As my wife and in-laws and I were watching football last Sunday afternoon it was becoming more and more apparent that Monday night’s game in Pittsburgh would be longtime quarterback and future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger’s last go-round in his home stadium of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. We made a pretty last minute decision to make the trek across the state to see Big Ben and his last ride in front of Steelers fans. As I’ve mentioned before, my in-laws have season tickets and we managed to hitch a ride with them after we snagged a few seats in the nosebleeds along with Michelle’s cousin Jen and her husband Jamie.
It couldn’t have been much more of a storybook night for Ben as he led the Steelers to a victory over their divisional ‘rival’ Cleveland Browns. As great as the game was, the postgame celebratory atmosphere was something that I’m glad I got to see in person. Roethlisberger took a half victory lap and took in the moment with Steelers diehards before walking off with his family in tow. I would be lying if I said my lovely wife didn’t shed a tear or two.
My wife was already trying to talk me into going to Baltimore for the game between the Steelers and the Ravens this Sunday (it didn’t happen) but we’ve already all but made our reservations in Canton for Ben’s induction in a few years.
Thankfully, I have some great co-workers at the shop and it’s nice to have a few people you can rely on to cover for you when those special opportunities and experiences pop up. 
Away from the gridiron and back indoors, we scored a few boxes of the red hot 2021 Bowman’s Best Baseball Hobby and the enormous cardboard box that is 2021 Bowman Draft Jumbo, both of which flew off the shelves as soon as we could get them in.
Part of the conversation at the shop when these great products hit was the fact that Beckett will be listing the Bowman prospect rookie or rookie prospect cards as RCs in their database.
I’m old enough to remember the late 80’s and early 90’s when Bowman was the ‘Home of the Rookie Card’ as they managed to produce the rookie cards of most of the great talent from that generation well before other companies did. They were considered true rookie cards back then, then they weren’t, now they are again…or they’re not, depending on who you’re talking to. Ultimately, collectors will decide which cards are most important to them.
Our crazy level of business tapered off a bit this week but we were still hustling with online orders and foot traffic in the shop. We still walk in to at least 100-200 orders and ship darn near constantly throughout the day.
I was glad to see 2021-22 Hoops Basketball hobby boxes make their arrival to us this week. It’s about time we get this season’s rookie class in their NBA uniforms. It’s great to be able to get them in an early flagship product such as Hoops, too. Collectors have been clamoring for more products that are actually dated to the current seasons but so many are being pushed back by months that it’s a good idea to pay attention to the actual date that’s on the box before you buy it.
I woke up Saturday morning rip roaring and ready to go for the annual Shikellamy High School Card Show, aka the ‘Shik Show’. The Shik Show has been a staple in our local collectibles community for two decades and it’s something that many collectors really look forward to each and every year.
There were upwards of 40 tables up and running and by a few minutes after 9 AM the place was pretty much packed. It was great to see yet another huge turnout and from what I understand, many local card shows across North America are still seeing good crowds as well. Of course, I bumped into a number of our customers and friends that were there buying, selling, flipping and even some as dealers.
I made it about four tables in before using up most of what I’d planned to spend for the day. There were two gentlemen selling and dealing in a lot of baseball but they had a 2003-2004 Topps Basketball set with the LeBron James rookie graded an SGC 7. For the price they were asking I couldn’t refuse, so I’m happy to add one of the more important modern era basketball sets and its great rookie crop to my PC.
Of course I wasn’t leaving after being there for a grand total of 10 minutes so I stopped at a number of other tables and chatted with the sellers. There were a number of younger sellers and I found a ton of modern basketball. There were a handful of higher end tables offering a nice mix of sports and cards. We also had the old guard holding down the fort and helping buyers with vintage from stars to commons and everything in between.
One of the very last tables I hit before I left had the dealer and a potential buyer in the midst of brokering a deal for a really nice 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card.
I managed to score a few other small deals including picking up the recently hot 2011 Topps American Pie Kanye West “rookie card” that caught fire during the pandemic, a few wrestling rookie cards and some other low end stuff to add to the PC for the fun of it. After all, for me, its always all about the fun of it.
A number of the dealers I spoke to had serious concerns with the new tax policies and regulations and increasing fees and all that comes with selling online. Many of their concerns are things that we deal with each and every day in the actual brick and mortar card shop. If you’re an individual buying and selling online on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to start treating it like the business it is.
I managed to escape my alma mater without completely blowing my budget and still managed to walk out with a number of fine additions to my collection while taking stock of the current market for various cards.
As Ice Cube famously said, it was a good day.
