Editor’s note: In an effort to support local businesses that are being threatened by the devastating effects of the coronavirus, The Athletic is publishing an ongoing series of stories to highlight our treasured communities. #supportlocal
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — A visitor’s car pulled into the driveway, so up rolled the garage door to welcome him.
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Inside the makeshift drive-through, a cash register and the customer’s order awaited. He had called ahead not for household supplies or a pizza, but for a box of hockey cards.
Such is business during a pandemic at Bases Loaded Sports Collectibles, a suburban Buffalo shop that normally relies on foot traffic from hardcore hobbyists, parents who treat their children and anyone looking to wade in the nostalgia of cards, autographs and memorabilia.
“On a normal Saturday afternoon,” Bases Loaded owner Jeff Szczesek said, “you can’t find a parking spot.”
Shoppers would crowd around the showcases, study the latest products, page through the binders. They would hang out for 40 minutes, an hour, maybe longer to absorb it all and then take some stuff home.
Not anymore.
Sports memorabilia is a nonessential service. Legally speaking, anyway.
The COVID-19 pandemic has rendered much of the country homebound and shuttered businesses as the nationwide death toll surpassed 13,000 on Wednesday.
Hobbies are trivial compared to a global health crisis, but trivialities are important to maintaining sanity and a sense of pleasure in such stressful times as these.
The sports world is padlocked. The virus has wiped out tournaments, delayed seasons and threatens to waylay sports even months away.
Sports memorabilia stores large and small have been impacted. They must get creative to remain viable and provide customers — from frazzled dads to All-Star second basemen — a little joy.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been more aggressive than most in closing down businesses to prevent customers and employees from spreading the virus.
Dave and Adam’s Card World, with a 40,000 square-foot retail location in Clarence and a 35,000 square-foot distribution center in Tonawanda, has nearly stopped spinning. About 30 percent of its employees have been furloughed. Given its wherewithal for national distribution logistics, Dave and Adam’s has channeled efforts into supplying food, sanitary products and other items to community pantries.
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New York does exempt businesses with one employee or occupant from closing down.
That allows Szczesek to get resourceful so he doesn’t go broke. Szczesek has adopted a pizza parlor approach. Although his shop cannot let anyone inside, he is offering carryout and makes deliveries to quarantined customers bored out of their gourds.
Carl Rosati placed a Bases Loaded takeout order Saturday morning. He called ahead for three boxes of 2019 Panini NFL stickers for sons aged 15, 13 and 10.
“Normally, we’d all be here, looking through everything for at least a half hour,” said Rosati, a 41-year-old printing-company controller from Depew. “But with my sons stuck at home, I need to give them something to do other than spend all day on the computer or playing video games.
“And I want this place to still be around when this is all over. People need to keep getting out and supporting local businesses.”
From hundreds of miles away, New York Mets second baseman Jed Lowrie also contributed to Bases Loaded’s till. Lowrie, sequestered in Texas, has been killing time with online searches to bolster his memorabilia collection.
Szczesek has been unable to sell as many full boxes of cards under the current circumstances. To help him break up the monotony of building sets or tidying his unlit, empty shop, he has been opening packs in hopes of finding valuable cards to post in eBay auctions.
In a 2020 Topps Inception baseball pack, Szczesek found a one-of-one, autographed Kyle Lewis rookie card with a Seattle Mariners hat patch attached.
Lowrie, drawn to one-of-a-kind items, was the winning bidder.
“It’s a fun hobby,” Lowrie texted. “I like to look for little time capsules. With cards, I like vintage rookie cards, but have dabbled in modern stuff, too.”
Lowrie is an advanced collector. The former Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros and Oakland A’s infielder is always scouring for vintage, unsigned baseballs and unused tickets. He then matches them up with legends to autograph. He has signed, full tickets from the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run and when childhood hero Ken Griffey Jr. belted his 500th.
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“I found an unsigned Ford Frick ball from 1951 and asked Willie Mays to sign it, the year he won Rookie of the Year,” Lowrie said. “It’s hard to find the old balls unsigned. Then you have to wait until they do a signing or get access. I’m pretty patient with what I do because I want everything just right.”
Lowrie has been building a collection devoted to the film “Major League.” He’s constantly on the lookout for a baseball signed by late actor James Gammon, who played manager Lou Brown.
The long sports pause has gotten Lowrie into modern card sets.
“I’ve spent more time going through my current stuff,” he said.
He particularly likes the 2020 Topps Inception series because of its jersey insert cards and the old-timey 2020 Topps Gypsy Queen.
Cases upon cases of those brands — and dozens of others — linger inside the Dave and Adam’s warehouse as the industry giant tries to recalibrate for the time being.
“Some parts of our business are down by as much as two-thirds,” Dave and Adam’s co-founder and CEO Adam Martin said.
Martin is optimistic while reading the tea leaves, at least for his business. He is hopeful the industry won’t be decimated like it was in 2008, when a recession buckled Wall Street’s knees.
Martin had to let about a third of his staff go then, too, but the reasons were tied to the economy. People lost jobs and didn’t have money to spend on hobbies. Memorabilia and card values plummeted. Inventory accumulated dust.
Unemployment related to COVID-19 concerns eventually could become devastating, but people also are stuck inside their homes and looking for ways to pass time. Money still is being spent, perhaps not by speculators willing to sink $5,000 into a case of basketball cards in hopes of stockpiling Zion Williamson rookies, but enough to buoy demand and eventually allow for an economic rebound.
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“With everything bad that’s going on,” Martin said, “there still are people at home who are buying. The demand on Amazon has been incredible.
“People are home and they’re bored. Their kids are bored.”
Dave and Adam’s has been able to handle some orders though various fulfillment centers. The company’s buyers are working from home and acquiring inventory from private sellers.
Martin has been confined during the shutdown, but insists on being productive. His brother and two nephews have been helping Martin procure care packages for local food pantries. Instead of buying hockey cards in bulk, he’s buying tomato soup.
“I have the resources to be able to help people,” Martin said. “We don’t manufacture anything, but being able to distribute and ship allows us to do something for the community.
“We’ve been trying to give back. We’re focused on just trying to help where we can.”
Within the sports collectibles business, Martin’s main worry is for the neighborhood card or comic book shopkeeper.
An industry source said there are about 750 sports memorabilia shops across the U.S.
“Brick-and-mortar stores are getting crushed and may never come back from it,” Martin said. “It’s the retailers who are feeling the brunt of this. Support your local collectibles store whenever they’re able to come back.
“Warehousing, distribution, getting product in people’s hands at their homes still seems to move along through e-commerce, but it will slow down as manufacturers stop making product and warehouses continue to close.”
Martin was informed last week that Panini has closed its facility and has ceased printing baseball, football and basketball cards for at least a month.
Szczesek and his father launched Bases Loaded in 1983. Szczesek estimated business is down 75 percent. So he putters around the place while his Goldendoodle, Oscar, hangs loose behind the counter.
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A loyal Bases Loaded customer recently called to say he’d lost his job and that he felt awful he couldn’t settle a tab he’d been allowed to run; Szczesek has bills to pay, too. So they worked out a compromise. The customer gave Bases Loaded autographed baseballs from his personal collection as payment.
“The emotional part of all this hasn’t hit me yet,” Szczesek said. “I have enough busy work to keep my mind occupied.”
Szczesek has experienced some encouraging moments.
On Friday, he held an autographed Bills jersey sale for $59 apiece. He took a beating on a few pieces, but moved some inventory. Of the 27 available players, only nine remained Saturday morning.
Szczesek, who has 15- and 12-year-old daughters, is driving as far away as Jamestown and Brockport to deliver boxes of sports cards for $180 here or $250 there. Rather than post 10 to 15 eBay auctions a week, he is conducting as many as 50 auctions now.
Cuomo announced Monday that nonessential businesses must remain closed until April 29 at the earliest.
Until then, card shops are dark.
Collectors won’t gather to share their passion and tell stories. They won’t create that communal fan energy that makes sports so intoxicating. They’ll be without one more distraction to escape — even briefly — all the tension engulfing us.
Martin hopes these shops survive. Szczesek is making sure, by rolling up his garage door or making a delivery, to give it his best shot.
(Top photo of Jeff Szczesek: Tim Graham / The Athletic)
