The area of sport's memorabilia is still very much alive. Sandy Sicilia’s Legends of the Game card and memorabilia shop is a prime example.
By DAN HEYMAN
Nestled in-between a Tim Horton’s Restaurant and a jazz bar on King Street West in downtown Toronto, the retail floor of Sandy Sicilia’s Legends of the Game sports cards and memorabilia shop is no wider than the aisle at the nearest Wal-Mart. But it is a well-stocked venue and a veritable time capsule of sporting lore.
Sports jerseys from all decades and leagues hang from the rafters, displays of autographed pucks and baseballs occupy entire shelving units and of course there are the cases upon cases of trading cards that make up the main counter—hockey cards (their biggest seller, of course) baseball cards (a distant second) and many more (look real close and you may even spot a Cricket card).
As soon as you walk in, the left display is full of sports action figures, a relatively new phenomena that has recently hit the big time with backing from comic book artist (and partial owner of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers) Todd McFarlane. At the back of the store, shoppers can find a case full of eclectic movie media, from Marilyn Monroe and Stephen Stills collector cards to Elvis posters. Yes, the sports memorabilia scene is alive and well inside Sicilia’s shop.
Unfortunately, dig a little deeper below the colourful sheen of his shop and the industry it represents, and some disturbing trends begin to surface.
Gone are the days, it would seem, that kids bought 10 pack of cards for $10 hoping to find that one copy of their favourite player. Now it’s online entrepreneurs spending big bucks hoping to catch that next windfall.
“The Demographics (of collecting) have changed a little bit because the price points have changed dramatically,” says Glen Humenik who works with Sicilia at Legends. “There was a boom in sports cards in the early 90s, and these so-called investors were in it just for the money.”
Check out this report recently filed by FAN Magazine’s Dan Heyman for a first-hand look at the situation:
Not that Sicilia, 57, didn’t profit from this boom as well—he opened his shop in 1989, right around the time the SkyDome opened up just down the street, and two years before the Blue Jays that called that stadium home would win back-to-back World Series Championships.
But today, even Sicilia sees the perils associated with a sort of “buy now, sell later” attitude that has swept across the memorabilia industry, especially when it comes to trading cards.
“(Sports cards) are no longer an impulse buy,” says Sicilia. “Once you go to the $ 2 (per pack) price point and the kids start screaming that they want a pack of cards, they’re going to get a smack in the back of the head.” Basically, it seems that the days where kids would save their allowance every week and go purchase a pack of cards are waning.
“Except for a handful of products, (the card companies) have taken away from the kids,” Sicilia said. “It hurts.”
Now, instead of buying a pack of 10 cards for a buck or so with hopes of finding that one great “insert” (a rare card), the fellas at Legends say that businessmen with expendable income are buying packs of 20 that cost $100 or more (!) with hopes of finding that one great autographed card.
A box of “Limited NBA Trading Cards” by Panini (one of the market’s biggest producers of cards and comic books) proudly states across the top that the pack (which Sicilia sells for $119.95) contains “3 autograph or memorabilia cards per box!”.
“But there is no guaranteed value of the merchandise,” says Humenik, 46. “It’s like playing the lotto.”
Basically, Panini doesn’t just include autographs from Kobe Bryant or Chris Bosh–when that well-heeled online trader walks in and buys a pack hoping to find a piece of LeBron James’ jersey, he knows that there’s a good chance that he’s going to have to settle for an autograph from Detroit Pistons Centre Greg Monroe, who has played all of three games at the time of writing.
And don’t even start with hockey. I’ve asked many hockey fans for their guess as to the value of a Sidney Crosby rookie card from Upper Deck’s The Cup edition cards (you got an extra $450 lying around? Because that’s what you’ll need to afford a pack of these suckers), and the answer inevitably comes: “$100?”
In fact, it comes it at much higher than that.
That card has sold for as high as $ 15,000, or roughly double the price of some used Acura models on Craigslist. Or a 2011 Fit at your local Honda dealer.
There are only 99 copies of that card on the market today. The cheapest and most common Sidney Crosby rookie card is from the Upper Deck McDonald’s collection. It sells for $30 at Legends. Not too long ago, when Sicilia opened his shop, that same $30 would have been enough for 25 packs of cards, with 10 cards per pack.
Sicilia is a retailer, and even he can’t comprehend what’s going on. “The price (since that boom in the 90s) just kept going up and up,” he said. “Who’s going spend $400-500 on a pack of cards when they’re in University?”
But he has to keep these boutique products in stock lest he get swallowed up by big-box retailers like the aforementioned Wal-Mart. Sicilia says that price margins on the most expensive card sets that he carries are simply too small for those big retailers to make a profit.
But it’s not all doom and gloom—not yet.
Panini, whose hockey products originally went no farther than sticker packs found at gas stations, recently got back into the card business. Humenik explained that since the NHL lockout in 2005, Upper Deck (and its 11 subsidiaries including the classic O-Pee-Chee and Score brands) has had the monopoly of the hockey card market.
But with Panini coming back into the game this season, the $1.25 card back is back on shelves and the chance of the “impulse buy” has risen.
And let’s not forget that while there are those collectors looking for nothing more than the card that’s going to garner the most interest online, many are older collectors that are now trying to get their kids into the game.
Ameet Acharya helps run The Toronto Card Show every month. He and his bother-in-arms, Frank Williamson, have been involved in the show in some way or another for almost five years. He says there’s still a lot going on in the collecting world than people looking to make a quick buck.
“A lot of collectors that are my age, they now have families and kids,” said Acharya, 36. “They’re taking their kids to shows…now they’re collecting together.”
He also said that kids are still excited by seeing their favourite stars in bright colours framed by flashy graphics on cards, that “it’s an extension of their enjoyment of the sport.”
Acharya still collects today. “It reminds me of when I was a kid, and when it was fun…that’s the main thing for me. Like the thrill I used to get from opening up packs and seeing the cards…I still get that same feeling from when I was nine until now.”
Humenik also still has hope.
“The little guys still walk into the door (of the shop),” he said, “and their eyes light up and their jaw drops when they see the cards.”
With the advent of the entry level brand from Panini (sure to be followed by a similar price-point from Upper Deck), it may just be that cards will become fun again, and accessible again, and maybe this is one of the few remaining areas of professional sport that will continue to be enjoyed by more than the corporate world.
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