Friday, September 13, 2013

Finding a card shop.

Being just recently moved, I have been on the lookout for a good local card shop. Checking the mighty Internet yielded nothing closer than about half an hour's drive away. With the price of gas I am hesitant to drive such a distance for the sole purpose of checking out an unknown card shop.

To the rescue came Tom over at The Angels, In Order. Tom mentioned in a post how well he was treated at the card shop he frequents. A quick request for details pointed me to Duane's Sportscards.

Duane's had actually shown up on my previous searches but was out of my range for a blind try. Armed with Tom's endorsement I felt I could justify the gas and time to make the trek. That decided, I headed out Monday morning.

All I can say is that it was great and well worth the drive. Apparently there are four dealers in Duane's with only one being there most of the time. The dealers do sell each others cards though so that isn't a problem. The thing to remember is to check each dealer's area since they may have similar boxes (i.e. Rangers quarter box). All four are very well organized and everything is tagged.

After filling some holes in my Senators collection I spent some time looking around. Thumbing through a Rangers quarter box I found several cards I could use including this 1993 Studio Rafael Palmeiro. Card number 185 in the set, it was also the last card I needed to complete my team set. I probably spent too much but I haven't been to a shop in some time and am not buying packs because I don't have any more space for non-Ranger cards.

All in all I'm going to give Duane's two thumbs up. Well organized. Prices marked. Large selection of vintage. All excellent things to find in a card shop. Couple that with the dealer who was there knowing who Jon Matlack was and I'll definitely be returning. Thanks for the recommendation Tom!

5 comments:

J. Meeks said...

That's where I go, too. I actually just posted about them yesterday. Maybe we can meet up there cometime!

The Angels In Order said...

Glad you liked it. Like Mr Meeks said, maybe we can all meet up there sometime.

Spiff said...

Great post Meeks. I would like to meet up with ya'll sometime. Gotta rebuild my cash first.

CaptKirk42 said...

For your internet search did you use cardshopfinder.com?

Spiff said...

I did not. Wasn't even aware of it. Used Google. Will have the check out cardshopfinder. Thanks for the tip Cap!