Greetings!
Hope everyone is doing well. A quick update from my last post: A day or so after I made the post, my youngest let me know that the school applied some sort of firewall that prevents them from switching Google accounts, which meant my makeshift uploading method went out the window. However, somehow I was able to upload pictures from my work computer to Blogger, so crisis averted...maybe?
Anyway, sit back and let me tell you all a story of the trading card reset at Target. Since I don't have a blog of my own, this is where I document these things, so if you're not interested, scroll down till you see the pretty pictures.
Back around August, the Target where I work part-time did a small remodel of the entertainment section, removing a couple of aisles where the PlayStation and XBox games and accessories were, and opening up the space where they could put themed products and releases (they first used the space to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokemon, then moved to Sarah J. Maas books, and now they're doing the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter). They also condensed the Electronics back wall, removing several flatscreen TV models, and put trading cards, adult board games, and puzzles there. Turns out all Targets have done this remodel, and subsequently either condensed or replaced the trading card aisle that was up by the checklanes; my store condensed it so it became half reusable Target bags and half blind boxes, while the Target the next town over replaced the aisle entirely with cases of soda.
The main takeaway is that trading cards were moved to one location deep within the store, so guests had to walk farther to see what's available (and in Target's eyes, maybe buy something else). Cards are no longer at the checklanes or on some Toy endcap, although some stores (like mine) still keep the Pokemon cards at Guest Service so that the scalpers...oops, card bros...sorry, guests don't loiter in Electronics for a couple of hours waiting for release time (unless there's a major release, my store starts selling them at noon, but I don't know if all stores do this).
The new trading card area takes up 5-6 sections of the back wall; 2 sections are meant for the sports cards, 2 are for Pokemon (although stores that still keep those cards up at Guest Service use that space for card supplies) and the remaining sections are for TCGs and non-sport cards. The back wall has shiny paper covering it to catch your eye, and I when I first saw it I thought that's a lot of space for the Excell card vendor to play with...
...Until I was told by the managers that the we would be responsible for stocking the cards. I subsequently met the Excell vendor, who told me they'd still be coming in once a week to push product, but most of the stocking, especially the new card releases, would be done by the employees. Apparently Corporate wants the stocking done before the store opens, but there's no dedicated Electronics employee working that early, and when I get in there, the managers prefer Electronic products be pushed out first.
But yes, Ol' Jafronius is essentially the new trading card stocker for my Target. I have no idea what they'll do when January comes around and they have no hours for me, and usually there's not enough time for me to get cards out during my shift, but I do the best I can. I've already come across open boxes (spoiler alert) and a couple of pack searchers (they suck), so more of that later maybe, I've rambled on long enough.
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| Timely, since the NBA season recently started up! |
Since Topps took over the NBA license, they got access to the Hoops name as well. They released a Hoops set back in May, and I was ready to sample a pack of the long running set, until I found out the distribution: Hobby jumbos and boxes, Blaster boxes, and Hanger boxes... no fat packs for the casual collector! I thought about the Hanger boxes, but the price point was $18 for only 25 cards. That's way too much, pretty close to a dollar a card? This is Hoops, not Chrome! So, I felt resigned to not buying any packs of Hoops this year.
Fast forward towards the end of August with the new trading card setup along the back wall, and while I was cleaning up there I came across a pack of Hoops! It had to have come from a Blaster, which I think was $35 for 56 cards. Thing was that we didn't have anymore blasters on the shelf, so I had no idea how a single pack of Hoops wound up in the wild. Procedure dictates I defect the pack out for the Excell vendor to eventually pick up, but procedures don't say I can't open the pack, right? Here's what was in the pack:
#199 - Fred VanVleet
#97 - Brandin Podziemski
OK, so that explained the price hike in this case, the base cards are all rainbow foiled up. Not a real good reason for me to pay 18 bucks for 25 cards, but there's a reason.
#133 - Nolan Traore (RC)
#111 - Alperun Sengun
There's 300 cards in the set. Players make up the first 260 cards and the next 10 cards are Highlights. The last 30 cards in the set are All-Stars. There's all sorts of inserts and parallels as usual.
#32 - Alijah Martin (RC)
The design is pretty standard for Hoops. I appreciate that the Topps logo is not on the front.
It's an Alperen Hot Pack as we get to see his base card as well as his All-Star card. The phone camera and the card angle didn't really pick it up, but if you look closely at the border of the All-Star card, you can see that there's supposed to be something there. Turns out the All-Stars get little basketballs and stars on their border. Nice touch, as well as having a different picture for the card; they could have easily just put the All-Star border around the base card and call it a day.
#291 - Alperen Sengun
#27 - Max Strus
Here's some backs because remodel:
Backs are nice and clean. Don't mind the one line of stats here as much as I do with the flagship release. You can see the basketballs on the back of the All-Star card.
Bonus Card: Weeks later, I pulled into the Target parking lot for my shift and there in the parking lot was this:
#157 - Rudy Gobert (front and back)
Could this card have come from the same blaster some thief opened up to steal packs and somehow left the one pack we all got to see today? We'll never know.
Anyway, that's the pack. Hopefully the upload at work wasn't a fluke and I can keep doing it so I can get back to more timely posting. If not, then Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, be kind to those retail workers, and thanks for reading!
