Grand Slam Collectibles: Ocala, Florida

 HERE WE GO>>>>>>>>>>>

I have mentioned for about 3 or 4 weeks now about the new local card shop for me. Because I do not have any SOCIALS, nor cable, and rarely listen to the radio (unless I am in my vehicle) I had no idea of their existence. They opened in February of this year. I found them in June. Not far from me (15 minutes) and I love that. They have all kinds of stuff as you seen in the photos I posted previously. They are not the cheapest cards to find, but considering no travel and the pricing of late at that "other place" I consider it a win because the travel time alone is priceless. Not to mention, deals can be made. I made THREE trips that first week whereas I spent 4 hours on each of those trips. I already showed you the 1977 Star Wars lunchbox I picked up on day one. Tonight I will start the posts of the cards I also grabbed on day 1. 

Needless to say I was excited, thrilled, and very happy to find this shop especially considering reconnecting with an old hobbyist buddy (the store manager) from before I started this blog or maybe it was at the very beginning of this blog. WARNING: (more like advice) Don't go grocery shopping when you are hungry and likewise buying cards when excited is also troublesome, lol.

I haven't been back since those 3 trips 2 weeks now and I do plan on going either this week, but probably next week. I have posts from these 3 trips that will last easily the next 4 weeks. 4 Weeks. So, if you have graciously sent me cards recently, those posts will follow once I have completed the initial GRAND SLAM stuff. I'm also thinking of going to the Tampa card show this coming Saturday (might go Friday night instead). 

With all of that said let us get to some of the cards I pulled from those quarter boxes right at the front of the shop that stopped me in my tracks.  I will do the Braves tonight plus a couple of scans of set build needs, and then Thursday and next Monday do the rest of the quarter box cards which buy the way I made a DEAL on that first batch. Basically paid a nickel each.

That are the Braves, and yes I di already have some on those sitting in my Sport Lots box, but these were put in my hands first and were all needs.

All cards here were needs and the next 2 posts from Grand Slam were too.

I am looking forward to hanging out at the shop from time to time, and with literally no drive time to weigh in a monthly visit sounds pretty good to me now that I have already done the "go crazy" purchases out of the way.

Have a great night folks!

Last of the Mohican's.....so to speak.

 Alrighty then, we have made to the last of the last trip over to Ormond Beach. The PC additions.

I paid roughly 50 cents for these cards. Figuring far less than that (I was thinking they'd be .33) and hoping for a quarter, otherwise I would have left them. Yes, some are good deals at .50 for sure, but some of these could of just as easily been in a dime-box too or more than likely a quarter box.

Three Roki's, certainly a good deal at .50 at least for now.

I already had most of these, so I would have most certainly left them.

A Nolan Ryan card #d to just 100 is also a very good deal for .50.

That covers it. I'll be hitting the first trip to my new LCS (Grand Slam) tomorrow!

Have a great night!

Shadow SHOTS (with a wrinkle).

 Another week has come and gone, and now a new weekend is here. I'm putting in a 'NEW" wrinkle to the Shadow Shots posts. Going forward (from this post on), when you are commenting on what YOU see in the shadows, also LMK if there is a card that really needs removed from the binder. I've already pulled those from the previous posts'. Let's face it some of the shadows suck. Let's get them out of book.

Here I just see a really nice shadow. I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

This one looks a lot like one from the last post.  I see nothing.

Easily the best one today. I see a man wearing a derby hat and I see his shadow too!

Ormond Beach: round 2

 Tonight is all set build needs pulled from the dollar boxes, whereas in "the old days" I'd get them for 3 for a buck at worst. Yeah these cost me .50 each. Still a good deal, but I am spoiled. The majority of the cards are from the 2025 Topps Chrome Black.

The hobby boxes jumped in price from $180.00 last year to an average of $250.00, most going for $310.00. What's in the box? 1 encased auto and two 6 card packs whereas 2 of those will probably be a parallel, so in reality 10 base cards for 3 Benjamins make them valued (lol-haha) $30.00 a piece (the set is 150 cards). Yeah I'll never pay that. I still like finding them in the dime boxes (if I ever see another one of those), but I'll be happy in the quarter boxes. In reality again, I usually find them in dollar boxes and buying bulk used to get me at .33. - .50 the most which is what this batch cost. Not complaining because I didn't buy a box to build the set.

That's 39 of the 150 cards in the set. I know less than $20.00 for 26% of the set is a good deal. Will I ever complete the set? I doubt it, but that is the way is with all of those high end sets I build. I'll live with.

I won't complain about 50 cent high end Ted Williams and Nolan Ryan cards either. That covers round two of the Ormond trip. All that is left are PC additions. Should have that for you on Monday and then we can start working those Grand Slam visits into the blog.

Have a fantastic weekend! See ya Saturday.

Wacky Wednesday.

 Short and sweet straight to the cards.

The cards speak for themselves.

Have a great night.

The last trip to Ormond: the last trip.

 This post title is literally. I haven't been happy with really any of the trips (1 1/2 hrs each way) the entire year. Even last year had a huge price bump, and then doubled again this year. The whole idea behind this blog is about the deals. DEALS! If'n there ain't none, then thar ain't nun! In all fairness, I probably will visit the store once or twice a year just to see what I can bring back home, but I'll be sticking with the DEAL side of things whenever I do go. You can't blame me, with the new LCS right here in town saving me at min. 3 hours per trip, then add the $25.00 in gas. Yeah, even with the fact that there isn't dime boxes at the new place, there are quarter boxes and I can balance those two things out without leaving town. 

Now, I believe there will be a total of three posts from that last trip. As indicated I didn't get the deals I have come to appreciate..... I really did appreciate the KnT shop, I pimped them all of the time including getting people to go there like Jeremy who just went there last week. This year the prices have been more inline with what I see posted on other blogs. 

Starting off with Braves of course, but just the one scan above. Funny thing is I could have skipped these as I already purchased them and are sitting in my Sport Lots box. As for the rest of the scans, GOTCHA, they are Braves too. 

 

That completes the Braves portion of the last trip to Ormond. Two more posts to go then I can finally start showing off the stuff I picked up from the 3 trips to Grand Slam right here in Ocala. There are grand total of 80 scans from those trips. (not counting the 27 photos I took). I will certainly spready those posts out to cover the rest of July, and probably into to August too.

Have a good night everyone.

TEASER: YOU WERE WARNED

 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.