Another Goal Checked Off

If you read my blog yesterday you may wonder why I chose to go 100 miles away just to stay overnight at a hotel.  Well, the main reason was because it allowed me the chance to complete a goal I set for this year.  Besides the fact I do like staying at hotels, I went to a mall which I don't do too often these days.

So why did I go to the mall?  Well, there's only one reason to go to a mall, isn't it obvious?

I WENT TO JARED!

Naw, that ain't my style, instead I was hoping to find some other kinds of diamonds.  About 4-6 times a year Independence Mall hosts a card show.  They claim to have 40 tables and its free admission, so I figured it would fit right in and so I went.  The good news was there were most likely 40 tables or more, but the bad was a lot of them contained memorabilia and not much on cards.  In fact I'd say half were cards at best.  On top of that the cards weren't really cheap.  I didn't find one dime box, and maybe found a couple quarter boxes at best and that doesn't include boxes that didn't have prices.

The thing is though that I for whatever reason wasn't in the mood to look at cards in the mall on the Friday because the mall seemed really hot, and the lack of cheap boxes slightly turned me off.  Throw in the fact of (as I mentioned yesterday) chance of rain putting a time limit on how much time I'd spend looking, I went through a lot of it fast.  Looking back, I do wish I spent a little more time and money looking, but I'm not mad.  I did manage to find a couple deals and if I felt up to it I would have gone back on Saturday and got a couple more, but I didn't.

I don't actively pursue Chiefs cards to be honest, but I do like Police Sets.  I found this package in a box and due to the weight I assumed it wasn't a full set, but I still figured I would get it so I wouldn't walk away empty handed.

I remember Deron Cherry, so for what looked like about 10 cards I would spend 2.50 on them.  I went to pay and the guy was nice and told me 2 bucks.  I liked that and handed it over.  I told him I might be back in a bit but I had to eat something first.  It wasn't a lie because I did, but I never did go back.  If I did go back, his would have been the table I went to first though.  As it was one of two tables that was actually interesting to me.

After I got to the hotel, I opened the pack and was surprised that it was a mix of years between 1986 and 1988.  I wasn't mad because I didn't expect a full set, but I at least figured it would be all the same year.  When I got home, I scanned them.

Albert Lewis, Stephone Paige, Bill Maas, and Christian Okoye?  Not bad, I can dig that, at least I knew enough of them.  By the way happy birthday Nigerian Nightmare if you happen to read this.  His birthday is later this week.

Those were all from the 1988 set I believe, and I'm only missing a couple cards from the set, so that's not bad.   That also means this package had about 15 cards in it so an even better deal.  Here are the rest.

DINO HACKETT!!!!  I remember many games of Tecmo Super Bowl where he would get a sack.  I was very happy with this pack of cards.  The backs of all the cards looked similar to the one shown, with just slight differences.  I think its interesting that KCTV 5 sponsored them since they are still the home of the Chiefs on the Kansas City TV side of things.  So 15 cards for 2 bucks was pretty good.  I didn't expect a Derrick Thomas (since he didn't play these years), but getting Okoye was good enough for me.

As he handed me my change I noticed another pack of cards that caught my eye.  In fact he had more and it was the reason I would have gone back if I decided to.  Instead I grabbed the top packed and he told me 2 bucks, and for the top card alone I handed more cash to him.

I have long wanted the Topps Coke cards, and besides the George Brett, the Quisenberry was at the top of my list.  I really wish I would have bought the other 3-4 packs he had and who knows I could have gotten a better deal, but as I said, I'd pay the two bucks just for this one.  I know it would be overpay, but it was worth it to me.

I can't confirm this but it seems the checklist cards are a bit tougher to find then the others in the team sets, so seeing this on the other side made me happier.  I knew there were only 3-4 cards in the pack, but grabbing 2 of the ones I wanted most was a great deal.  Besides being a card collector, a Royals fan, and so much more, I am also a fan of Coca Cola stuff, and while I don't go overboard, this was something I've looked at online many times.  When I got to the hotel, I opened it up and looked at them and I was happy, but I scanned them when I got home, and here is the pack.

Willie Aikens and Hal McRae were also in the pack, which makes it even better.  Again, I wish I bought the others, in hopes of finishing the set, but who knows maybe I can find the others.  I wish I got contact info from him so at least I could get in touch with him, but oh well.

After that, that was it.  So while I got some goods, I more or less struck out at the card show.  It wasn't the only reason I got out of town, but I was expecting more and expected to spend more time and money than I did.  In the end I spent 4 bucks at the card show and 6 bucks total at the mall (I got a water).  Since I haven't been to the Independence Center in years I decided to look around some more, who knows, maybe something would catch my eye.  It was 2 stories (technically 2 and 1/2 stories with a ramp leading to the food court), and I walked all around it but didn't find much.

They had a nice play area for the kids which was pretty cool.  I don't go to a lot of malls, but this was one of the bigger play areas I've seen.  In the background is a nice carousel which was a double decker.

I looked for a minute or two, but since it was midday, and the first day of school, it wasn't too busy, as only a couple youngster rode while I watched.  What I liked besides the two levels was the location.  Since the mall is multi level, it was place so you could see it from almost anywhere and it was a nice spot.

While the mall had Lids, Fanzz, and other sports related stores, I actually steered clear of them.  I really wasn't feeling good and wanted to beat the supposed storms so I spent a total of about an hour in the mall so I skipped most of the stores (I wish I skipped Gamestop).  One store I did look at was the KC Toy World.  I was disappointed to not find a giant piano to step on and play chopsticks, but I looked around a bit before I got too hot.  I thought they would maybe have some trading cards inside but they didn't unless they were in the back.  I felt they could put more in the store as the front seemed bare, but maybe they just moved or something.

I saw this timely store display inside one store I was happy to check out.  I've always like Aly Raisman since I first saw her at the Olympics and watched her again this year.  What surprised me though is not that she would do an ad like this but the store it was for.

I know they work out deals months in advance, but Aeropostale had been in the stages of going out of business for months now, and I was pleasantly shocked to see it was still open here.  It said everything was 60% off, and while I've bought clothes there before, I didn't really want to look.  It was really stocked though for a 60% off sale, so I don't know if the deals weren't worth it or it was a feeder store that takes the remaining inventory from others that closed, but it still had plenty.  I should have asked if they'd sell the Raisman poster.  I would have considered buying it.  Putting it somewhere would be something I'd have to figure out later though.

So after an hour, I was done at the mall.  It wasn't the final stop of the day, but I figured I'd do more on that on tomorrow's post or the next day.  All in all, though I rushed through and the card show wasn't what I expected, I still had fun.  The good news is that it does check a goal off that I set for this year and I can say I went to a card show.  There is one closer to me at the end of the month and there is a good chance I may go to that.  It's smaller, but I think I might have better luck at it.  Once I got home I noticed the closest card shop I have (45 minutes away) is planning their first card show in October, and I may go to that one as well.  If all goes well, I'll have more chances to get some cards.  If I do, I realized I need to make some checklists to see what I need and what I have.

That will wrap it up for today, but I still have more stops on my trip and again while they aren't all connected, I think you'll get a kick out of reading them separately or together.  Thank you so much for reading and have a great night.