What to expect from Target in Canada as a sports card collector

When we first heard of Target coming to Canada we were hoping this included Sports cards. At the retail store front in Ontario we have Walmart and Toys R Us that carry recent cards. You see mainly Hockey carried with the odd Baseball and Football packs to be found. If Target was coming, hopefully they would bring up the card displays seen throughout every Target store in the US.

Today was some of the first "soft openings" within Ontario for Target stores. We weren't too sure what to expect as early reports stated they were having a bit of trouble with some of the merchandise they wanted to bring to Canada from the US. Well that didn't seem to affect our hobby! Thankfully Sports cards at retail in Canada have a new home!

It felt just like being in a US Target. The card aisle is next to the cashiers and carry's a number of products of all sports. Some old and mixed pack packages, some sealed hobby boxes, and newly released packs. It was a dream come true for us. The prices weren't  too bad either. Now the sealed hobby boxes were a little over priced but in the grand scheme of things they were not too bad. 

A couple of products caught our eye and picked them up to see what we could pull. Of course being retail we did not expect anything big to come out of the packs, but we wanted to rip open some packages that US customers have been able to obtain for years. 

So we picked up 1 Football 75 card package with 1 Bonus pack and 10 Rookies cards for $4.99, 1 Hockey 100 card package with 1 bonus pack for $4.99, 1 Baseball 100 card rack pack for $6.99 and 1 Baseball package with 4 packs and 1 Autograph for $15.99. All of these items you don't see here in Canada unless by mistake at a retailer, so we decided to rip these open and see what we can expect from them. 

First up was the Hockey package. This was a no brainer of a package to pick as it had a 1983-84 Wayne Gretzky O-Pee-Chee card on top BV of around $6.00, plus one of our favorites. As for the rest of the cards, not much to write about. A few rookies from the 90's but no other real value out of the package. So unless you see a top card showing might be wise to stay away even at the $4.99 price.

Next up was the Football 75 card package. This one also caught our eye with both Manning's on the front.The other interesting thing was the 10 rookies sticker on the front. This package did bring in some value as it contained 14 rookies in it and had some stars along with the lot. The best card in this package was a 2007 Adrian Peterson card BV of $6.00. There was also a 1984 Topps Walton Payton, a Burress rc and Jim Kelly Collectors Edge Prizm card. After all done this one was a good buy for the $4.99 price and should be looked at to pick up

Next was the 100 card rack pack of Baseball cards. The interesting one on this one was that the odds of 1 in 8 packs having a memorabilia card plus it carried 3 "vintage" cards from either the 50's, 60's or 70's. Being a sealed pack we were not expecting anything out of this one, and we were right on. A bunch of commons, a couple of doubles too, tied in with some HOFer's and our 3 Vintage cards that included 2 from 1979 and 1 from 1976. Not a good pick up and didn't get us back our $6.99.

 Lastly the Baseball 4 packs with Autograph. Now this one we thought had some promise, a $14.99 price tag that included an autograph is not too bad. Of course the player will dictate this and going in unknown is always a risk.

 The packs looked decent with 4 not too bad picks from 2007 and up. And believe it or not we pulled a couple of decent cards from the packs, of course noting major but above average cards. And as for that Autographed card? Well it was a 2002 SPX Prospect card of Eric Junge. The only thing to say here is that it is an on-card auto.

So there you have it, Target is live in Canada! Bringing along Trading cards that retailers in Canada haven't seen in a very long time. This is really great news for us up here and will give us other options other than Walmart and Toys R Us for retail packs. Plus the up side is they have recently released cards to buy, and a lot of options in other categories as well. Good luck hunting out there fellow collectors in Canada, we now have a hunting ground to cover!