How Much Do You Love Your LCS?

I worked a half-day today. I used my free time to run over to one of my local card shops, Hometown Sports. The owner has always taken care of me, and I haven't stopped in in a while, so I dropped in.

I needed a few supplies and I wanted to buy a few packs. (I always seem to pull hits when I buy packs for him) I asked for some Topps Chrome. He actually opened a fresh box for me because he knew that both hits had been pulled from the box he had open. How often does that happen? So, if you are in North Richland Hills, stop by Hometown Sports and drop a few dollars on the counter.

So, I bought eight packs of Chrome, randomly selected. I was fortunate to grab both autos in the box. The second auto I opened was this one:

Yup, the man with the best name in baseball, L.J. Hoes. It's a base auto, non-refractor....it's going to sit in my collection for a bit and I may trade it later, not sure.

My first auto wasn't really any auto at all. It was a redemption. I wish you could feel my heart flutter when I saw "Washington Nationals" across the redemption card. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Looking back at the card, nowhere is "Washington Nationals". I guess my mind played a trick on me, because I swear I read the team name on the card!) Then my heart kind of sank when I saw it was not Bryce Harper. However, I am pretty excited with what I will be receiving:

After the let down of not being Bryce Harper, I got pretty excited to have Anthony Rendon in my collection soon. Then the shop owner pointed out that not only was it a variation, but it was also a Sepia Refractor. I am pretty pleased with this.

However, I noticed something else about the eight packs I bought. There were four refractors in the eight packs. Every single one was an XFractor. I'm disappointed by that. Then I went back and did the math on the last three blasters I bought: I had four base refractors in the last blaster alone. What the hell?

Speaking of that last blaster...I bought it today. Coming off my Rendon sepia auto high, I stopped at Target and bought a blaster. It was a good buy. I pulled two cards for my collection - a Bryce Harper purple refractor and a Nelson Cruz XFractor - and then this guy:

Carter Capps Black Parallel, numbered to 100 (I've already put it away and I can't remember the number!). It's the first black parallel that I've pulled. Like most of my other parallels, this one is up for trade!