TOP SHOP: Locally-owned Baseball Card Connection store among one of the best trading card stores in the country

Jul. 12—Located in the heart of downtown Effingham, Jon and Lisa Schafer's Baseball Card Connection store has been a staple of the community for many years and is now receiving an honor that leaves the owners "honored and humbled."

The store recently earned the distinction as one of the country's top baseball card shops, beating out around 1,500 stores to earn a spot at the National Sports Convention. Jon and Lisa will travel to Atlantic City, N.J., for the event, which takes place from July 27-30, with the winner announced there.

"We're extremely honored and humbled to be recognized as one of the top four, considering how many stores there are across the United States. Making it to the final four feels like a win," Jon said. "The three other stores in the finals are amazing card shops, and we're happy to be grouped in with them. I think it is not just validation to us for all the hard work we put in through the years; it's more validation to our customers and the support system we have around us.

"Without our local support in the community and surrounding communities, we couldn't do it without them. They come from everywhere; we had a guy drive seven hours from Iowa to come and visit our store."

Lisa added, "The community we live in is amazing. We cherish the personal relationships with all the people we have met in our store."

Jon continued that he and Lisa are looking forward to spending time in Atlantic City with fellow store owners in the industry.

The other store owners accompanying Jon and Lisa are those from The Card Vault (Foxborough, Mass.), Honey Hole Collectibles (Escondido, Calif.), and Real Sportscards (Champlin, Minn.), according to the Sports Collectors Daily website.

What did it take for Baseball Card Connection to earn such high praise?

Lisa said each store had to have so much memorabilia, sports cards, and community involvement.

From there, a panel of judges — including Loupe founder and CEO Eric Doty, AJ Dillon of the Green Bay Packers, Susan Lulgjuraj of Women of the Hobby, and Topps Sales Directors Kevin O'Neil — narrowed down the competition, eventually making the final four.

The winner receives an immense amount of rewards, which includes an exclusive deal with Loupe, a free logo/brand redesign from a professional designer, a professionally-produced promotional video about their business, $25,000 for the shop, and an athlete appearance/signing at their shop.

Voting for the best card shop is open until Thursday.

The easiest way to vote is by visiting baseballcardconnection.com

MORE POSITIVE RECOGNITIONNational recognition from the industry isn't the only positive for Baseball Card Connection.

Lisa said eBay is coming to film a commercial on the store on July 22, with Jon mentioning the store's track record with the company being one reason why.

"We've sold to nearly 200,000 customers and maintain a rating of 99.99," Jon said. "So, they want to partner just with us. That is a validation of the effort we put into customer satisfaction, and they see that, so they want us to be a part of the advertising campaign."

Lisa added, "We've been selling on eBay since 1998. They do 'seller shorts' or ads about businesses, so they contacted us for the sports division to do a commercial for them. I think it has a lot to do with our listings. They like our layout; I don't think people realize how much volume we sell out of here daily. So, that has a lot to do with them wanting to do it. The Many advertising company is out of Pacific Palisades, California, and The Many does all commercials for all your major companies, like Coca-Cola, Jägermeister, Panera Bread, Google, and eBay. So they're a pretty large marketing group.

"There will be about 11 people from eBay and The Many together. We'll have to close our store for the day; they'll be filming and interviewing us for eight hours."

THE STORE'S BEGINNING

The next two weeks will be two of the busiest for the store and its owners.

For Jon, though, he knew what he was getting into if he wanted to build something successful.

Jon has always been intrigued with trading cards — dating back to when he was a little kid.

"I started collecting cards when I was a kid, probably as young as five, six, or seven. I collected cards all my life and then started hearing — at about 13 — about these card shows at these hotels," Jon said. "I thought that would be cool; I could buy more cards. So, I started attending these card shows and talked to some dealers. I was like, 'How do you get on that side of the table?' So, I learned about renting a table and setting up at a show, and I thought it was a great idea; I could bring cards I don't want, sell them, and then buy more and build my collection. That was my introduction to the so-called 'business' part of it. I then kept doing card shows as I got older.

"It was that I liked trading cards, and I have the entrepreneurial spirit in me and wanted to do my own thing, set my hours, live my own life, and do something that I love to do."

That same intrigue he had as a child only grew, though, especially once he graduated from Illinois State University in 1992.

Jon said that he opened the store shortly after graduating, with it expanding into so much more since then.

Baseball Card Connection carries all sorts of memorabilia, from signed portraits of famous athletes to other collectibles for children and adults alike.

"We decided that typically you drag someone off the street, any family — maybe not all of them — but there's always someone that's into sports. So, there's a big market out there, and people like to collect things," Jon said. "Everybody might not be a trading card collector, so we wanted to appeal to the broader audience and have these pieces of memorabilia as not only a way to decorate your home, your sports room, your bar, or something like that. We wanted to have investment pieces. Somebody might want to come in and buy a Mickey Mantle autographed photo, which we have. Many of these pieces are not seen as really cool team memorabilia, but they're also seen as investment-grade pieces that you can put your money in, and over time they increase in value.

"So, there are different reasons people buy different things, and we want to offer a wide variety of products."

The store is open Wednesday-Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"I would say, on a given day, we would get anything from 50-100 people through here; maybe more on a Saturday," Jon said. "Saturdays, sometimes, we can get a flood in. I know there's been a lot of Saturdays lately, which is great for us because we realize it's the dead of summer when people aren't as busy sometimes. But we get so many travelers and out-of-town people that come through along with our locals. It's typical on a Saturday if you look at our Facebook page that there can be 30-40 people in here at a time on a Saturday, but during the other days, it's a consistent flow."

THIRTY AND COUNTING

Since opening its doors, Jon said he had seen the business trend up and down countless times, with a recent resurgence not coming as a shock.

"It's no different than the stock market, but if you look at the stock market over time, it's gradually gone up, and that's what the trading cards have done with their ups and downs," Jon said. "The popularity lately is that there's been so much national media attention just to the rise of values; I think the investment part has triggered it. The next generation of kids seems to be much more into sports and collecting. Over the last few years, more and more kids are collecting their albums and certain teams or players, so I think the kids have a lot to do with it."

Regardless of how the industry continues to change, Jon has remained confident that the shop can withstand anything.

And it has.

Baseball Card Connection will celebrate 30 years in August, with Jon and Lisa having no intention of stopping.

"Even though it's a business, I wake up every day and do what I love, so I assumed that this was something I would do for the rest of my life. I hear people talk about retirement, or I want to work until this age, and honestly, sometimes, I feel sorry for those people because I can't imagine what it's like to wake up in the morning and do something that you don't want to do. Because if you're doing something you enjoy and that's your passion, why would you ever want to quit."

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Jon won't take all of the credit for the success.

Instead, he gives a lot of it to Lisa.

"When Lisa came on board and started working at the store with me, it was 90 percent trading cards. When she first started, she looked around the store, and I thought, 'Well, what do you think of the store?' I won't say her exact reply because it wasn't favorable, so I said, 'What do you mean?' and she said, 'There's nothing in here that I would buy or a woman would buy,'" Jon said. "So, [Lisa] did bring a whole new perspective to the business, and about that time, we had gradually started adding more general merchandise items, sports items, and memorabilia. But it's grown so much through the years; you can now walk in and buy something from any major sports team.

"Lisa is the one who's brought the store into a whole other dynamic."

Jon and Lisa won't just be celebrating the store's anniversary in August, but there's also.

Lisa said that she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I would not trade it for anything," Lisa said. "To be able to work with my husband every day. We are together 24-7, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."

However, she was skeptical at first.

"When I first met him, and he told me that he owned a sports store and wanted me to quit my job and come work for him, I think he remembers the exact words," Lisa said. "I was almost like, 'Seriously? How are we going to make a living and survive?'"

Lisa and Jon aren't the only family members involved, though.

Effingham head girls basketball and boys golf coach Jeff Schafer is also heavily involved with Baseball Card Connection.

"I think Jeff gets the word out because he's around sports people 24 hours a day, whether teaching or coaching or involved in basketball or at the country club," Jon said. "He's always around people, and people are always talking about sports and trading cards, and he's got the word out to a lot of people about our store."

Lisa added, "He's one of our biggest cheerleaders; he's always there to support and root us on and encourage and give us words of encouragement."

Card-collecting also seemingly runs in the family.

Jon added that his brother is a fellow card collector, too.

Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-923 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.