Lake George trip card recap Part 1: Worth the wait, Earning it, and a Milestone

The week in Lake George is great...it's what I look forward to all year, it's my one week of the year where I can actually have fun...and I did. I took more photos than I ever have before...and I accomplished a photography goal as well. More on that in part 3. (Fear not, it's only a three-part series)

While I'm still a bit burned out on the hobby, that doesn't mean that cards don't still play a role in my life, oh no. There were three card related events in Lake George this year, and each will get a post, with the third post being a recap of the entire trip.

The first card event was a visit to Live, Love, Laugh, the newish card shop in town- which is not really a card shop, it's a shop that sells cards among many other things. You may remember that when I visited the shop in 2017, I wrote a post about it, and mentioned that I passed on a specific card and hoped I didn't regret it. Well, I did. I didn't get there at all in 2018- just couldn't get near the place, and we had less time there last year. Well, the very first thing we did this year was go there. He had something last time I was there that I REALLY wanted for another blogger, and luckily, he keeps them in stock so I was able to secure them. What surprised me is that the card I mentioned leaving behind and had been regretting ever since was still there! I was totally shocked by that. It was still marked at $50, and he marked it down to $40 for me- still double what I normally have as a limit on any single card- but I could not leave without it again. It's now in my top 10 in most I've ever spent on a single card, and it was so worth it!

This was the first patch card of my favorite player I ever saw...and now, 2 years later, it becomes the first in my collection as well. While I was there I picked up two store collated hockey repacks for me, which I would get to later, and two other single cards of Lundqvist.

After leaving Live, Love, Laugh, my brother and I walked through town while mom found a place to park. Even on Tuesday it was more crowded than we expected. We ended up at the gameroom, Playland Arcade, which has been a staple in my life forever- this arcade has been in the same spot, with some of the same games, as long as I can remember. In fact, a good portion of my "in town" memories that don't involve the car show are related to this arcade.

 This is where we played the side scrollers of the 90s, where I experienced the 1977 Star Wars game, where I played Skee-Ball for the first time (something my back no longer allows, unfortunately) and so much more. The light gun shooting gallery, the skee-ball, and the Pokerino games have been the same since the 1980s or before. A couple other games have remained from the 1990s. Most cycle through quickly. One of the new games this year was a DC comics game, which as prizes, gives out trading cards...but they don't make it easy.

What happens is, you press the button that lights up in the center of the main console, and it triggers some tokens to drop. The little tray moves back and forth and if you do it right, the tokens fall off, and push whatever is in the large tray area towards a drop. If the card goes over the edge, you get the card! It's not easy though, because you have to time it just right, and there's a lip on the edge which makes it so the card doesn't easily fall. I payed close attention and devised a system to make it work for me, which essentially was just waiting for the little tray to move two times instead of one, so it would either get 5 tokens, or 1. Even if you time it just right, you have to hope one of the tokens goes over the top of the card, because that pushes it forward. If you don't get that little bit of luck, you're wasting your time. I don't know how, but I also made two cards drop down- and I got them both. The Darkseid card, shown upside down, is one that I got to drop. I worked hard at it and collected it as well. I later got the Wonder Woman card- which had dropped before we got there- and the JLA team card, which I dropped and earned. I spent about an hour and almost $50 on this, but I was not walking away without them. And, it was actually fun. The cards are New 52 artwork, which I'm not a big fan of. They also have classic art- which is what's on the machine- but this unit didn't have them. We later found a machine with them at a different arcade in town, but by then I had spent a lot of money on this trip and didn't work on them.

The cards have rounded corners and are on a thick plastic-about as thick as a jersey card. I presume this is so the tokens, and the drop, don't damage them. A cool thing about them is that where they were earned is listed on the back- Playland used a stamp which is embossed and shiny. The other game room hand wrote them all. This is the first time Lake George has actually made it into my card collection, even as a reference, although I did basically include a business card of one of the ship companies since one side was entire a photo.

After we got back to the motel room, I opened both hockey repacks I got. I didn't know it at the time, but I would hit a pretty big milestone that night....

This card, 1995-96 Score #28, is my 15,000th different NHL card! That's pretty amazing considering that I only began collecting the sport officially in January 2017. (although I had exactly 3000 by that point already) So many of the cards- at least half- have been gifts, from other collectors or family members.

Here are some other highlights from the two repack cases I got...it will be a long time before I get them all scanned. Each case had at least one autograph in it.

 I was surprised to pull a Refractor! I had just gotten my first cards from 1999-00 Topps Chrome, at least the hockey version, about a week before the trip from SumoMenkoMan, a package I've not gotten the chance to write about yet.

 Rookie reprints are usually always cool, especially so when they are a reprint of a card I'll never be able to afford the original of!

 This is an autograph! It's hard to see, but it's there.

 These die-cut Crown Royale cards are always cool.

 another die cut!

 This autograph I think was included as a bonus. I don't know autographs of hockey players well yet, so I don't know if that's legit or not. I would guess if somebody was going to forge an autograph, it'd be someone that sells for a bit more, but maybe that's how they get you. Like I say, I'm not really into IP autos.

 I literally laughed out loud at this card. The In the Game Heroes and Prospects sets were usually pretty good from what I've seen, but this one is pretty laughable.

 Now that's an art card! The cases were obviously not devoid of stars. Multiple Gretzys, Lemieuexs, and more.

 An embossed mid 90s insert. With an unusual texture. Cool!

This was my other autograph, and it's numbered to boot! I only have a couple of cards from 2003-04 SP Authentic, I also got a base card from the other repack, bringing my total to 4.

I ended up adding 154 new hockey cards from Live, Love, Laugh. 151 came from the repacks, which only cost $5 each. I really enjoy doing them....I still have, in my stash, the other ones I got in 2007, and show in the linked post above. I really should go through them and add them to my collection.