Baseball Card Store - Little League Involvement

My local shop wants to get involved in my league -- he wants to give swag to kids (like a drug dealer) to try to get advertising for his shop. A win win.

What ways do you suggest we do this?

We thought about an all day Pack Wars type thing with Topps Series 1 packs/boxes -- i.e. pack wars on the hour all day long...

What do you think?

Any other ideas?

Don't teams get sponsors to buy t-shirts and whatnot and that puts their name on the back of the jersey?


That's how they did it when I was a kid, as a 2-time All-Star catcher for the Ambler, PA, State Farm Cardinals, 1979-80.

smapdi said:

Don't teams get sponsors to buy t-shirts and whatnot and that puts their name on the back of the jersey?

That's how they did it when I was a kid, as a 2-time All-Star catcher for the Ambler, PA, State Farm Cardinals, 1979-80.

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Yes. And Banners. However, those are already done and we're trying to think outside of the box.

The Clearwater Threshers actually sponsored my team this year.

Wear their jersey into the store, get a free pack (or discount, or drawing entry, etc.).

Little Leaguer Appreciation Day with free swag, raffles, pack wars, etc.

It's all about PUP N TACO BABY!!!!

Check out my 80's super long hair #1


All Stars as well!!

Any other thoughts?

WIN=free pack for the kids

Draws the parents to the store and you can't just have one pack.

jbhofmann said:

WIN=free pack for the kids

Draws the parents to the store and you can't just have one pack.

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That's the point; the problem is ideas to get them from the ballpark to the store.

In-Store pizza party for the team.

Coupons for free packs(instead of sno-cones or whatever) for bringing in foul balls. PA announcer could say "There goes another 'Bill's Hobby Shop' foul ball over the back stop.

jbhofmann said:

In-Store pizza party for the team.

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This. Give them a plate, pack & pizza and you'll be a hero.

SydBarrett said:

jbhofmann said:

In-Store pizza party for the team.

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This. Give them a plate, pack & pizza and you'll be a hero.

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We have over 60 teams.

Jeff N. said:

SydBarrett said:

jbhofmann said:

In-Store pizza party for the team.

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This. Give them a plate, pack & pizza and you'll be a hero.

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We have over 60 teams.

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Belay my last.

As a little league president I would have to know what kind of involvement does the park/league board have in the project? If you are working through the park leadership then you have a lot more options/problems.

As far as the promotion goes, you could offer rewards to the kids for packs of cards. I personally offer incentives to the kids on my teams, base hits, runs, runs batted in. I also give special rewards for single player double plays. The Topps Opening Day product is probably the best to offer to the kids, as it is economical and geared more toward to the younger ages.

If you have league support then you could have a card game day, where all the winning teams for that day are awarded free packs of cards. If you do this once a week you will get much more involvement and return on investment, over just a single day or weekend event.

If the shop is local, within 10 miles of the park I would only hand out vouchers for the free packs, and be sure that the store is manned and open when the games are finished for the day. The younger kids will want immediate gratification, and if the store isn't open then you will have less participation.

Sorry to write a novel here, but hopefully it will help.

Alex is that Easy-E in the background left holding that banner :lol:

alexs64 said:

It's all about PUP N TACO BABY!!!!

Check out my 80's super long hair #1


All Stars as well!!

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I don't have any ideas on paper yet, tons of ideas rolling around in my head BUT the place I want to open my store ( when I get proper financing )
is here (black circle)

A lot of people park in the parking lot (after store hours) and walk to the fields.

Good luck with your store!!!

That would be an awesome location for a card shop. You would definitely be able to run some great promotions.

ebechols said:

That would be an awesome location for a card shop. You would definitely be able to run some great promotions.

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Not to steal the thread but there was a card shop across the street about 10 years ago that did very well!!

60 teams is a lot. I think that whatever is done should not have time constraints, like having to go to the store on the day of the game. I'm guessing that with that many teams, there are a number of fields and complexes in the area and perhaps not all in one central location.

How about a voucher for a pack or two of a specific product. Make it random. In addition, maybe some kind of punch card that gets a hole punched out either based on a minimum dollar amount spent at the store or maybe combining the voucher idea with the punch card. Have a spot around the punch card for each week, kids go in and get free pack for that week, card gets punched. At the end of the season or however many weeks you put on the punch card, kids take their card with all of the redeemed pack vouchers punched out and put their names on the cards and enter them into a drawing that could be held at the end of the season. Either at the store or out at one of the fields if the league has some sort of fun day at the end of the season, pull out a few tickets for smaller prizes, then third place, second place, then grand prize.

The card shop owner could also donate a memorabilia item, signed bat, nice framed autographed photograph or poster, and the league could sell raffle tickets for a chance to win the item. Shop gets additional advertising, maybe incorporate another voucher or exchange program with the losing raffle ticket stubs. And the league gets the money collected from the raffle ticket sales as part of it's fund-raising money.

Either at the games or at the store, you could have something like a guess the jelly beans in the jar contest, only with a baseball theme. A giant tube or something filled with sportscards or baseballs and sell chances to guess how many are in the tube. Winner gets a prize for guessing closest to the actual number, league gets fund raising from selling the chances.

That's all I got. This is the first year in little league for us, both of my boys are in t-ball, so the idea of incentive-driven contests or promotions isn't really the direction that I am thinking at this time. Some kind of freebie voucher program that gets the kids and parents into the store could open up the possibility of an incentive-driven program based on report cards and grades in school to keep the kids coming back when baseball season is over.

60 pizza parties would be well worth the investment if I was the shop owner. You're creating collectors/customers for life in some cases. Not to mention immediately filling up the store.