Des Moines is French for The Moines

Mrs. Eamus Catuli and I went to Des Moines last weekend for a little vacation. You may be wondering what there is to do in Iowa. Actually, Iowa's capital city is a hip and active town. There's plenty of walking/hiking spots, a couple beautiful lakes, a vast farmer's market, fun night life, plenty of unique dining spots, and the Iowa Cubs.

This was our second time in Des Moines and we enjoyed exploring the city just as much as the first.  BTW, the title of this post is something I stole from a t-shirt shop. Yeah, I'm not that creative.

As we entered Iowa, on the way there, I was able to convince my wife to make a quick stop at Midwest Collectables in Davenport. This was the third time I've hit this little brick and mortar shop and it continues to be worth the stop.

I think my favorite items are the team bags, sorted by player, for a dollar. Usually, there's anywhere from 8 to 20 cards of one star player in the team bag.  For one dollar, that's not a bad deal.

On one of the tables in the center there where half a dozen 800-count boxes, each packed full with cards from a specific team, for $10 each. I would have picked up a Cubs box, but there wasn't one to be had. There were three Yankees boxes, two Cardinals, and one box of Red Sox. I'm sure there's nothing too valuable in them, but if someone is interested I'd be happy to drive over and pick one up for you. (Is it obvious I'm looking for an excuse to go back?)

I spent most of my money on cards from the $1 vintage box. Most of the cards were from the late 60s and early 70s and the cards were either poorly conditioned stars or near mint commons. Condition is not a qualifier in my collection, so I picked out a bunch of HOFers.

A bunch of the stars were "marked down," because I'm assuming they didn't sell at one of the recent card shows. This 1969 Johnny Bench is an excellent upgrade for my HOF Binder.

I found a couple of Ron Santo cards to add to my mini player collection of the beloved third sacker and announcer.

The 1970 card, on the left, has rounded corners and some paper loss at the top. The 1969 card, on the right, also has some fuzzy corners and an apparent fifty year old wax stain on the front.

Yeah, my wife's hair dryer and a square of toilet paper did the trick in removing the wax. Very nice. I've done this wax removal process before and it's an easy one, which doesn't harm the card and brings it back to life a little bit. (Here's more on the process, which was also on a 1968 card.)

Whelp, that's it for today. I'm trying to get back into a semi-regular blogging rhythm. I suppose two posts in two days is a decent start. I certainly have enough material, thanks to the generosity of my fellow bloggers... now if I can only keep the motivation going!

Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by!