Store features sports cards

A store selling sports cards and DVDs opened June 2 in Columbia Falls in the Falls Station of U.S. Highway 2. Tony Sibert, owner of Sports Cards Plus, is an ironworker part time at RBM Lumber, Inc.

Sibert and his wife Jan owned a card store from 1990-1996. They closed for personal reasons, he said. Their kids are out of the house, so they pulled the old inventory out of storage to re-open the store.

"This was the first chance we had to re-open it because the location was here. Seemed like all the ducks fell in a row," Sibert said.

He took notice that the market changed. In the '90s, companies flooded the market with too many cards, lowering the value of each card, Sibert said. Now, they print the same number, but there is fewer of each card.

"There is an inherent value to anything," Sibert said. "In card collecting the two main driving forces are scarcity and who the individual is."

Technology has changed as well. At the first store, Sibert did not have the Internet as an instant resource for pricing cards. Now he uses it daily with his customers.

Just for fun, he still has a Beckett magazine from March 1990. The monthly magazine was the only price guide for cards.

In addition to cards and DVDs, he sells Blu-ray disks, video games, board games, and sports memorabilia such as cars and ornaments. He will trade one DVD for two DVDs plus a quarter.

The store is open 1-7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday.