A Few More Cubs Cards Scratched From the Want List
My hectic two week schedule has come to an end. It's both an extremely fun stretch of time each year, but also very stressful and feeing I'm always two (or ten) steps behind.
For the second straight Saturday, our IHSA softball championship day schedule was adjusted due to potential severe weather meaning it would be an early end to the day. This was great because it's a near four hour drive home.
Since my day ended early, I decided to make a couple stops to check out card sections at various retail stores. After an ugly card section at the Morton, Illinois Wal-Mart I visited Thursday night, I decided to check out the East Peoria Wal-Mart. Typically, Wal-Mart has a poor selection of cards, but on a recent trip to the Chicago suburbs I discovered plenty of Topps Heritage and Bowman remaining on Wal-Mart shelves. The luck ran out as East Peoria's baseball selection was only Topps series one and Opening Day.
Now I just wanted to get home (or close to home), and decided to hold off any other stops until Janesville, Wisconsin. Again, Wal-Mart was a bust. Earlier this week I saw someone post a treasure trove of older baseball releases at a Shopko. Several years ago a friend and I had great luck finding Allen & Ginter at Shopko. There is a Shopko in Janesville, so I made it my final stop.
The problem with Shopko is that their card kiosk is hidden. Sometimes it's up front by the cash registers. Other times back in the toys. Neither was the case here and I walked the store in circles before asking an associate. Their card kiosks were obviously located between the clothes sections. Not much to see here, except for some packs of 2018 Topps Heritage. Why not, I thought. Well, these three packs were busts. Not a single Cubs card. Only one High Number. I did pull an Aaron Judge New Age Performers.
And then three boxes of 2017 Topps Holiday. Wow! These are not easy to find. I scooped up all three. And they were a fun rip!
There were no autographs in the three boxes, just relics. A nice return on Cubs with 17 total, including a Jake Arrieta metallic snowflake.
Then it came down to my last pack of cards. I knew there was a relic or Auto here, and was elated to find it was...
JAVY!!! The pack was a double dose of Baez, and even better the relic had a stripe.
When I got home I had three bubble mailers waiting. One was a Ryan Williams Bowman Auto I won on eBay for $0.99.
The second eBay purchase was a player the Cubs drafted. This is a 2017 Leaf Ezequiel Pagan autograph 4/50.
Finally, a couple cards that have been on my want list. The first is a 2017 Heritage Clarence Jones autograph.
But the card I've been searching for was the reason I picked up the Jones. eBay had a 20% code this week, and I've been looking for a 2002 Archives Lou Brock autograph. The original Brock rookie was my original "white whale" as a young collector. Until recently I didn't know this Brock Auto existed. One seller has it listed for $40.95 or best offer. The most he would come down on best offer was $40. I declined each time. A minimum purchase of $50 is needed for the 20% code to work. Another seller had the Brock listed at $46.50. Looking at his other Cubs items he had the Jones Auto as well. With the pair I could take advantage of the 20% code, save some money, and scratch two Cubs off my want list.
The next couple days I will be catching up on Sportlots and eBay orders, and a couple trades. By the end of the week I will be looking to ramp up trades again, so let
me know!