A Dollar Store Find

Although "reality TV" is trying to convince me otherwise, I don't think poking around stores hoping to find some hidden treasure is exactly a hobby.  That being said, I do find it interesting, and occasionally I do find something hobby related.

One such find, years ago, was a box of hockey cards.  As a kid, I never had the financial ability to buy a whole box of hockey cards.  I bought them one pack at a time, carefully sifting through them while trying desperately to make that cardboard like piece of gum soft.  Sometimes I bought three packs in a day, going back to the store for each one.  A whole box was unthinkable.

This treasure find, in a dingy discount store in an even dingier mall,  involved a box of Original Six hockey cards.  The idea was to release a series of hockey cards,  some in black and white, of my father's hockey heroes.  They probably weren't a hit, based on the low price for the whole box.  I think the Sporting News did something similar with baseball cards (though I think they were all in black and white)  I found the black and white pictures to be wonderful, even more fascinating than today's full car, holographic, multi dimensional foil cards.  Maybe it was the deep hues.

I called this a treasure find because I liked it.  Unlike reality shows, I didn't (and don't) expect to sell the cards for a profit.  I managed to get two complete sets from that box--the other, when organized into a quality album, made a decent Father's Day present.  I think my Dad appreciated it because he has more than enough ties, and our taste in clothes differs on a scale I wouldn't hesitate to call epic.

Someday, I will probably set the cards up in a couple of frames and hang them on the hobby room wall.