Tony Reid offers his weekly dose of happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania shop where he works.
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This week at the shop was one right up my alley in that it centered around cards. We had (hopefully) a great find of vintage cards unexpectedly waltz in, new releases in all major sports and we are preparing our newest repack card product.
Early in the week we had two teenage guys bring in a stack of raw, unsleeved, untoploaded 1953 Topps cards. They had many of the the stars of the set from Whitey Ford up to an including the cherished Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson.
I asked for the back story and they said a friend had cleaned out a few rooms in his grandparents’ home and came across a box with a collection of cards. I asked him what else the box consisted of and he said a lot of older stuff, but by “older stuff” he meant 1980s, so not only did that make me feel old once again, it did raise the first potential red flag of the authenticity of what we were seeing.
The second was that they were brought in and just thrown on the counter. The potentially very valuable pieces of cardboard were being handled like a 1988 Topps Mackey Sasser. This could be due to inexperience or even a lack of supplies, which is understandable to a point but most people who think they have something good will treat it with a little more care.
These appeared to be unusually nice off the street 1953 Topps. They were off center but the surfaces and backs were generally clean and passed the eye test. There appeared to be natural wear on some corners and edges. I was trying to literally get a feel for the cards but unfortunately we didn’t have any 1953s in store at the moment to compare them to. If they aren’t real, someone created some exceptionally good fakes.
To be safe and to be fair considering the potential value, we did not make an offer. We instead suggested they send one or two of the cards to get graded and, at the very least, authenticated so that’s what they did. We spent a decent amount of time walking the young men through the entire process, taking care of the submission piece of the puzzle for them through our store account. Although I am not a professional grader (I do play one on TV from time to time) I’m a complete fool for vintage cards so it was a fun interaction and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens. Seeing uncirculated old cards walk in is one of those rare moments card shops live for. Here’s hoping for the kids’ sake that these are indeed the real deal.
It was a fairly busy week for new card releases and new card stocks for us, too. 2022 Sage Aspire Football made its way to the store which boasts, well, let’s just call it a stack of autographed cards. At a price point (and cost) north of $200 this will make for an interesting sell.
Initially we assumed it was a box with packs but it’s actually a snap tight with 20 autographed cards in it. We opened one for the shop and kept a few for the shelf. We managed to pull Detroit Lions rookie Aidan Hutchinson and a few other defensive stars but not much on the offensive side of the ball. We all know what that means: defense wins championships but doesn’t sell cards.
We also saw 2022 Topps Pristine Baseball make its way to the shop this week. In what’s being hailed as a limited offering, we only got one master box to offer to customers. 
Online reviews and breaks of this one have elicited a pretty positive response but it’s one where you almost have to start doing algebra with a breakdown of one box within a box with two cards in a box and three in a pack and, well, just give me a pack of cards to open already.
2022 Topps Archives Signature Series came in the door this week, too. We have yet to see any of this opened but this is definitely one of those complete hit or miss breaks as it offers one encased autographed buy back card per box.
Derek Jeter’s on the box and on the checklist but while there is the rare occasional big hit, there have been some horror stories from those those hoping to pull something comparable to what they paid for the chance to open one.
We also saw 2021, yes 2021, Chronicles Football in the shop for the first time this week.
We had a number of the new 2022 Chronicles Draft Picks ripped this week in store, which were all actually really good. They offered all the top rookies (yes in college unis) with really nice hits. We have yet to see any of the 2021 Chronicles pro football cards out of the pack but they are selling pretty steadily online at just over $500 per box.
The Gem Mint repack boxes that we make in the house that I’ve talked about in previous Shop Talks have sold really well for us over the past few months. So much so that we decided to try something new and create a Mint Box which offers a mint 9 or better card graded by CSG and a second card graded by PSA or BGS.
With us offering a 9 or better, that really opens the floodgates as to the quality of the cards and players we can offer at our particular price point. We completed the artwork and actually received our first shipment of cases and boxes to fill this week.
We are getting closer and closer to The National and I’m getting more excited by the day. I will be out of shop that week and attending the mecca of sports cards and collectibles for the duration of the show. Hope to see you there.
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