I want to start out by apologizing to our faithful readers for my lack of a sufficient Shop Talk segment last week. Truth be told, there really wasn’t much of note going on at the store. I didn’t want to bore you with yet another piece about how much we shipped or how much overstock we have.
So… let’s get right to it and let me now talk about how much overstock we have.
The owner has continued to purchase licensed sports diecast vehicles in every single form you could possibly imagine and then some that you didn’t even know existed. We have Atlanta Braves Orange County Choppers. We have Baltimore Orioles inspired 1970 Ford Shelbys. We have various sizes of monster trucks in any professional sports team you could possibly want and many that you don’t want. We have helicopters. We have Winnebagos. We have more Winnebagos. If you need a Nebraska Cornhusker Winnebago, you let us know. If you need a Buffalo Bills fighter plane, we are your guys.
Hopefully, they’ll start finding new homes across the country soon so we have a little more room in the shop because we also started bringing in some of the toys that we suspect will be popular once the holiday shopping season gets closer.
The biggest sports card release this week by far is 2023 Topps Allen and Ginter baseball(ish) product. We had a few calls and also a few people stop in the morning of release in anticipation of this old timey, classic depiction of sports and popular culture. There aren’t very many products released anymore that I’m tempted to open for myself but this is always one of the select few, so you’ll see a Brief Box Break of my very own in the near future. Autographs, by the way, fall in every other box.
Pricing right now is around $120 per Hobby box.
We also received two full cases of 2023 Mosaic Football boxes. At a price tag of $350-400, it’s a pretty serious investment for card collectors and hit chasers.
The price makes for some deep breaths as the cello overwrap is ripped but we opened a box in the shop at it was really solid, with a number of colorful numbered rookies and decent autos and other fun hits.
We took in the new NFL Salute to Service mini helmets late this week. We support our armed services in any way possible, so it’s always special when we can carry any products that marry our military and our favorite sports. These limited helmets are a satin beige tan color with all black trimmings. The decals are black faded and distressed versions of the team logos with the classic chevron top stripe pattern.
There is an abbreviation of the city name on the front bumper and the Salute to Service text on the back bumper of the helmet. Of course, you can find the American Flag and the Salute ribbon on the helmet as well.
I’ve written at length over the years about how successful, popular and vital the Riddell mini helmets are for us as we carry between three to seven of every single NFL team. Yes, every single NFL team, past and present. Needless to say, we definitely had to make some room this week but it was great to add these to our side counter (yes, even the Bears helmet although I suspect we won’t be selling many of those). They should be big sellers come holiday time, if not sooner and they’re awesome for autographs.
I recently wrote about taking my daughter to her first Philadelphia Phillies game and seeing Shohei Ohtani in person. Last week, my wife got an email from the Phillies organization, which was selling commemorative tickets to the game, which turned out to be the one in which Bryce Harper hit his 300th career home run. We all know how sought after tickets have become in the collectible space in recent years and clearly I would have loved to have had a physical ticket. In recent years, though, clubs have moved away from print tickets, so it was interesting to get offer to buy a $25 commemorative ticket. Of course, my first thought was that I already paid for the ticket so why should I pay the Phillies more money? Wouldn’t it be great if a club just sent commemorative tickets to any of the attendees who requested one? I doubt that would bust the team’s budget and it would be a great PR move. At the very least offer everyone the chance to snare a printed ticket for a couple of extra bucks while they’re at the park. Surely there’s a way?
Welcome to 21st century professional sports.
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