The Coin Shop Revisited: Okay, it's actually not a terrible card store

Anytime anyone mentions going to their great "LCS," or local card shop, I've gotten a little jealous. The closest shop to me currently is a good 10 minutes south, and up until today I was pretty sure that it sucked.

Now, don't get me wrong, as I didn't simply judge a store by its outsides. Way back in October, before I was a focused collector, and before I really knew what I was looking at, I went in and browsed. There were some singles under glass, but they were expensive as hell. There were packs of 1990 Score and NFL Street...cheap crap to me. And there were little packs the guy threw together and charged a dollar for - which had unappealing cards on the fronts and backs. So I didn't like the store, and didn't care to go back.

Upon second glance today though, I was much happier. Still mostly singles under glass, but they were decently priced. Still crappy wax on the counter, but some of it interested me. And most of all, still crappy dollar packs, but one of them had an auto on top. Needless to say, I was sold. I spent $2.68 after taxes, and my return consisted of three main elements:


1. The crappy dollar pack with the autograph on top, which was a '97 Donruss Signature Series Rafael Medina :
Nice looking card, and I'm glad to have it for just a buck! Maybe it'll go to Padrographs, or maybe it'll stay with me - either way not a bad investment, even if Medina did only play 2 years of major league baseball, finishing with a career 5.96 ERA.

The rest of the pack was kind of cool too, even if it was all 90-92 Upper Deck, so I'll show off a few cards. I love these first two cards - Jim Rice looking like a boss and Andy Van Slyke chillin' out with some serious five o'clock shadow:
I also really liked this Bill Doran card, which I think I've seen before on other blogs:
Avoiding the break up attempt of a hall of famer - not too shabby Bill!


2. A David Carr card that I found under glass. It was the only player collection card that the guy had, and it's a little beat up on the edges, but it's serial #'d 354/500, and I'm happy to have it as well:
Oooo...Emerald.


3. And finally, my last $0.68 (well really 50 cents, 18 cents was tax) went to two packs of 1995 Panini Casper cards:
Normally I'm not one to buy random Panini stickers, but I loved the Casper movie as a kid (Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, and Dewon Sawa...OH MY!), and so I had to take a look at these things. After opening the packs I realized that this would have been a great post for A Pack to be Named Later - maybe someday I'll buy a quarter pack of The Mask or Pocahontas versions. For now though, just the Caspers, so let me show you a few of the stickers I got!

First thing I should mention is that the stickers are basically the movie, ordered by sequence. Not exactly (that's a lot of frames), but #1 is a shot near the beginning of the movie, #156 is a shot near the end of the movie, and everything in between is plot from...in between. For instance, here are stickers #54 and 58:
Nothing on the backs, aside from number and encouragement to collect them all. These fronts show off the sequential-ness well though. The top card shows Casper in his housekeeping ways, always picking up the droppings on the other ghosts. 4 cards later Christina Ricci comes in all badass with her vacuum and chews out the ghosts. Man...when I was 10 she was such a babe.

Card #21 is a favorite scene of mine - it's when Ricci goes to lay on her pillow and realizes it's Casper. Wackiness ensues:


And finally, card #83 depicts Mr. President himself, Bill Pullman. Great, great actor:
I think I did okay for $2.68, and I'm now a fan of the Coin Shop (though I'd still prefer something better). So I've adjusted the ratings for them on my Card Shops I've Personally Visited Page, and I'd potentially recommend a visit to the store if you're ever in my area!

On a side note, I'm now tempted (obviously) to collect the 95 Panini Casper series, as well as the 95 Fleer Ultra series (at least the Prismatic Foil portion). So now the decisions - a) Do I collect the sets? And b) Do I buy them pack by pack for a quarter, or do I buy a massive Ebay lot online (for instance, I could get 150 packs of 6 cards a piece on Ebay for like $11). I'm leaning towards not collecting the set right now...but if I find a cheap sticker book, all bets are off...