Stepping into Southern Tier Sports Corner provides an experience not seen anywhere else within Ithaca, one that hobby enthusiasts and casual sports fans from across upstate New York have been coming to visit. 

Recently opened on Oct. 26 at 376 Elmira Road, the location stands as the city’s only dedicated sports card shop. While this may seem like a niche concept, the 4,300 square-foot location is a fresh exposure to a nearly $13 billion industry at the hands of store owner Grant Vennel. Southern Tier Sports Corner is home to the standard card shop fare: exclusive hobby boxes in all manner of sports and branding, single cards encased in plastic slabs with a number determining their quality and some individual packs for quick ripping. 

For most card shops, a bit of signed memorabilia would be enough, but Vennel wanted more. In addition to selling trading card lines unrelated to sports like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon, Southern Tier Sports Corner also sells supplemental products for collectors. These include card sleeves, top loaders, boxes, binders, various case protectors for slabbed cards from leading brands like Zion Cases and Slabmags and just about everything in between.

“You could have a smaller shop and do okay if you’re just selling singles,” Vennel said. “But if you want to meet the needs of your community, as well as the hobby at large, you have to do all the connecting.”

Vennel said he began collecting football cards at age 13, and at 19, he owned his first card shop in California. He said he shut it down after a few years in part due to the effects of the “Junk Wax Era,” a period from the late 1980s to the early 1990s when so many cards were printed that the card values cratered and the hobby was put on life support. He has since spent nearly three decades working in sales for companies like Nielsen and Rosie, something that has gone hand-in-hand with his current role, which heavily involves negotiating card prices. 

Vennel never quit collecting, though, and he said the idea of this entrepreneurship sprung up after he took his kids to basketball tournaments across upstate New York.

“I didn’t see a sports card shop that I liked,” Vennel said. “So I decided that I would open my first sports card shop, and in 2019, I did. In Horseheads.”

That Horseheads location, which he expanded twice, was successful, but Vennel said he wanted to take the brand to another level. Paul Fumarola came all the way from Rochester to give the shop a look. Like Vennel, he has also been collecting since he was a teenager, and he still attends card shows as a vendor when he can. He and Vennel have collaborated during several recent shows, and he said it was his first time seeing the new location in operation.

“I’m very impressed,” Fumarola said. “I think it’s a very nice-sized location, it’s got a lot of lighting, which is good. It’s just the opening stages. [Vennel is] going to have a nice blend of sealed product, memorabilia and supplies, from what I can see.”

The memorabilia Fumarola mentioned is part of maybe the biggest shift the shop has made between stores, and that is an exclusive licensing deal with Fanatics, which allows Vennel’s store to sell officially licensed apparel from some of America’s biggest sports leagues. Walking into the shop, an entire wall is lined with NFL, NBA and MLB jerseys, while hats, t-shirts and hoodies are visible from the window — all things that Vennel was enthusiastic about including.

“We’re going to keep the youth involved in this by making it a featured place that they want to come to versus just coming to buy cards,” Vennel said. “That’s why I’ve got the apparel, so when the kids come with their mom, they’re able to have the experience of buying their team’s favorite hat, jersey or shirt. Not everybody’s going to be a sports card collector right off the bat, but that’s how they get introduced into the hobby.”

So far, he said the Ithaca move has brought in demographics he never would have expected.

“I’ve had families of five and seven come in, which has been fantastic,” Vennel said. “I’ve never experienced that when I was in Horseheads because we didn’t have that type of shop. I think that the area itself has been very, very supportive.”

One of these customers was Matt Currie, who initially met Vennel at the National Sports Card Show and recently began working at the shop. He explained the impact stores like Southern Tier Sports Corner can have on the area.

“It brings a place where card collectors and sports enthusiasts can come, enjoy, hang out, meet new people, network with other people in the hobby and kind of connect,” Currie said. “It’s a centric location to bring anyone locally who enjoys sports cars or enjoys sports to kind of come here as a collective, and I think that’s a necessity, with how everything is online. … You need to be able to connect and come see someone face-to-face.”

The shop’s success is not an isolated incident. The economy of trading cards exploded in 2020 as a result of people being stuck inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has led to a sharp interest increase in the hobby. This is occurring at the highest level as well, with Fanatics securing licensing deals for several major American leagues, as well as acquiring Topps for around $500 million.

These effects have impacts on a smaller scale as well. In late September, the upstate-based NNY Promotions hosted Ithaca’s first-ever sports card show. But while people have come from across the state to Ithaca’s show and shop, a key audience Vennel is aiming for is those on campus.

“I would say that the college students are just starting to figure out that we’re here, so that really what’s happening is, as we’ve been open longer,” Vennel said.

Vennel said that teaching people the ins and outs of the market is one of the many things he loves about working in this industry.

“I know that when I go out and do national shows, there’s a lot of college kids who love the hobby,” Vennel said. “And they’re looking for various things to do within the hobby, whether it be with social media or possibly doing their own thing with sports cards. I think there’s a huge opportunity for learning for students here at Southern Tier Sports Corner.”