In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed there was a baseball card shop on every corner of every small town. The industry was booming as card companies raced to release product after product.
Many small dealers in little communities couldn’t keep up, and slowly, these little “hometown card shops” began to disappear. Even the few that surfaced here in northern Blair County didn’t last that long.
But now collectors here in Tyrone have something to shout about again with the recent announcement of the opening of Tyrone Sportscard and Collectables at 1364 Logan Avenue, just a few doors down from Sheetz.
“We wanted to have something here in Tyrone so collectors wouldn’t have to travel to get what they need,” said co-proprietor Ken Boston of Altoona, who along with Tyrone’s Paul Clancy, will operate the business.
“We want to keep our prices low so the kids can afford it. We want to keep a low overhead to keep the prices down. Hopefully, this community will support us.”
Boston and Clancy are no strangers to the world of sportscards and collectables. For years, they bought, sold and traded sports collectables with others through sport collectible shows.
“We finally decided we wanted to have our own store and found a good location for it,” he said. “We’re not trying to market to the Altoona area or anywhere else. We want the people here to have a place to get their collectables.”
Boston said collectors should bring their “want lists.”
“We will feature a wide variety of sportscards, sports collectables, NASCAR collectables, and die-cast cars,” said Boston. “We’re also looking into the non-sports collectables, like the Magic series. We want to see what our customers want so we can tailor what we have available to meet those needs.”
Boston said items not in stock can also be ordered through the business.
On Wednesday from 6-8 p.m., Boston and Clancy are opening the doors to Tyrone Sportscards and Collectables for an open house. Door prizes to be given away include tickets to Altoona Curve baseball games, hats, and a box of 2003 Topps baseball cards.
Regular business hours are from 5:30 – 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The phone number is 686-9393. The e-mail address is tyronesportscards@yahoo.com.
