Once a month, nerds gather at the Mounds View Square for the baseball card show

The Mounds View Square strip mall isn’t all that exciting. However, once a month, this tiny strip center turns into a local nerdlair by hosting a sports cards/collectibles show. Lucky me, I visited at the right time!

I should’ve known, since the parking lot was packed for a strip mall of this size (and the fact that this center’s biggest store, Petters Warehouse, is now closed). Who knew sports cards & collectibles were still a big thing these days? Then again, we all know the old saying: “Cars depreciate, action figures appreciate!”

The Sports Cards & Collectibles store is ripe with nerds of all ages buying trading cards. After all, middle school...middle age...hey, ANYTIME is a great time to buy Magic the Gathering cards!

So, once a month, the trolls from Mom’s basement surface, bringing their valuable 1988 Topps Baseball card collection, their Starting Lineup figurines, comics in dust-proof mylar bags, and their 20-sided die (just in case a “Magic” game breaks out. You never know what kind of buffoonery will happen at the MV Sports Card show!) to set up shop at Mounds View Square.

Mounds View Square, during remodel *not my picture, found on a construction site*

Mounds View Square was remodeled in 2006. It used to be where you could walk inside entire mall. With the remodel, most of the interior hallway was demolished and now, most stores are only accessible through the outdoor entrance. The interior hallway is only about 5 stores in length, spanning from the Pink Flower Restaurant to the Petters Warehouse (the Petters Warehouse was not accessible from the interior; the hallway ends just before Petters). I’m not sure why they kept some of the hallway instead of demolishing all of it? Maybe the baseball card nerds had something to do with it? How else would they host the card shows? It’s not like they can move it outside. This is Minnesota; we can’t put that shit outdoors!

The Pink Flower restaurant probably gets lots of business from the sports card show customers. Hope they have lots of Mountain Dew on tap...

I went inside with the intention of snapping some photos, but the places was packed wall-to-wall with soft, doughy mama’s boys that look like a cross between the server admin at my office and Michael Moore. There really wasn’t much to take pictures of though & it was just so crowded in there that getting a decent shot of anything wouldn’t have been easy.

Plus, it had a funny smell in the hallway. It was probably a cross between all the people crowded into such a tiny hallway and the nearby thrift store (those places always have an odd smell).

So I just strolled on through and took in all the nerdiness. Overheard a few guys discuss their fantasy football teams. Fantasy football, whatever…Dude, if I’m looking to fantasize about football, I’d much rather think about Tom Brady’s butt or go play Madden than compile a load of statistics in Excel.

I’m sure there were some shady deals goin’ down too. Card shows are NOTORIOUS for that shit. Yep, think 40 year old dudes trying to hard sell an 8 year old kid some worthless Minnesota Twins cards – “Seriously, kiddo, this Denny Hocking rookie card is worth hundreds!! I have the internet quotes to prove it! And at $50, this card is a STEAL!”

And these “collectibles” shows aren’t complete without people trying to sell their Beanie Baby collections – “Contrary to what you might think, Beanie babies aren’t a waste of money! This collection is an INVESTMENT! Their value will appreciate! Let me show you a chart….”

If you ask me, Pink Flower is...a little too close to "Pink Taco"

Besides the baseball card shows, Mounds View Square’s focal point was the Petters Warehouse. Petters Warehouse closed in October 2008 after Tom Petters was charged with leading a large investment fraud scheme.

Now that Petters Warehouse is closed, where will I buy factory-second Levis and seperated lotion from?

Petters Warehouse was basically an “outlet” store, selling overstock, discontinued products, salvage merchandise, and customer returns. That said, you can imagine the junk you’d find in this store.

Now, to be fair, it wasn’t ALL junk. Petters Warehouse was one of those stores where it depended on what day you visited. Some days = junk. Other days = treasure. In my experience, it was mostly junk.

One time, I saw a boxes upon boxes of “Body Solutions, the Evening Weight Loss Formula.” Remember this shit?! Flashback to the early ’00s – every radio DJ in the Twin Cities hawked this snake oil shit! Lose weight while you sleep! Screw exercise! Fuck following healthy diet! Just drink a teaspoon of this magic liquid and watch the pounds melt away. If PAT EBERTZ was selling this crap, you know it didn’t work.  You’d probably be better off wrapping garbage bags around your body and sitting in a sauna for a few minutes than drinking this potion.

Ever dream of being a raccoon? Well, here's your chance! Dig through the trash they sell at Petters Warehouse.

They sold clothing here too. Mostly ugly stuff. Think orange waffle shirts from Kohls in odd sizes. Flannel shirts from Sears with one sleeve longer than the other. Machiavelli-Brand Tupac Jeans. Sweatshirts with thugged-out Looney Tunes characters. Nothing says “sophistication” better than getting your wardrobe from Petters Warehouse!

However, Petters Warehouse is closed for good since Mr. Petters is rotting in a jail cell, awaiting trial.

Instead of seeing this guy hobnob on Lake Minnetonka this summer, we can see him collect trash on I-94!

The rest of this strip mall contains an Anytime Fitness, a Dollar General, a nail salon, a tanning booth, a thrift store, a Cost Cutters, an Aldi, and a few other typical suburban strip mall places.

I also wanted to include the strip mall across the street – Silverview. It’s pretty much abandoned with the exception of a Curves. There really isn’t much to write about. I remember they used to have a Subway over there, but it moved over to the newer strip center near the Wynnsong movie theater.

The Silverview strip mall. A textbook example of a dumpy strip mall

Another view of the Silverview strip mall