Tony Reid offers his weekly dose of happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania shop where he works.
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My eyebrows were raised early this week as a younger customer I’d never seen in the shop before dropped off a 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card for submission to PSA. We are somewhat of a smaller shop and Jordan rookies don’t just bounce into the store every day, so it was great to see one. Being such a huge MJ fan and huge fan of rookie cards in general, I try and stop and smell the roses and appreciate each and every one of these classic cards that come through the door.
I don’t care if the card has white corners, is a tad off center and looks like a PSA 4 or 5, it’s an iconic card in any condition and certainly worth submitting.
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There have been rumors of a looming UPS driver strike in recent weeks. Apparently, one of our usual drivers mentioned it moving forward, but our contact who is a little bit higher up in the company assured us this was not going to happen. Honestly, we’re not sure either way but at this point we have to be ready for the worst case scenario if it should happen. We send plenty of packages through USPS and through various forms of the FedEx service, so we would have to pivot for the time being.
Another nasty rumor that I heard this week was a potential pending top loader shortage. We were unable to get some from one of our hookups, so there is some concern there to be sure. This brings back bad memories of 2020, the pandemic, and all that that entailed. So hopefully, we don’t start going down those dark, twisted, scary roads again.
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I always like to talk about some of the fun hits that we see in store and I saw one from a front row seat this week. Dave, who’s a relative of mine and a lifelong collector, buyer and seller who I’ve mentioned many times in Shop Talk before was in and just felt the itch to open something.
He grabbed a few packs of 2023 Topps Heritage Baseball, and there wasn’t much to write home about early on in the pack peeling. All of a sudden, he ripped into his final pack and started screaming, giving us high fives. So we knew something pretty decent. Must be within that last pack. It turned out to be an on card rookie card rookie cup super short print Adley Rutschman autograph.
After Adley’s eye opening, switch-hitting home run derby performance his stuff has been super hot. He is clearly the best young catcher in baseball and on a super stacked and super young Orioles roster. There should be nothing but a bright future ahead for him and his team.
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Speaking of Dave, he has mentioned to me quite often about how well he’s doing on his Whatnot live streams. I tuned in to one of his shows a few weeks ago with my young daughter Izzy on my lap. This week, after much deliberation, I finally took him up on the offer to go over and sit and partake in one of his streams. Thursday night I drove the three full minutes over to his house. We went to the lower level of his compound where he had a full sports card selling set up as well as a backdrop for the stream.
His wife was on the laptop keeping up with sales, interacting with folks in the group as well as taking information and keeping notes while Dave ran the show. I threw a few of my cards in there for good measure and we had a really nice time. Dave’s knowledge of vintage baseball is strong and his passion for the history of the game is just as evident.
It’s really cool to see how involved his wife, Liz, is and how much knowledge she has on the topic, too. They have a great group of collectors and room full of guys who log on, hang out and make some purchases of some great vintage cards.
Anyone, anywhere can go live and sell any type of cards to collectors around the country or even around the world. It’s pretty amazing stuff when you think about how quickly this has all come to be.
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While we are on the topic of great hits, another customer I’ve mentioned a bunch in previous installments of Shop Talk, Todd, continues to text me with the fire he pulls from boxes and packs from Sports Zone. He generally doesn’t open on the spot, so we get the highlights later. He recently sent me a picture of a Pete Rose 1/1 that he pulled as well as an absolutely jaw dropping Shohei Ohtani on card autograph out of 2022 Topps Gypsy Queen.
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Friday morning brought an interesting email from Lt. David Kahley of the West York Borough Police department concerning the recent sports card theft that we have covered right here. Luckily, the suspect has been arrested. The lieutenant reached out to our shop because apparently the suspect has a home in Selinsgrove which is literally three minutes from our front door. The lieutenant thought that the suspect may have tried to stop in and sell us the stolen goods.
Fortunately for us, we hadn’t seen or heard from the suspect. The police department did pass on some images and some specific details about what was stolen. Many of the items were pretty specific and instantly recognizable cards.
We can only hope that somehow the victims recover the goods or at least a good portion of the monetary value. The police believe that a large number of the boxes or packs that were stolen have been opened and whatever singles were inside are floating out there somewhere. A number of the higher end cards were newer high graded UFC Optic parallels.
It’s crazy how much the amount of card shop break-ins, robberies and thefts seems to have skyrocketed over the past 18 to 24 months.
It was a great week for baseball as we got to see the aforementioned Home Run Derby and a super tight and competitive All Star game but I’m ready to see the second half of the regular season to unfold. Some good pennant races and record chases–not to mention the nightly Ohtani highlights–should make for an active hobby, too.
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