I spent this past weekend hanging out in northern Michigan at my brother-in-law's wedding in the small town of Alpena. It was a fun wedding and a great weekend. I love getting to spend time "Up North" in a small town on Lake Huron. The views cannot be beat........
and the Meijer store typically has all the baseball cards that I cannot find around Raleigh.
However, I skipped the retail aisles of northern Michigan during this trip in favor of the town's newly founded sports collectables store. Before I tell you that a small town of roughly 10,000 people has a better sports cards scene than one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States, let's clarify the status of Raleigh's local sports card shops. I think it's debatable whether or not Raleigh has a sports card shop, I guess it depends on how many digits are in your sports card budget and whether you like sleeping in your own bed.
My budget is less than four digits per shopping trip and I have a really nice mattress and comfy pillows.
Yes, I prefer the sports card scene of Alpena, Michigan over Raleigh, North Carolina.
Durham and Chapel Hill too.
Here is my scoop on Herbie's Sports Collectibles.
Nothing is very hard to find in Alpena and Herbie's is no different.
The owner runs a local restaurant that is located in a bright yellow building. Herbie's is located next door to the restaurant in a small building that has some resemblance to the card and comic shop on The Simpsons. Maybe it's just the striped awning.
I did not take pictures in the store, but I will be back in a few weeks and will give this store a follow-up post or two. The space is small, but there is a lot to look at with three display cases, several shelves of memorabilia and autographs, a slabbed card section, and shelves with packs and boxes behind the display cases. I spent roughly 35 minutes in the store looking at cards and talking to the owner, but could have spent longer if I did not have to attend a rehearsal dinner that evening.
The owner Greg was friendly and we talked about collecting, baseball card stores, and sports. No pressure to buy anything. Just pleasant conversation while you are looking at cards. I know a few people in town who have had similar positive buying experiences at the store.
I gave myself a budget of roughly $50 and I was going for single cards. Here is what I took home:
Two Hostess cards......
Both of these cards are from the 1977 set and have pretty clean cut lines. On the Fidrych card, I love his hair flowing out of his hat. That's natural curl from "The Bird", no perm needed in his case. On the Lou Brock card, I love the Cardinals pillbox hat with the stripes. Several National League teams wore these during the 1976 season, the Cardinals do not get the same attention as the Pirates for the pillbox style hats, but the red hat with the white stripes pops in my book.
Both of these Hostess cards cost me a few bucks.
Next up is a pair of 1975 Topps.
I also found a mini of former Durham Bulls pitcher Mickey Lolich. More sideburns, plus the satin jacket is sweet. Lolich did not reach 3,000 strikeouts, but he's close.
Again, both these cards were fairly inexpensive.
A few more.......
and a 1981 Topps Ozzie Smith.
He had some bins with inexpensive singles, but due to a lack of time I was only able to flip through a few cards. This is another area I will explore more on my next trip to Michigan. I found a late 1990s Mark McGwire Pacific Prism and a Panini USA Baseball card of Ozzie Smith.
Both nice cards, both were throw-ins when I checked out.
I had a large portion of my budget available after picking out the previous cards, which meant that I could go for a large card to end my first trip to Herbie's with a strong finish.
I ended up going for a Durham Bulls player, not sure I have ever posted his autograph on my blog.......
I have one other Joe Morgan autograph, but he is a Durham Bulls player who is underrepresented in my card collection. Felt like this 2017 Topps autograph was calling my name and I am happy to own it.
Overall, Herbie's was a great experience and there will be additional trips to this store posted on my blog.
First off, congratulations to your brother-in-law. I know he won't see it, nor would he probably care about what some random person thinks, but I'm always happy to hear about folks getting married.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen over the last few years, most new card shops cater to the breaker crowd; with their wares being mostly made up of just marked up blasters and expensive things in slabs. Judging by your purchases, this place is obviously much more than that. Dare I say, it's a bit old-fashioned? Are you collecting any of these vintage sets, or were you just picking up some names because the prices were right? And I don't recall you mentioning Joe Morgan on here before, so I had no idea that he too was once a Bull. Are you interested in any more modern cards of him? If so, I have a few that aren't doing anything for me, and could definitely use a new home.
Thank you for the well-wishes. I am not sure if he reads this space or not, I know he has in the past.
DeleteThe shop is definitely old-fashioned, but has some new school elements, which I did not discuss in the article. For example, I actually picked up two cards my brother-in-law had given the store owner a few weeks prior to have graded as part of a group submission. Not sure if he does breaks, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did. The store is doing a good job of balancing the two.
I am not set collecting anything vintage at the moment. I have thought about it. I did a lot of Joe Morgan collecting when I first moved to Durham in 2005/2006, pre-blog. Prior to Chipper Jones being elected to the Hall of Fame, Morgan was the only former Durham Bull to be enshrined in Cooperstown. Wild for a team that's over 100 years old. I have not really done anything to show off my collection of Morgan cards, but it is decidedly vintage. Almost all from his playing career. If you want to relocate some modern cards to my collection, I would be happy to take them. I actually have a stack of cards for you at the moment that I was going to mail out during my next school break in December.