By Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Writer
For many, the beginning of baseball season beckons springtime nostalgia for the smell of fresh-cut grass or the crack of a wooden bat reverberating through Citizens Bank Park. For Steve and Heidi Gerber, siblings and owners of Sportscard Playground in Hatboro, it means a fresh shipment of merchandise to unbox and organize on shelves and display cases.
It’s their business, but it’s not just a way to pay the bills.
“Originally, I think it was just a love of sports, of collecting and my interest in the statistics,” Steve said.
Steve, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, readily refers to himself as a massive sports fan and lifelong collector. If asked, he will even reference his “extremely cautious” optimism about the 2014 Phillies season, despite negative predictions from baseball experts.
During a summer between semesters in graduate school, Steve was able to channel his passions into starting a small mail-order business based around sports cards. After doing some card shows and seeing glimmers of success he began to realize, gradually, the full-time potential in his work.
“I wanted to try to earn a few extra dollars but without the commitment of a real part-time job,” Steve said. “When I was tired of my regular job, I said, let’s see where I can go with this before I send out resumes to try to get another so-called regular job.”
Though he is quick to point out the positives and negatives of running his own business, Steve proudly stands by his decision, especially with the support of his younger sister, Heidi, who joined him in the business in the early 1990s after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in marketing.
And after about 20 years of working together, the partnership seems to be thriving.
“We already had a good friendship, but we’ve developed, certainly, a better understanding of each other,” Heidi said. “We have completely different personalities, but I think they mesh very well together.”
Steve, the more soft-spoken of the two, immediately agreed with this notion.
“She’s much more the people person, I’m much more the computer guy,” he said. “And we’re much closer than we would be if we were leading separate lives and seeing each other once a week or once a month.”
Heidi’s extroverted personality translates well when acting as host of many of the events and giveaways held by Sportscard Playground. In particular, they hold an event called Pack Wars where customers open a new pack of cards and compare either designated statistics or attributes of the players, like height or weight. The customer whose cards match the previously determined criteria of the contest wins a prize.
The next Pack Wars takes place Saturday, April 12 at 1 p.m., and next Monday, April 7, they will be giving away an autographed photo of Mike Trout to the customer who most accurately predicts the final score to the NCAA men’s basketball championship on the contest grid.
They will be accepting entries as long as there are spaces available on the grid.
Apart from contests and giveaways, Sportscard Playground participates in community and charity-related events.
“We have never turned down an opportunity to donate a raffle item,” Heidi said.
In the past, they’ve been involved in supporting the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bucks County, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Toys for Tots and various other organizations.
Heidi and Steve see Sportscard Playground as both their livelihood, passion and means of staying engaged with the community.
“We’re incredibly happy to be here. We’re incredibly happy to serve our community and our customers,” Heidi said. “And we absolutely think of our customers as our friends.”
Sportscard Playground is located at 297 W. County Line Rd. in Hatboro. For information, visit www.sportscardplayground.com.
