Cal Ripken, Jr., 2008 Upper Deck Goudey Hit Parade of Champions #HPC-6

There are a few things that I miss about card collecting as it was during my childhood. One of the foremost is the ability to find cards for sale just about anywhere you went: dollar stores, toy stores, department stores, grocery stores, drug stores, you name it. When I started pursuing the hobby in earnest, 1993 Topps could be purchased in cellophane packs of 15 cards for 69 to 79 cents. It was cheap to get a little fix, and you'd always have an opportunity nearby. If you're out on errands now and want to get a few packs as a quick afterthought, you're at the mercy of the big-box stores like Target or Walmart and whatever they've deigned to stock. I always see fellow bloggers taking advantage of marked-down excess inventory from previous years, but whenever I find a bargain box, it seems to be loaded with hockey, football, and basketball. Bleah. I like to give the hobby stores my business when I can, but it's a lot easier to talk myself into grabbing a few packs when I don't have to make another special stop to do it.

I wasn't expecting to buy any cards during my Labor Day Weekend getaway, so I did take a pit stop at Sports Card Depot on Friday (conveniently located about a mile from my house!) to pick up a box of binder sheets and a binder so that I could better organize my vintage cards during my vacation. Sunday night I'd finished that task and was headed to dinner at MaZar's Bridge View Restaurant in the town of Nicholson with my girlfriend when she asked me to stop at the Dollar General down the street. While she picked up a few staples, I roamed the toy and magazine aisles looking halfheartedly for cards for sale. I actually let out a bit of a gasp when I spotted three rows of feeder boxes at the end of an aisle with a big "$2" label. Interestingly enough, they all seemed to be Upper Deck products, all from 2008. The baseball packs were SPX, Series 2 of the base set, Masterpieces, and Goudey. I'd dabbled in Goudey in 2008, and the price tag represented a 33% discount, so I grabbed five packs to make it an even $10 and to see if I could get a bit closer to actually completing the set (I'm on pace to meet this goal some time in 2045). The girlfriend was kind enough to pick up the tab, since I was buying dinner and she'd dragged me into the dollar store...her words, not mine.

I ripped the packs as soon as we got back from dinner and was satisfied with the results. No huge hits, but I got some great base cards (including Warren Spahn in a Boston Braves uniform). I didn't get any O's, but I did pull the Reggie Jackson card from the Hit Parade of Champions insert set, hence the scan of the Cal Junior card that I already had in my collection. It was a nice bonus in a great weekend.

P.S.: It's also the 15th anniversary of 2,131. You didn't really think I'd forget, did you?