked at the clock and saw it was just after 7:00pm. I got there at about 4:30pm. I waited for a good stopping point and told him that I needed to get back home to take care of the dog. I asked him again to give me a call if he finds anything as I'm most interested in buying.

While that was without a doubt NOT what I was hopping to find, it actually turned out to be pretty interesting. I got to hear some cool stories and sit down face to face with another collector who was actually more insane than I am! I consider that a victory.

Also, if anyone is still with me thank you. High five!!!!


awesome.
(...Joe)