Yes, you can buy baseball cards at Target. Target is a large big box retail store that sells a wide variety of products including toys, clothing, home goods, electronics, and more. Within the toy section of most Target stores, they typically have a designated trading card aisle where customers can find packs, boxes, and occasionally loose packs of sports trading cards like baseball cards.
Some basic information on what types of baseball cards you can find at Target:
Current Year Packs & Boxes: Target will stock the current year’s releases of baseball card products from the major trading card manufacturers like Topps, Panini, Leaf, and others. This includes both packs and sometimes boxes of the flagship mainstream releases like Topps Series 1, 2, and Update as well as Prominent parallels and insert sets.
Backstock: In addition to the new release material, Target locations typically keep a rotating backstock of older baseball card packs, boxes, and memorabilia cards from the previous few years. Customers can sometimes find unopened packs and boxes from as recently as 2-3 years prior still on shelves if they get lucky.
Value Packs: Target also stocks multi-card value packs of baseball cards that contain a guaranteed number of inserts or parallels instead of traditional wax packs. These include various “Pop Century” and retro-themed packs highlighting players and designs from past eras.
Memorabilia Cards: Especially around baseball season, Target may display individually priced memorabilia cards showcasing game-used bats, jersey swatches, autographs and more of current MLB stars. These are usually in the $10-30 range.
Kiosks: Some larger Target locations have baseball card kiosks located within the sports card aisle similar in format to those seen at retail chains like Walmart. Customers can purchase various discounted pack assortments or build custom box “breaks” at these kiosks.
Clearance Cards: Periodically throughout the year, unsold cards from the past few seasons may go clearance at Target. Customers can occasionally find good deals on older boxes and memorabilia cards in the clearance sections.
In terms of price points for the cards found at Target, expect to pay standard MSRP rates that are competitive with other major retailers:
Hobby Boxes: range from $80-150+ depending on product
Jumbo Pack Boxes: $20-50
Hobby Packs: $3.99-5.99 usually for 5-8 cards
Value/Retail Packs: $1.50-3 depending on brand and promos
Memorabilia Cards: $10-30 usually
When it comes to availability, most mid-size and above Target stores keep a dedicated space of 3-6 aisles stocked with different trading card lines like Pokemon, Magic, sports cards, and more. Larger super Target locations may even host periodic trading card promotion events and releases. However, Target’s card selection tends to be a bit more limited than dedicated hobby shops or sites like eBay. Products also sell through quickly after street dates, so it’s best to check early in a release cycle.
While Target has a smaller selection than hobby shops, it remains one of the most common and convenient big box retailers for casual and collector baseball card consumers to purchase new and backlisted packs, boxes and sometimes memorabilia or loose cards as a fun impulse buy addition to their shopping trip. With decent competitive pricing, the trading card section at Target provides a solid option for baseball fans and investors looking to casually rip packs or build their collections.