Who needs dime boxes when you can find dime binders?

First off, let me say the title of this post is NOT a shot at Nick from Dime Boxes. 

I've really started to look forward to Thursdays.  That's the day I usually try to get back to the home of my friend, the former LCS owner.  Last Thursday he wasn't home so I was glad to get back yesterday.  It's always two hours well spent and I think we both get something out it.  I walk away with some great cards, but what I really enjoy is the conversation about baseball cards and the stories behind them.  

When I posted my teaser post yesterday, Cynical Buddha from Collector's Crack left this comment: "I see a trend. I have a feeling in a few years you'll own everything that guy has left, which from the looks of the goodies you get, ain't a bad thing."   In all the trips I've made there, I haven't even looked through any of the cards he had in his old shop.  The stuff I've been going through is part of a $6000 purchase he made in October.  Even though he's out of the business, he still buys big collections to keep active.  By the time he and I got reacquainted, he'd already turned a profit and still had a ton of stuff to go through.  I think that's part of the reason he's giving me such good deals.  That and he likes that I'm willing to spend time talking to him. 

Alright, let's get down to the real reason you're here.  I arrived at my normally appointed hour and discovered that he had a plan of action for the day.  He had arranged some 5000 count boxes for me to search along with a box of at least 300 loose 9 pocket pages.  I attacked the loose pages first and that took me a solid hour.  Every once in awhile, I would come across and empty page and set it aside.  He told me I could have all of those I could find.   I was pulling cards for three people (one contest winner and two trades)  so I did manage to find stuff for them as well as a very small stack of Rangers.  I quickly shuffled through the 5000 count boxes, finding most of it was junk.  One complete 5000 count box was nothing but 2002 Topps cards. Boring.  

When the smoke cleared, I had 266 cards from 1 1/2 hours of searching.  I wouldn't normally have that many cards, but I was trying to get enough cards for those three guys to make it worthwhile.  He asked if I would pay $8 for those cards.

I scored a couple of 1999 Topps Gallery Rangers inserts.  I hadn't seen these before so I added them to the stack.

In various boxes over the last couple of months, I've found little batches of these 2001 Topps Archive Reserve cards.  This time I took the whole stack and added it to the pile.  He's got enough for me to make a complete set so I'm going to do just that.  I love shiny cards and this is right up my alley.  Even if the Carlton Fisk and other dual rookie cards get the cropped treatment.  

The real Yaz rookie is one of my most wanted cards now that I've got a Nolan Ryan rookie card.

Doesn't that Bench "rookie" look odd since they cropped Ron Tompkins out.

I also ran across about a half dozen of these 1998 Topps Finest cards.  I added them to the pile.  

I had only a few minutes left and I asked if he still had the 1966 and 1967 Topps binders.  He pulled them off a shelf and I told him I wanted to check for any Senators that I might have missed when I looked at them on a previous trip.  He jokingly said I should just buy both binders.  I told him I would love to, but I couldn't afford them.  He loves hearing that because he always sets out to prove me wrong.  He asked if I would pay 10 cents a cards for the '66s and '67s.  I'm not, or let's say I wasn't, collecting those two sets, but my mama didn't raise no dummy, so I quickly took him up on his offer.  I counted the number of cards in each binder and we came up with a price. 

The Killebrew is in rough condition, but most of the cards were in similar condition to the Paul Blair.

The Kaline has a serious vertical crease, but no other card in the binder is as bad as that one.  The majority of the cards are in similar condition as the Dick Kelley.  

Before I tell you how much I spent, let me break down the total purchase for you.  

266 loose cards including, 115 for the three people I mentioned, 86 Rangers, catchers and plays at the plate for me, 43 2001 Topps Archives Reserve cards and 22 serial numbered cards of which 5 will be going to Robert at $30 a Week Habit for his Serial Numbered Insanity project.   Total cost $8 or about 3 cents per card.  

2 Binders with a total of 154 Ultra Point Platinum 9 pocket pages.  No Charge

1966 Topps Cards----117 cards
1967 Topps Cards----144 cards

That's a total of 261 vintage cards. He was going to charge me 10 cents per card, but he said he'd take $22 for all of them to make the total cost $30.  That works out to just 8.4 cents per card for the vintage cards.  

$30 for all that is a great deal considering 150 of those Platinum pages will run you about $22.  

Next week is Spring Break in these parts so I may not make over there for 2 weeks.  I guess I'll live.