Thrifting The Night Away

 At the end of October, my sister took my mom and I to the outskirts of Kansas City to The Brass Armadillo.  The weather made it a trip we decided to do that day though we planned for it a couple weeks out.  What was odd was being inside a lot lately when the weather forecast said the weather wasn't going to be too great, my mom and I made a few trips to storage and moved a lot of stuff there.  We brought home a few big items and we were pretty tired after getting home.  Usually when we know we are going on a trip, we give ourselves at least a days rest in between.  On this occasion we worked a lot on back to back days figuring the weather would be bad, and as it turned out, it wasn't.  The alternative plan was to hit a Antique Mall much closer to home and we would be home a lot sooner.  As it turned out, we spent a lot of the day out and by the time we got home, I can say I barely wanted to move.  All in all though I had a lot of fun, and next time we plan a trip I will rest up before going.  Next time I will also try to take pictures.  On this trip I brought my camera, but I guess because I haven't gone many places, once I got there, I just wanted to look and not take pictures.  In hindsight I'm glad I didn't because I would have gotten wore out a lot sooner.

Going into the trip, my plan was to find some cheap ball cards and possibly a couple other random cheap items.  Since my last trip maybe 3-4 years ago, card prices have skyrocketed and gone is the big area that had 25 cent packs of cards.  I was a bit bummed, but I understood.  Most of the cards for sell were behind closed glass where you had to ring an attendant to unlock the glass.  If I wanted a few things maybe I would have done it, but I don't want to ring a bell 20 different times and walk away empty handed.  So I browsed the glass cases pretty quick, but did enjoy some of the items for sale.

I didn't leave the place empty handed, and I have photos of what I bought.  I did end up buying some cards and a couple other items, so not only did I have fun, but I have new items to enjoy.  Let's take a look at what I got.

I bought two unopened packs of these Kansas City Royals Police packs.  I think they were 75 cents each and aside for picture of the kid, I didn't get any doubles.  I also think I built half the set.  I don't expect to finish the set unless I make another trip up there and maybe buy a few more packs, but it was fun to open these.  Kansas City Power & Light sponsored the set in conjunction with Topps, and while I didn't have any from this set, I do have a few other random cards from other sets.  Maybe one day when I seriously work on my collection again I will see what I have and need.

These were my two favorite cards and I got them in separate packs.  I think the Sluggerrr card would be nicer if he was facing the camera, but its still a nice card.

I also decided to buy a couple other team sets, but I had a problem.  Its been a while since I've worked on cards, so I forgot what I have.  I haven't even visited the TCDB in over a month, just because I haven't been dealing with cards.  I think if I knew for sure I was going, I would have spent a bit of time looking at what I have and making a list.  I don't have a smartphone, so I can't just look it up.  It would be easier to do that, but I also like going places and being unattached to the internet and basically the outside world.  It allows me to enjoy the moment more.  So I bought two team sets, and luckily I didn't have one of them.  At least I was only out a buck 40 on the other set.

I should have known the 1997 pack looked familiar but oh well, I got some cards for 1.40 that I already have.  Maybe if I go back to the database I'll find a Royals fan who doesn't have the set and can make a trade.  I've bought from this seller before, so I was glad to see he still had stuff at a reasonable price and it wasn't behind glass.  I will say however I do regret not going back to one of the glass booths because they had a sale everything for a buck each and I wanted a couple things.  Oh well, I guess I'm better off.

Speaking of better off, I did find some quarter packs of cards and I limited myself to buying 4 packs.  My logic was in case I found something later I wouldn't have to take more cards back.  I probably could have bought 5 bucks worth of packs, but in I was better off.

I bought these four packs based on the top card of each.  Not a lot had Royals on the front card and the others that did were ones I knew I had.  I'm happy I didn't buy more because I was less than thrilled opening these packs later.  One pack had 8 of the same card and were in succession.  It was a Royals player from the 1987 Topps set, and I wasn't too happy.  Another pack had about 8 Jeremy Burnitz cards in it, but luckily they were all different.  With that said, I'm contemplating starting a PC for Burnitz since I have quite a few of his cards now and also as a reminder that you always take a risk.  Again I can't complain a lot because after finding the few cards I did want to keep and using the total I spent just on cards, I averaged about 17 cents a card (for the cards I wanted/needed), so I can't really be too mad.  It does include the KCP&L cards and the other team set cards, so I still think I did fine.

I really expected a few more cards for sale but aside from selling cards in the glass cases, very few vendors had some.  I did find some Cyndi Lauper trading cards and I considered getting them for a bit but decided against it.  If the vendor cleaned his booth a bit more I would have looked at what else he had but the booth looked like a tornado passed through and it was hard to get to the cards in the first place.  Maybe next time if I spend a bit more time I might move some stuff, but I'm not like the American Pickers and going to climb over stuff.

The variety of the Brass Armadillo is really good though,  I enjoyed finding stuff I had as a child or even stuff I still have.  A few items we found we kind of interesting because besides us having those things, I've never seen them before.  Like a hippo kids flashlight.  Never seen one for sale, but they had one.  By the time we got the the last row I was dead on my feet, but we spent a little over 3 hours searching throughout the store, and add in the couple hours in the car, I was a bit tired.  I didn't enjoy the last couple aisles as much, but it was still a fun experience.  I didn't walk away with any new movies, but I did buy a book.  I was happy to find it, and also happy I can display it.  A couple items we had gotten out of storage the day before was a couple old bookcases.  They were pretty warped, but I still brought them home.  I couldn't find the shelves for one, but the other one I did and I set it up the day before the trip.  For the last few years I've had books stacked in my closet, but I wanted to display them, and now I can.  I will write a followup post showing it off as well as other things I have on display, but I will show the book I bought in a moment.  The other bookcase I bought home in case I needed another one for books but had no idea how to use it.  Luckily all my books fit on the first one, so the one without shelves sat in the hallway for a day or two.  Then I realized I could use it to store some VHS tape until I go through them.  That's a post in itself, but I'll display that one and post the store next time.

So let's see the book I bought on this trip.

When I go to thrift stores or Antique Malls, I don't plan on buying books.  Usually they charge a lot for them and I usually have no interest in them.  However the place I do occasionally buy books has not had many good ones as of late and I'm worried they might not have many in the future (its had to pass up 25 books for a quarter).  However on this trip to Brass Armadillo, I saw a shelf of books that said "$1 each".  Eh, for a buck I'll look, it doesn't hurt.  I spotted this book and out of curiosity I looked in the index to see if my small town was listed in it.  I was quite surprised to see it was, so I bought it.  Its outdated, but it will still be a fun read down the line.  Since I have a bookcase I now get to decide what I want to read first.  This book has a chance to be read first because its easier for me to read books that aren't novels.  Short and sweet.  Also because my local town is planning on have a big celebration in a year or two for its 150th anniversary, so I want to see if other towns in this book have ideas on how to celebrate. Overall, I can't go wrong for a buck.

I did buy one other item.  I didn't get a great picture of it though, but it was 4 bucks.  When I saw it I didn't immediately grab it because I am cheap, but the more I thought about it, I knew I'd regret not getting it.  It is now part of a showcase I have on display on my shelves.  I will show all the shelves off next time, but today I'll give a small glimpse since it has the item I bought.

The item in question is the baseball.  I know its not a game used baseball, but it is a baseball from the 1985 World Series.  I have a few items pertaining to the I-70 series which featured the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals.  When on display, this ball will look quite nice beside the pin, the cups from the series, and a more recent bobblehead of Dan Quisenberry, one of the players on the 1985 team.  I also have a couple hats as well as a t-shirt and a program from the 1985 Series.  Once I have it all together, I think it will look nice, maybe even a shadowbox will be in order.  However since baseball season is over, I try to limit my off season sports items to display (same goes with NASCAR).  So next time you can see what I do have on display.  You can kind of see a few things in the photo including a pin from my town when they celebrated the 100th Anniversary in 1973.  Also in the photo is a watch from Pilot Travel Centers when I worked inside a Wendy's at one of their stores, and an Employee of the Month plaque next to it.  I'll describe the stuff in more detail next time.  I just wanted to focus on the baseball.

All in all it was a fun trip aside from being tired.  Looking back I should have had them open the glass on the $1 case and I might have picked up a Royals program from the 70s for a buck or two, but overall I'm not worried about it.  Next time I go I'll have a list of cards I have or at least need, and work from there.  I will consider buying more of the quarter packs, but I do hope by then cards aren't so sought after and maybe there will be a better selection.  After we left we did hit a Five Below store and I walked out empty handed.  No big deal, I kind of wanted to go home anyways.  After eating at Sonic, we came home, and got some much needed rest.  Maybe our next trip back will be a lot sooner, and I won't do so much before going.

Anyways, I know there wasn't a lot of photos, but I wanted to talk about this trip specifically and next time I will have more photos, they will show off a lot.  Thanks to everyone who still reads this, I know I don't post much, but I am grateful for those who have stuck around.  I've bought a few cards on Listia as of late and with COMC shipping times decreasing, I might have them ship some cards soon, so its possible I might back into more card stuff and might prompt me to write more.  Until then, thanks for reading and have a great day!