It’s no secret that I love collecting. . . but it was another love that took me to a new town this morning. I’m addicted to good spices, and I happened to run out of the black pepper/garlic blend that dusts just about everything I eat last night so this morning we took to the roads heading to an area of the Chicago suburbs I’ve never been to before.
During some big Christmas sales I bought a clearance GPS unit, and since this was a new area for me I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to crack open that plastic clam shell — (seriously why do they make those things so difficult to open?) and hit the road armed only with the GPS and an address.
Thankfully I had an idea of what direction I needed to drive in since it took us about 15 minutes to figure out that we needed to enter 3rd Street into the GPS rather than Third Street since the unit kept telling us that Third street didn’t exist. (Yes, I was messing with the GPS and driving — sorry mom).
The trip to The Spice House took us on some interesting roads, following the directions of ‘Samantha’ we drove literally over the river (a few actually) and through the woods, we passed by a place that manufactures sewer pipes, several other industrial areas, horse ranches, farms — not stuff you typically see in the suburbs — but Samantha guided us right to my beloved ‘Back of the Yards’ blend — phew!
After getting our spices, some coffee at Caribou and some caramel popcorn we were on the road again — purposefully taking a different route for the return trip. Then it hit me. . . Samantha is supposed to be like a walking yellow pages chalk full of ‘points of interest.’ I asked Anna to see if Samantha knew where there were any comic shops and just as the question finished crossing my lips I looked up to see a giant sign advertising ‘CARDS’ and ‘COINS.’ I dart into the parking lot and hop out of the car leaving Anna and Samantha to determine where else we should visit.
The CARDS COINS store was fun — I picked up random packs, but saw they had inserts from all of the series they had packs for sale of, but very few complete sets. That always makes me suspicious that the packs are searched, and while I did find various types of ‘shiny’ cards in the packs there were no premium inserts to be had.
Back in the car Anna and Samantha picked Tom’s Comics as our next stop, and it was a good choice. Tom’s shop was interesting. . . the card selection was actually pretty impressive. . . well it would have been impressive if it were the mid-1990s. They had packs galore of everything from Marvel Flair to Lady Death I, and lots of the old ‘Mother Productions’ box sets. . . unfortunately along with the old product came old prices — most around $2 a pack — up to $4 for the Flair (which might not be too of a price actually). Groo caught my eye. . . I was seduced by the opportunity (yeah, right) to find one of the insanely rare sketch cards. 27 packs. . . marked at $1.50 a pack. . . Tom was willing to take $30 for all the packs and I was happy to oblige.
After Tom’s we had lunch and high-tailed it home so I could find my Groo sketch card, but it wasn’t meant to be. . . a stack of commons (which probably won’t make a set since the set is HUGE), and 2 chase cards. . . ohh well, it was a fun ride, a good adventure and something I highly recommend — GPS’n for cards!
By the way. . . I did look for comic shops online before I hit the road this morning and Tom’s Comic shop didn’t come up. . . so Samantha really was on top of her game.
Happy Collecting!
Jon