Over the weekend, I ventured out to the northeastern portion of the Metroplex and got to hit up a couple card stores, one in North Dallas, one in Arlington. I had been to both in the past, but I had a few new things to look for, and I wanted to do a little comparison of the two.
On Saturday afternoon, it was off to Nick's Sports Cards in North Dallas. It's in that area where Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Carrollton, and Addison all kind of come together into one amalgamation. They're located in a small strip mall at Campbell and Coit Roads.
Nick's is a pretty nice shop. I mostly was looking to restock on Ray Fosse after he signed my lone card last week-- no luck though, so it'll be off to SportLots for him. I did find a few other nice ones in their vintage baseball boxes though-- pulled a Bill Lee to TTM eventually, a 1968 Steve Blass for when the Pirates come through later in the season, a Mel Stottlemyre just for the hell of it, a 1975 Buck Martinez for when the Blue Jays come in, a 1968 Ken Suarez for my Rangers' Alumni binder, the infamous 1968 Aurelio Rodriguez that depicts the Angels' batboy, a 1972 Chris Speier for when the Reds come through, and a 1973 Chuck Seelbach card as well. Seelbach is now a history teacher at our alma mater. Picked out a few Rangers for various upcoming tunnel outings. I also got 1000 card sleeves to go on my autographs. Got them all finished last night with about 450 or so left for future additions to the collection.
One of the great things about Nick's is that they have a drawing for gift certificates. For every $10 you spend, you get a ticket. 6 winners are drawn per week, but you have to stop in to see if you won-- no phoning, no emails, you have to visit.
Sunday I went over to Duane's in Arlington. Duane's may not look like much upon a brief glance, but they have something for every collector. I spent my time going through their vintage boxes looking for Fosse (again, no luck) and a few random TTM-able items. I found a few-- Eric Soderholm, a couple of Bill Lee, two Ron Leflores, a Rich Dauer for future hounding of AA baseball, and Joe Nolan. I also searched through their newer stuff to try to find some players for the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, and luckily found at least a card or two of almost everyone I needed, plus a couple of cards for the Indians, Royals, and A's for their upcoming trips in. Commons are all 25 cents each which is on par with SportLots (18 cents usually, but you have to pay and wait for shipping).
Randy has told me I have to name-drop him with Bill when I'm in there. Unfortunately, he wasn't there on Sunday. I'll stop by again soon though.
I would highly recommend both stores, depending on where you are located. If you're in the northeast quadrant of the Metroplex, definitely take a few hours out to go to Nick's. If you're in Arlington, Duane's is excellent. I plan to hit Duane's at least once every two weeks to stock up for various hounding outings. If I can't find what I need, it's off to SportLots. And if I'm out in Plano, Richardson, Allen, or wherever, a stop at Nick's is certainly in order.
Blog is on indefinite hiatus as of November 2020.
Another place that has old singles (it's the place I always go for when I'm pulling for sigs) is Triple Cards in Plano. It's on Ave K and Jupiter
ReplyDeleteAwesome, I'll have to check them out next time I'm out there. I don't get over to that side very often, but if they have what I need (and it sounds like they do), they're worth a drive.
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