Is There A Future For Local Sports Card Shops?

Local sports card shops remain a haven for the hobby. The best among them drip with nostalgia. It can be a place where collectors gather and swap stories. Perhaps most importantly, a place where everybody knows your name.

However, this scene is becoming increasingly rare. Some wonder if these shops can survive. The hobby evolved into a primarily online marketplace, offering instant access to a global inventory.

On the most basic level, the e-commerce market makes card stores redundant by supplying cards directly to consumers. Yet they maintain a role due to the community aspect they offer. In theory, this is not too different from record stores and book stores.

However, there are numerous challenges, and cards are more of a niche market than records or books. Therefore, many are asking, Is there a future for local sports card shops?

The Mojo Sports Video Decision To Open A Local Sports Card Shop

 Jay Moslehi, also known as MOJO SPORTS, put out a somewhat dramatic video about opening a card store, named “This is the Hardest Video I Have Ever Made.”

At first, he made it seem like he was talking about quitting the hobby. But soon, he dropped the news that he was opening a card shop. With a good number of followers, almost 80,000 on YouTube alone, he believes that he has built the kind of community you need to maintain a sports card shop.

But does this translate into the kind of support that could sustain a brick-and-mortar card store in the long term? This will be an interesting test case for the sustainability of sports card stores in 2025 and beyond.

In today’s sports card market, traditional sales of sealed packs and singles often don’t cut it for local shops trying to stay afloat. To survive, many stores are leaning heavily on repacks, breaks, and other forms of collectible gambling.

Repack products—where cards from multiple packs are bundled and sold as a new “mystery” pack—offer shops higher margins and a way to move inventory that might otherwise sit on shelves. Breaks, where groups of collectors buy spots to open boxes together online or in-store, have exploded in popularity, turning card collecting into a social, event-driven experience while also generating steady revenue.

This shift toward gambling-style sales isn’t without controversy, but for many local shops, it’s a necessary adaptation. These formats attract a broader audience, especially younger collectors who enjoy the excitement and community aspect.

For store owners, repacks and breaks provide vital cash flow and keep foot traffic coming through the door. Without embracing these trends, many shops find it nearly impossible to compete with the convenience and pricing of online marketplaces and big retailers.

A Look Back: The Rise and Fall of Local Card Shops

While they already seem somewhat antiquated, sports card shops are a relatively new phenomenon. They had a modest start in the 1970s and only came into their own in the 1980s. Still, they quickly became the heart of the hobby.

Yet they have experienced many rocky periods, first with the big collapse of the junk wax bubble and then with the onset of e-commerce. With their overhead and limited reach, local shops couldn’t compete.

In the early 1990s, the sports card market was booming, with annual sales estimated at around $1 billion to $1.2 billion in 1991. However, by the late 1990s, sales had plummeted drastically, falling to approximately $200 million annually—a decline to roughly one-sixth or one-seventh of the peak level.

The broader sports trading card market has rebounded somewhat in recent years, with a total market size estimated at around $11.5 billion in 2024 and projected to double over the next decade nearly. However, this growth is driven heavily by online sales, graded vintage cards, and investment-grade collectibles rather than sealed product sales through local shops.

The Main Challenges Facing Local Sports Card Shops

Aside from the obvious pressure from online marketplaces, local card shops face other challenges.

Due to the overhead and the need to survive, these stores have to charge very high prices. One collector shared the frustration many feel: “I understand brick & mortars can price what they want, how they want. I’ll do my best to support local small businesses as well. When you have a small business and a hobby I’m passionate about, I’m a motivated buyer. However, when you start high, it makes it hard… this is my rant!”

Blowout Forum users, as always, have some interesting angles on this question. One user writes,  “Because of eBay. All shop prices are high, I’ve noticed, waaaaaay higher than the Bay.” Some are sympathetic to the plight of owners, but most hobbyists generally believe they need to adapt to the times.

One rants, “ If the owner provides a better experience than a breaker does, guess who gets the business. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter should all be part of your business plan. Too many shops are run by clueless old guys who complain too much about how great the card industry was back in the day. Quit griping and get back to work.”

Shop owners themselves recognize the difficulty. One reflected morbidly: “I have been in business 4.5 years… But IMO, Card shops will be almost gone in another 10 years… It will be eBay, Blowout, Dave Adams, and several online group breakers… It is impossible to compete.”

But it isn’t just e-commerce. Target and Walmart have endless shelves of cards and exclusive drops. That also means less foot traffic for local stores and shops as they struggle to compete on variety and price. This leaves many smaller stores squeezed in between online giants and retail chains.

On top of all that, there’s the operational grind. Running a brick-and-mortar store means rent, utilities, staffing, and inventory management—costs that don’t disappear just because sales dip. For many shop owners, balancing passion with profitability feels like walking a tightrope.

The Fanatics Problem

On top of these pressures comes the growing dominance of Fanatics, the trading card giant whose direct-to-consumer model has radically altered the product distribution landscape. Fanatics bypasses traditional distribution channels, including local shops, making it harder for them to get popular products.

Many shops find themselves locked out of direct accounts or forced to buy less desirable inventory to access sought-after cards. Strict policies, such as the “30-day rule,” limit dealer-to-dealer transactions, further shrinking stock options. These barriers squeeze profit margins and threaten the viability of many local shops.

Fanatics’ Vision: Energizing the Hobby by Putting Local Card Shops at the Center

When Fanatics took over the card business, they were often criticized for trying to squeeze out local card stores. They have since made some efforts to address the issue.

Fanatics’ Chief Commercial Officer, Avery Jessup, says the company sees local shops as the perfect entry point for new collectors. Events like Hobby Rip Night, which debuted last year and has since expanded to include over 400 stores, bring fresh energy by combining giveaways, discounts, trades, and even appearances by athletes.

These aren’t your typical trade nights—Fanatics leverages its connections to land stars like Ronald Acuna Jr., Kevin Durant, and Joe Burrow, giving shops access to fan experiences that would otherwise be out of reach.

Of course, not every shop gets an athlete appearance, and the logistics of coordinating these events are complex. But for those shops that embrace the opportunity, it can be a game-changer. SkyBox Collectibles in Norwalk, CT, landed Tom Brady for their 2024 Rip Night, turning what was once a modest event into a primary production complete with photographers, DJs, and security.

Rob Veres, owner of Burbank Sportscards, acknowledges the impact: “The Fanatics marketing ability just dwarfs anything the industry has seen before. So they’re getting a lot of fresh eyes on the industry, and they’re pointing those fresh eyes toward our hobby shops.

It’s tremendously successful, especially for some of the store owners who got athletes.” However, we must note that card shop owners say very different things off the record about Fanatics.

The Unique Value of Local Shops

Despite all these challenges, local shops have something no website can replicate: community. These are the places where rookies get their start, veterans share advice, and friendships are forged over shared passions. The sound of a pack being ripped open, the thrill in a collector’s voice when they spot a rare card—these are experiences that get lost behind a screen.

Zach Kelley, co-owner of Northside Collectibles, nails it: “We’re a community and we want people to come here to do more than just shop. It’s about sharing stories, celebrating passion, and building connections that don’t exist online.”

Collectors echo this sentiment. One longtime enthusiast shared, “I love popping into my local card shops every week. It’s become a great way to relax on my breaks from work, and I’ve met some cool people in the process.”

One passionate collector offered a vision for local shops: “To me, the ‘can’t compete with prices’ excuse is invalid. You need to make being in the card shop an experience… Have a man’s night where you have a little food and drink and a bunch of people around the table busting wax and trading. If you can make busting wax an event rather than solely a business transaction, I think you’re on to something.”

Evolving with the Times

Josh Wolters, owner of JWW Sports Cards and Gaming, puts it bluntly: “Investing in a sports card is like investing in a stock. The key for local shops is to show collectors that value isn’t just about price, but about knowledge, trust, and experience.”

To survive, many local shops are diversifying beyond sealed wax, focusing more on singles, hosting events, and offering grading submission services or other hobby-related activities. Building a strong community presence and offering unique in-store experiences can differentiate shops from online retailers.

Some believe Fanatics could recognize the value of local shops as grassroots marketing hubs and find ways to support them through exclusive products, promotional events, or better product allocation, creating a healthier ecosystem for the hobby overall.

This evolution is crucial. It’s not about matching online prices or inventory, but about creating memorable experiences and fostering a sense of community spirit.

Final Word On If There Is A Future for Local Sports Card Shops

So, do local sports card shops have a future? They do—if they double down on what makes them irreplaceable.

It’s about more than just cards; it’s about the relationships, the events, and the real, human moments that no online platform can match. Jay Moslehi’s MOJO SPORTS is showing how building a community online can fuel real-world success, proving that passion and connection can breathe new life into brick-and-mortar shops.

At the same time, Fanatics is shaking up the game by putting local shops at the center of high-profile events and exclusive experiences, bringing star power and fresh energy that can’t be found anywhere else. While digital marketplaces offer convenience and speed, these moves remind us that local shops hold the soul of collecting—the people, the stories, and the shared passion.

The hobby stands at a crossroads, needing to balance slick modern distribution with the unique value local shops provide. In an age where everything scrolls past in an instant, sometimes the best pull isn’t a rare card—it’s the one that pulls us all together.

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