New Stadium Club and LCS Success that almost wasn't

I've been on vacation in the Minneapolis area for most of this past week.  It seems like there's a Target on every freeway exit, and I made a stop at one.  I bought a couple packs of 2017 Stadium Club, my first Stadium Club of the year.  Like most of you, I really like the look of this year's cards.  Here's a look at the 10 cards I got.

No Red Sox!  But there were some former Red Sox stars in Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez.  There's also a former Red Sox prospect, Manuel Margot, who had some solid seasons in the middle minor leagues.  If anybody wants one of these Stadium Club cards to show up at your house in a PWE just message me your address.

Yesterday I made a trip to Three Stars Sportscards in Bloomington, MN.

The shop was very sparsely populated.  This is in stark contrast to their other store in Roseville which I visited some months ago.  I did find this Eduardo Rodriguez 2014 Bowman Sterling Autograph which was on my want list.

I was at the counter getting ready to pay for this single card when I asked the lady working there what was behind the barrier in the back of the store.  I had seen rows and rows of card boxes on shelves, but the area was blocked off with signs that said only employees could enter.  She told me that was their online inventory back there.  She showed me a PC that was set to their online Beckett store.  I was glad my want lists were up to date as I was able to punch everything in and search for it.  I ended up with 60 cards, mostly Red Sox cards I needed in pursuit of team sets.  Here are some of my favorites.

This 2009 Topps Heritage All-Star is one of the few ways to get Manny Ramirez as a Red Sox on a card that year.

 

This Rudy Pemberton completes the 1997 Donruss team set.

I like the giant American flag in the background of this David Ortiz.  I took a big chunk out of my want list of 2006 Upper Deck.

 

 This Josh Beckett was one of many I picked up from 2007 Upper Deck.

And finally, 2009 Upper Deck got quite a few too, including Jonathan Papelbon.  I'm so glad I asked about the cards in the back of the store!

Usually when you're at the store and want to find the sportscards, you look for the candy aisle.  This store I stopped at on the way home yesterday had nothing but candy aisles, but alas, no cards.