Search for ‘America’s Best Card Shop’ names four finalists

The competition for “America’s Best Card Shop” has been narrowed to four finalists.

Sponsors Loupe, The Topps Company, Blowout Cards, All Sports Marketing and PSA launched a contest in March to name the best trading card shop in the hobby. After receiving nearly 1,400 submissions, four hobby stores remain.

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The four finalists for The Loupe Presents: America’s Best Card Shop are:

• Baseball Card Connection, Effingham, Ill. Baseball Card Connection is a family-owned card shop that has been in business for 30 years. The 6,000-square-foot store in downtown Effingham has more than 10 million cards in stock.

• The Card Vault, Foxborough, Mass. Located across the street from Gillette Stadium where the New England Patriots play, The Card Vault bills itself as “the ultimate sports card experience.” The store is a modern retail shop for collectors to buy, sell, trade and submit their cards for grading.

• Honey Hole Collectibles, Escondido, Calif. Honey Hole Collectibles has something for everyone. It boasts a huge inventory of the newest releases, an incredible selection of cards from the ’80s and ’90s and cases full of graded singles. Honey Hole is located 30 minutes north of San Diego.

• Real Sportscards, Champlin, Minn. Located just outside Minneapolis, Real Sportscards has reimagined the traditional sports card store. Their flagship shop in Champlin features a sales floor, a lounge and studios where they break online for more than 10 hours each day.

The four finalists were selected by an all-star panel of judges of well-known personalities within the sports card hobby, including: Topps’ Hobby Sales Director Kevin O’Neil, Women of the Hobby co-founder and industry veteran Susan “Sooz” Lulgjuraj, Loupe founder and CEO Eric Doty, Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon and artist and entrepreneur DJ Skee.

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“We were overwhelmed by the response to Loupe Presents: America’s Best Card Shop,” Doty said. “A vast majority of the submissions came from customers who wanted to nominate their favorite LCS, which is exactly why we started this initiative. It proves that the foundation of the hobby is in community ties and the personal relationships that are forged over sports cards. It was really cool seeing how many collectors made the effort to help out the people who run their local card shop.”

The winner will be presented with a grand prize package worth approximately $50,000. The panel visited each store to get to know the owners and employees behind the shops. It put together a short video highlighting what makes shop one special.

The contest is open for community voting so collectors can make their voices heard. After the votes are tallied, America’s Best Card Shop will be announced live at the 2022 National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, NJ.