Michael’s is an arts and crafts retail store with over 1,200 locations across the United States and Canada. While its primary product focus is on arts, crafts, framing, floral, seasonal decor, and other creative pursuits, many Michael’s stores do carry a limited selection of trading cards including baseball cards.
Baseball cards can be found in the same areas of Michael’s stores where other trading cards are merchandised, which is typically near the front of the store close to the checkout registers. The baseball card selection tends to be fairly small, usually confined to a few short shelves or peg board displays, but it offers the casual collector a convenient place to occasionally browse cards when making other purchases at Michael’s.
The types of baseball cards stocked vary between Michael’s locations but generally include some of the more popular modern and vintage sets from the past few decades. Common ones that show up include packs and boxes of current year base sets from Topps, Upper Deck, and other major sports card manufacturers. Michael’s may also have some loose packs or singles boxes of slightly older mainstream sets from the 2000s on back. More premium sets from within the last 5-10 years are less common but sometimes stores will have a few specialty products as well.
In terms of vintage cards, most Michael’s just have a small grab bag style box of various stray older cards that have been pulled out of collections over the years. The condition and value of these eclectic vintage singles varies wildly. On rare occasion, some Michael’s may have a short box of intact wax packs from the 1980s or early 90s but that is not a regular staple. Very high-end vintage graded cards or complete vintage sets will not be found except as unique one-off consignment items on occasion.
Pricing on the baseball cards at Michael’s aims to be fair without undercutting the dedicated card shops. New sealed packs are priced close to MSRP while loose packs usually carry around a 25-50 cent markup. Individual vintage cards are priced in the $1-5 range on average depending on the player and condition, which is reasonable as a casual browsing price point. Larger dollar vintage lots may be sold as well.
As this is not one of Michael’s primary product categories, their baseball card selection and supply is dependent on warehouse shipments and vendor partnerships. Availability can fluctuate more than dedicated card/comic shops. As a crafts/hobby store rather than card shop, there are no sports memorabilia cases, card grading services, or additional card-related amenities offered in-store. Customer service knowledge on cards specifically may be limited.
For the casual collector just looking to browse a small but curated selection while out shopping, or grab an impulse pack of the latest base set for a relatively fair price, Michael’s can provide a convenient spot. Their card sections are worth a quick look for a general browse if passing by, just do not expect a large stock of options or focus on serving hardcore collectors like the dedicated card specialty shops offer. So in summary – yes most Michael’s do stock a limited selection of baseball cards, but it is small and intended more for occasional casual browsing than true card collecting needs.
