Sports card industry thriving despite pandemic

The stories about business being hurt, damaged or even completely destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic sadly are too many to count here. That’s why it’s refreshing to hear of one industry – at least one that doesn’t manufacture masks or hand sanitizer – that’s experiencing a boom these days.

The Illinois Valley Sports Card, Comic and Collectibles Christmas Show held Saturday at the Peru Mall provided an outlet for those participating in the hobby/business as well as those observing its resurgence.

Even though the event had a few pandemic casualties of its own – including a few no-show vendors and the canceled appearances of former Chicago Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass and Chicago Bulls legend Bob Love – a total of 18 vendors occupied 46 tables from as far away as Milwaukee and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and set up on either side of the Mall’s center court, thanks to Streator’s Dave Marvin.

“This is the third year we’ve had a show here, and we’ve done a few shows in Ottawa, but this is the first time we’ve done a show at Christmas time,” said Marvin, a Grand Ridge native and owner of Ridge Cards whose regular job is as an industrial tech teacher at Streator High School. “They’ve been growing slowly but surely by word of mouth and social media. We’ve gone from maybe 20 tables and a small crowd at the first one to this, the most vendors we’ve had at a show yet … and I know the pandemic is the reason.”

Collecting baseball, football and basketball cards always has had its niche, but after it reached its peak in the late 1980s, a glut of cards printed in bulk and forced into the market by several companies about crashed the hobby less than a decade later.

It slowly has made its way back to the point where eBay did more than $600 million in card business in 2019, an increase of 40% since 2016, the year that companies like Topps, Leaf and Upper Deck began having record earnings. Some estimate this year will blow those years away.

“Another trend now is that when big vendors like Wal-Mart and Target get shipments in, there are like five guys there waiting for them and buy them all before they hit the shelves. Then they sell them on eBay. That’s how hot the sports card industry is right now. It’s insane.”

—  Grand Ridge's Dave Marvin

An article in the Sporting News cited one card shop in St. Louis that estimates that sales increased 250% from just May to August of this year.

Marvin believes that many of the card collectors forced to quarantine at home have become bored, have broken out their old stock and have added to it by using the pandemic stimulus checks to shop online and at card shows like the one in Peru Saturday.

The ESPN series “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls helped out the basketball side.

“Another trend now is that when big vendors like Wal-Mart and Target get shipments in, there are like five guys there waiting for them and buy them all before they hit the shelves. Then they sell them on eBay,” Marvin said. “That’s how hot the sports card industry is right now. It’s insane.”

Among those enjoying this resurgence is 20-year-old Andrew Evola of Ottawa and his friend, Ryan Wendt, who were among the youngest vendors in attendance. They often travel to card shops in Plainfield and Dixon to add to their collections.

“This is something I grew up into. My dad, Vince, collected cards over the years and I followed suit with him and started my own collection,” Evola said. “I kinda stopped for a while, but collecting has really gotten so popular lately. It’s out of control.”

Mendota native Tony Schaefer, now the owner of Monster Cards in Champaign, started collecting and attended local shows when he was a kid, then started working at a card shop while attending U of I.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but the dealer (Streator native Joe Yanello) was nationally known and I traveled the country working for him,” Schaefer said. “Normally I’d go to 15 shows a year. That’s slowed down, obviously, but I’ll find some more.

“Things are definitely going crazy … There are rookie cards going for five or 10 times what they were going for in March of this year. It’s incredible.”

Piggybacking on the sports card theme is Streator’s Sean Peters, who brought to the show his collection of engraved stock certificates and antique credit cards.

“I was always into coins and paper money, and these are similar in quality to the paper money,” Peters said. “You see some of these at coin show … I might not sell too much, but I figured I’d come and take advantage of the crowd and maybe pick up some things for myself.”

Marvin is planning more shows in the spring and fall, and hopes to add autograph signings through his contacts at the Chicagoland Sports Appearance Connection. CSAC is responsible for having pros like former Cubs pitchers Rich Nye and Bill Campbell, White Sox star Eric Soderholm, University of Illinois basketball standout Kenny Battle and several others appear at recent local shows.

“We’ll see how the vendors like this Christmas show,” Marvin said. “Then maybe we’ll start doing three shows a year.”