Hobby Musings: National Baseball Card Day a Success – Making its first appearance since 2008, Topps conducted National Baseball Card Day this past Saturday. Geared towards encouraging people visit their local card shop, attendees could pick up a free pack of baseball cards specially made for the day. A special Kris Bryant card was also available with a qualifying purchase made at the store. Adding some extra spice to the packs were randomly inserted autographs, including those of Ichiro and Mike Trout.
Going off of social media reaction, it seems as if National Baseball Card Day was a success, with many people posting reactions and pictures of their pulls. Collector Norman Carlisle said he, “Thought it was a great promotion. My local shop said they had one of their busiest days, which is great for local small business shop.”
Some collectors tried to increase their odds with multiple packs. Collector Justin Yeung from south San Francisco was one of them, saying he was, “Lucky enough to have several stores near my area where I was able to get my hands on multiple packs. Overall, it was a great feeling opening all those packs, especially pulling the Panik which will find a special place in my personal collection, and I hope Topps continues this program after its absence since 2008.”
Collectors weren’t the only ones happy with the promotion as some store owners I spoke with mentioned how National Baseball Card Day helped to promote foot traffic in their store. Lee Patton of The Rookie Sports Cards in Clive, Iowa said that it, “Brought in a lot of people and they bought a lot of Topps baseball products to get the Kris Bryant card.”
Dad and son enjoy #BaseballCardDay at Mike’s Stadium Sports Cards
Elaborating on the promotion’s success, Michael Fruitman of Mike’s Stadium Sportscards in Aurora, Colorado added, “National Baseball Card Day was a huge success at my card store and many others. We saw a massive amount of existing collectors and many that came back after some time away from the hobby. It is always incredible to receive this type of support from the leagues and from the manufacturers. Topps really hit a home run with the base set, possible autographs and the Kris Bryant bonus card. I’m already looking forward to NBCD 2017!”
As if to add to that point, collector Dave Galbraith of Ottawa, Ontario Canada decided to do something out of his normal hobby habits because of NBCD. When asked about the day, he said, “I normally don’t buy much baseball but it got me convinced to buy a box which is the point I’m sure for them.”
With the positive reaction that NBCD has brought to the hobby, it will be curious to see how Topps handles the promotion next year. Speaking with Topps’ Senior Marketing Manager Leigh Anne Minutoli, it seems as if they plan on bringing it back in 2017. Asked about the promotion, she said, “We are thrilled with how National Baseball Card day went and are excited to continue to grow the day for years to come!”
It was pleasing to see that National Baseball Card Day generated the kind of reaction it did. Along with Upper Deck’s National Hockey Card Day and Panini’s Black Friday and Father’s Day pack promotions, events like this are great to help promote local card shops and remind people of some of the best things about the hobby.
While it may be a pipe dream, I would love to see all three companies band together to do a unified National Trading Card Day. Given the success that each of the days seems to bring on their own in the hobby, I can only imagine what their combined efforts and resources would yield.
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
Hobby Musings: National Baseball Card Day a Success
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