LCS Review - Pal's Sports Cards - Andover, MN

I was in Minnesota on vacation visiting some family late in October, and decided to kill some time by hitting one of the Local Card Shops there.  The shop we hit was:

Pal's Sports Cards

14025 Round Lake Boulevard

Andover, MN 55304

http://pals-sportscards.com/

This is in the NW Twin Cities area...just outside of Coon Rapids.  I wasn't expecting much beyond lots of Twins and Vikings stuff (which they had), but when I got in there, I was pleasantly surprised.

First impressions...it was clean, neat, and organized.  It wasn't a pit like some LCS are.  They had the standard glass display cases of higher-end product and a wall of wax (above).  There were small cocktail-style tables where you could leave the stuff you were buying while you sifted through the other boxes.  Baseball, Football, and Basketball were all in abundance.  I'm guessing they had hockey, too, but I honestly didn't check.

What really got me excited was their "low-end" stuff.  They had a "dime box" for each team, as well as "quarter boxes" for recent hall-of-famers.  Additionally, they had lots of miscellaneous cards sorted by set for the set-collectors out there.  I stocked up on a bunch of Royals I still needed on the cheap, and grabbed some George Bretts out of the HOF box.  They also had vintage and recent "high-end" singles, but I passed on most of those. 

Above are some more of their displays.  The woman above owns the shop with her husband.  She was very nice so we chatted for a few minutes when she was ringing me up.  I asked her how business was going, and she said they had been open for about a year and the shop was covering overhead.  They don't sell on ebay, but they sell on Sportlots.com.

Collecting supplies were abundant and very reasonably priced.  I bought a small box to take all my purchases home on the plane.  Locals -- hit this place up for boxes, top-loaders, etc. 

Right before I left, my eyes caught a little basket with this in it:

It's just a brown lunch bag for 50 cents.  "Grab-Bag" style.  I picked it up and it felt sort of heavy.  There was something in a top-loader in there, so I guessed there was one good card and a load of old commons.  But for 50 cents I couldn't pass it up!!  That's cheaper than any retail pack.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow....I'll post what was in there.  It was fun!  :-)

Recommendation:  Anyone in Minneapolis / St. Paul should head up there and give this place a look.  It should be easy to find something you'd like.