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Brothers mark 20 years in collectibles biz
Co-owners of Bases Loaded have seen it all.
Published online on Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009
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Brothers Chris and Marc Gooboian, co-owners of Fresno’s Bases Loaded Baseball Cards & Collectibles, were in high school when they decided to start their own business.
“We were at the age where we needed to get jobs, and we thought it would be great to work for ourselves,” says Marc Gooboian.
They took their interest in trading cards and started a collectibles business at the downtown farmers market in 1989. Since then they have moved twice and are now at 3225 W. Shaw Ave., Suite 104. The brothers will celebrate their 20th anniversary starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Two decades is a long time to watch collecting trends that can come and go in a blink. They’re still selling baseball cards but the store is now packed with items from others trends: action figures, autographs, stuffed animals and a few comic books.
We talked to the Gooboians about changes they have seen over the past two decades.
Brothers Chris, left, and Marc Gooboian are co-owners of Bases Loaded Baseball Cards & Collectibles in Fresno. The brothers will celebrate the shop's 20th anniversary Saturday.
A sampling of autographed sports cards for sale at Bases Loaded Baseball Cards & Collectibles.
Question: Why did you expand beyond selling only sports trading cards?
Chris Gooboian: In this market it’s hard to sell just one thing. So we tried to diversify where we are mainly a sports card and collectibles store, but we also have a lot of gaming cards and action figures.
Which collectible has shown the longest life?
Marc Gooboian: Baseball cards have always been big except for the strike years where it really died down.
What’s been the biggest change in collecting baseball cards?
MG: In the early to mid ’90s they started putting numbered insert cards into the packs. This was a new thing for baseball cards because normally they make millions of each card. And now they were saying there would only be 20,000 of a special card.
CG: Now there are cards numbered to 100, numbered to 10. They even will make only one card.
Packs of trading cards now have autographs or pieces of memorabilia randomly inserted. What is the weirdest insert you have every seen?
MG: The Allen & Ginter’s set had the autograph of the dog that won the Westminster Dog Show. They had it put its paw in ink. I don’t know if that was the weirdest part or the fact it sold for $500.
CG: The Goodwin Champions set has Entomology cards. One card will have a real butterfly on it.
After baseball cards, what was the next big trend you faced?
CG: Beanie Babies would probably be the next one in the mid ’90s. Unfortunately we kind of missed out on that because we didn’t think it would be something that we, or the people, would be interested in.
Have you seen any change in the age of collectors?
CG: In sports cards I have seen a change. Because the prices of packages have been going up, it is pricing some of the kids out of the market. One pack of baseball cards, called the Exquisite, retails at $600 for one pack with five cards in it. Four of the cards have autographs or patches of jerseys. But Topps still puts out $2 packs of cards.
Which recent collectible keeps going strong?
CG: Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! started out as a trend in 1997 and 2002 and are still going strong.
MG: We heard Pokemon was going to be the next big thing so we bought a number of boxes. They didn’t sell, so we called our distributor to see what he was paying for the boxes. He said he was paying this much money, but we should wait one week. Within that week time it just exploded. It just took Fresno a week to catch up with the rest of the country.
Was there another trend that surprised you?
CG: Pogs. That was another one that surprised me that it took off.
MG: We were very lucky because while the pog craze was going on our family went to Hawaii where the pog craze started [in the ’90s]. We went into a card shop expecting to see pogs every place. He had not one pog in the store. The owner said when it died, it really died. He said when it begins to die down, don’t buy more. And it was like Tuesday you were selling a bunch and then Wednesday you were not selling any.
What’s the big trend for Christmas?
CG: It’s the Zhu Zhu Pets.
TV and movie critic Rick Bentley can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6355
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