Collecting cards never got so difficult

Marie had posted about BC Sports filing for bankruptcy not too long ago. She had the inside scoop because she found out she was let go from her job. It, obviously, sucked losing her job, but it still effects us even weeks later.

As we drove to Boston, we wondered out loud how we were going to find baseball cards. There's eBay and Target (the usual suspects), but BC Sports was the only real solution for a hobby shop for the both of us.

We get retail packs from Target and Wal-Mart, but who doesn't like getting hobby packs where the odds of getting a "hit" are greater. The other advantage to hobby packs is that often there are more cards in the pack than the retail packs.

We spent $3 on one retail pack of Piece of History. There were just five cards in each pack. I really feel cheated when I buy a $3 pack of cards and there is less than eight cards in the pack. Eight is the absolute minimum that I want to go.

The packs with four cards (Bowman Chrome) are terrible. But for a small price bump (usually just a $1 or $2), you can get a hobby pack that has more cards, sometimes even double the amount you would buy in a retail pack.

The closing of BC Sports leaves the both of us with just one hobby shop each. Strangely, both of those hobby shops -- remember, we live in different states -- are insanely overpriced. Even more so than BC. We're talking $7 for a pack of Upper Deck or $4.29 for a pack of Topps. I don't even walk into that store anymore because I feel like I am shopping for baseball cards at a stadium where cards are always overpriced (except for Fenway).

It's without a doubt disappointing and makes it harder to find baseball cards.