Few businesses are as heavily dependent upon someone else’s success as the sports memorabilia industry. Those who buy cases of a product that’s based around rookie cards come to regret it when those rookies don’t measure up or kick themselves for not pre-ordering more when the rookie class is dynamic (see 2012 NFL).
Those comparisons pale to the local brick-and-mortar shop, though. Business can boom when a team goes on a run or acquires a popular player who lights it up (see Peyton Manning). When a city or region has sports fans who follow multiple teams and all or most of them are doing well, it can be a real bonanza for card shops and others who sell autographed merchandise (see Boston 2007).
When it’s going the other way, though, business can be rough.
KTAR Radio says one shop is making a go of it thanks mainly to snowbirds who’ve moved to the desert from other locations because the Arizona teams either aren’t playing or aren’t playing well.
