Scott McMurrich now has a place to display the nearly 1 million trading cards he owns: at his new shop in West Richland.

The collector turned entrepreneur is living out his childhood dream of being surrounded by all things trading cards after retiring from a longtime role with a telecommunications company.

Baseline Sports Cards opened in mid-April in a suite at 4900 Paradise Way, just around the corner from Yoke’s Fresh Market on Bombing Range Road in West Richland. His vision is for the shop to be a welcoming space for anyone, and especially kids.

“The stereotypical shop you walk into is kind of dark – slap some Costco shelves on the wall, just put stuff out there – and that’s what you get. We thought, ‘What could we do that’s different?’ We wanted it bright, welcoming and a place for people to stay,” McMurrich said.

The shelves are mainly at a level for a child’s height. McMurrich said kids have been riding their bikes over after school, especially with Enterprise Middle School so close by.

“They dump their bikes and come in here. They fill the couch and the tables and hang out. And, you know what? No phones. They’re just here interacting,” he said.

Modern features

But for those who do pull out their phones, Baseline has a very modern feature – a countertop, backdrop and ring lights for those who want to stream live while opening packs or showing cards.

Local artist Cam Milton of Melting Miltons painted a mural inside the shop that features Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. He’s the same artist responsible for artwork of Nikola Tesla on the exterior of the nearby Swigg Coffee Bar.

Scott McMurrich, owner of Baseline Sports Cards, stands in front of the mural in his shop featuring Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant by local artist Cam Milton. Milton has another mural in the neighborhood, a mural of Nikola Tesla near Swigg Coffee Bar.

| Photo by Robin Wojtanik

There’s been a resurgence in the trading card industry that appears to have grown out of the pandemic when people were home and picking up new, or once beloved, hobbies, or possibly pulling their old cards out of storage.

“Everybody was sitting home or working and going, ‘Oh, let me go through this box,’ and saying, ‘Wow, I forgot I had this, or I haven’t looked at these in 20 years, let me send it out to get graded and see how much they’re worth,’” he said.

In a December 2024 report, Sports Illustrated cited research predicting the trading card market will surge from $33.6 billion last year to an eye-popping $271.2 billion by 2034. The growth was credited to consumer interest, digitization and expanding access online. And the generation who collected cards in the 1980s has rediscovered their old love and is now introducing it to their kids.

“It’s our age group that back in the day we were able to get a 40-cent pack of cards. But it was hard,” McMurrich said. “If you can get a couple of quarters rubbed together, you’d buy a pack of cards. Now, we have adult money and kids, and we’re trying to get them back into it because of how nostalgic it was for us.”

Those same vintage never-opened-40-cent packs are at Baseline, now for a couple bucks instead. No one’s going to get rich off a find from inside the mass-produced cards of the 1980s, now often referred to as “junk wax.”

“There’s not a lot of value other than nostalgia. But it’ll take you back to being 8 or 9 years old and how that felt for 10 minutes and that’s all that mattered. It’s an escape from the day-to-day grind.”

Beyond sports

Most of the cards available for sale are all part of McMurrich’s personal collection, which he estimates at upward of 900,000 cards. And while most people might think baseball cards are king, Baseline can barely keep WNBA and NHL cards in stock. This new interest in trading cards is finding fans across genders.

“The girls are in here just as much,” he said. “(WNBA star) Caitlin Clark really drove that interest.”

It’s not just sports cards either. McMurrich also stocks the ever-popular Pokémon, along with some old favorites like Garbage Pail Kids, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and New Kids on the Block trading cards.

“It’s different because with sports cards, a player has this many points or this many home runs, and then you have Pokémon, that’s all imaginary, but has a value on it and people love it,” said McMurrich, a Pokémon novice. “We’ve had some great people coming in and trying to explain it to me and I’ve learned a lot.”

Whatever the collector’s interest, McMurrich’s goal is to provide something for the community.

“We have some great card shops already in the Tri-Cities, and we just wanted to add to that, to grow the hobby and give kids a place to come after school where it’s safe, there’s no judgment. They can put the phones down and hang out, make new friends, connect with the things they have in common and just be kids.”

He also wants to make it affordable. While McMurrich doesn’t display the cards he owns valued at $2,000-$4,000 apiece, he wants to appeal to children and not price them out. “We put free cards out on the tables every day that they get to go through. Every kid should leave with something,” he said. “We had a kid come in with birthday money and he got a $12 Michael Jordan graded card and he was almost in tears. He was so happy, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Since McMurrich once owned that $12 Michael Jordan card, it’s been an adjustment to part with his own collection.

“It’s horrible,” he laughed when asked how it feels to see people paw through the items he painstakingly collected for decades. “I haven’t put some of my things out, but I also know it’s a business, and if I can share those with someone else who has a common interest or similar player, then cool.”

For every person who said they’d be rich if their mom hadn’t given away their baseball card collection, McMurrich said there’s truth in this statement. For example, collectors value a 1952 Mickey Mantle card in mint condition at $8 million. McMurrich said he has no regrets about any cards he’s parted with. “I’ve been pretty surgical about it,” he said.

Hobbyists and flippers

He sees both hobbyists and “card flippers” in his shop.

“They know exactly what they want. They’re not collectors, but they get boxes with guaranteed autographs or relic cards and make money by flipping them,” he said. “It’s the generation that knows how to use social media and the internet and they’re taking advantage of that.”

Those new to the industry will find there’s money to be made through platforms promoting live commerce. And for anyone interested in getting back into collecting as a hobby, they’ll find a big difference in the range of styles.

Forty years ago, there was typically just one card issued for a single player. “Now, if you get a 2024 Aaron Judge card, there might be 25 versions of It,” McMurrich said. “They have parallels, numbered cards, different colored cards, different series of cards. Back in the day, that was it.”

The boom and bust of the card industry is part of the inventory available at shops like Baseline, offering both new and vintage cards, along with caps and nostalgic tees.

Baseline is open seven days a week, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Sunday.

Baseline intends to host trade nights, including ones just for kids. Ready-made gift baskets will be available for Father’s Day.

Baseline Sports Cards: 4900 Paradise Way, West Richland, baselinesc.com, 509-371-9328.