Lincoln baseball card shop sees boom in business

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Over the last nine months, many people have picked up new hobbies since there are a limited number of things to do.

That’s definitely the case when it comes to collecting baseball cards. One local shop owner told 10/11 NOW he hasn’t seen this many people buying and selling cards since the late 80′s.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Wes Johnson, the owner of Wes’ Baseball Cards, said he didn’t know how it would impact his business.

“I thought oh great, here we go, it’s 9/11 again, back to 2008, things aren’t going well,” said Johnson.

Instead of being another thing to hurt his business, card sales took off.

“People are at home not doing anything, so they start bringing out their cards and say, hey, let me collect some cards,” said Johnson.

Johnson said it started right away in March.

Soon, they were busy with people getting back into buying and selling cards.

“I was collecting when I was younger so I decided to hop back into it, it just gave me something to do,” said collector, Luke Breon.

And the value of cards is going up too.

“I had a Lebron James card graded his rookie year in December of last year.. was worth $3,000, now a year later it’s worth $15,000,” said Johnson.

But he said the newer cards with autographs are more rare.

Johnson said although it is great for business, there’s no better feeling than seeing people get back into something he loves.

“Having fun collecting and trading with people, I think that’s the fun part,” said Johnson.

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