Stuck Inside of Buffalo and Pittsburgh with the 1991 Fleer Blues...Again

 

Got to do something that, sadly, I rarely get to do.

            Which...is go somewhere…other than in front of my computer screen

            …and buy cards.

            Yeah, that’s right, like a Willie Nelson song I was on the road again. My usual route: Brooklyn to Buffalo to Pittsburgh. The last time I’d done that was December…and there was a blizzard in Buffalo involved in that trip, so not much in the way of card buying could be done then.

            This time was a bit different.

            In Buffalo, I killed two birds with one stone.

            The first was this place.

            I’m always excited for the mom-and-pop card shop experience. Like I said, it’s rare that I get to buy cards in person. And when I do it’s usually somewhere like a flea market, a Wal-Mart or Target, or the MLB Store here in New York City. We have mom-and-pop cards shops in New York City and I’ve been to one or two of them, but most are ten bus rides and fifteen subway stops away from my apartment. So, when in Rome….

            I like Bases Loaded. Or, at least I knew I would like Bases Loaded. I’d been to the store once, maybe a year and a half ago. They’d just opened a new location and most of their inventory was still in boxes, waiting to be moved. The store was virtually empty on that visit, and that was shame because I SO wanted the mom-and-pop card experience.

            I ended up buying a few boxes of junk wax on that visit.

A barren store waiting to be filled was NOT the case this time. Bills and Sabers jerseys hung about the walls, along with other Buffalo sports ephemera, card boxes were packed into shelving behind glass showcases. Stacks upon stacks of sortable cards were in huge piles atop those same showcases, and any surface that could hold a box of cards, held more boxes of cards than you could imagine.

            It was controlled chaos inside of Bases Loaded.

            Like when your card collection starts to make you anxious.

            Nothing was priced in Bases Loaded, something I’m not generally a fan of. But the guy running the shop was beyond affable, and told me he was known for making good deals. Sure, anyone can say that…and I’m a walking distrustful skeptic…but I took him at his word and began digging through said boxes and piles of cards, along with a few other collectors who were building sets. I can’t be certain, but Bases Loaded might be a place to go to if you’re working on sets. The store owner kept bringing boxes out to one collector for him to sort through. I was kind of kicking myself for forgetting to take photos of my checklists before I left Brooklyn.

            But I did end up finding some stuff.

            Most of the 2022 Donruss Steelers set.

Some Buccos, old and new.

            And…yes…I bought a cheap box of junk wax.

            I’m just going to come out and say it: I like 1991 Fleer Baseball. I used to say the yellow was too much, but I might’ve been mimicking other collectors dissenting opinions on it. I still kind of do that. But when I’m alone with the set, the yellow doesn’t bother me. Yellow was my grandmother’s favorite color. 1991 Fleer makes me think of dear ol’ grandma.

            Maybe the problem is, it’s too MUCH yellow.

            Like front and back yellow.

            Although, Bobby Bonilla can make any card look good.

            And…I’m building the set. Why not? The boxes are like $10 a piece and I’ve bought three of them thus far, between my two trips to Bases Loaded. Yeah, the set costs maybe $10 in total…but it’s the quality time that counts.

            Again…I like 1991 Fleer.

            But you still can’t convince me on this one.

            ...even if it IS Junior.

            That same day, I took a short drive from Bases Loaded to Dave & Adam’s.

I’m sure most collectors here know Dave & Adam’s, or have shopped online with them; so, I won’t go into detail except to say that the place is HUGE. Like two vast spaces HUGE. One houses sports ephemera and comic books, and the other spaces is dedicated to sports cards and spaces for things like breaks.

Dave & Adam’s is mostly the spot you want to go to for new cards. Although…since they opened their shop in Cooperstown, I did notice some wax boxes and cello packs from the early 80’s in the shop…a little too rich for my blood. I had intended to go into Dave & Adam’s to get a box of 2023 Topps Big League…but there was a shipping issue and the boxes hadn’t arrived. Dave & Adam’s likes to put their discounted boxes etc., on little tables throughout the store. They didn’t have 2023 Big League. But they did have hobby boxes of 2021 Big League for $20.

I wasn’t going to pass that up.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I like Big League. Big League, at least the card, design, is what I wish Topps base looked like…most of the time. 2019 Big League and, well, even the 2023 design, do leave a bit to be desired. But I collected the entire 2020 set.  I don’t think I’m going to do that with 2021, even with its discounted prices.

And here’s why.

You get a lot of doubles with Big League.

Not that that’s a bad thing…in some cases.

And you get a lot of inserts.

At eighteen packs and just ten cards per pack, it makes it harder to really build a set, unless you’re buying a lot of hobby boxes.

The set is rife with League Leader cards and Highlight cards…that just kind of turn me off a little bit.

That was before the 2023 edition. 2023 Big League now makes short print cards a part of their base set…which can make set building even more frustrating.

And this is a set for younger collectors?

I didn’t even get some of the cards I wanted.

Oh, well, guess it’s back to SportLots for me.

Anyway, that was all the sports carding that I did in Buffalo. Next, it was Pittsburgh and my favorite flea market spot in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.

I went to one of my favorite dealers there, and hit his $1 box and his 10-cent Pittsburgh Pirates box.

I came away with something looking like this.

I managed to put together most of the 1977 and 1978 Pirates team set, though.

And no one puts a Johnny Ray rookie in a 10-cent box.

…although I was happy to find it.

In a perfect world, there’d be many more Pete Rose cards with him in an Expos uniform.

And Junk Wax sets for $10 a piece ain't too shabby.

Sadly, one of the dealers at Rossi's is no longer there. And he'd been there for as long as I'd gone to the place, even when I lived in Pittsburgh. So over twenty some years.

While I was in Pittsburgh, I had to hit up the Wal-Mart just to see how most collectors get to live.

The card wall didn’t disappoint.

And that was just a third of the space.

I had to get something there, right?

So, I grabbed a jumbo pack of 2022 Donruss football, and a jumbo pack of 2023 Topps Baseball series 1.

Here are the highlights of that.

And no trip home to Pittsburgh can be complete without a trip to PNC Park.

The Pirates were playing the White Sox. They ended up losing the game 11-5. Losing…something the Pirates, as of this writing, aren’t doing much of. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: I was going to hae something BIG....but instead you get a baseball card tragedy story.