Notes: Washington Shop Burglary; Yelich Gift; Keeping the Hobby Affordable, Topps Truck
Another hobby shop burglary—this time in the Pacific Northwest.
Someone broke into On The Marq Sports Cards in Kennewick, WA last Thursday and stole thousands of dollars worth of singles and unopened material.
Surveillance video of the suspect in a burglary at On The Marq Sports Cards.
There’s video of the burglary, images of the suspect and even some surveillance photos of his beat up car, so there are good leads to work with.
A local TV station talked with owner Donnie Marquart about what happened.
Rob Veres of Burbank Sports cards has been spending weeks preparing his company for a move into a larger facility to accommodate a fast growing customer base.
Rob Veres of Burbank Sports Cards
A long-time industry veteran, Veres is adamant that the focus for hobby shops and the industry as a whole is to focus on lower price points on boxes and singles so average collectors don’t get discouraged and new collectors will not only jump on board, but continue to collect over the long haul.
“You want to look at Dodger cards for a quarter? You want gaming or MMA cards for a quarter? You can look at (Cody) Bellinger cards for a buck and go through hundreds of them? That’s the experience we’re trying to get across. That’s the light that I want show this category in more than any other light,” he said in a recent Instagram post. “Sure we have investment opportunities. Sure there are celebrities in it. There’s highly produced video content out there and that’s all wonderful but the key to this category and it sometimes gets lost on many people in the supply chain is that we need affordable price points to get families in. Like I always say if you get mom on board, then you have family on board and when you have a family on board, then it spreads by word of mouth, through social media. It spreads through youth sports but you’ve got to get them in at a price point and you’ll have a customer for life.”
The new shop is expected to open next month. Burbank has over 2.4 million cards listed in its eBay store as well.
The Topps Truck is back.
After a year off during the pandemic, the company’s card-covered vehicle will be hitting the road for the next several weeks, handing out packs in various cities located between Denver–site of the MLB All-Star Game to the Field of Dreams in Iowa, handing out packs in a new city each week.
Wrapped entirely in over 11,000 baseball cards, will travel more than 7,000 miles.
Throughout the month-long journey, the onsite teams in each location will host trivia contests and cornhole games, along with free baseball cards and Topps swag giveaways. Fans are also invited to take a photo in a life-size Topps card frame to become their own card, as well as trade at the mobile Topps Card Wall, a staple activity at Topps events.
It’s all part of the annual National Baseball Card Day promotion, which is set for August 7.
Oregon State guard Jarod Lucas is among those looking to earn some cash thanks to the recent ruling that makes it easier for college athletes to make money on the side.
Lucas, who set the Southern California high school scoring record with 3,356 before signing with the Beavers, put an autographed game-worn jersey from his Los Altos career on eBay. Bidding was fairly modest—and if he winds up having success on the next level, it probably wasn’t a bad investment.
Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich did a pretty nice thing for a young fan who made a great catch in Pittsburgh last week.
Forbes chatted with Upper Deck’s Jason Masherah about the company’s genesis, what it’s been up to lately, hobby shops, ePack, the NFT market and more.
