Passing Through- Leave Me Speechless

So last night I made a decision to split this post up, and it was mainly because it was super late.  However, I also didn't want to bury some of the pictures within just in case these get you excited like it did to me.  So today I have six photos, the rest of the Brass Armadillo posts, but a couple of these left me in awe, and its no hyperbole.  I think if I could I would have stared at some of these all day.

So enough hype, let's dig in.

Let's get this started with a program from the 1960 All Star Game at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.  I don't think I've seen one of these online much less in person, so this was pretty nice to see.  If the price was 50 cents like the cover indicates I would have jumped all over it, but I needed a couple hundred more for it on this day, and I was good enough just taking the picture.  I will say I did linger a bit and admired it though.

So I ended up buying some cards as I previously showed, and this was the bin I got it from.  As you can see, it was a big bin with random mixes of cards, and if I would have spent more time there I would have likely got 5 bucks worth at least, but 4 for a $1 was good enough at the time.  Sure it looks like a lot of junk wax, but I got like 25 cards a pack, so a penny a card is a great deal no matter what.  At that price, one card would be worth it if you find one in a pack.  If I still see them, I'll get the older Royals ones, that collect a card one, and more of the Sonic cards if I see them.  Just seeing this photo again makes me want to go back and get some more.

All sorts of random here.  There was another booth (as I'll show in a minute) that I just went through so I didn't look at this one as much, but I'm sure I could have found some good deals.  Those Olympic cards I didn't see or else I would have looked at a bit more.  I did see The Simpsons on the bottom, but I didn't want to get multiple Simpsons sets going, so until I complete that sticker set (if ever) that I showed a few months back, I'll hold off on others unless I find complete sets.  What I did see had some retail prices, and no offense, but I'm at an Antique Mall I'm not looking to pay retail.  That said, if I do find something I really do want and haven't seen it I might jump, but otherwise retail price is a good way for me to skip it.  I didn't look much at the George Brett cards, but mainly because I didn't have a checklist and didn't want doubles of cards.

This was the booth I got the cup I bought and the Police sets.  To be honest, if I stopped here AFTER the card show, I would have spent more here, but I was still saving up for that.  This is the booth I most want to visit when I return, because while I know I can get a few quarter packs out of the bin, this is a booth I can find more stuff in.  When I go next time I'll have some sort of checklist and I'll know what to look for.  While my main focus will be the Royals sets, I'll have to check out that bottom row with small sets and see what I can get.  I might also look at the Hat Pins too.  That Royals DVD for $8 isn't a bad deal, but I already have that so I didn't even need to look at that.  In all honesty, this was my favorite booth, and could have spent a good 30 minutes if I wanted to.  The prices were good, and again, if I knew the card show would be a bust, I'd absolutely spent another 10-15 bucks more here.  I'm glad I didn't though because it gives me incentive to go back and be prepared when I do.

So these last two photos really left me in shock.  Sure I've seen a bin of cards, a bunch of Royals cards, a All-Star Game program, and more, but these two photos are what are etched in my brain from this visit, and to be honest, I'm partially kicking myself for passing up this first item.

WHAT????

Is that.....

A Monarchs cap.... SIGNED.... by BUCK O'NEIL??????

TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS????

You are lucky to find a brand new cap for 25 bucks these days.  Just imagine a retro cap and signed by the most beloved man in Kansas City.  I really stopped in my tracks when I saw this and to be honest for a couple moments I forgot I had a camera to take a picture despite it being clenched in my hand.  I felt like Eddie Valiant in Roger Rabbit when Betty Boop had to close his mouth upon his first view of Jessica Rabbit.

I couldn't believe that price, and the moment we left I already regretted not getting it, but I think I'll get over it.  I don't have anyplace to really display it, so it would be collecting dust in a closet right now, so until I could find a place its better left in a display for all to see unless somebody else feels they need it in their collection.  At least I have the photo to look at in amazement whenever I need to.

So time for one last photo.  Two things to consider.  To many Buck O'Neil isn't a big draw, so if I ended on that after all that excitement, many could leave disappointed.  However, to others, if something like that wasn't the biggest jaw dropper, what could it be?

*Side note* A GIF, I'm moving up in the blogging world, that is if I did it correctly.

So is this over hype or no?  Judge for yourself.

HOLY CRAP!  Is that Clemente? Is that Mantle?  Is that Jackie Robinson?  HOLY COW!

Immediately the Roberto Clemente stuck out to me, and not just because it was in the front.  I was in such amazement that I will admit I almost got a tear in my eye.  My mom noticed I stopped and was gazing at this booth and she came over and looked as I was speechless.  She asked as usual "well, how much is it?" as if I could realistically buy it.  Coming to, I told her that I didn't know if the price was in line with what it should be, but I said that I would never be this close to another Clemente like this in all likelihood.  In all of this, I still hadn't noticed the Mantle's or even the Jackie or Frank Robinson.  I was still in such shock that I just wanted to inspect every inch of it.

When I finally snapped out of it I noticed the Mantle's and the other cards.  After seeing the Clemente, these weren't all that surprising anymore, but they still left me at a loss for words.  I'll never own these cards unless I win the lottery some day and even then while I'd love to own these, I'm not sure I would out of fear of me lavishly spending on cards or possibly allowing something to happen to them.  So this was just what I needed on a day I was just happy to get away from my town for a day or two.  It really made the whole trip worth it.

Some may say they went on a week long trip to Hawaii and loved the beaches, but looking back I can say this vacation was worth it just to see vintage Roberto Clemente and Mickey Mantle cards.

So with that I can't say much more except by the time we'd already made it to this aisle we decided we would make future trips here as we really liked the place.  If we didn't, I know I would have when I saw these.

That wraps it up for tonight, I want to thank everyone for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed these last few posts.  I have some scanning I've been holding off that I might do tomorrow so unlike some times in the past with no ideas on what to post, I still have plenty to show.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Passing Through- Sports Edition

It's running late, so quick recap.  Yesterday I showed non-sports items I passed over at the Brass Armadillo, today is sports related.  Caught up?  Okay, let's dive in.

Why not start with some autographed Chiefs items including a photo of Jeremy Maclin?  It is a nice photo, taken from last year's preseason or during camp at least and I didn't think 25 bucks was too bad, but I wasn't going to buy it.

The Chiefs glasses were nice, and I thought was a fair price, but it was one of the first items I saw and inside a case so I didn't want to bother getting help getting them out.  Its not like I need more glasses anyways, so I was fine with it.

The autograph poster was really nice.  However I didn't spend much time looking at the names.  A couple things I don't get though is why people sign on faces when they have the entire poster, and the same goes with writing on a person.  All that green space and three people decided to write on Marcus Allen.  One of which I believe is Danan Hughes and he wrote it the spot that would be best served for Marcus Allen if he did sign it.  It's a cool piece though, and I forgot the price.  I haven't looked up more info about the event, but might later.  I think I'd try to get more names on it and would be awesome to display on the walls of a mancave.

It figures.... yeah, I said that.  It figures I'd have something about wrestling.  The top one is really hard to make out but is an action figure of Mr. Perfect.  I always liked him and would one day like to have an action figure of him, but today wasn't that day.  On the bottom is Kurt Angle.  He won in the Olympics with a BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK!!!! So he says.  This is from between 1999-2002 I'm just not sure when.  WWF changed to WWE in 2002, and to be honest, I think this is more from when he started so 1999 or 2000.  I like seeing the older action figures still in boxes, though I didn't really need it.

Oh Hell Yeah!  Another wrestling figure, this one of Stone Cold Steve Austin.  I think this is from 2000 but I'm not sure.  They didn't use that Summer Slam logo in 1998, and by 2001 he was playing a heel I think and looked a bit different, so this is 1999 or 2000.  Austin is never a guy I was a big fan of in WWF/E but I appreciated what he did in his promos.  What I mean is I never cared for the beer drinker gimmick, and when he was accused of domestic abuse and in addition of walking out on WWE, I lost a lot of respect for him.  Though when he cut promos, he was one of the best of the time.  In honesty though, I liked him better during his Stunning Steve days.  Today he has a show or two on CMT (Broken Skull Challenge is fun to watch, Redneck Island, not so much), and has podcasts which some he does for WWE Network.  I'm gained a little more respect for him in recent years, especially once he manned up and admitted his past mistakes.

Anyways, I also took photos of other action figures, including this one of Joe Montana.  I'm not sure if I remember seeing NFL Starting Lineups this old before in person.  I remember seeing the MLB ones, but not NFL.  I took a photo because I didn't plan to buy any at any rate.

More Chiefs stuff.  I wasn't going to pass up taking a photo of an action figure of Nick Lousy.... I mean Nick Lowery.  I still remember my dad calling him that whenever he missed a kick.  I wouldn't mind having that one to be honest, but oh well.  The Neil Smith one is nice too, but I wasn't always a fan of Neil, especially when he left KC to go to Denver.  I've gotten over it, but still in no rush to buy all his stuff.  Especially for 30 bucks.  I also never understood why Starting Lineups needed to make two cards for one figure.  It was a bit overkill in my opinion.

This was I think a Stadium Giveaway from Joakim Soria's first stint in KC.  Until this past couple weeks, anyone with this shirt may have been laughed or shot in KC since Soria has had trouble this year pitching.  He's getting back on track, hopefully at the right time.  I just thought it was funny seeing this when I did.  Oddly enough, he started turning it around when I did see it.

Sorry about the bad photo.  I mean I thought it came out better, but I should have just skipped it.  I just like seeing Royals bobbleheads.  I spy Carlos Beltran (or do I, it doesn't really look like him), but its so blurry I can't tell who the other two are.

Now we're talking.  I hope the Billy Butler bobblehead doesn't get a concussion if you take it out of the box.  I shouldn't be making fun of him, but if you saw recent news, he ratted out a teammate (also a former Royal who plays for the A's), then got into a scuffle which Danny Valencia won and possibly gave Butler a concussion.  The weird part is Valencia is usually seen as the hothead, was the one most people sided with and it has since came out teammates didn't always like Billy in KC.  Having said all that, I like Billy Butler and still do.  Just not 35 bucks for a bobblehead worth.

The Twins Mascots one is nice but I didn't need it though.  The one I really liked was the Satchel Paige which he adorns a Monarchs jersey.  I'm not paying 70 bucks for it, but it was fun to see.  Also fun to see is the old magnets in the background.  I wish I spent a bit more time looking at them, but since it was behind glass I wasn't going to get them anyways.  Speaking of glass, that glass was shiny.  If you look close you can see the reflection of my Royals cap and my camera in this photo.

This picture has so much to look at that I might miss some of it.  However let's start with the Royals Coke bottle.  That would be a nice piece of 1985 memorabilia I'd like to have, but 15 bucks is too much to me.  I mean it was worth it I guess, but I could find a better use of that money.  I liked everything in this cabinet to be honest.  An old Mountain Dew bottle, and some Kickapoo Joy Juice?  Yeah I'd like both in my collection.  My mancave would apparently be a museum of oddball stuff and would be as big as the Pentagon.

My favorite item in this is the Root Beer jug from Mugs Up.  I've only been to one Mugs Up but I really liked it.  They used to be around in a lot more places, but now they are hard to find.  There was one fairly local to the mall so I could have tried to go to one on the trip, but there is one in Columbia, so maybe that's a better option next time I go there.

That jug would have looked nice next to the Piggly Wiggly jug I posted yesterday.

HE HATES THESE CANS!  STAY AWAY FROM THE CANS!

Actually I LOVED these cans.  I spent a few minutes trying to find Royals but didn't look too hard.  I've never seen one of these in person so when I held it I was surprised at how heavy they were.  I can't remember the price on them, but if I saw a couple I liked I might have got them.  Next time I might look harder, but I didn't want to spend too long looking at empty soda cans.

The top photo is plastic cups, all of which I liked.  I might have even got one or two (especially the Brett in the background or the Dream Team ones), but they were 4 buck each and there is no way I'm spending that much on plastic cups.  Maybe I'll get lucky and find some at a garage sale one day for a quarter.

The bottom photo has a lot going on but I'll be quick.  I like the 1985 plastic cup, but passed on it.  Same goes for the Blues glass.  In the back you see a A&P Mug like I have and if I wasn't afraid to break glass, I might have looked for a price.  However the item I liked most is the Amos Otis glass on the left.  Besides being something I don't have and looks nice, what really drew my attention was the bottom.

United Supers was a supermarket I remember as a kid.  Not to be confused with a similar one in the New York area, U.S. was one of three supermarkets in Boonville when I was a kid.  Today only one of them remains and its the one I actually liked the least.  However the reason I liked this glass was because I can't find much of anything on United Super online.  It usually leads to stuff on the New York based company which isn't the same one.  If I actually spotted that on the glass when I took the photo, I might have got the glass.  Instead I'll likely spend the night trying to research more info on U.S. just to waste some time.

Another thing I remember as a kid was these awesome folders that looked like baseball cards.  I think I had a different Topps year, if this is 1989, then I had '88, or vice-versa.  I didn't even have a Royals folder it was Will Clark of all people.  It is actually the reason I think I like Will Clark.  Not only do I wish I could find some of these cheap, I wish they would make these again.  Just imagine a Mike Trout folder that looks like a 2016 Topps card.  I think they could make two for each team (sell them in a two-pack) featuring a top player and then maybe one resembling a team photo.  They could make them slightly differ from the actual 2016 set, but I think they could also throw in a card or two in each folder and maybe get more kids into the hobby.  It seems Topps has branched out to other avenues in the last year (Lids, Marketside) so this wouldn't be too crazy.

As for these, 3 bucks per folder was more than I would spend and if I did pull the trigger I'd need George Brett at that price, nothing against Bret Saberhagen.

Garden Gnomes and autographed Moose bats, just a normal day at the ballpark.  These were next to the Maclin auto I showed earlier, but wanted to show them.  I think these mini bats are 10 bucks at the Stadium, so getting them signed for 20-30 bucks wasn't too bad really.  As I said though these were right towards the front and way to early to grabbing everything I wanted.

Cool, some fake Blingy Rings (shout out to Tobymac) that I thought was a good price for 20 bucks aside from the Jayhawks one.  Sure they reek of knockoff, but hey, what do you expect for 20 bucks.  In person these look a lot nicer to be honest.  On my next trip maybe I might splurge, but for now I was good.

Since its a lot later than I thought, I'm going to split this up and end it for tonight.  I'll post the rest tomorrow, and I'll be honest, you don't want to miss it.  Not hype, but seriously, its worth checking out.  As for now, storms might be coming, and its almost midnight, so its best to wrap it up.  Thanks for reading and have a great night, or great morning or day, whenever you read this.  Tomorrow's might (MIGHT) be up earlier tomorrow in case I get busy tomorrow night.  Enjoy the weekend.

Passing Through- Non-Sports

So I mentioned when I showed off stuff I got at The Brass Armadillo that I too a bunch of pictures of stuff I passed up.  So the next two days will be stuff I passed up or took pics of.  There are a lot of photos, so I might not write as much to be honest.  There is a good mix of items and some I just had to take shots of.  I hope you enjoy.

Just to get a glimpse of what it's like outside.  It is right next to I-70, and for some reason I like their water tower.  Anyways, let's go inside and look.

My mom was really into this booth, she liked a lot of it, but I didn't really look.

I liked these beer trays for some reason, but wish I got a more clear photo.  I like the Coors one more though.  I also like the Budweiser bucket next to it.  If I had a big house and unlimited funds, I bet I'd have a lot of beer memorabilia despite not being a drinker.  I don't know why, but I like it.  I think more because I'm a fan of advertising more than anything.

Speaking of advertising!  I did like this and I don't have hate for Walmart like most do.  I'd prefer not shopping there, but when its about the only option, not much you can do.  The cool think about this is you can put your old Hot Wheels inside the trailer as an easy storage solution.  That is if they are out of their pack.  I did that with mine all the time when I had a similar trailer.

Speaking of advertising!  This caught my eye and was pretty cheap.  On another day I might have gotten it, but since it was the first stop, I didn't want it to roll around the car the next day or two and potentially break.  I know it probably wouldn't but that was what talked me out of it.  In addition to the fact I have no room, and no real use for it.  But if I had the room, I'd have it on display somewhere.

Now it's time to get political.   WAIT, COME BACK!

While I may not like a lot of politicians, and hate the attack ads (how about positive ads for once), I do enjoy the memorabilia.  Yard signs to buttons and everything in between.  I never saw the Republi-candy before so that was interesting.  I could have spent more time looking at these, but I wasn't sure the time and had other stops planned.

You don't see much Carter/Mondale stuff anymore.  I thought that was interesting.  The other interesting thing about this photo is I have a couple of those Band-Aid tins that I looked at selling recently.  The metal ones go for a little bit, so I checked out the price.  I think it was 12 bucks, which is slightly higher than I've seen on Ebay, but not too extreme.

What would political memorabilia be without something with Palin?  It looks like this was mostly Republican stuff, but it was still nice.  I'm not endorsing any of these people, I just like looking at the stuff.

On the shelf is some Royals glasses as well which caught my eye.  I like the newspaper ones a lot.  Enough about sports though, tomorrow I'll show sports stuff.

This was pretty cool, and so I took a picture.  The stuff in this booth wasn't stuff I normally see at antique malls, but I enjoyed looking at it all.

For some reason I also like old gas pumps.  While its not something I doubt I'd ever buy it does pique my interest when I see them which is not often.  I've never associated the color green with Conoco though, which was interesting to me.

Now this caught my eye more than anything at the booth.  Another item you don't see too often, but if I had to pick one item out of the three I'd have wanted most it would be this.  I like how they didn't even try to touch up the wheels, as it looks better this way.

One more item this seller had was this old RC Cola thermometer.  It had faded considerably but either that doesn't deter the price or the seller didn't care.  For a while I tried to model the old Royal Crown logo into a logo for this site, but I couldn't get it how I wanted so I went with something else.  I'm fairly limited to options on Paint when coming to logo's and I don't want to learn other programs (though I hear Paint.NET is good, but if I never cared to learn GIMP, I doubt I'd use it much).  Thermometers are another item I'd have a lot of too, but luckily I find them somewhat cheap now and still pass them up, so I'm glad I don't have more space or else I'd be hoarding anything advertising and would end up like American Pickers.  Though I wouldn't own many old oil cans, just a couple.

I don't know which item I'd wanted to shoot a photo of more, but we'll start with Big Jim.  I never had a Big Jim doll or action figure, and never had this, but I thought it looked pretty cool.  I just read that the Big Jim line was 3rd in sales behind GI Joe and Star Wars, so not too bad.

I honestly took the photo for the all bucket.  Yes I got excited for a cardboard bucket that once had detergent in it.  Next thing you know I'll start collecting pieces of cardboard with athletes on them.

WHEN EVIL UNDERTAKER TELLS YOU TO DRIVE LIGHTNING MCQUEEN, YOU LISTEN!

I never saw the 'taker doll before, but didn't realize his positioning until I got home, which I then found funny.

This is hilarious, but in reality, I've never heard KCK ever referred to as Cowtown.  I've heard KCMO called it, but never across state lines.  KCMO is also called the City of Fountains, which I hope KCK doesn't steal either.

I had no use for this sign, but it would be funny to post on the door from time to time.

I love board games, but never get the chance to play them, so I loved taking this photo.  I see Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, Baretta, The Bionic Woman, and I know others I'm missing.  Was there ANY show that didn't get a board game?  I also like Rich Uncle, and Gas Crisis.  I really wish board games would come back in style which is why I'm glad Hasbro really tried to promote Family Game Night.  I even see something about Hot Wheels, and some puzzles as well.  Next time I go back, I might get a better pictures.  Again, I could spend much more time taking photos of stuff, but did kind of rush.

So one last non-sports item to show, and I hope you tuned into this entire post.  If you think about it, it really showcases the best (or worst) of Americana, and this last item is the epitome of America.

A handheld radio shaped like McDonald's fries?  Really?  I mean the advertising part of me loves this.  So does the music lover in me, but come on, did we really need this?  Having said that, I'd love to have this.  Part of the reason I didn't get it was because I didn't need it and the other reason is because I didn't want to page someone to open the case.  That is one thing I liked about this place is how nice the cases were, but some were open, and some were closed, and if I wanted half of these items, and the ones I show tomorrow, I'd have to page them to open them.  While that is sort of a turnoff, I understand it, and I can live with that.

So that's it for the non-sports portion, tomorrow I'll show the sports stuff.  Before I go, one more photo to go along with the them of America.

I saw this car in the parking lot as I was leaving.  I thought it was cool.

So that's it for today.  Overall it was a nice random mix, and a lot of stuff I don't see at Midway so it was nice to look at.  I hope you enjoyed today's post, and tomorrow's will be similar, but will show more sports stuff.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.  As for me, all this talk about America, I think I'll go to Youtube and look up the Neil Diamond song since I haven't heard it in a while.  Plus I've listened to a lot of rap lately and need to listen to something else for a while.

Odds and Ends Spending This Month (Even Olympic Cards)

Since my mom had her vacation in August, we took a day trip in addition to the two days out I mentioned last week.  Also, I apologize for not posting lately, a lot of things factored in and I just didn't want to write a couple days, but I'm back.  Anyways, we don't care for big week long vacations, we like quick day or two getaways and back home.  The reason I bring this up is because I wanted to show a few things I've gotten this month when on the day trip, the vacation, or just going to Walmart one day.  It's an odd mix, but it gives me a chance to clean out some scans.  Here we go.

Our day trip a couple weeks ago was built around visiting a couple Amish stores, one of which we haven't been to in almost a decade.  It's not a place we need to go often, but its still fun to check out.  I got this from the other store which is easier to find and we visit more often.  I've always called this Puppy Chow, but for whatever reason, they call it Peanut Butter Monkey Munch. WHAT????  Anyways, its more or less Chex or Crispix with Peanut Butter on it then dumped in powered sugar.  Real healthy I know, but it was always a favorite to make for school fundraisers and such (same with Peanut Butter Cups, which was like Reese's but homemade).  I don't remember making these, but do remember making the cups.  I also remember (and to some is still remembered) for making Twinkie Cake, which I'll post the recipe one day.  Anyways, I didn't need these, but nostalgia kicked in and I got it.

Since it wasn't going to take a full day to visit two Amish stores, we decided to hit the Walmart in Versailles.  Its much smaller than most we see and only got some newspapers from there.  Across the street though is where the fun is.

Versailles is known for their Open Air Flea Market every weekend at their fairgrounds.  I remember going to these all the time as a kid, and it would be packed with it being a challenge to find parking.  Well, times have changed.  Last time we went it was a lot smaller, but it was also on a bust weekend I think, so no big deal.  This time though, it was gasping for air, and it has really faded.  I think there may have been 20 vendors if I'm generous and it was mostly garage sale reject merchandising or stuff the sellers have been peddling for years.  Its really a shame because it one of the only few ones I know of, and liked to go to them, especially since its one of the last few that don't really sell animals much at the event (a lot of swap meets around here also include bird swapping and what all).  So what normally took at least 45 minutes to check out took 5 minutes, and that included parking and getting out of the drive.

I didn't come out empty handed though.

I thought I already posted this, but I guess not.  I spotted a kids Green Bay Packers Helmet.  I knew it was a kids one right off due to the weight and I remember the Hutch brand that usually included the jersey and pants too.  This was in really bad shape as seen, but for a buck, I thought I could remove all the logos and such, clean it up real nice maybe repaint it, and get new logos for it.  My mom is a big Packers fan, so I thought if I could refurbish it nice enough, a buck for a helmet never to be worn was worth it.

Next to it I also found this.

This one was heavier and think it was game used at some level.  My guess is pee wee league.  The face guard was dangling on it, but I didn't notice until I got home that the helmet was really pushed in in the bottom which is probably the reason.  Both helmets were a total of two bucks, and this one I had no real ideas for, but a buck I'm getting it.  I have no idea what the logo is, but I think I will remove it, and then clean up the helmet real nice and make it a helmet for another team.  Leading ideas is Miami Hurricanes, a custom of a Kansas City Royals helmet, or a custom of what my high schools helmet might look like if we had a team.  This has been the year of helmets, and in fact have two more to show (one I've since gotten rid or), but if I find them cheap they are hard to pass up.

So I spent two bucks at a flea market.  Not much more to that.  I was thirsty at this point and this is really when we hit the Amish stores.  The first one (the one we haven't visited in a decade), had decent deals, but I got what I always do there.

Something about Black Cherry Soda I like.  We got some other stuff but I can't remember though.  It was worth the trip, but not one we should take more than once or twice a year (unless we need to get a 20 pound bag of potatoes).  After this trip we visited an Outlet store we hadn't had luck with in a while.

Once again, we struck out, but this time had a couple things I was somewhat interested in.  They had some baseball pennants but they were a bit higher than I wanted to pay.  For an Outlet, the prices aren't too cheap.  Its gone downhill as of late, so I'm afraid each time we got will be the last.

After this we hit the other Amish store (the one with the Monkey Munch) and then we decided to head home.  As we were heading home, BBQ burgers sounded good, so another trip to Walmart.  This time I got a couple things.

As you can tell, I eat more junk than I should.  I had seen this before but finally decided to try it out.  Really quick review: its not worth getting.  It was interesting, but it wasn't the greatest thing ever.

I saw these on clearance and figured why not.  These actually would look good if I do a project on athletes from certain states, and it was like a buck or so. I have no desire to put it on the car.

The back shows the actual size (the Ohio one), and you get every state as well as the LVE so that was worth it I thought.

When we went on our two-day getaway, we ended up at a really small and outdated Target store.  We bought a couple things and one of the things I got was a DVD.

The DVD on the right is what I got.  Season Seven of Burn Notice was the last season, and it was one of two I needed.  The only one I have left to get is season one, and I believe I'll get it soon through Amazon (I have a gift card I'm holding on to).  I might also get the Sam Axe movie too just to finish it all up.  I got the season 7 for 9 bucks which is the lowest I've seen it, and it makes me happy since I haven't pay over 10 bucks for a season yet.

The WCW DVD I actually got on the way home from vacation.  It was in the $3.74 bin, and I've spotted it before, but since it deals with WCW, I knew I'd likely pick it up.  Not much documentary, but I'm fine with that, 6 of the 7 hours ( think that's what it claimed) is wrestling, and that works.  I wish they didn't always focus on the big names, but they did have some cruiserweights on there so that was good.  I think Jushin Liger was on it and Rey Mysterio, and that really works.  Not bad for under 4 bucks.

One stop we made while in Blue Springs was a place called Five Below.  I've wanted to check it out for a long time and we finally did.  In fact we hit two different ones, not because we loved it but because I gave a slight misdirection and saved some face by hitting a couple stores.  The second store had better products, and none were over 5 bucks.

Coming in at 5 bucks was this laptop fan.  I knew it wouldn't work real good for 5 bucks, but I got it because my computer seems to slow down a bit at times and the legs (or whatever you call them on the bottom) are falling off so what little separation it has to the table I use becomes less and less.  I figured at least my laptop could sit on it, and who knows maybe a little air could help it out.

I opened it and its really light.  I mean I've never had one of these before but it seemed really cheap.  However I have used it and I think it actually helps.  It powers from a usb so that helps, and I never run it too long, but if I had to do it again, maybe 5 bucks was more than I should have spent, but 3 bucks wouldn't be bad.  I know 2 bucks ain't much but at least you don't expect as much. I will say so far its worked great though.

Other items I bought was reusable ice cubes (plastic with water inside that freezes), for a buck and I haven't tried yet, and I also got a pack of cards I'll show in a couple minutes.

I want to show something I passed on first.  I never saw it before, but saw it again later for 8 bucks, so maybe I should have gotten it for five.

A DONALD TRUMP COLORING BOOK????  Now honestly I really wanted it, but I don't exactly color, so why did I need it.  However, I will say it was a pretty big size book with well over 100 pages, maybe even closer to 200 or more.  It would have been something very interesting to get, but again above what I wanted to pay.  Maybe I'll see it on clearance at Walmart on day.

A couple stores I planned to check out was this Goodwill store and next to it one called Red Racks.  We have bad luck at Goodwill, and while this time I almost bought a couple items, I put them back.  I mean did I really need a bobblehead of one of the Backstreet Boys (or NSYNC, I forgot), or Amy Grant's first album on CD?  Deep down I did need the Amy Grant CD but I didn't see a price on CD's so I put it back.  Otherwise we struck out again.

Red Racks I wanted to check out because it was new to us. We don't have any locally and it benefits disabled Veterans so that's nice.  It wasn't too bad of a place, and really had much more variety than Goodwill, but again, we came out empty handed, except....

Oops, I didn't upload a photo yet.  I found ANOTHER FOOTBALL HELMET!  This one was about 5 bucks ($4.48 and no sales tax), but its one of the nicest ones yet but looks like the most used as well.  It was a Florida Gators helmet and it looks really nice.  I took a photo or two, but never put it on my computer so I'll post it at another date.

On the trip home I bought another pack of cards, this time some Opening Day.  I'll show the pack with the one I got from Five Below.

Let's start with the Opening Day ones first.

Seven cards for a buck doesn't seem bad, and then when opening them pulling a Royals and a Cardinals play who you like is worth the buck.  It might be my first Miguel Almonte card, so that's good.  I have other Stephan Piscotty I'm sure though.  Nice to pull Altuve and Schwarber as well, so a buck for a good pack is good any day.

So I finally got a pack of Olympic cards.  I just couldn't find any or else I would have already.  So how did I do?

I think I know two of these people.  Cullen Jones and Jenny Thompson are names I remember.  I think I've heard of Alana Nichols too.  The others I have no idea who they are, though Nathan Schrimsher looks like a relative of John Cena.

As for the design?  Well, much like how I felt upon hearing Makayla Maroney wanted to be famous and now looks like a Kardashian, I wasn't impressed.  These look like some sort of insert sets instead of a base set, and I'm okay with not getting more of them.  However I have a few more to show including two special cards.

Okay, I know Carly Patterson, that was cool to get.  In fact if it was a pack full of Gymnasts I would really love it since that's basically all I watch anymore.  I did catch some swimming, and Conor Dwyer made a name for himself and didn't have to supposedly get robbed at gunpoint to do it.  I'm glad those two saved the pack for me.

I also got a Bronze card featuring Rugby player Carlin Isles.  I don't follow Rugby so I can't say if this is awesome, but just getting a Bronze card was nice.   I have watched and enjoyed Rugby Sevens in the past, so maybe by the next Olympics I can get into it more and watch.

I also got a Gold card, featuring a BIG TIME NAME!  I opened this and was beyond excited because this guy was the talk of the town, and this card could be worth something!

By the time I got home and scanned it though Ryan Lochte was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.  So this card probably is as worthless as the rest now.  All in all though, it was still nice to pull a Gold of a big name and not someone I never heard of.

I think I paid 3 bucks for the pack, and to be honest, that's fair, but the design really lacks and as many have said, the checklist could be retooled.  Maybe if I find them on clearance I might get some more, otherwise, I'll pass.

Speaking of Olympics though, I heard the complaints about these cards and the biggest was the set was too small, featured too many former athletes and ones that didn't actually make the team, and it also didn't feature anyone not on the US team.  So I have a solution to some of that.

YES! I am working on Olympic Custom Cards.  It won't be a bigger set than this, but it will be the biggest set I've made yet, and in addition part of them will feature a couple insert sets I'm working on.  I can't go into much detail because I just started working on them, but at this point if all goes well, I have roughly 70 cards total from about 35 countries.  Sure the USA will get the most love and it will have some names you might be sick of, but it also will have some people who made names for themselves at these games or at least got people talking.  Or I needed a card of someone to represent a country.  With 78 countries getting a medal, and 306 represented, I couldn't include every country, but I did get over 30 including most if not all of the top 20 countries in the final medal count.

I have no Lochte in the set, and didn't really plan to include Phelps, but names like Ledecky, Bolt, Biles, and more are included.  This will be a tough set to finish since its so big and I'm still working on it, but once I finish it I will show them.

Anyways, that wraps up today's post, thank you for reading and have a great night.