One of the world's biggest and oldest sports card shops is located in a city of barely 12,000 people. It's not in the geographic middle of the country but you can almost see the center from there. Located about 100 miles northeast of St. Louis, Baseball Card Connection calls Effingham, IL home, and has for over 30 years. The business owned by the husband and wife team of Jon … [Read more...] about Card Shop Q&A: Baseball Card Connection Thrives in Small Town Middle America
Popular Stories
Dibbs Marketplace Ceases Operations
Dibbs, a platform for trading cards that launched in 2021, says it is shutting down operations of its marketplace. The company says it will instead focus efforts on its “growing Tokenization-as-a-Service” business. Dibbs allowed collectors to buy and sell cards but also fractionalize their items by selling shares to other users either on the web or via its mobile … [Read more...] about Dibbs Marketplace Ceases Operations
Shop Talk: End of the Line for the Big Collection, Sudden Walmart Baseball Card Sales, Thin Margins
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– This week, we saw what would be the last of the customer with the incredibly large sports card collection for sale. Long gone are the four and five row boxes. Now in recent trips, we've been seeing the small shoe boxes, the 100, 200 count boxes full of random, dusty … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: End of the Line for the Big Collection, Sudden Walmart Baseball Card Sales, Thin Margins
2022-23 NBA Rookie Card Roundup, 100 Most Watched eBay Auctions
Although the NBA season is well beyond its halfway point, the 2022-23 NBA card release season is barely in preseason form. That can be good or bad news, depending on the collector's outlook and for what players said collectors had high (or low) expectations. Regardless, the rooks have definitely given collectors a body of work to evaluate to this point. Here's a list of five … [Read more...] about 2022-23 NBA Rookie Card Roundup, 100 Most Watched eBay Auctions
Cops Chase Down Suspected Burbank Sports Cards Burglars
A burglary at one of the hobby’s top sports card shops ended with a police chasing a stolen vehicle on a Los Angeles freeway and the arrest of four men. Police responded to a neighbor’s call about a potential burglary at Burbank Sports Cards on West Burbank Blvd about 1:30 AM Thursday. They say that resident’s call about an alarm and banging noises in the back of the store … [Read more...] about Cops Chase Down Suspected Burbank Sports Cards Burglars
New York Man Enters Plea Deal In Wire Fraud Case That Scammed Collectors Out Of $33K In Sports Cards
A western New York man accused of defrauding six trading card buyers or sellers in four states out of more than $33,000 has reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Kyle Bertrand, of Greece, entered a plea agreement on March 8 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, located in Rochester. Bertrand pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a … [Read more...] about New York Man Enters Plea Deal In Wire Fraud Case That Scammed Collectors Out Of $33K In Sports Cards
50 Years Later: Memories of the First WHA Trading Card Set and the Deal That Gave the League Its Big Star
I cringe when I say I am going to write about what I was doing 50 years ago this week. The reason I cringe is that it was 50 years ago and it feels like it was not that long ago. I have become that old guy that I used to make fun of for saying exactly what I just did. I will be honest, though, I don’t remember every wax box I cracked open in my lifetime. But this one, 50 … [Read more...] about 50 Years Later: Memories of the First WHA Trading Card Set and the Deal That Gave the League Its Big Star
82-Year-Old Colorado Man Charged in $800,000 Sports Card Fraud Scheme
An 82-year-old Colorado man is facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case involving counterfeit graded sports cards. A complaint unsealed Wednesday morning charges Mayo Gilbert McNeil with knowingly selling fake high-grade cards in a scheme that netted him $800,000 in cash and other card in a scheme that went on for over four years. McNeil was … [Read more...] about 82-Year-Old Colorado Man Charged in $800,000 Sports Card Fraud Scheme
Modern Patch Card Guarantees Bear Little Resemblance to Hobby’s First Jersey Cards
When Upper Deck introduced the first fully licensed game-worn jersey patch cards in 1996, the hobby entered a new era, allowing collectors to own a piece of memorabilia with their trading cards. Unlike today, the first jersey cards were huge chases, similar to today’s search for one-of-ones and numbered rookie patch autographs. Upper Deck’s initial product included thin, … [Read more...] about Modern Patch Card Guarantees Bear Little Resemblance to Hobby’s First Jersey Cards
Pinnacle’s Wild Weekend: Bobby Hull, The Commish and Massive Layoffs
For the last few weeks, I have been thinking about all of my encounters with Bobby Hull. I thought about doing a story on his passing a couple of weeks ago, but a story would not come near sufficing the magnitude of his personality and his importance in the hockey world and specifically in the hobby. As I was writing the story on how we resurrected the Bee Hive brand at … [Read more...] about Pinnacle’s Wild Weekend: Bobby Hull, The Commish and Massive Layoffs