Whatever happened to the sports card industry?
Over the past few months, it's been getting harder and harder to find sports cards at your big, chain department stores. We still have a card shop here in town, but with my schedule, I usually can't get there before their 6 p.m. closing time. As my weekends are usually ear-marked with honey-dos, I usually don't have much opportunity to shop then, either.
As for the local Walmart stores, all I find are empty shelves and a few collectible card games or comics. As for your local Target store, you can simply forget about finding any sports cards.
Thanks to dispute back in May at a Brookfield, Wisc. Target store, the retail chain is no longer carrying sports cards. You can still order them online, but where trading cards once lined their shelves, you'll now only only find a plethora of Magic the Gathering cards. However, when it comes to Topps, Donruss, NBA, NHL, or MLB, or anything regarding your favorite sports team, you can forget about it. You won't find any of them (or Pokemon cards, for that matter) gracing the shelves of your local store.
It seems four men allegedly assaulted another man in the parking the lot as he left the store with his sports card purchase. The victim drew a gun (since he had a conceal and carry permit), and his attackers ran off. They were, however, later arrested.
Not only that, once you do find a few packs, they're more expensive then ever, as I discovered at a post-COVID card show. Gone were the much beloved dime boxes, replaced by common quarter boxes. I can't even imagine what a booster box of cards, much less an actual box, will set you back today.
Well, that's it for the complaining. My broadest apologies.
On a lighter note, I will, however, show you three more of the Padres cards I picked up at the one post-COVID card show I have attended.
2010 Topps Gypsy Queen Fortune Teller Mini Fernando Tatis, Jr. (#FTM16), 2020 Topps Opening Day Red Foil Tommy Pham (#74) and a 2020 Panini Prism Pham (#29).
Stay safe and healthy out there.
I'm sure Target will put cards back in the stores once the craze dies down, it might be awhile before that happens though.
ReplyDeleteThis decision by Target hasn't really impacted me... since the card shelves at my local Targets were always pretty empty. I'd have to travel to Portland and Vegas to find blasters to bring home.
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