Every month, Upper Deck will spotlight one of our hobby retailing partners and some reasons why you need to visit their store. Click here to see past Retailer of the Month posts!
I’ve been working with Ian Taylor of Taylor’s Baseball Cards for a number of years now, especially when I was in Customer Service. You will seldom find a shop owner more committed than Ian Taylor when it comes to working on behalf of his customers. Too frequently, store owners are negatively portrayed as guys who are trying to take advantage of their customers. Ian is the complete antithesis of that negative stereotype, which is one of the reasons he’s been successful for so long in this business. It’s also the reasons why we want to feature Taylor’s Baseball Cards as our Retailer of the Month. So let’s turn it over to Ian . . .
My name is Ian Taylor and I opened my store, Taylors Baseball Cards, at the tail end of 1991 to maximize sales during the holidays. To my surprise, we are still open today, and doing just fine.
Ian behind the counter, helping a customer through their football offerings.
During this 18-year run I also had an opportunity to co-promote the 1996 National Convention in Anaheim, California. That show had an attendance of over 80,000 paid consumers and 1,000 dealers. Even today, it is still considered by many collectors to be the best National ever because we had all of the manufacturers and leagues come together and attend one huge show. The show also had over 100 athletes at the autograph pavilion including Muhammad Ali, Wilt Chamberlain, Wayne Gretzky, Joe DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax, Joe Namath and many more Hall of Famers and legends of all sports. It was really special to be involved in and I’d encourage anyone who has never been to a National Convention to check it out!
To keep things fun and exciting for my customers, I frequently run promotions like pack wars, giveaways, in-store signings and trade days. I ran the store myself for the first three years and then hired Joe Fennell, a smart, passionate customer of mine, who is still with me today. We strive on having all of the current products at reasonable prices. We mix in a nice selection of closeouts, singles, supplies and autographed plaques and memorabilia to really give our customers a nice variety.
We also have a nice selection of graded cards from all sports, from vintage to present and you’ve got to stop in to check out some of the early T206 cards we have. We have an extensive selection of local players available at all price points and love to trade other stores out of the area for players that fit into their inventory scheme.
Another thing we like to do is help our customers sell items on eBay if they want to go that route. We help them generate top dollar on their cards or memorabilia by having great feedback and making sure we market their items just right.
Although we are located in Southern California, our top sport over the last two years has been Hockey. We’ve found that Hockey cards, without a doubt, remain an untouched area where there is a lot of potential for collectors and speculators. We frequently teach our customers more about the Hockey market and the hobby in general through weekly gatherings at the store in a comfortable environment: sipping sodas and watching sports on our TV.
Our memorabilia selection is Upper Deck Authenticated and PSA/DNA authenticated so our customers know they are getting the real thing. We also carry a variety of entertainment and gaming products for those customers not that interested in sports, but love a good TCG.
We love to help our customers make decisions on product, singles and investments. Whether you want a $1 pack, or a pack of Exquisite, we are here for the long haul and will help you making these fun decisions. Our store is small, but full and organized with a great selection of product for young and old. Since we are located right down the street from Knott’s Berry Farm in Orange County California, we are lucky to get customers from all over the country and have a great local following. So stop in during your next visit to Southern California, we’re sure you will be happy you did!
Taylor’s Baseball Cards
8682 Beach Boulevard Suite 101
Buena Park, CA 90621
714-827-7746
Email: [email protected]
Hours 12-7 Tuesday-Friday
Hours 11-7 Saturday-Monday
