R.I.P. Uncommon Sports Cards and Jeff's Sports Cards

Over the past week I discovered that two of my favorite local card shops have closed. When I was visiting family back in Minnesota I found that Uncommon Sports Cards near Minneapolis had shut its doors. Every LCS has it's good and bad points but Uncommon had a huge section of storage materials and toploaders. They also had great blind lots that they would sell for $5.00 a box. It had been a few months since I had been able to make it back to the Twin Cities so I'm not exactly sure how long they have been closed but the store will certainly be missed.


Yesterday I called over to Jeff's Sports Cards to see how late they would be open and the number came back as being disconnected. Not a good sign. I was going over to Topeka anyway so I drove over to see if my worst fears were true and sure enough there were empty windows.


When I first moved to Lawrence back in 2008 the shop was called Al's Sport Cards. 


Al had owned it for many years and sold it to Jeff who logically changed the store's name to Jeff's Sports Cards. They of course had a great selection of Royals and Chiefs [as well as my central location for former Kansas State Wildcat Jordy Nelson cards] and it was certainly the most well organized sections for singles searching. Everything was divided by teams and everything was priced...it really was a model of how cards shops should operate. 



It's sad to see both of these shops close their doors and it shows how even in larger cities the baseball card and sports card markets are finding it harder and harder to make a profit. These shops didn't have the obvious problems that some shops have such as owners that don't offer good customer service or poor pricing. I always found a deal whenever I made it into the shop. I'm afraid it's just the reality that physical card shops are finding it harder and harder to compete with online sellers.  

Comments

BaseSetCalling said…
yep. My favorite store, that I only see in the winter, gave me the heads up on my last visit in early spring - "not sure if you'll see us next winter"
Fuji said…
Sad but true :(
gcrl said…
i stopped by uncommon in mid-may and bought a few singles and a pack of bowman. the store looked the same (messy) as it had over the time that i had known of its existence.

a new card shop has opened (yes, you read that correctly) in golden valley. it's called twin city sports cards, and one of the guys who runs it is one of the vintage bargain bin guys at the monthly shows. i haven't been there yet, but will get there soon.