On my way to work this morning, my mind wandered back to a memory of a vacation I took in North Carolina a few years back. No matter where I visit, I always try to find a hobby shop to visit.Most people visit other countries to get a different perspective on people live life. I on the other hand visit hobby shops to get that same experience. Yes, a bit silly but it works for me and allows my wife to go on trips that I would otherwise not take LOL.

The name of the hobby shop eludes me at the moment, but the memory is still fresh. There was a middle aged man, who owned a store in the boonies Charlotte NC. Sandwiched between pink colored massive churches, there was a little strip mall with a sign on a small door. No windows, just a door that said “Open” and no mention of it being hobby shop other than a little business card in the window. I had to scan quite a few pages on the internet to find this place.

I wandered in and found an excellent assortment of Baseball and football cards. Up here in Canada most of the hobby shops feature Hockey or just the Blue Jays for baseball. I rarely see any CFL in the display cases either.  This shop was a dream. I love Baseball, football and I saw a collage of cards that I would not ordinarily see unless I was watching group breaks/box breaks on Youtube or blogtv. What I found most interesting was that in this tiny shop they had some hockey cards. The owner basically told me that there should be a layer of dust 2 inches thick on those cards. He was right. These boxes hadn’t been moved in years. Some of the boxes were used to prop up old Football wax. Most of the hockey cards were Topps (Mirrors of O-Pee-Chee) cards but in mint condition. It was fun to sort through them but sadly I saw nothing of any value that was worth making a offer on.

I am sorry I don’t have any scans of the shop or remember the name, but it felt nice to see sports cards that I would never get to see in person up here. Us baseball guys have pretty much scoured the market looking for baseball products in Ontario. We are a close knit bunch of collectors and try to help each other out as much as we can.

I can’t wait till we do our next trip down south. I hope I find another obscure hobby shop to visit. This is my way of seeing the world.