Card shops from California to Utah?
 

Hey everyone, I'm going on a road trip with my gf starting next week from Oakland CA to Salt Lake City Utah. Any recommendations for shops or collectible places along the way? We should be passing though Sacramento, Reno, most of northern Nevada, along the way to SLC.

Thanks for your help!

Highly recommend Stevens Creek Sports Cards in San Jose. Extensive inventory of both modern and vintage cards. I've also had a lot of luck at Action Sports Cards in Sparks (sister city of Reno) when I lived out there. However, call ahead because their hours can be strange. They have a mishmash of stuff and it's where I had my E94 "find" several years ago. Also recommend hitting up the antique malls in Reno. I've found everything from T213-1 Coupons to 1952 Topps high numbers on the dirt cheap.

James

Oakland to Salt Lake City begs the question:

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Louie,
I drive that route every year (for more than 20 years). With the exception of a few antique shops in Roseville and Reno, there is very little to see / inspect along the way to Salt Lake (as it applies to collectibles). I would recommend stopping at "The Griddle" in Winnemucca (on Business 80) for breakfast or lunch. Great little diner with good food / prices / service. Its a 12 hour drive to Salt Lake, so bring plenty of granola bars and water. Keep in mind too that gas is not available at every stop (sometimes more than 50 miles between stations). Safe to cruise at 80 / 85 through most of Nevada / Utah, except construction / speed zones. You might check in with Brian Parker on shops in Salt Lake, but Brian being very diligent has probably plucked all of the shops clean of Zeenuts and E-121's :), so you might have to settle for Bowmans and early 80's Fleer cards....

Yeah San Jose is so close to oakland I might actually drop by stevens creek today for a little christmas shopping. Thanks for the recommendations Mark ill aim for that breakfast place. My gf and I both like antiques so the mall in Reno sounds interesting

I-80
 

After having put in a decade plus tour of duty in the Saltier parts of the upper Beehive, I can tell you that prewar vintage is as dry as the climate, and most likely picked clean like a sun bleached femur. Hey, but this aridity makes for good snow. I think I ended up resorting to purchasing old houses just for the chance that during interior wall removal a couple of strip cards might crumble out. Enjoy the interesting parts of the drive, as after you pass through the greater Reno area your trip to Salt Lake will be a whole lot of nothing. At least you get to drive fast through this seemingly endless stretch of road.

What Mark and James have mentioned are probably your best bet, and at least get you something other than high desert to look at.

Brian

If you're coming down to the LA area there's a decent show in Long Beach every couple of months, and the Frank and Sons show every Wednesday night and Saturday morning-afternoon. There are only a couple of vintage tables there, but they have good stuff and there are plenty of modern cards and unopened new stuff if you're into that. Frank and sons is about 30 miles east of LA.

I just read the rest of your post, only saw CA and wrote my reply.