San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
RIDING A WAVE
Flux: When COVID-19 forced closure of Sports Cards Plus, it doubled down online. That paid off.
Three decades ago, Charlie DiPietro decided to open a business dedicated to his hobby: sports cards and memorabilia.
When the retired civil service engineer opened Sports Cards Plus on Lockhill Selma Road, dozens of sports card shops were scattered across San Antonio. In the years since, online sellers have overtaken the market and forced the closure of most card shops in the city, but DiPietro’s family-operated business has managed to thrive in the digital age.
DiPietro’s transition to online also helped his business boom last year amid the pandemic — in spite of his store being closed for six weeks.
Interest in sports cards has boomed over the past year. The Ringer Podcast Network, a popular sports and pop culture site, launched a podcast in January covering sports card trading, and this year buyers have shelled out millions for rare cards of NBA superstar LeBron James and baseball legend Mickey Mantle.
DiPietro attributes some of the rising interest in sports cards to the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees who could work from home had extra cash to spend on cards and time to shop for them.
DiPietro spoke with the Express-News at his North Side shop about the recent big sales of sports cards and how he managed through the pandemic. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: When did you get into the sports card business?
A: I’ve been in the business for 36 years. Before, I was just doing card shows, and then in 1992 we opened up the store. I’m a retired civil service engineer, and at first I was working at my job at Kelly and Randolph, and we opened up the store. I was still working and my wife, who is retired Air Force, was working at the store.
Q:
When you were working as a civil service engineer, why did you decide to open you own business?
A: It was a hobby. And I was doing card shows, and it was very popular in the 1980s to do card shows. I was operating at the shows as a business. I had the business name and I was paying taxes.
But in 1992, my wife retired from the Air Force and she said she wanted to do some sort of business. I told her the only thing I know anything about is sports cards, and so we started with that.
Q: What was it like when you first opened Sports Cards Plus? A: It was not like it is today. Back then, you could operate on a small budget. My rent was only
$800 a month, so the overhead was small.
Q: How is your business different today than when you opened almost 30 years ago?
A: Back then, there were 53 card shops in San Antonio like mine. Today, there’s only three physical card shops. Right now, a lot of this business is done over the internet.
Q:
How did you shift online early on?
A: I didn’t shift to digital until about 2003, so it took me awhile to do that. Back then, I looked at online as advertisement, so local people who were looking to buy online, they would find me.
I was selling stuff on eBay, but the majority of my sales were here in the store — and actually that’s the case today. It’s just the online numbers are much bigger than they were back in 2003. Back then, online was maybe 5 percent of my business. Today, it’s about 30 percent.
Q: So there are podcasts now about sports cards, and it seems like there’s been an overall resurging interest in the sports cards world recently. Have you seen that?
A: I’d say it started going up around 2012. There was a bump because of the rookie class that was Mike Trout, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck. So whenever there’s a good rookie class, there’s a little bump. But generally speaking, in the last five years it’s been a steady incline (in interest) going up.
First, it started with Kobe’s death. When Kobe (Bryant) died, there was all these NBA fans who all of sudden wanted to own something of Kobe. So they bought all his autographs on the internet; they looked at cards. There were cards I was selling here in the store for $20 that sold for $800 on eBay the day Kobe died. And that’s not realistic. But what it is is all these new eyes came in looking for something Kobe.
The day Kobe died, what I decided to do was just take it
(Kobe memorabilia) off the shelf and put it aside, and I said, “Wait a few weeks, and let’s see what it’s really worth. Right now you just have a lot of people reacting to the fact that he died. Don’t jump in on the high.”
After they bought stuff, they started looking at other things. If Kobe cards are worth $800, how much is LeBron worth? And those started going up in value. Then there were some huge sales on the internet, millions of dollars for cards. So people see that and say, “If that card is worth $1 million, $2 million, how much is this card worth?”
Q: It seems like sports card trading is somewhat similar to trading stock of companies.
A: It is a lot like the stock market. Something happens in the stock market and people react to it. It’s the same thing here. In fact, it’s almost mind-boggling to me that a player has one or two good games and then everybody wants his card. (Dallas Mavericks guard) Luka Doncic just had a big game (in the NBA playoffs). I expect his stuff to go up in price.
Q: The multimillion-dollar sports cards sales we saw earlier this year came about the same time as the surge in GameStop’s stock price and expensive sales of digital nonfungible tokens. Do you think people see sports cards as “the next big” investment?
A: People are reactionary and they want in. They see something jump up in value, they want it. The old adage that you should buy low and sell high, it seems like people do the opposite.
Q: Where do you usually get your inventory of memorabilia and sports cards?
A: The unopened boxes come from the manufacturers and distributors. You can buy autographed items from the manufacturer, and then people walk in with them, too. I only buy autographed items that have been certified or guaranteed by the manufacturer.
Q: Is there any item in your shop that’s your favorite or most meaning ful to you?
A: There’s a lot of things I like. I have Tim Duncan’s shoes from the 1999 Olympic trials.
Q: How was your business affected last spring by the pandemic?
A: It was kind of scary. Kobe had died, and we had all these customers coming in and we were doing great. And then the city closed us down for about six weeks. And I had to pivot and change my philosophy. Before, my internet sales were maybe 30 percent, so I had to get aggressive on the internet and they became my only source of sales.
When we first closed down, I was worried. But we had a tremendous response on the internet. All these people who were stuck at home started looking on the internet. I had a jump in sales, and we did very well last year. Last year is the best year I ever had.
Q: How do you see the sports card and memorabilia market developing after the pandemic? A: It used to be a niche hobby or investment. But now it’s become legitimized, it’s more mainstream. Everybody knows that the Mickey Mantle card sold for $3 million, the Mike Trout card sold for millions. So everybody has heard about that and says, “Well, if people with big money are doing it, there must be something there.”
Q: How is value assigned to a sports card? Is value simply what someone is willing to pay for it?
A: There’s a lot of things that go into determining value. There has to be a demand for that item. A thing that influences demand on cards is how well the person played yesterday. If it’s a vintage card, those are pretty stable, because they’re no longer playing. And then autographed items, if the person dies and can no longer sign, those autographs are going to maintain value.
The thing that affects the value of these types of things is the economy. If you don’t have people with money to buy the item, it goes down in value in order to sell. Or you just hold it.
Q: How are “grades” assigned to cards?
A: I have so many people that tell me, “My card is mint.” I say, well, OK, get it graded. You send the cards to the grading companies, they grade on a scale of one to 10. They look at the surface for any wear, they look at corners, edges and centering. An eight-graded Michael Jordan rookie card is worth about $35,000 to $40,000.