The Thrift Store Trio - Part 1

Take a moment to imagine this ... a large, very non-descript building with giant red lettering on the front that proudly proclaims "Thift Store" as if it were a badge of honor. The inside has a warehouse feel to it with an open floor and racks of clothing everywhere in the front of the store. The back of the store is lined with standing shelves filled with so much random crap, it looks like a neighborhood yard sale just blew up and the contents landed all strewn about. Now, add in a visual of kids playing in the floor with dirty toys, people blocking the aisles with tiny, yellow shopping carts, and a general feel of complete chaos all around you.

That description should have made a sane person immediately turn around, get back in the car, and drive far, far away. But not me, I pressed on and found a ton of baggies, for lack of a better term, filled with cards in the "toy section". I picked out the best ones I could find while trying to avoid the errant children playing with toys on the floor. Once I made my purchase, I escaped as quickly as I could. Oh, the lengths I go to to get valuable content for this blog.

I bought three baggies of cards at the thrift store that ran me just under five dollars with tax included. This first one was quite large as had a $1.99 price tag on it. The other two bags were 99 cents each. For this particular post, I'll focus on the big bag.

Here are the contents of the bag spread across my kitchen table. Looks like a lot of commons and junk wax on the surface but who knows.

First off, a few oddballs. I'm not too familiar with the company that put these out but these are really cool. I used to not care much for cards like this but after reading more and more card blogs, I've come to a new appreciation for cards such as these. Seeing Lee May in an Astros uniform for me is just strange.

Two early cards of two guys who would be instrumental in the Braves success in the 90s, Tom Glavine and Javy Lopez. I'm pretty sure everyone and their brother has a copy of the Glavine card lying around somewhere. The Lopez is nice and it's even better for me since it's a Topps Gold.

I've always been a fan of 1986 Topps and it's nice when you get a card of a Hall of Famer like Blyleven in one of these baggies. The bag contained about 25 cards from the 1982 set and this Molitor was probably the best of the batch. If anything else, this helped me get started on my set build for 82 Topps.

Not really a basketball collector aside from a few things here and there but there was a good batch of early 90s basketball in here. These were probably the two best.

The Reds cards that were included in the bag. I think that's probably by third copy of the Danny Jackson card. The 88 Topps at the top are a nice addition to my Reds collection.

The best of the rest ... some more 82's and an early Fleer Toby Harrah card of him with the Indians. The Batman card was completely random and out of place, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Overall, for two bucks, I'd say I didn't do too bad. At least the bag wasn't completely full of junk. I've got two smaller bags to go that will be covered in the next part. Stay tuned ...