Card shopping

Just realized I forgot about "Anything Can Happen Thursday" being yesterday.  That's just further proof that anything can happen on Anything Can Happen Thursday. We'll move it to next week.

Anyways, my reason for posting...

The internet is the best thing ever to happen to card collectors.

Twenty years ago when I was first starting out as a collector, there was no internet.  At least not for us peons-- only if you were an uber-geek or had a government job.  If you needed cards for your set or for your autograph hounding outings, you had three options: hit your local card store and hope they had what you needed, bust packs and hope you got what you needed, or hope to find another collector nearby and trade for what you needed.

But now, the internet has opened collectors up to finding other collectors nationwide, even worldwide.  The site SportLots has become my preferred location for getting cards for my hounding and TTM opportunities.

I mentioned in my last entry that I was running low on Craig Gentry, and also found I was out of several other players, both for the Rangers and for the teams they face in May.  Fortunately, I was able to grab 100-some cards from SportLots and their dealers for $42, including shipping.  The price of roughly 40 cents a card is a tad steep considering it's mostly commons, but considering stores in the Dallas area regularly get 50 cents to a buck for the most common of Rangers, I'll gladly accept that 10-60 cent discount.

You do have to work a bit to get the best deals on SportLots.  It works best if you can find most of what you need from a single seller, or only a small handful of sellers, and it can take some time to gather all of that information.  But if you're willing to take the time, it's the best resource out there for anyone needing cards at a reasonable price.

For the record, I got 15 cards of Mitch Moreland, 13 Jason Frasor, 7 Leonys Martin (FINALLY!), 13 Ron Washington, 3 Craig Gentry, 5 Jeff Baker, a Jackie Moore, 4 Steve Busby, 2 Michael Kirkman, 2 Tanner Scheppers... and that doesn't include the A's, Royals, and Tigers I picked up, or the cards for doing minor league baseball or the Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game in Frisco in June.

So go and check out SportLots.com next time you need to pick up some cards.  You'll leave happy.