With baseball here again, Capital Region card shops are hoping a good season is in the cards. Many will gather this weekend for a convention in Albany.
Time was, kids would make their 12-speed sound like a motorcycle by sticking baseball cards in the spokes. For collectors and hobbyists, though, that’s the last place they want to see them.
Jeff Finnigan owns and operates Finnigan’s Sportscards in Colonie. He says, in his 47 years as a collector and the 26 he’s run the shop, more people of more kinds are coming in than ever. On the baseball side, Finnigan says the new releases fly off the shelves, especially if the player can fly on the basepaths.
“People say, ‘well, I want to get in on this young player, that young player.’ So in the last couple years, we've seen people, you know, rush to get Elly de la Cruz and Anthony Volpe and Jackson Holliday and you know, Bobby Witt Jr., all these young, talented kids,” Finnigan said.
He says everyone wants Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani. But he really dislikes when people think of their collections as an investment.
“Cards should be for fun and entertainment, and if they're worth more in the future, that's great, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend people go investing their life savings or their retirements in cards. That being said, a good portion of my inventory is worth quite a bit of money,” Finnigan said.
He adds football is another top seller.
“Our number one requested football player for the last three years is Josh Allen, right, MVP, great player, he's a game away from a championship, and he really is spectacular,” Finnigan said.
Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Saquon Barkley are also headliners, Finnigan says.
While Finnigan’s has been at it a while, new card fans find the biz enjoyable, too. Jack Walter is the store manager at Matt’s Baseball. In business since 1989, Matt’s only reopened a physical storefront at its Watervliet warehouse a month ago, and he’s worked for the company since New Year’s. Walter says card collecting’s been a lifelong obsession.
“I've played baseball since I can remember. So back in Little League. you grab a pack with your friends, going around, staying involved with the hobby. I had family and stuff that would, you know, get you some packs after a game,” Walter said.
While Finnigan doesn’t see cards as investments, Walter does.
“Think of Wall Street, individual little Wall Streets, where you can buy and sell and trade cards based off their performance or their careers, and the rarity and even grade. People send cards out, and depending on what grade you get, that’s what gives the value,” Walter said.
Even just in the short time he’s been working at Matt’s, Walter says he’s been impressed by cards people have brought in.
“A couple weeks ago, we had a 1994 Upper Deck Mickey Mantle/Ken Griffey Jr. dual-signed card. And that didn't last more than, I think, five days,” Walter said.
Walter says it went for thousands of dollars.
If he could have any card, he says he wants a Griffey, Jr. too.
Custom cards are also popular. Gary Mills is a full-time paramedic in Newburgh who makes patch cards on the side.
“I'll leave the border and the player there, and I'll cut around the background. So basically, kind of like making it like a false back card, like this, just the player, just the image of the player will be there. And then I will use other cards to build, to just cut out the borders to make like a shadow box. So it'll be about five or six cards thick. And then in that little well is where I'll put the patch,” Mills said.
Mills is one of the vendors who will be appearing at Saturday’s Capital Region Card Show at Albany’s Capital Center. Show organizer Scott Santelli says this weekend’s event at the Capital Center in Albany will feature more than 80 vendors selling at over 130 tables.
“This is a wonderful collaboration of everybody in the hobby, from Pokemon, Magic, One Piece, sports cards, autographed memorabilia, where vendors will be available to conduct business, such as trading, buying and selling all of these items,” Santelli said.
Santelli says it’s been an adventure to run the show, which is celebrating its anniversary this month.
Cards have been part of his life since he discovered them in third grade.
“My mother was very poor, and maybe there was a little bit of entrepreneurship inside of me, because I realized that Ronald Reagan had just passed a deposit law. So if I went around and collected cans, I would return them and packs in like 1986 were like 25 cents, so I didn't take too many cans to purchase a pack of cards,” Santelli said.
Today, collectors are after flashier options.
“Topps Series One, Topps Series Two, updates, obviously, that depends on the checklist. Are the hot rookies on the checklist? Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome...,” Santelli said.
Santelli says Pokemon cards have also proven durable for collectors.
“Recently, there's been a resurgence and a huge boom in the Pokemon community, or TCG in the last six months, and all the releases have been pretty good because they've been short printed. There's not excessive amounts of Pokemon just being printed to the moon,” Santelli said.
The Card Show runs 9 to 3 Saturday.
