I promised another teaser about that "new shop". Well, tonight you get it. That first week I made three separate trips to the store. I did not go at all last week nor do I plan on going this week. I might take a Saturday trip to Clearwater though, we'll see.
Anyways: get your popcorn ready as you browse "Grand Slam Collectibles".
Yeah, this greets you outside the store. I know it's supposed to Michael Jordan, but look close at that face....reminds me of the "head" zombie in the movie "I am Legend" starring Will Smith.
Immediately upon walking in this was on my right side. I spent 4 hours digging through those boxes on my first trip.
This is a view from the front door at the register. The wooden tables on the right are basically cards from a dollar to roughly $100.00, they put cards $150.00 and above in the glass cases that run the full length of both sides of the shop. The baseball bins are what you see with football on the opposite side, basketball towards the center (on the far end), and non-sport on the end you can not see in this pic.
Jerseys on the front windows. There are more jersey's at the back of the store as you will see later.
The kid in the blue t-short works there. His name is Dylan and he rang me out on my 2nd trip (he is new in the business, but knows cards- he has some learning to do). I spent the 4 hours from trip two at that wooden bin and pulled a LOT! (posts coming in about a week on those). When he added them up, discounted like $7.00 plus no charge on maybe a dozen cards. I quickly had the shop manager (my old trading buddy from a dozen years ago) help out, and a little back and forth and I got $150.00 knocked off the total. Don't get me wrong Dylan is super cool and really knows sports cards- all sports great to chat with through the time I spent and will be spending there.By the way, that shoe box with some 2025 Donruss laying on top is what I was buying that day and yes it is full.
This is the very back of the shop (customer area). There is storage further back behind a closed door (that's also where the bathroom is). You can see the boxes of comics and those jersey's I mentioned earlier.
This shot is that first aisle again but from the back of the shop where you can see the Hot Wheel section.
The Hot Wheels across from the previous photo and the glass cased stuff.
The next aisle also has Hot Wheels stuff on the back end too.
The next aisle over has helmets, pretty much every one of them autographed too.
Here you can see the autographed stuff hanging on the walls and glass encased vintage stuff. You can see vintage games in the back too.
Autographed bats.
Across from the bats are vintage metal lunch boxes. This is where I found that 1977 Star Wars that I bought on trip 1. On the top are un autographed mini helmets.
Here is a closer view of the stuff in the case (from a few pics before).
One of a few Star Wars sections within the shop. This one is next to the bats I showed. Inside the case some really old vintage Barbie's and G.I. Joes.
Some misc. items.
This view again comes from the back on that aisle with the lunch boxes. This is the sealed unopened junk wax sections. The baseball is furthest away towards the store front. They have so much of this stuff that cases are just sitting on the floor. No wonder why they are planning on double the size of the shop.
Lots more G.I. Joe and other stuff.
More Star Wars.
This pic should have been a couple of spots before.
This just the baseball junk wax section.
On the very top is a $1995.00 Star Ward vintage piece. Way out of my budget, I get squimished at 10% of that price. Some non sport boxes.
Some complete sets in boxes and binders with more non sport boxes too.
Vintage non-sports cards like Star Wars and the Topps Presidents set. I see some original GPK in the upper left too.
The middle aisle stuff.
The other side of middle aisle.
I'm closing out the shop preview with the signed SHAQ shoe.
I am looking forward to see this shop grow, but I assure you this place is busy non-stop 10am to 6pm SEVEN days a week. In just the few months they have been open they already have a HUGE customer base ie: regulars and as they expand what the shop does to accommodate them kind of gets me a little excited. Although I have already done pretty much any damage (to my wallet) that the future holds, I can see me having a day there every month to dig through the "quarter" boxes. The best part of which is a 15 minute drive versus 1-2 hours each way. Yeah.....I'm loving it. Saves not just the hours of my time, but the gas too!
They have a website but it really sucks right now, they are just now starting to work on it, slowly. One day they'll get there.
I hope you enjoyed the teaser! I still have the rest of trip 1, plus trips 2 and 3 to post about after I finish with the last trip over to Ormond.
Dang, that place is huge!! I’ll definitely have to stop by before Kyler is back in school
ReplyDeleteA little too far for me to travel there. Looks like nice things to buy if you are in the market. Enjoy the night all!
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of amazing that a store like this, at this size, can exist in this day and age. Hope they have many business years ahead.
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ReplyDeleteI could easily spend a whole day there!
ReplyDeleteOh man... this is my dream store. It has just about everything I love. That Imperial Shuttle is AWESOME! I mean... no way I'd pay that price, but that's one of my all-time favorite Star Wars vehicles. I would have loved to look through all of those junk wax boxes too. Thank you for taking us on this tour.
ReplyDeletegreat googly moogly no wonder you dropped your old place.
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