Michaels is an American arts and crafts retail chain store. While Michaels is primarily known for offering arts and crafts supplies, it does carry a limited selection of trading cards and collectibles. Baseball cards specifically are not a major part of its product offering.
At most Michaels locations, the trading card and collectible section tends to be quite small, usually consisting of just a few trading card products squeezed between the model building kits and other hobby items. Baseball cards may be included, but the selection is usually very limited compared to stores that specialize more in collectibles. Customers typically will not find rows upon rows of various baseball card packs, boxes, and supplies at Michaels like they would at a dedicated card shop.
The baseball cards that are sometimes stocked at Michaels consist mainly of just a few current-season or recently released sports card products from manufacturers like Topps, Upper Deck, or Panini. Common items include unopened packs, mini boxes, or factory sealed repacks containing assorted cards from the latest baseball card series. Vintage or older sports cards are almost never carried. Michaels also does not typically keep many supplies for organizing, storing, or protecting baseball card collections.
Most Michaels locations devote only small sections of narrow shelving, usually just a few feet wide, to all of their trading cards, collectibles, and related items combined. As a retailer focused more on crafts, their trading card and collectible inventory needs to be very limited in order to make room for art supplies, scrapbooking materials, home décor, and their other core product categories. Baseball cards and trading cards in general are usually considered more of a specialty hobby item, so carrying extensive card selections may not always align with Michaels’ broader merchandise strategy.
While Michaels may be a convenient shopping destination for basic card needs in a pinch, serious baseball card collectors usually do not consider it their primary store for stocking up on new release packs, building full sets, or researching older vintage cards. They would be better served by visiting sports memorabilia and card specialty shops, comic book stores, larger supermarket chains, or ordering online from dedicated trading card retailers and auction sites with much wider baseball product assortments.
Several key factors contribute to Michaels maintaining only token baseball card sections instead of making them a meaningful part of their business model:
Limited retail space – As mentioned, Michaels dedicates minimal shelf capacity to all trading cards combined due to their broader focus on crafting, framing, and home décor.
Narrow target customer profile – Serious collectors often comprise a niche within Michaels’ core customer demographic of casual hobbyists and creative individuals.
Lack of expertise – Unlike card shops, Michaels employees generally have little specialized knowledge about sports cards, values, trends, etc.
Inconsistent stock – Products may sell out quickly and aren’t reliably restocked like at dedicated card stores.
Small profit margins – Baseball cards have slim markups, so Michaels prefers higher-margin arts/crafts over competing on big card selections.
Space limitations – Most Michaels stores are relatively small format, restricting their ability to devote extensive floor space to trading cards.
So while the occasional pack of new baseball cards can sometimes be found among Michaels’ limited collectibles inventory, serious hobbyists wanting to browse extensive sports card products and supplies would be better off making a dedicated card shop their first stop instead of expecting much from a general retailer like Michaels. The arts and crafts chain simply lacks the dedication to baseball cards as a core merchandise category needed to compete with specialized sports memorabilia sellers. Michaels may supplementary fulfill minor card needs, but frequent baseball collectors will usually want to look elsewhere to regularly source new additions to their collections.
While a small selection of recent-release baseball card packs and boxes may be occasionally stocked in the cramped trading card alcoves of certain Michaels locations, the chain store devotes minuscule retail resources to sports cards overall and does not aim to seriously compete with dedicated card shops. They maintain just token baseball product sections inadequate for serious hobbyists, who would be better served making card specialty retailers their priority destination for regularly expanding collections. Michaels simply lacks the merchandising focus or expertise in cards required to prioritize them over their main crafting product categories.
