Covid boosts sportscardtrade

Published date20 August 2021
Publication titleSports Tab
BILL Mason started selling baseball cards 25 years ago by carving a small space in his father’s convenience store, hoping to grab the attention of customers as they bought lottery tickets or paid their utility bill.

He had become enamoured with collecting after scoring autographs at Veterans Stadium, and this — hawking packs of cards after he turned 18 in the summer of 1996 — was a chance to turn that passion into profit. The business grew, eventually moved to its own building next door, and Bill’s Sports Cards and Memorabilia became a mainstay in Philadelphia.

But the outlook of Mason’s business — and the entire sports card industry — felt a bit dire in March 2020 in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I was sitting here and saying, ‘Man, sports are done. People aren’t going to have money. We’re going to have to close the store for a little bit’,’’ Mason said at his store.

“I didn’t know how this was going to play out.”

Seventeen months later, it has played out better than Mason could have imagined. The trading card industry boomed during the pandemic as collectors rediscovered the hobby or dug even deeper into it while the world was shut down.

Cards starting moving like stocks as values for rookie cards and rare vintage cards spiked on resale markets such as eBay. Packs and boxes became so hard to find that collectors were able to flip them for double or triple the retail price.

Topps, the leading card company, was valued earlier this year to be worth $US1.3billion. Of the 25 most expensive sports card sales, 24 have been made since the start of 2020. The industry boomed.

“The current marketplace since Covid has been freaky. It’s just been completely overwhelming,” said Steve MacKenzie, who owns Horsham’s Knuckleball Sports Cards.

“My sales since last July, when I reopened my store, have probably tripled since before Covid.

“I’ve been here 11 years. Nine of them, I didn’t make any money or I lost money. But this year is going to be an exception. Last year, I made money.

‘‘The market is very strong right now and I think a lot of people are home and you finally have time to say, ‘I think I have my old cards in my attic somewhere.’ You dig them out, and you’re into it again.”

While many industries took a hit during the pandemic, trading cards and memorabilia actually benefited. The industry is accustomed to peaks and valleys, but this is a higher peak than local store owners have ever seen. Their fears at the start of the pandemic were for naught.

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