Baseball cards have been collected by fans for over 150 years and the hobby remains extremely popular today. While the epicenter of baseball card collecting is considered New York City due to its proximity to Major League Baseball, the suburban town of St. Peters, Missouri has developed a rich history with baseball cards over the past several decades.
Located just outside of St. Louis, St. Peters was once a small farming community that began growing significantly in the 1970s as the city expanded westward. As more families moved to St. Peters for its affordable housing and quality schools, local shops opened to serve the growing population. This included hobby stores and card shops that catered to the wave of kids getting into collecting at the time.
One of the earliest card shops was Bob’s Sportscards, which opened in 1975. Owner Bob Johnson was an avid collector himself who wanted to share his passion with other fans. He stocked his small storefront with the latest baseball, football, and basketball cards from Topps, Fleer, and other manufacturers. Kids from all over St. Peters would flock to Bob’s after school and on weekends to trade and buy packs, boxes, and individual cards.
By the late 1970s, the rise of television coverage for MLB along with a few popular baseball card TV movies like “The Junkman” fueled more interest in the hobby. Two new card shops, Sportsters and MVP Cards, opened in St. Peters to keep up with demand. All three shops became important weekend destinations for collectors. Kids would spend hours poring over binders of cards for trade and discussing the latest baseball stats.
In the 1980s, the baseball card boom was in full swing. Production skyrocketed as companies like Donruss and Score entered the market. Glossy photography and oddball parallel sets attracted even more collectors. St. Peters’ shops expanded their inventory and organized tournaments, contests, and events to encourage kids to keep collecting. The shops themselves became local institutions and after school hangouts.
A pivotal moment came in 1984 with the debut of the wildly popular Topps Traded set, featuring players swapped to new teams midseason. Seeking scarce traded cards to complete their sets, collectors turned to one another for help. This need to trade with others nationwide helped spark the rise of mail-order trading through want lists in sports magazines and fledgling trading card publications.
While the shops in St. Peters still thrived, collectors now had many more avenues to pursue their hobby. Kids began organizing card shows in local churches, schools, and community centers on weekends to directly trade and sell with other collectors. St. Louis became a regular stop on the national sports card show circuit as well. The town’s collectors were now plugged into both local and national card cultures.
In the 1990s, the baseball card market fractured as overproduction led to a crash. Many shops around the country went out of business but the three stores in St. Peters adapted by diversifying into other collectibles like non-sports cards, memorabilia, and trading card games. They also hosted frequent promotions to keep local collectors engaged. This helped them survive when other shops fell.
Today, only Bob’s Sportscards remains in St. Peters after the other two shops closed in the 2000s. Under new ownership since 2008, Bob’s has modernized while still catering to its core baseball card customers. Weekly events attract collectors of all ages from around the region. Regional and national vendors also make regular stops at Bob’s.
Meanwhile, St. Louis’ robust card show schedule continues with monthly events that regularly draw hundreds of vendors and collectors. The city’s proximity to several MLB teams also means a steady influx of new cards entering the market. All of this helps maintain St. Peters’ strong baseball card culture, keeping the hobby alive for new generations of fans.