Baseball Card Shoppe - Madison, WI

My wife and I traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, to spend the Labor Day weekend with her newly married cousin. They had recently just moved to a new neighborhood and it was the weekend of their annual block party. People from Wisconsin known how to party!

They blocked off the street, brought games like ladder golf, bags, and table tennis. Everyone set up their own card table in the middle of the street to make one loooong dinner table for the pot luck. There was a movie playing once the sun set. After the kids went to bed the adults stayed out, cranked up the music, and turned the street into a dance party. The music was actually pretty good... lots of tunes from the last 25 years and a nice mix of genres.  We went to bed "early" and I got up around 2am to go to the bathroom. That's when I looked out the window to see about six people cleaning up.

The finally turned down the music and wheeled the mobile bar back into a driveway. Pretty impressive for being homemade if you ask me. There was a mini frig accessible from the back, and yes, there were two kegs underneath connected to those tappers.  Marvelous!

Before we ventured out to the block party I snuck away to a local card shop attached to the Westgate Mall, known as the Baseball Card Shoppe. I was the only patron in the shop and I talked with a relative of the owner a bit. He was a nice guy and he gave me a quick tour of the place. There was plenty to look at, but what I was impressed with the most was all of the unopened boxes of wax within the store. Many were discounted and some of them dated back to the early 1980s. None were discounted enough for me to pull the trigger, but they were very competitive to Ebay listings, as I checked the app on my phone as I browsed the inventory.

I did make a few purchases, which I thought I would show off.

 Bowman Platinum is probably my favorite release of 2017, but I haven't been able to track down any packs at retail outlets, nor is The Vogelmonster included within its checklist. Bummer. Still, I'm a sucker for shiny AND sparkly!

On to the good stuff!

 I couldn't pass up this coin! The price was better than what I could find on Ebay and I'm struggling to find vintage Ron Santo cards I don't already own. This purchase was a no-brainer.

 So, sure, why not a 54 year old Topps Coin?

I paid about half the price of a blaster for the next item, and I'm kicking myself for not buying the other Cubs the shop had.

 It's a 1936 Diamond Matchbook of Cubs' HOF catcher Gabby Hartnett. This could very well be the most unique item in my collection, and it certainly is one of the top five oldest.  I'm really happy to add this to my collection, but I'm struggling to find a place to store the five inch tall item.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend!