Tucson’s Showtime Cards business is booming thanks to a “perfect storm of events” | Tucson Sports

George Mares, right, owner of Showtime Cards & Comics, 5801 E. Speedway Blvd., recently bought sports tickets with Mark Davis. Sports ticket sales and purchases have been booming during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Jon Gold Special to the Arizona Daily Star

It’s a Monday morning in mid-May and George Mares can’t speak. The shop is busy.

Two years ago Showtime Cards, 5801 E. Speedway Blvd., was a ghost town on a Monday morning with hobbyists pouring in over the hours. Maybe they’d buy a pack or two. Maybe even a box if Mares took the press out of court.

And that was after the sports card industry found new life in the mid to late 2010s.

Mares agrees to speak on Tuesday. But no, two people come in to bring collections that they hope and pray will be worth a coin. Wednesday was tough because Mares had to do a series of box breaks – opening card boxes for shoppers buying a random team in hopes of minimizing the growing cost of a full card box – and Thursday … well, Thursday is always a lot Come on.

It’s free on Friday morning but only for a while because that’s when a rush comes in.

This is 2021 and the trading card market is booming and George Mares is the beauty of the ball.

“Now it’s cool to do it”

All kinds of balls, actually.

Baseball, basketball, soccer – you name it. It’s all going up.

Hockey and soccer. Phew, boy, are football tickets on the rise. Then there is Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic the Gathering.