"Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs…read moreLily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair" (Bob Dylan) This post isn't about poker games or playing cards, but rather it's about baseball cards. More specifically, it's about how did I start to liquidate my baseball card collection with a professionally run business and get treated with courtesy and fairness. I collected cards as a kid, and a few pretty good cards from the '60's are still in my possession today. 1967 was a particularly good year as I saved a Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and a Hank Aaron, But like most hobbyists, I jumped hard into the baseball card market in the late 1980's, and as the 80's moved into the '90's, the card companies flooded the market with a ton of product. This glut of cards is known today as the "Junk Card Era", as Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, and Upper Deck among others ran the presses. 90% of these cards are worth zilch, and I remember a card guy I talked to at the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market recommended burning all of my cards produced after 1990. But there are a handful of exceptions, mostly rookie cards of elite Hall of Fame level players. The 1989 Upper Deck Complete set is a prime example, as the market value for the full 800 cards is just about equal to the market value of the set's first card - #1 which is the rookie card of Ken Griffey Jr. As a test, I approached Fearless to see about selling my 1989 Upper Deck sets. I had one factory sealed set, and a hand collated set culled from individual packs I had bought back in 1989. I learned that the value of the hand collated set is more or less identical to the value of the Griffey card. So I sold the Factory set, and the #1 Griffey card, and was treated fairly. Hats off to Brandon and Matt who are super friendly and knowledgeable. I know this will be my first of many future transactions with them.

Amazing service cards toys and collectibles and more at fearless recommend you to come hereread more

gosh darn it, i cant believe i never yelped the grid! 5 nerdy stars of course!…read more nice addition to the area, big into the cardboard, nice they can help me (enable?) my addiction! but theres more! games, video that is. lots of used games which comes in handy. prices are also very competitive. service, at least in my experience, has been great! truth be told, i havent been in since the whole world coming to an end thing, but im glad to see they are still (here!) and functioning, so ill make it a point to visit and help them out by trading my stupid paper for theirs! mmmmm, new card smelllllllll

Great store with a good selection of trading cards such as Magic the gathering Yu-Gi-Oh pokemon…read more They also have hobbies like Dungeons and dragons books. Lastly a good amount of retro games like from the Play station one and super Nintendo to name a few. If you're looking for a local shop to play trading card games or retro games this is a good spot to come.

It's always refreshing to go into a store that makes you feel comfortable. I've been meaning to…read morewrite this review for a couple of weeks because this place is the bomb. Highly recommend. Lots of variety in vintage card packs as well as modern. Cool items that both kids and adults will love. Pokémon items are always great to look at, especially now with all the hype! Prices are GREAT. Reasonable. Awesome store, awesome owner. Great energy! We make sure to come here every weekend and we are never disappointed! Out of all the stores we've been to this one is the best. The layout is great, clean, organized and very straightforward. We also love asking Sal questions! Thanks for being awesome! Will be back! 10/10

It's a great place and very nice people And it's a great…read moresports cards area and the service is good and the value is even better

Great always changing selection of anime figures at good prices. Also offers ichiban kuji lottery…read morewhich is a huge bonus!

Had such a great time at The Portal! The whole experience was fun, welcoming, and definitely…read moresomewhere I'd love to come back to. Brian was so helpful on making our visit even better and for being knowledgeable on all my questions.

So, I went ack recently. Still a great shop, however, some GW items were slightly priced higher…read morethan the GW price. I'm not sure why. Also, asked if they had a hobby /painting day, and was told no, but I couldn't find anything come in and hobby as long as there was no event . That's not great customer service at all. So I stupidly bought a GW product at .50 higher than GW price when I could have just bought it on Amazon for 10 cheaper or GW with free shipping. I'm for small business but come on.

Wow, what a gaming store! I remember I used to love how…read moretheir old location felt, but their new location feels like it should be the benchmark for gaming stores in CT. I LOVE their private gaming spaces and the ambiance of the place is always so neat. This is how an EPIC gaming store should be.

I'll start by saying that this space is genuinely good. It's clean and well kept, the employees are…read morepleasant, and the food is good and convenient. My friends and I go 2-4 times a month to play commander. There's a table pass system in which you spend $10 and get a voucher that lets you stay and play and can be exchanged for $10 off of a purchase. This is fair and we've never had a problem with this. We typically end up spending ~$20-$30 each when we come and play anyway (more when we buy sets). The problem is how this voucher is limited in its use. My friend and I wanted to split a pizza, but were told we couldn't use our vouchers together in one order. A whole pizza here is $24, which is already fairly high priced; but because we had to do separate orders for a half pizza each we ended up spending $32 total for a whole pizza. Quite frankly, it's exploitative and greedy. Until this policy changes, our group will be playing elsewhere for our weekly magic. UPDATE: The owner's response to this was to explain the entire business model and how if he let customers spend their $10 voucher however they wanted, he would have to charge double that for people to play there, and then force people to get a $20 voucher on top of that. Well Jared, I may not be able to understand the mental gymnastics it takes to justify extortion of your customers, but I can see greed when it appears. I will not be feeding this greedy toad and would not recommend anyone else does. (:

This place is the card shop we all look for! Friendly staff. A great place for kids and adults. The…read moreselection is vast. The prices are beyond fair. If your looking to rip some packs. This is the place. Your looking for that certain card you cant seem to find. This is your place. Don't have anything in mind and just want to Look. They have a massive amount of boxes full of great stuff from $1 to $3 to $5. Just grab a box. Sit at the table and search. You have a few cards or a collection that your looking to sell. This is the place. They are more than happy to set a time to see what you have. They take the time needed to look through it all and will make the fairest offer your gonna find in the state. Its the kind of card shop your gonna want to stop by weekly. Just wish i found this place sooner.

I've lived near Middletown for a good part of my life and have visited many areas of it (including…read moreMain Street). However, I was never aware that right on Main Street is a place called Main Street Market that once inside this temperature controlled "mini mall" building are several floors of cool locally owned shops. This is how I came across what I learned to be just newly opened trading card and collectible store, East Coast Collectibles Card Shop. Full disclosure here, I've been a collecting trading/sports cards since I was a kid. I started out with Pokémon and basketball and later tacked on Magic & Yu-Gi-oh cards (Full blown nerd here ). So... East Coast Collectibles is LITERALLY the perfect little shop for someone like me or for those interested in starting card collecting. They have a wide variety of collectibles for sale (autographed Funko Pops, Pokémon collectible sets and signed sports memorabilia), as well as packs or boxes of Pokémon, various sports and Magic the Gathering. They have an entire shelves dedicated to single sleeve cards that are priced in large boxes (so much). Best of all, they have a seating area with a large wooden table for customers to sit down to either sort through these individual card boxes or bring their own collection to trade/sell with the owner. Most shops don't have this seating which has left me as an adult or kid, having to sift through cards on the floor. Yes, as many collectible shops do, the owner is not only interested in selling but will buy cards they are interested in off you for a fair price (I checked ). I had a chance to talk with the owner Scott, Scott runs a very successful EC3 collectible shows at Mohegan Sun and decided to set up shop locally to continue his passion 365 days a year. Scott is extremely knowledgeable on not only the cards that he buys/sells but also understand a lot of interesting stuff about the collectible/autograph business. This card shop is not only ideal for collectible nerds like me but is super family friendly too. While I was there (for quite a while I might add), I saw Scott and another employee having great conversations with families coming in to buy Pokémon cards. I overheard him discussing with the kids the best way to start their deck building for Pokémon and recommendations for which series to start with depending on their Pokémon knowledge. If you are looking to get into card collecting, looking to beef up your decks before and tournament or are interested in expanding/trading your collection, this is a wonderful option that conveniently located off a main road in Middletown. If you aren't fans of trying to find main street parking and use meters, there is a public parking right behind the building off a side street with PLENTY of parking and easy access for those going it alone or with families of all ages. Go visit Scott at East Coast Collectibles, you won't be disappointed!

Decided that for Christmas, I needed a hobby. Was…read moreinterested in remote control cars, and did a little reading first. I decided I really didn't want a drone, because gravity can multiply a failure at that height. Looked at race cars, but didn't like the fact that they travelled fast and room was needed. Decided to get crawlers, which are 4X4's and space wasn't needed. So we started to check places out. Went to a toy store, and nothing they had looked like it would survive any type of off roading. Did a yelp search and found this place. Went there, not knowing what to expect and we were surprised. Place looks like it once was a packages building turned warehouse. Walked in and first thing you see is this super-sized race track with cars going fast. Found the sales counter in the back and waited almost an hour for our turn. Place was extremely busy. Finally it was my turn. Told them what I was looking for and what I wanted to spend. He came back with $500+ model of a new Bronco. Took it out and now I understand why the price. Best way to describe it would be to say it was a full size Bronco shrunk to 1/6 scale. Real differentials, drive shafts, full suspension and so on. Anyway clerk was so helpful with me, a100% rookie. This is the place to go if you want quality items and full service.

This place is a pretty cool place. From the last time we've been here it has grown so much. This…read moreis the place for all your RC dreams. From newbies to experts this place has it all. All ages can come to. build, race, learn about all things RC or just spectate. It's pretty cool even for me who has nothing to do with any of this. My husband and kids loves this kind of thing. It's less expensive from actually building your own human size car. Lol. They have indoor and out door ranges and a little quarter mile track. As well as a rock climbing track.