WHO WE ARE
As we enter our thirty-third 12 months as a Native Card Retailer in San Antonio, Texas, there aren’t any phrases to adequately specific how blessed and grateful we’re to have the opportunity do what we love and supply a supply of earnings for me and my household. We’re actually blessed with many nice prospects all through Texas and past.
Sports activities Playing cards Plus San Antonio is a household enterprise, partnered by my kids and grandchildren. My spouse, Norma and I’ve six (sure, six) kids and 9 grandchildren, most of which have labored by my facet (at one time or one other) on the store or at card exhibits since 1984.
WHERE WE CAME FROM
My dad’s (Valerio DiPietro) father (Carmelo DiPietro) immigrated from Sicily, by Ellis Island on Might 5, 1905 on the age of 18 to affix kinfolk in Studying Pennsylvania. Grandpa Carmelo served within the U.S. Military throughout World Conflict I as an ambulance driver for Military Medics.
After World Conflict 1, Grandpa Carmelo’s kinfolk in Hoboken, New Jersey launched him to a younger Teresa Bongiovanni. They married moved to Studying, Pennsylvania in 1919. The Nice Despair made it tough for Grandpa Carmelo to offer for his household. “The Prohibition” supplied grandpa the chance to make use of his WW1 driving expertise for bootleggers and “speakeasies.”
Grandpa Carmelo died of tuberculosis in 1925 when my dad was two years previous. There weren’t many roles for girls at the moment and Grandma DiPietro had no training or working expertise. Grandma quickly married her deceased husband’s former enterprise accomplice. Her new husband satisfied Grandma it could be finest to position dad and his year-older brother Filippo in two totally different orphanages.
Dad mentioned life in “The Residence” was good. Uncle Phil mentioned his life in his orphanage was horrible.
Each Dad and Uncle Phil enlisted in The Military instantly following Pearl Harbor. Dad was solely 17 and needed to have written permission from his mom to affix The Military. Each Uncle Phil and my dad fought in The Pacific. The U.S. Military didn’t need them to should shoot at doable Italian kinfolk.
On the finish of WWII, dad was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas the place he met my mother, Olivia Fernandez at a USO Dance. My mother was born in Mexico and was delivered to the US throughout The Nice Despair. My grandparents and my mother (as a younger youngster) labored as migrant staff choosing crops from South Texas and as much as Chicago as crops wanted harvesting.
My dad and mom married in 1947 and moved to a one-bedroom home on the deep westside of San Antonio. With thousands and thousands of Military Veterans again within the workforce after WW2, the very best job dad may discover was as an elevator operator at a down-town San Antonio lodge.
Dad was a sensible man. Quickly after taking a Civil Service Examination he was hired-on at Kelly AFB as an Engineering Technician. We then moved to a much bigger 2-bedroom home on the deep westside of San Antonio (Standard & twenty fourth Road). That was the place my three siblings and I grew up.
After working at Kelly for just some years, it turned evident dad had Parkinson’s Syndrome. By 1960 it was unhealthy sufficient for dad to use for incapacity retirement.
Whereas in highschool on the age of 15, I used to be working 40-hours per week to assist out the household and take a look at to save cash for faculty. I did earn a full scholarship to Texas A&M College the place I earn a level in Industrial Engineering.
I went on to work at Kelly AFB, Wright Patterson AFB and Randolph AFB the place I labored as a Lead Analyst for Air Power-wide research. I loved the work I did over the course of my 36-year Civil Service Profession.
Sports activities card accumulating has been my passion since 1958. Again then, my brother Wally and I’d take our pink wagon all through the west facet of San Antonio accumulating soda bottles alongside the facet of the highway to show in on the nook retailer for 2-cents a bottle. We used our cash for baseball playing cards. Topps Playing cards 1-Cent Packs had one card and a stick of gum. My childhood card assortment was over 5,000 baseball playing cards. That is numerous soda bottles.
HOW WE GOT HERE
I met my spouse, MSGT Norma DiPietro in 1985 when she labored at HQ AF Recruiting Service at Randolph AFB. Our blended household of six kids have many nice reminiscences of working card exhibits since 1985. We did card exhibits practically each weekend all through Texas. Publish WW2 Baseball Playing cards was my factor. I specialised in Classic Baseball Playing cards at exhibits.
In 1991, Norma retired from the Air Power and in March 1992, we opened Sports activities Playing cards Plus in our present procuring middle. Norma labored the shop through the day and I labored the shop after working my Civil Service job.
Basketball gross sales have been brisk due to Shaq O’Neal however there have been 53 card retailers in San Antonio. Competitors was difficult. $800 was a extremely good day. Fortunate, I had my day-time job to fall again on. The 1990’s junk-wax period resulted in card values dropping each month. As increasingly more collectors fell-out of the passion, increasingly more card retailers closed.
Issues began turning round when Tim Duncan joined the San Antonio Spurs in 1997. Everybody in San Antonio wished Tim Duncan Playing cards. About this time Jordan was the GOAT and Kobe appeared to be the inheritor obvious. Basketball gross sales have been choosing up.
In 2001, Tiger Woods was the overwhelming draw for Higher Deck’s entry into the PGA Golf Card market. Tiger Woods introduced in individuals who by no means collected playing cards earlier than. After which in 2003 Lebron James introduced in new high-end collectors. Higher Deck responded to this new high-end clientele with a product they referred to as Beautiful.
Baseball had Jeter, Pujols, then Trout, Ohtani and the newest younger prospects. Soccer began choosing up in 2012 with Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, then got here Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow and Tua. In the present day it is Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud.
The enterprise once more picked up in 2018 and jumped up in 2019. COVID-19 closed down our retailer in March 2020 and we needed to pivot to on-line gross sales for a number of months. Individuals have been caught at residence and spent an excessive amount of time on the web and listening to internet-influencers. Card costs have been going up 100%, 200%, 400% and extra as individuals determined card flipping was simple cash.
Individuals have been quitting their jobs and hanging out at Goal and Walmart ready for retail containers to be delivered. Individuals may purchase and promote a handful of blaster containers and earn more money than they did at their day-time job.
The bubble burst about mid-2022. Whereas card values have been typically down, it was nonetheless funding for prospectors and most classic. Earlier than it was simple cash, now you need to play it good.
Whereas 2023 was Sports activities Playing cards Plus’ second finest 12 months ever, we’re working to construct on 2023 outcomes. We’re working laborious to verify our prospects get probably the most for his or her funding and leisure cash.
In 2023 we have been honored to be named Sports activities Collector’s Digest “Card Store of The Yr.” In 2024 and past, Sports activities Playing cards Plus will work laborious to offer a enjoyable place for you and your loved ones. We are going to work laborious to offer you the merchandise you need on the lowest doable worth. We owe this to you, our many nice prospects for making us who we’re.
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