The South Bay area of Los Angeles County, specifically the city of Lomita, has a rich history with baseball cards that spans several decades. While the larger cities like Los Angeles and Long Beach had card shops and shows catering to collectors, Lomita developed its own distinctive baseball card culture and community in the 1970s through today.

Baseball cards were hugely popular after World War II as the major card producers like Topps greatly expanded production and distribution. Kids all over the country began avidly collecting and trading cards. In Lomita, many boys would ride their bikes around the city trying to find kids on their street who had cards they needed to complete their sets. Some even resorted to stealing packs of cards from local stores, before they realized the error of their ways.

As these kids grew up in the late 60s and 70s, their passion for cards did not diminish. The opportunities to buy new packs, find trading partners, and learn about the history of the hobby were largely unavailable in Lomita at the time. A few young men in their late teens and early 20s sought to change that by organizing the first informal baseball card meetups in the city.

In 1975, Jonathon Perez, Mark Rodriguez, and Jason Carter began holding card shows inside break rooms at the South Bay Hospital and the Lomita Little League fields on weekends. They brought tables to display their personal collections and duplicates for trade. Dozens of locals would show up each month to check out the new arrivals. News of the shows began to spread through word of mouth.

Over time, the organizers rented space at the Lomita Library and Lomita Park Community Center to handle the growing crowds. By 1980, they had officially formed the South Bay Baseball Card Collectors Club. Membership fees helped fund bigger bi-monthly shows with dealers from outside the area selling new packs, supplies, and vintage inventory. A monthly newsletter chronicled the club’s activities and the hobby in general.

The club played a pivotal role in sparking baseball card fandom across generations in Lomita. Families would attend the shows together, with parents reminiscing about cards from their childhood and kids excited for the newest releases. Many lifelong friendships were built around their shared interest. Several card shops even set up business in Lomita in the 1980s to cater to this dedicated local fanbase.

Through boom and bust cycles in the industry, the South Bay Baseball Card Collectors Club has remained a constant. When the scandals of the junk wax era in the late 80s/early 90s turned many casual collectors away, the club retained its hardcore members who appreciated cards for their historical significance rather than investment potential. They maintained the museum-like displays and educational aspects of the hobby.

Today, the club has evolved with the times but holds true to its roots. Under new younger leadership, theirwebsite and social media presence better connects collectors worldwide while in-person events follow all safety guidelines. The nostalgia of the past is still honors; the annual Oldtimers Show allows original Charter Members a chance to catch up and reminisce around boxes of treasures from their personal collections.

The club also partners with the Lomita Historical Society on exhibits highlighting the city’s baseball history and contributions to the card collecting world. Plans are in the works for a permanent baseball card museum in Lomita to preserve the stories and artifacts from over 45 years of this truly local hobby subculture.

Through its longevity, community focus, and tradition of bringing collectors together across generations, the South Bay Baseball Card Collectors Club created a model grassroots organization. It showed how even a small city could nurture and sustain a rich card culture of its own. For countless Lomita residents past and present, the club served as a gateway drug into this fun and historically significant part of American popular culture. Its impact will continue to shape the lives of baseball and collecting fans for many years to come.

South Bay Baseball Cards is a famous card shop located in Lomita, California that has been a mainstay in the local baseball card collecting community for over 30 years. Founded in 1987 by lifelong baseball fan Jim Rogers, the store has become a mecca for collectors from not just the South Bay area, but all over Southern California.

While baseball cards had been around since the late 1800s, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the hobby truly exploded in popularity. Seeing an opportunity to cater to the many new collectors in the South Bay looking for packs, supplies and places to search for rare finds, Jim decided to open up a dedicated baseball card store in a small strip mall along Pacific Coast Highway in Lomita. Starting with just a few hundred square feet of retail space, Jim stocked the shelves primarily with new wax packs, boxes and supplies like toploaders and binders to organize collections.

Word of mouth quickly spread about the new shop in town and business took off almost immediately. On weekends especially, the parking lot would be packed with collectors of all ages coming to trade, sell and connect with other enthusiasts. Soon, it became a popular weekend routine for many families in the South Bay to stop by South Bay Baseball Cards to see what new boxes or packs had come in and check binders full of duplicates listed for trade or sale behind the counter.

Within a couple years, Jim had expanded into a larger storefront next door to accommodate the growing business. The selection of new and vintage singles also greatly expanded as Jim built relationships with collectors willing to consign high-end cards. This allowed South Bay Baseball Cards to truly become a “one stop shop” where anyone could get their collecting fix, regardless of budget. Whether looking for the latest releases or a coveted rookie card from the 1950s, there was a good chance it could be found within the store’s jam-packed shelves and display cases.

As the 1990s rolled on, the sport of baseball itself entered a period of strife with the 1994-1995 player’s strike and steroid scandal tarnishing its image for many. This downturn hardly affected the booming business of baseball card collecting. If anything, it drove even more collectors to focus their fandom on stockpiling, trading and researching the history and players of the game through cards. South Bay Baseball Cards stayed ahead of the evolving trends, adding supplies for the burgeoning hobby of graded card slabbing and beginning to carry higher end licensed sports memorabilia alongside the cardboard.

Into the new millennium, Jim’s son Michael began helping out more at the store. In the 2010s, he eventually took over primary operation, continuing the focus on excellent customer service and keeping well-stocked with the products collectors demanded most. Whether it was the latest releases from Topps, Panini, Leaf or Upper Deck, or vintage cardboard treasures still being unearthed in attics, South Bay Baseball Cards aimed to have it. The store also became renowned for having some of the best sorted and most extensive vintage duplicate bins in Southern California, a dream hunting ground for collectors looking to find affordable childhood stars or fill holes in their vintage team sets.

A significant part of South Bay Baseball Cards’ enduring success lies in the powerful community it helped foster. Many lifelong friendships between collectors were made within its walls. Along with being a marketplace, it served as a true hobby hub. Events like annual National Baseball Card Day celebrations and the Thanksgiving weekend bargain bins sale drew collectors from far and wide. Local card shows and contests were often sponsored, and the store frequently donated cards and supplies to charity drives and school fundraisers.

The impacts of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic posed fresh challenges but the store adapted, taking online orders, facilitating safe in-person shopping with masks and distancing protocols, and even livestreaming breaks of new wax on their Facebook page. Through downturns in the hobby itself and unforeseen crises, South Bay Baseball Cards has remained dedicated to serving local collectors, preserving the social aspects integral to the enjoyment of the sport, and witnessing new generations discover the collecting magic found within slabs, penny sleeves and worn cardboard. Jim, Michael and the entire staff have kept the dream of discovering that find or completing a personal collection set alive for over three decades in Lomita. Their legendary shop is sure to entertain and bring people together in the South Bay card community for many more years to come.

South Bay Baseball Cards Inc was founded in 1985 in Lomita, California by Mark and Linda Stein. The shop opened its doors as a hobby store focused on selling baseball cards and related collectibles to fans in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. While baseball cards were the main product, the store also carried other sports and non-sports trading cards, as well as supplies like toploaders, plastic sheets, and binders needed to organize and store collections.

In the mid-1980s, the modern baseball card collecting hobby was still in its relative infancy. The 1979 release of Star Wars trading cards had helped spark new interest in collecting, but baseball remained the most popular sport for collecting cards. More and more kids in suburban Southern California neighborhoods were getting hooked on the thrill of the chase – the excitement of searching through newly opened wax packs hoping to find star players, rare cards, or even the elusive chase card advertised on the packaging. South Bay Baseball Cards aimed to satisfy this demand and serve as a gathering place for local collectors.

Those early years saw tremendous growth in the hobby. Upper Deck shook up the industry in 1988 with its premium baseball card product offering sharp color photos and quality card stock previously unseen. The baseball strike shortened the 1994 season and perhaps even further fueled kids’ interests in filling album pages and chase sets featuring their favorite players. By the late 80s and early 90s, the small shop in Lomita had thriving Friday night auctions, hosted local baseball card shows, and saw business boom as the sport’s popularity climbed to new heights.

While the baseball card industry experienced ups and downs through the 1990s, South Bay Baseball Cards managed to sustain consistent business. As the collecting demographic matured, the shop expanded its inventory of supplies and higher-end memorabilia to appeal to adult collectors. Wax boxes containing the newest baseball card releases continued moving off the shelves each season. Local collectors of all ages frequented the shop to browse, trade, purchase supplies, and stay up to date on the latest industry news with owner Mark Stein.

However, South Bay Baseball Cards faced new challenges in the 2000s. The MLB players’ strike in 1994-95 had begun to turn casual fans away from the sport and hobby. The rise of online shopping presented new competition, especially for supplies that could be sourced more cheaply in bulk. The Pokemon trading card game in 1999 also drew significant interest away from sportscards among younger potential customers. Despite these hurdles, the shop remained committed to serving its South Bay customer base through knowledgeable staff and a friendly, community-focused atmosphere.

By 2010, the baseball card industry was entering a transitional phase. Though still popular among core collectors and investors, values of even star rookie cards from the late 80s and early 90s boom years had declined significantly from their highs. The local shop likewise saw traffic drop off compared to its peak decades earlier. In response, South Bay Baseball Cards worked to cultivate specialty collecting niches within its customer base. The store emphasized high-end vintage inventory, authentic signed memorabilia, and supplies for collectors pursing non-sports areas like movies, television, and animation.

Throughout the 2010s, the baseball card and collectibles market stabilized at a lower level than its golden age. While the rush of opening wax packs lost some of its mainstream appeal, dedicated collectors continued to flock to South Bay Baseball Cards for its expertise and diverse offerings. In addition to carrying some of the rarest vintage finds in Southern California, such as unopened cases of 1955 and 1961 Topps, the store became renowned nationwide for its inventory of autographed photos and items from Hollywood memorabilia shows. Local collectors of all ages remained loyal patrons as well.

Now in its fourth decade in business, South Bay Baseball Cards Inc is still owned and operated by Mark Stein at its original Lomita location. In 2022, the store maintains its reputation as one of the highest regarded hobby shops in Southern California. While the sports card industry landscape has shifted dramatically since the store’s early years fueled by the baseball card boom, South Bay Baseball Cards has proven resilient by adapting its focus over time. Perhaps more than any other factor, it is the shop’s knowledgeable, passionate staff and welcoming community atmosphere that have kept collectors coming back year after year to discover the next memorable find. For collectors both local and abroad, South Bay Baseball Cards continues upholding its tradition as a Southern California hobby institution.