The Future of the Local Card Shop with Burbank Sports Cards
Collector Nation
Rob Veres, owner of Burbank Sports Cards, joins Ryan Alford and Brian Ludden at The National to discuss the evolution of local card shops ov
Key takeaways
- Affordable singles remain central to Burbank Sports Cards' business model, ensuring accessibility for all collectors.
- Social media—especially Instagram—has been pivotal in driving foot traffic, with the store seeing up to 1,700 customers in a single day.
Main topics
- The evolution of local card shops
- The role of social media and digital content in retail
Notable quotes
"We sell more TCGs than we do baseball, basketball, and football combined."
"Sub $10 cards is what built my business over decades. And we're not going to go away from that anytime soon."
Conclusion
Rob Veres' journey with Burbank Sports Cards exemplifies how innovation, accessibility, and
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:00) We sell more TCGs than we do baseball, basketball, and football combined. Speaker 3 (0:04) Only 10 % collect sports. And now Pokemon is above basketball. And it just Speaker 4 (0:09) skyrocketed this year. The Pokemon boxes are by far the most popular than the sports. Five, six years ago, I would have never dreamed that. Speaker 6 (0:17) The passion is undeniable. I think that's what it is. I'm Ryan Alford. Speaker 1 (0:22) And I'm Bella Schaefer. And Speaker 6 (0:23) this is Collector Nation. Speaker 1 (0:35) curating all of the content in the hobby just for you all in one place. All Speaker 6 (0:39) the videos, all the podcasts, all the reels, all those drops you want right here, right now. Speaker 6 (0:47) Hey guys, here we are. Declector Nation is back with another of our series here at the National. We've got Ryan and Brian. Brian, the founder of LudX. Brian, good to be here with your brother as always. Hey, we're going OG again. OG again. Rob Veras, he is the OG from Burbank Sports Card. What's up, Rob? Hey, just great to be here. Speaker 4 (1:10) Just enjoying my time in Chicago. It's nothing like the National, man. Nothing like it. Speaker 6 (1:14) Nothing like it. All right. You know this. Are we at the most you've ever Speaker 4 (1:19) seen? Speaker 6 (1:20) Oh, no. Speaker 4 (1:21) It's ridiculous. As someone that's been going to the National since 91, to see the growth that we're seeing here and the sheer amount of traffic, the sheer amount of kids, the diversity. I mean, 10 years ago, you would come here and not even recognize this. It's amazing. It just shows the growth and the strength of the hobby right now. Speaker 6 (1:40) Well, I want to give you some love. I think it's your leadership, your content. I think the reason a lot of these people know about it is content like yours and preaching the hobby and sharing new innovations and doing it. So as someone who grew up collecting but just got back in the last three years, yours was some of the first content that I was literally watching two years ago. And it got me even further in because I realized, hey, this guy's a legit business guy and he's innovative and he's... Fun on camera. This is my deal here. So, Rob, really appreciate your leadership in bringing the hobby along to this space. You Speaker 4 (2:15) know, I appreciate it. It's something that is generational. And, you know, I started at 22 running the business. And now I'm turning 60. But I got a 31-year-old and a 27-year-old that are totally vested in the business. And I want to see in 30, 40 years that this still exists. And it's thriving even more than it is today. I've got some, you know, a little bit of wisdom over the years. And if I can share that with people, you know, I love it. A lot of wisdom. And Speaker 3 (2:43) talking about the first, you know, getting back in the industry and meeting the first people in the industry. So I was learning, you know, during COVID and it was Jeff Wilson and you, and I watch you, watch you, watch you. And then at the Mint Collective, I saw you and I was like, oh my gosh, I got to go shake his hand. So you were the, basically the first. social media guy that I met and you're so welcoming and so nice and it's just, yeah, you always have a special place in my heart for that. Speaker 4 (3:12) I remember the moment it was right in front of your booth and some of your guys have been out to the shop and they're like, you gotta meet him and I'm like, you're great, man. You're great. And now we've known each other for like four or five years now. So you guys have come a long way. Speaker 6 (3:27) Yeah. The little ex-lounge back there hanging out. Speaker 4 (3:31) We've Speaker 6 (3:32) got a big party tonight if you're lucky. Yeah, I know. Rob, what are you excited most about that you're doing now at the shop? You know, there's been a lot of innovation, a lot of things changing in the hobby. Talk about some of that and what you're most excited about. Speaker 4 (3:47) I'm most excited about just the collector experience. The inability in a lot of stores these days to be able to put your hands on cards, being able to have price points where you could walk into a store, spend 40 bucks, be there for two hours, and walk out with 100 % customer satisfaction. And there's a lot of things in this business, whether it's repacks, whether it's whatnot, whether it's breaking that, you don't get that 100 % satisfaction. And I think that's been the key to our growth for decades is never forgetting that not everybody wants to spend. 300 bucks or $3,000 on a box. And a lot of people feel forgotten, which is really unfortunate, but we've never forgotten. And we just keep scaling and building singles and that you can go through and just lose yourself. And sub $10 cards is what built my business over decades. And we're not going to go away from that anytime soon. Speaker 6 (4:40) Yeah. I built an experiential store in South Carolina. Five months old. So I'm following your playbook a little bit. But I actually saw it. I mean, I've been doing marketing for 25 years. So I understand the market. That's why I respected the hell out of what you were doing. Because I saw it. But that experience, you know, gets lost in the, you know, 10 by 10 store. Like being able to come in. You know, that's sometimes what people can afford to open. Sure. Knock on that. But I do think the experience of collecting and having a space, you know, making space. for deals, making space for people to go through things, whether they spend $10 or $10,000, is a big opportunity in the hobby. Speaker 4 (5:17) Yeah, we were fortunate enough to move into a Rite Aid in the best location possible, like 70 parking spots. And it gave us the opportunity with basically this blank canvas that it looks nothing like our old store. And actually... The store right now, after 15 months, looks nothing like it did opening day. And to be honest, I should have just made the whole building retail. We did about 65 % showroom, 35 % inventory in the back, singles, offices, all of that. But it shrunk on us quite a bit. I walked in originally. I'm like, we will never fill this. And it's been amazing where a store that size, if you don't have... 25, 30 people in it, it can look really empty. And so that was one of the challenges that we had. And the traffic we've been able to generate in that store, where we can have as many as 1,700 people come through the store in one day, has been a real blessing. And a lot of it's social media. It's Instagram. We wouldn't be in that building without Instagram. And being able to show what's new in the store every single day, show the FOMO of what the showroom looks like and the vibe that's in there. And, you know, social media has just played a huge role in our growth, especially Instagram. Speaker 5 (6:36) This episode of Vibe Science is brought to you by Shopify. We talk a lot on this show about being intentional with the life you want to create. One thing I've learned is that waiting until everything feels perfect can keep you from ever taking the first step. That was something I had to get past when I started building my storefront. I had an idea for the business and knew what I wanted to create, but I definitely didn't know how to do every part of it on my own. Shopify gave me a clear place to begin with everything I needed already there from day one. I was able to launch my store and start selling in a few simple steps. Shopify's design templates and AI site builder made setting up my storefront easy, and