Cards In Unexpected Places

Hey, everyone. Sorry for decisive lack of posts lately. School has been really time-consuming, so needless to say my time to post has been limited. I went to my LCS on Saturday, which I'll post about hopefully tomorrow or Thursday.

I was reading a post from Dime Box Nick over at Baseball Dime Box about finding baseball cards in the most obscure or unexpected places. This got me thinking about my personal experiences in finding cards in unexpected locations. I've been thinking of doing a post like this for a while, but for some reasons I just never got around to it

Just thinking about places I've found cards unexpectedly, a few jump out at me. Every summer, for example, my family and I would go up to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire for a week. At the boardwalk inside an arcade-esque area, there were quarter-pull machines that would give you a few cards for $0.50. Obviously, you never anticipate to find anything good, but it's still an overall cool experience.

c/o http://atmlb.com/HLlag6

Another instance of this is at Fenway Park. Although not exactly an "unlikely" location, some of my first memories of purchasing cards came from 2/$5 grab bags of cards in the team store. I remember one year I came home and tried to eat the gum from one of the packs circa-1986. If I were to describe that experience, words wouldn't suffice to relay the pain that experience entailed. Regardless, the cards themselves weren't always the best. One of my favorite surprises out of those cards was a 1992 Topps Top Prospects Shortstops card. Among the featured prospects was a future HOFer by the name of Chipper Jones. Pretty sweet pull for a junk-wax grab bag if I do say so myself.

Generally speaking, finding cards anywhere is always a treat. It's finding them when you don't expect to that makes collecting such a rewarding experience.