It’s All In The Cards At Southern Cards

BRISTOL, Va. – Ronnie Houser remembers everything. The store. The year. The cost. Even the type of wrapping that surrounded and contained his first purchase.

It was 1966. Houser was 8-years-old.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the President of the United States of America. “Star Trek” was set to make its television debut. The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones were changing the sound of music. And the Baltimore Orioles were about to be crowned world champions, sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Houser was 8 when he bought a six-pack set of Topps baseball cards for 27 cents at a discount store on Morrison Blvd., in Bristol.

His life was never the same.

By his teen years, Houser was a collector.

By the age of 19, Houser was a serious collector.

Today, he owns Southern Cards, a sports card and sports memorabilia store, located at 1315 Euclid Ave., Suite B.

A quick glance inside Southern Cards is deceptive. The store is plain, simple. Four walls. A dark-green, late 20th Century, three-piece couch rests in a corner. And the remainder of the store is filled with shelves. But on those shelves, magic happens.

Baseball, basketball, football, racing and Americana cards, among others, line and fill the shelves. Some cards are shiny and brand new. Others are old, elegant and faded. Each card tells a story, documenting a place and time in a person’s life.

Lining still other shelves are autographed baseball bats, athletic jerseys, football helmets and figurines.

Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chipper Jones, Chris Paul … the names and faces are all represented inside Southern Cards.

Granted, each item bears a price.

But they’re all available to the eye.

The store

Houser began working at Southern Cards in Sept., 1991. He then bought the place from the original owner in 2004.

Houser has now been finding, collecting, trading and selling sports cards and memorabilia for 42 years. And Southern Cards has become a second home for Houser and his devoted friends and customers.

“The shop is pretty much the same setup,” said Houser, 50, an Abingdon, Va., resident. “The product has changed drastically. From the early [1990s] to now is night and day. Night and day.”

Kids, teenagers, adults, baseball fanatics, obsessive collectors and retired persons who can’t let go of their love of cards and sports walk into Southern Cards and spend time chasing down and discussing a world they love.

And each person’s world is different.

Some look for rookies. They plunk down between $2-10 for a pack of new cards, hoping to find the hottest, most promising young star.

Some are looking for Hall of Famers. They scan shelves and rhythmically examine rows of cards. Then, when they find what they’re looking for, they pore over a card’s condition. Its corners. Its coloring. Its overall look, feel and design.

Some are looking for autographs. Signed jerseys. Signed helmets. Signed cards.

Others just pass time.

“I’ve got a great group of people – and you get new people – I’ve got a really good group of people who come in and I see,” Houser said. “It’s more like a social meeting place than it is like a shop sometimes. … You make a lot of good friends.”

The fans

Jody Hill is like Houser.

Hill and Houser love cards. They love sports. And they love discussing their love of cards and sports inside Houser’s shop.

Hill began collecting in middle school. He loved watching baseball games and was fascinated with averages and percentages, home runs, All-Stars and RBIs. For Hill, collecting was another way to get closer to the game.

“I knew that the chances of being a professional athlete were pretty slim,” said Hill, 28, a Kingsport, Tenn., resident. “[It’s] another way to get close to the sport. By getting more involved, by keeping up with [a player’s] stats. And then you start going and getting cards of them, so you can read the backs. It gets you more updated, and you know more about the game.”

As a kid, Hill picked up packs of cards wherever he could. Hill particularly liked baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith. So Hill bought every card he could find that bore Smith’s face. Soon, Hill had nearly 60 Smith cards. And his collection kept growing.

“I’ve been colleting forever, it seems like,” Hill said.

Hill’s taste now runs toward basketball and football. He regards his participation in the card world as part fun, part investment. Hill still loves the feeling of opening a box filled with packs of cards, not knowing what to expect or which players he will find inside. But Hill, like many current collectors in an ever-changing market, also has to temper his love of the hobby with the realization that the sports world – and the sports card world – is no longer the same one he grew up with.

The hobby

Houser and Hill have watched the hobby they love change. Collecting is still collecting. But collecting is also expensive. Very expensive.

Gone are the days when a pack of desirable cards can be purchased for less than a dollar. And long gone are the days when a big-time rookie card can easily be found for less than $100.

Today, being a serious collector requires research, luck, a little bit of skill – and a lot of money.

Limited edition specialty cards bearing autographs, game-worn jerseys, emblems, insignias and a wide assortment of alluring – and confusing – novelties dominate a high-priced market.

“All I know is that, every year, the product continues to get higher and higher,” Houser said. “It’s real pricey. That’s all I know. And I don’t know for what reason. But it’s real pricey. It’s expensive.”

But to Houser and Hill, cards are still cards.

Yes, the Internet has forever changed their hobby. Yes, card collecting is now more for adults than it is for kids.

But the allure of finding and owning a card that bears the name and photo of a sports star is as addicting as ever – if not more so.

According to Houser, Southern Cards pulled in its best two months ever in terms of income this summer.

Houser keeps the doors of his store open and his shelves lined for a reason: He loves the hobby. Others do, too.

And the 8-year-old Houser who purchased a six-pack set of 1966 Topps baseball cards for 27 cents isn’t far removed from the 50-year-old Houser who now spends his days surrounded by cards he trades, collects and sells at Southern Cards.

| (276) 645-2569

Who: Southern Cards
What: Sports card and memorabilia store
Where: 1315 Euclid Ave., Suite B in Bristol, Va.
Phone: (276) 669-4110
Ebay: Southern Cards owner Ronnie Houser’s Ebay seller name – cardboyron
On the Web: http://www.cardshopfinder.com/VA/Bristol/20278194
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