Savvy Shopping: Go Figure

I know I promised cards, and next post will have that I promise, but I want to clear out some scans and photos and try to use the first in first out method.  Though I do have a folder somewhere from last year with a lot of cards I never showed, but hey, at least I'm posting more than once a month.  Today's post will be my most recent trip to my local second had store, and honestly I do have a couple cards to show, and some sports related items, so its not a total bust.  First I'll start with an item that my mom found on a trip by herself and broke the bank on- 10 cents.  Still an awesome deal though.

Here is a double sided cardboard sheet with a summary of Super Bowl 43 and included is a patch.  I never seen one of these before, but it is pretty cool, despite it being slightly bent.  It's not something I really need, but I would have gotten it for the 10 cents, maybe even a quarter, so I think its a great deal.  Here's a little close up view.  Since its slightly larger than my scanner bed part of the tops and bottom are cut off.

To be honest, the patch is all I really care about, but its still pretty cool.  I remember watching that game but for some reason don't remember what the halftime show was.  I had to look it up and it appears it was Bruce Springsteen.  I have no memory of that performance.  Now I'm second guessing if I did see the show or just the highlights.  Maybe I had to work that night, but by then I'm sure I was only working days.  Oh well, I know I was rooting for Arizona Cardinals to win because despite the fact I didn't like the Steelers, one of my bosses at the time, Jimmy Haslam, was a minority owner of Pittsburgh Steelers.  While it wasn't a huge ownership, I still didn't care for certain upper management of Pilot Travel Centers at the time (I mean who really does like their bosses) but I never really met Jimmy, my displease was more on the regional level.  A few years later Jimmy would go on to own another NFL team- the Cleveland Browns.  I wish him the best of luck because part of me wants to see the team win, though I wish they would do something with those uniforms.  Jimmy has had some troubles involving Pilot in recent years though as some of the upper management was defrauding truck drivers but the last I hear he had no direct involvement in it (at least those who were convicted all said he didn't).  Personally I don't think he did because his father founded the company and scamming truckers would ruin his business and any chance of probably running an NFL team so I tend to believe it either never reached him at worst heard about it once and forgot to look into it.  As of this time, he is still the CEO of Pilot and hopefully some of his better management decisions from there makes its way to the Browns soon.

So while on this trip to Savvy Seconds, my mom spotted some action figures and she wanted to give me a heads up.  For that reason a few days later I decided I had to check them out.  She only knew they were Starting Lineup and some guys like Emmitt Smith, Dan Marino, and Barry Bonds were some of the names.  She said the prices were like 5-10 bucks each.  I was somewhat skeptical, but I figured I'd still go and take a look.  In the end I'm glad I waited a few days as they had a store-wide sale on everything $1 and over, which was 30% off.  So with that teaser, I'll wait a bit to show off what I got.  In the meantime, let's check out the musical portion of the blog.

My mom is a big Jazz fan (but not the Utah type, sorry Mailman) so I found this CD which mixed the history of Kansas City with Jazz and new it was worth it.  What's even better is the CD was still sealed so I knew it wouldn't be scratched.  I played it for her once we got home, and she really liked it.  I wasn't a big fan, but I'm not the target audience.  Since then, she's listened to it a couple times so I know it was a good deal.

This one was more of a "screw you" purchase.  A week earlier I was watching stuff on Youtube and I believe it was the Watch Mojo channel, and during one of their lists they mentioned Savage Garden.  They called them a terrible band that had a good song.  I was quite offended by that as I thought they were a good band and had a few good songs.  Sure "I Need You" was a non-sensical song, but I still like it even if others don't.  So when I found this, I checked to see if it was scratched, and I bought it.  Going in, I knew I got my money's worth just because "I Knew I Loved You" was on it, so that was enough to make me happy.  The rest of the album isn't too bad, and I listened to it almost all the way through so I got my value out of it.  I don't think I'll celebrate their entire catalog but I do stop and listen when I hear one of their songs.

At this point, you might need some cheering up, I mean Savage Garden isn't everyone's cup of tea apparently so I got just the thing for you.

It's a plastic megaphone which as best as I can tell is a stadium giveaway of the Kansas City Chiefs.  I know its the Chiefs, not too sure on the SGA part of it.  I remember when they lost their title of loudest stadium a few years back and was trying to set the record again, so I think this is from that time.  The 137.5 I think was the original record I though, then the Seahawks broke it, then Kansas City reclaimed it with 140.  I could be wrong, but hey, this is a cool piece to show off.

I love that I can also display it as advertising too since it has the logos of Kansas City TV stations KSMO and KCTV on it.  KSMO is a MyNetwork TV affiliate and is ran by the same people as KCTV which is the CBS affiliate.  On good days I can pick up the KSMO signal at night with my antenna, and on very rare occasions the KCTV signal.  Its amazing since their towers are about 100 miles away and in comparison I can't pick up locals 40 miles away.  All in all, this was on the 10 cent shelf and it was too good to pass up.

Saw this, saw $1, saw it go into my basket.  No way I'd pass on this, especially since I was just talking to a friend about this a week earlier.  For those unaware, this was a McDonald's Happy Meal toy from 1987 during the Christmas season.  So not only is it 30 years old, it was when McDonald's had good stuff in Happy Meals.  If I'm not mistaken, he had some type of clothing besides the scarf.  There were three to get, the others being Kermit the Frog, and Miss Piggy.  I thought I had the Fozzie Bear one at one point, but I don't think I did now.  I know I had the Kermit one, and might have had the Miss Piggy one, but who knows.  As I get older I somewhat like collecting stuff I remember from childhood so I'll try to look for the others again.  I'm sure I can find them on EBay, but finding them like I did with this one is so much more rewarding.  Maybe that's why I'm holding off on an Oscar the Grouch pull toy I had as a kid that I can buy at anytime on EBay.

My mom thought I'd want this book and got it for me, but I haven't had the chance to look it it yet.  I will soon, but I do know it covers pretty much all sports.  She glanced through it and found a Missouri Tiger in it so it was worth it.  I'm just a little confused how Sports Bloopers translate very well into a book.  Besides maybe the Canseco ball bouncing off his head, you may not have a lot of context with the photos.  I'll find out soon.

Okay, I guess I left you in enough suspense to show you the figure I got.  When we got there there were still about 8 or so left, and while the Smith one was gone, I could have gotten the Marino.  I passed on that one and all the others except one.  The main reason was debating on weather I really needed them or not.  Plus I've noticed recently they've been pricing certain items using Ebay so while these are market value I suppose, its tougher to find a deal.  The prices ranges from 5-10 bucks and none stood out too much, except one.  They also had a plaque, but it didn't look that great so I passed.  Also I passed on some Pinnacle "can of cards".  It was tough to do because I always wanted some of them, and two fit into my PC (Brett Favre cans), and one sounded cool- Ice Bowl.  But they wanted 8-10 bucks a can, and while I'm not sure if that was a good deal, I couldn't justify it to just get 10 cards a can.  Even at 30% off spending over 5 bucks each seemed a bit high.  So with that I grabbed the one action figure I wanted when my mom spouted off names and was good to go.

Oops, wrong side.  Though I was going to scan this anyways.  Now that I think about it, I remember there being a couple Ryne Sandberg figures there as well, but I passed on them also.  None were Kansas City Royals or St. Louis Cardinals, so that made it easier not to buy more than one.

Barry Bonds fits into my PC so 7 bucks seemed like an okay deal, then I tried to do match in my head and realized it would be around 5 bucks, so I went ahead and got it.  It was the week after he was celebrated in San Francisco which was pretty cool of MLB TV to show as their free game of the day.  One thing I noticed though that Starting Lineup messed up on.  On the checklist, they have him listed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and not the Giants.  Even on the Trading Card Database it had him listed incorrectly, but that has since been fixed.  The plastic is starting to yellow and while I don't like opening too many figures these days, I think I will with this one.  Besides the fact the figure might look better on the shelf out of the plastic, I can not only scan the cards for the database, but can put them in with the rest of my Barry Bonds cards.  I haven't opened it yet, but pretty sure I will in the next couple weeks once I hang another shelf up I got recently and once I find my other wrestling action figures to display.  That should be easy, I just have to go to storage to get them.

Here's a somewhat better look at the cards and by the looks Barry was just starting to bulk up at this point.  How he did it, I can't say, but most have their opinions on that.  At any rate, I was happy with the purchase.  Having shown this I'm starting to get an itch to go back and see if any are left and maybe I might buy another.  Maybe the cans have gone down in price and I might buy one of those.  I just hope they don't start pricing some of the stuff like this off of online pricing.  I understand them trying to get the most value for the items, but at the same time all these items are donated to them, so they aren't out any money to begin with.  Sure its for a good cause, but one of reasons I don't care if I can make it to Goodwill or Salvation Army much these days is it seems they try to price stuff higher then they need to.  I'd much rather go to these stores 2-3 times a week with a lot of turnover then going twice a month and seeing the same stuff.  Again, I'm not saying sell everything for a quarter, but if these figures were all 3-4 bucks a piece, I might have bought 3-4 of them.  They'd still make money, and I'd get a good deal.  Anyways rant over.

Lastly before I go its almost football time and I think I've posted this book each of the last couple years, so why stop now.  The new issue came out recently and its a local magazine for all the local high schools, so I thought I'd show it off.

My town doesn't have high school football, so I never got into it much, but I've been to a lot of these schools and so I knew some people that went to these places at some point.  The book also features local colleges so its good for me to see the schedule of Central Methodist University even though according to the book they aren't likely to have a good season.  Also included is Mizzou's schedule and prediction and a SEC preview.  They expect Mizzou to have a decent season, but I don't think they want fans to get their hopes set too high.

So with that I guess I'll wrap it up.  Using the "subscription box" method I mentioned before where instead of buying a box and maybe finding a couple good things for 20-30 bucks, I'll use that money on this stuff instead- I got all this stuff for under ten bucks, so I think I did pretty good.  The big item of course was the Barry Bonds figure (which I am curious if it was ever worth 40 bucks like that old price tag on it suggest), but don't underestimate how excited I was for the Fozzie Bear.  Any other day, that's the best item.

So thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I do promise to show cards next time,  as for now, I think I'll find something to watch on Netflix.  I have a free trial and will finally use the gift card my sister got me afterward so I will have it until about December or longer if I switch to a cheaper plan after my trial ends.  I've watched The Rance and GLOW so far and almost done with the new season of Orange Is The New Black, now just waiting for season two of Ozark to drop next week.  Also eventually I hope I can catch the next season of Daredevil if it is ever released.  I hear later this year but I hope its before my Netflix card runs out.  Before I do that I might make another trip to Savvy Seconds, its been a week, it might be a good time to go.  Thanks for reading and hope everyone's weekend is a fun and safe one.

Gifted: Odds and Ends Recently Acquired

The last few months I've fallen way behind not only from blogging but sorting and collecting.  However I have tried my best to remember what I've gotten and today I thought I'd show a few things I've gotten during these summer months.  First I'll start with a couple things I've bought or got for myself.

First we'll start with some SI For Kids cards.  I had a stack of three months worth to scan, but picked these out to show.  I still love the mix they have in each issue, though I do wish they would show more division two and three athletes.  As thin as the cards are now, I wouldn't even be against having a sheet for pro athletes and one for amateur athletes.  One plus I have moving stuff around is now I have room to display two posters from previous issues on the side of my file cabinet.  Right now I am showcasing Tina Charles and Justin Verlander.  It was a tough call on the Verlander because I replaced Max Scherzer.  But I didn't want two baseball poster and try to have at least one current one, so Max was folded and placed into the file cabinet.

The last few months I've tried to pare down my football collection as I've given a lot to my best friend.  Sometimes I'll get an itch and buy some cards, which is why I bought these.  I'll have more football to show in a post or two but for now, it was nice to open this pack of cards.  I'm not sure who I collect much among modern players, but it was nice pulling the Travis Kelce and former Chief Dontari Poe.  Getting a couple Eagles cards were nice too.  The rookies were pretty good too though I admit I don't know a lot about Sam Darnold.  Sony Michel I know a little bit about and hopes he has a nice career.  Besides Kelce, Marcus Mariota may end up as a PC I haven't decided yet.  If not I'm sure I'll hold on to a few, which that next football post will have a few more to show.

So with those out of the way, let's get into a few items that have been given to me recently.  My sister went on a trip with her family and while there got me a gift.  After she returned and we visited the next time she forgot but she had other stuff for me.

She saw these at a local flea market, and now I'm convinced everyone can find dime cards except me.  Oh well, these were really nice and she thought these looked different than the ones I normally collect.  They had others but she just got these.  I've always like the Golden Age cards but I haven't seen them around too much so they haven't been a priority.  For ten cents each though I would have grabbed some.

Likewise she found these and also didn't think I had many of these so she got them.  I'm not the biggest fan of Gypsy Queen but 20 cards for 75 cents is a heck of a deal.  I also would have bought these too for under a buck.  After she bought them she opened them and recognized a few names, so that means there had to be some players from the past in it, so I got a little excited.

I didn't scan all 20 cards, but I thought this was a heck of a deal.  None of these I specifically PC, but that doesn't mean I won't hold onto them.  This might be my first Don Sutton card and I've been looking for an Adrian Beltre card after he gained his 3000th hit.  Rod Carew is a Hall of Famer (yes I learned that from an Adam Sandler song), so that was nice, and I have enough Jose Canseco cards to start a PC if I decide to, which I might.  Besides the Sutton and Carew cards, my favorite card is the Brandon Belt.  I love the look of the sky in the  background, same for the Matt Cain, but not near as much.

The next time she visited she brought my original gift and I was pretty excited to say the least.

She told me they were going to the zoo in Omaha and asked if I wanted anything.  Since I knew the Royals AAA team plays in Omaha I joked to bring me back a Storm Chasers hat.  I didn't really expect one, and these days I don't wear too many hats anymore (just my Royals one and on very rare occasions my Reese's one) but I threw it out there.  After the first day she messaged me and said, I got your hat.  I was surprised.  We talked a bit about it before she left and I mentioned how I liked the Tornado logo one the best, but still while I was laying it out there I didn't expect one.

Among the many minor league teams, the Storm Chasers might have my favorite logo.  It's not because its the Royals team, even if they weren't they'd rank pretty high up there along with the Yard Goats and a couple other teams.  I've only worn it once, but it fits really nice and I can't wait to show it off more in the coming months when I go places.

A couple weeks ago I met up with my best friend and gave him a nice batch of Football cards and also some CD's I ripped and didn't want to keep and he gave me a few things too.

He told me he got this in the mail after he requested free stuff from Hunt Brothers Pizza.  He was hoping to get some coupons from them, but no dice.  So since he didn't want this he gave it to me.  I have a few others like this but not this one so that's cool.  He had another one too which he gave me.

I don't get to watch much NASCAR these days since NBC and Fox pawned a lot of the coverage off to their cable networks (I won't get started on that), but I don't remember seeing either Sadler or Harvick driving Hunt Brothers cards.  I follow Xfinity a lot more than the Monster series these days, but I still don't remember seeing it.  Last week Elliott Sadler announced he is retiring from full time racing next year and a couple days later Kasey Kahne announced the same.  It seems a lot of drivers have retired the last few years but that's what happens in sports.  Maybe its because only so few drivers are household names, but with a big cast retiring, it will be interesting to see some of the young stars make a name for themselves the next few years.  Its part of the reason I started watching Xfinity racing in the first place.  It was around the time Ricky Stenhouse was winning every week there.  Since then I've seen guys like Chase Elliott and William Byron move up to the Cup series.  If you like NASCAR and only watch the Monster series, take the chance to see some Xfinity series and if possible some of the K&N series (there are East and West series), in a few years, they'll be big names in the Cup series.

Okay, sorry for the tangent, but anyways, back to the reason we met up.  For a few months he had an item he bought for me which I told him I'd pay him back for if he every found one.  I've been wanting this item for a while and was excited once we met up.

BAH GOD IT'S JOHNNY GARGANO!  BUSINESS IS ABOUT TO PICK UP!  This action figure was a Target exclusive and when it was released it was hard to find for a while.  It still might be.  I looked on Ebay and most were selling for double the price and while if I needed to I would have paid that, I still was hoping I didn't need to.

For a while I was tempted to pay a little bit more and get the Tommaso Ciampa figure too on Ebay as many sellers packaged them together.  In NXT they were a tag team before Ciampa turned on Gargano and since they've been feuding.  On Saturday as the NXT Takeover show the night before Summerslam they faced off again.  I won't spoil it for you, but I hope Gargano is called up to the main roster soon.  While on the back it says his NXT debut was June of 2015, I've been a fan for much longer, hence the reason I've wanted this action figure since I've heard about it.  I remember on Christmas Gargano posted a video on his twitter account of gifting a couple to his parents.  It was the first time he had an action figure of himself and he was able to get a couple before they were released.  I think I recently reposted that tweet.

I don't really try to get many action figures these days, unless I find them cheap, but this one I wanted since day one.  It's almost like I have watched him from his beginnings and it almost was like I wanted proof I am a fan.  He debuted in 2005, and while I can't say I watched him then, it was around 2008 or so when I first heard of him.  He was one of the top stars of a federation called Prime Wrestling Ohio, later named PRIME Wrestling, based in Cleveland, OH.  I found it one day on DirecTV on Sports Time Ohio.  PWO wasn't the greatest wrestling show, but I liked a lot of the wrestlers, guys I heard of like Jimmy Jacobs, Matt Cross, and guys who later would become more famous like Gregory Iron, Jake Crist, and more.  The ones I liked most though were ones I never heard of before, guys like Johnny Gargano, Krimson, Kirst, Benjamin Boone, and others.  It felt like an old territory days type federation as they had a nice mix of guys that you might have heard of, ones you didn't, and then some former names passing though for a few months like Rhyno, Kevin Nash, and others.  Eventually I lost the channel when I cut DirecTV, but I still followed the promotion some and followed Gargano as well.  Another wrestler who was there I loved was Portia Perez.  I loved here and followed her for many years.  Anyways, eventually PRIME went out of business and around that time Gargano was starting to make a name for himself in PWG and Evolve.  While I didn't get to see a lot of his matches, I still kept up.  I was waiting for the day I'd get to see him wrestle again on TV.  Then it was announced he signed with NXT and I knew one day I'd get to see him again.  I admit I haven't seen a lot of his NXT stuff, but I know when I get the WWE Network next time I'll make a list of stuff to watch he's been involved in.  Basically a Best of his NXT stuff.  I just hope he'll get called up to the WWE roster soon and preferably the Smackdown roster since next year it will be on Fox and I may not have the USA Network.

So when they announced an action figure of him, I knew I had to have it.  I was severely disappointed when they announced it was a Target exclusive since my closest store is 45 minutes away.  I don't like their website much either but every time I looked it up it was sold out.  So when my friend told me he got it I was happy.  I mentioned Ciampa earlier and I didn't care about getting his action figure, but if things were slightly different I probably would have jumped on that too.  As it turns out, before Ciampa made it to WWE and even before he was on Ring of Honor, I had a few chances to see him wrestle live, but I never did.  For a while he was training and wrestling for Harley Race's World League Wrestling and they made a few stops around my neck of the woods.  Well at that time almost every show was, as it was when they were based in Eldon, MO before moving to Troy, MO outside of St. Louis.  I don't regret going to the shows, but if I did go, I'd probably got his figure as well.  I've only been to one WLW show, but it was a good one where I saw Trevor Murdoch just before he was in WWE and on that night I met Mr. Race, Mick Foley and Terry Funk.  Not a bad night.  A couple weeks ago I found out WLW got a TV clearance in Mid-Missouri and in a month or so I can start watching their shows each week.  It's one of the few channels I can pick up with an antenna so I'm pretty happy.

So with that I guess I'll wrap it up.  I'm pretty happy with the gifts I've gotten lately and while I still have a lot of sorting to do on my big project, I took time to scan a bunch of stuff and have about 3 more posts to show soon, so I could be posting another one later this week including one from a fellow blogger who sent me a nice package of cards recently.  I can't wait to talk about those, but for now I'll let you be waiting in suspense.  Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Make It A Movie Night

I miss the old days.  I mean I like how you are able to access stuff much faster these days, but I've watched some YouTube videos lately and was reminded how today's kids will never know what a video store is.  Kids today may not even know Netflix used to be a DVD by mail service.  In a few years they might not even know DVD's at all.  I've gotten use to them not knowing what a VCR or a VHS tape is, but its a sign I'm getting older and while it didn't seem like much hassle back then I guess today it is much easier to watch movies.  At the tip of your fingers you can watch movies or TV shows whenever or wherever.  For example I watched "The Legend of Bagger Vance" for the first time in 10 years the other night.  Its funny, I have the DVD, but I just never watch it.  However at night I need some type of noise and saw it was on on of the Roku channels (either The Roku Channel, VUDU, or the like) for free (but with commercials) and I turned it on.  I'm not fully engaged in new technology and my Internet speed is slow.  Though it works for me for now.  I don't use a smart phone and I think its funny people will watch movies on a smart phone but think back to the 90's and shutter when you had a 13" TV in your bedroom.  TVs get larger and phones get smaller, but people are more accepting to watching shows on phones.  I guess I'm a grump and use phones for well, calling people.  I'm not big on texts either, but I will if I need to.  This is becoming a rant for some reason, and that was not my intention.

The reason I brought it up is I hit Savvy Seconds last week and also the local Dollar Tree, and found some tapes and movies I thought I'd show off today.  I finished off a huge stack of cards on my desk adding them to my secondary Trading Card Database account in my list of "Possible Trade cards" and as it stands I have over 13,000 cards counted.  I will likely keep some of the cards after all are counted and sorted, but for now its easier to just sort and count then separate later.  If I have over 50% of the set done, I might build the sets, otherwise, I'll try to find new homes for them.  So before I sort more cards I thought I would blog.  So let's check out some movies.

Let's start with Savvy Seconds, my local second hand store.  I didn't find any DVD's or really anything of interest this time, but since the book section was crowded when we entered the store, I looked at other stuff first.  So before we checked out, my mom looked at the book section and since none caught my eye, I checked out.... VHS TAPES?  Well, 10 for a buck seems like a good deal until you realize a working VCR would be helpful.  So whenever I find one, I'll have some tapes to watch.  In this instance I found 10 sports related tapes and we'll check them out now.

What is VHS tapes without some bloopers?  I'm sure these are all the recycled clips we've seen before, but I'm a little excited to see them.  This was before the days of high definition programming and the great thing about pre-2000 bloopers are not only the production values lower, but since a lot of games were more local than national, the announcers were more laid back too, so its funny to hear their reactions as well.  I'm sure if I looked on YouTube I could find these uploaded somewhere, but I haven't done that yet.

ST. LOUIS RAMS?  They don't exist anymore, this much be worth MILLIONS!  Maybe not, but still as much as I bagged on the Rams, and I was the only person in the room during the Super Bowl rooting for the Titans, I am happy they won.  I liked Kurt Warner and a few of the other guys, but at that time I just liked the Titans more.

The Packers one I got mainly because my mom is a huge Packers fan.  I'm not sure how it started, but its always been her favorite team.  The funny thing is though she never liked Brett Favre or even Aaron Rodgers that much.  Though she did miss him after he got hurt last year and the Packers sucked afterwards.  I would like to see this tape though.  I like a lot of the recap tapes the leagues made each year because they were still pretty fresh and told the story of the team not through hindsight like we might tend to do these days.  Now if I could find some Chiefs ones and one from the Buccaneers the year they won the Super Bowl.  I have that Super Bowl on VHS though with some pre and post show stuff and even some HSN post Super Bowl selling Championship hats and shirts.

A NFL tape with music from Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Robert Palmer, and other rockers?  Sure, why not.  As I gather its pretty much I guess music montages with NFL plays, but I was starting to get tired of staring at the VHS tapes and ready to go.  I found this one after I found the 9th or 10th copy of My Best Friend's Wedding and I really just wanted to get out of there.

This one I set aside almost as soon as I saw it.  While today I'm not as big on the concept of pro athletes competing in the Olympics, the Dream Team was so iconic and seeing the cover of this tape brought back memories.  I'm sure its on Youtube, its just a matter of finding it.

Speaking of Youtube, I did do a random search and found the Shaq one on there, and I think found the NBA Superstars as well, but didn't watch them.  In the early 90's I could probably name at least 2 players on every NBA team.  If asked today I could name maybe 15 guys in the entire league.  It's a different game than it was back then and I haven't adapted to it.  I'm not saying its better or worse, it just doesn't appeal to me as much as it did back then.  I'm sure if I had a more localized team that would help too, but I don't really care for the Thunder or Grizzlies that much.  I wasn't too big on the Bulls in the 90's but we had WGN so I got to see pretty much all their games.  I don't even know if my local Fox Sports Net channel shows NBA anymore.  For a while they showed Pacers games, but its been a while since I've seen any.  If asked to name a favorite team, I'd probably say either the Knicks or the Timberwolves.  I wasn't as dedicated to NBA teams as I was to other sports (aside from hockey who I don't think I ever found a team I rooted for more then a few months).

This tape was the main reason I decided to buy these tapes.  While I'll never be a Cardinals fan, I remember as a kid watching a lot of their games on TV.  The Columbia, Missouri market was all Cardinals and during the summer I would get to see their games (remember when teams played weekday DAY games on a regular basis, those were the days).  I somewhat remember the Cardinals celebrating 1992 as their 100th year, and I remember that logo on a few baseball cards.  That logo was what really made me get this tape.  I can't wait to see this one.  I might have to see if any of my VCR's work so I can check these out.

When I got to the checkout I noticed the sign for tapes actually said 5 for .50 or 10 for 1.00.  So I could have passed on half of these, but I don't regret it.  Next time I go back I might look again for more, as I skipped an entire rack of tapes and probably another 200 or some movies to check out.  Since they moved the DVD's away from the area it gives me something to look at.  As for their DVD selection, its not very good and it took about 8 seconds to see I didn't need anything.

After we left we made a trip to the local Dollar Tree.  It's been a while since I've been in there and really just went because we just wanted to get out of the house for a bit, so we looked.  When we opened the doors I spotted the front area had some DVD's.  You set your expectations pretty low when you find movies at Dollar Tree, but sometimes you get lucky.  Today I think I did good.

When I saw this DVD I grabbed it because I thought my friend needed a copy.  Turns out he didn't so now I have a backup in case my first one is scratched.  This movie I usually watch once a year around Halloween.  It's I guess labeled as a "Christian Thriller" as Frank Peretti is a Christian fiction writer, but I like it because while its not real scary it has a few good moments.  I thought the casting was pretty good as well as it had David Keith and Leighton Meester, and for a buck its worth checking out.

That was the only DVD I got, but on rare occasions they also have Blu-Ray movies.  I don't have a lot of Blu-Ray movies as it wasn't until last year when I got a Blu-Ray player, but I wouldn't mind building my collection up, and for a buck I think that's an easy risk.

I was really excited when I saw this for a buck.  I saw this on Netflix I guess a year or so after it was released and liked it.  It wasn't a movie I guess I needed in my collection, at least I didn't think, but for a buck I couldn't pass it up.  I don't think the quality would be much better than a DVD copy, but my Blu-Ray collection currently 90% Disney movies, so I'm happy to get something different.

I heard about this movie but didn't have a lot of interest in seeing it.  However when I saw it for a buck I thought about it.  I mean I could rent it from a streaming app for 99 cents up to 4 bucks, or get it at Redbox for whatever it costs now, what 2 bucks, or I could just buy it for a buck and if I don't like it, never have to watch it again.  What made me get it though was the fact it was not only Blu-Ray, but a DVD copy, AND a digital copy.  While I mentioned at the start how I miss going to the movie store and get movies, I do like how when you buy movies now some come with digital copies.  Not only does it save wear and tear on the discs, but if you travel you don't need to bring all your movies with you.  So basically 3 copies of this movie for a buck, I couldn't pass it up.  In fact if the digital copy worked (sometimes its buyer beware, but 95% of the time they've worked, even if they were expired already), I could use that, then resell the DVD or Blu-Ray and make my money back.  I was pretty happy.

When I got home I was even more happy.

I opened the case and out fell a mini notepad and some thumbtack stickers.  I guess the movie is about a roadtrip, and the idea is to use these thumbtack stickers to stick on a map places you've been and places you want to go.  While I really like that, my first thought was "Do people (besides me) use maps anymore?"  Most people use GPS and Google Maps, I hardly see anyone, at least anyone younger than me using actual maps anymore.  I love Google Maps, and even used Mapquest, but I still miss maps.... I'm a nerd.  Oh well.

Overall though, 3 copies of a movie, a notepad, and stickers for a buck was maybe the best deal I got in a while.

So I got one final movie and if I decide to watch a movie tonight this might be it.

Even without the Digital copy I would have bought this.  Even if it was DVD I would have bought this.  There have been 5 Marine movies and a 6th one in the works, and the fourth one it the only one I haven't seen.  If I were to rank them in order of favorite (minus this one), it would go 1,3,2,5.  The original was so cheesy that I liked it.  The third one was the first one with The Miz and he turned the franchise around.  The second one had Ted DiBiase Jr. in it and while I liked it more at the time then the first one, it isn't as memorable.  The fifth one I just watched last month and it was real hit and miss.  I liked The Miz and Bo Dallas in it, but wish Curtis Axel had more lines in it.  At any rate after seeing the fifth one, I don't have high expectations for this one, but again, I'd pay a buck to see it, so why not just buy it?  The digital copy expired a few months ago, but it let me use it so tonight it looks like I'll have an AWESOME night.  I have been a Miz fan forever.  By the time he entered the WWE I was already a fan.  I was a fan when he ran around the Real World house doing The Rock impressions with a fake belt he had.  While I don't watch as much wrestling these days, I still keep up on the product.  I was happy to hear he got a reality show and even happier its on USA Network (one of the few channels I do get with this crappy cable).  The show is called Miz and Mrs. and it follows around The Miz and his wife Maryse a current/former WWE Women's wrestler.  It was filmed before she gave birth to their first child a few months back.  The first two episodes I've seen so far have been funny and I didn't really think he knew that many celebrities but I guess he does.  This latest episode I saw had wrestlers like John Morrison on but also celebs like Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding) and Avril Lavigne and James Roday.  I don't know how many episodes it lasts, but I'll try to watch them if I remember.

So with that I'll wrap things up.  I think I got a pretty good selection of movies and some great deals.  So if you wonder why I'm not blogging as much, its because I'm still sorting cards and I'm likely watching movies or TV.  Me TV shows WKRP in Cincinnati every night and they've just started showing the first episodes again so I try to tune it.  Anyways, thanks for reading everyone and while the buzz in the card world is on The National, I've liked seeing the tweets from the show.  It seems funny though the biggest complaint right now is wi fi on the floor.  It wouldn't do me any good, but I get some of the complaints about pulling up checklists.  Even though I'd likely watch, I can live without 6000 people livestreaming the event.  Hope all that went have fun, and if you didn't go, maybe you'll find some good deals on COMC as they are having a sale this week.  Have a great week everyone.