Cards at the Ted

I've got pics from the game, they will be up sometime alter this week. Here's what my readers really want to know about anyway - were there baseball cards at the game? Yes there were. That wasn't really the case a few years ago, but they've had cards at the Ted and assorted Fanfests and Clubhouse stores for the past three or four years. Like everything else at the stadium, the price is really jacked up on them. There is some baseball card marketing going on at least, I saw a little movable kiosk that sold nothing but cards and had the Topps and Upper Deck logos on it along with the message "Baseball Cards Sold Here! on the side. It was closed last night probably because of the downpour. Rain and condition sensitive paper products don't mix. There were also cards at several of the concourse gift shops, at the Tooner Field gift shop and at the main store in the plaza. The Tooner field store had a big poster behind the counter of a 2008 Topps card and the main gift shop had an awesome banner with Topps cards of McCann and Chipper and an Upper Deck card of JJ Jurrjens. If I could have figured out any way to swipe that banner without ending up in Stadium Jail, I would have done so.

There was not a huge choice of cards there, these were souvenir shops, not a hobby store. All of the shops that had cards had 2009 Upper Deck First Edition. That's a pretty good choice for a ballgame, a decent sized pack of cheap cards. Topps did sort of an Opening Day/Base set hybrid with their offering. 7 base Topps cards (with no inserts) plus a stick of gum. I'm not sure why the chose seven cards, but with the gum it was about as thick as the Upper Deck FE pack. The pack was transparent so you could see the top card in the pack. I almost picked out a pack with the Braves' Brandon Jones on the top until I flipped the pack and saw the price:

$4.00.

Ouch. That's a hefty markup. Considering you can buy a decent six-pack for the price of one beer at the game it's about par for the course, but I couldn't buy a dollar pack for $4 with a clear conscience. Not even at a ballgame.

The First Edition and Topps Gum packs were pretty much everywhere (although I saw one souvenir stand with only First Edition) but the main gift shop had some additional options. Topps Team sets were there for $9.00. That's not too terrible to be honest. They will run $5 or $6 at a hobby shop or Wally World, so a little extra for a memory of the Braves game is ok. Tiny teddy bears with a Braves logo cost as much. The '09 set was packages differently from the '08 set. The 2008 set had the cards loose in a blister pack while the '09 set had the cards in a small snap case inside the blister pack. They also advertised a Bonus Card to go along with the 14 card set. The bonus turns out to be Bobby Cox's card. Still, the case is a bonus itself.

The shelf with the $4 packs also had UD Fat Packs and Topps Retail Jumbos for sale. The price: $10 each. It's a better value than the $4 packs, but it's still twice the price of retail. In the bock corner there was a clearance section that had some more cards. The clearance section was discounted somewhat, but it didn't actually how much it was discounted. It didn't really matter anyway because they had 2008 spectrum at $6.00 a pack, 2007 Topps at $4.00 a pack and one lone 2007 Fleer Fat Pack. You'll never guess how much the fat pack was. Go ahead, try. You still won't get it. Give up? THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS. You can buy a box of that stuff at my local shop for $27. I might be wrong, but I think when I went to Fanfest a couple of years ago they had Blasters for $35 which makes slightly more sense. Maybe the wrong sticker got on the pack , who knows. Even at an 80% discount, the pack is still more expensive than retail so that did not come home with me.

But surely, the card addict didn't come home empty handed? I didn't resort to collecting abandoned magnetic schedules and souvenir cups from the stands on the way out after the game, did I? Well, yeah, I did do that actually. I didn't get a schedule on the way in and I just really like souvenir cups. They have schedules on them this year! Ok, so I'm a dirty scrounge, you knew that already. I did, however find some cards that were within my budget. I came home with this:


A 2009 Topps Attax starter set. I know what you're thinking. They are charging $4 for First Edition and jacked up that Fleer Fat Pack 700%. How much would they charge for an Attax Starter set?? It's probably astronomical! Calm down and check out the back.


Do you see it?


$4!

For an Attax starter set! They cost $7.99 at Target! JACKPOT! My guess is they planned to charge four bucks for the 5 card individual packs of Attax, got the starter sets instead of the packs and mixed up the prices. There weren't any five card packs of Attax there for sale, but I bet they have a $15 price tag once they get set out. A kid noticed the bargain price also while I was there in the shop. He was looking around for something to buy, saw the $4 price tag and was all "Four dollars! All right!" and ended up getting a box. Maybe Topps should price these things low in the first place to get kids to buy them and introduce them to the game. I ended up picking up two, I'll show off the contents of one of them later tonight. Do your research and know your prices, kiddos! That way you can spot the bargains!