Brothers are selling
cardboard heroes

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Whether you’re looking for a 50-cent stocking stuffer for your 10-year-old or a $500 vintage Mickey Mantle baseball card for your beloved boomer’s milestone birthday, you’ll find it at 4 C’s Four Collectibles.
Open since last December at the location of the former 4 C’s Three Collectibles, at 7247 Frankford Ave., the specialty shop carries a wide array of merchandise, including baseball, football, hockey and basketball cards, bobbleheads, collector plates, player ornaments, Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving action figures, as well as wrestling, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards. Some baseball cards have pieces of game-used jerseys and game-used bats.
The 4 C’s part of the store name stands for cards, coins, collectibles and clothing. Though the new store, opened a year ago by brothers Michael and Andy Peters, does not offer coins, the new operators retained that part of the name.
Customers come into the shop, browse and gossip about their favorite sports figures — both the day-to-day stuff and even the scandals, said Andy Peters, who manages the store for his brother Michael. The brothers grew up in Fox Chase and are Cardinal Dougherty grads.
With Philly being a crazed football town, the Eagles are celebrating their 75th-anniversary season, but the milestone hasn’t had a huge impact on sales of Eagles-related merchandise, Andy Peters said. Perhaps it’s because the team hasn’t fulfilled those high expectations among fans at the start of the season, but collectors who patronize 4 C’s have shown an interest in Eagles greats like hall-of-famers Steve Van Buren and Chuck Bednarik, as well as tough-guy lineman Frank "Bucko" Kilroy, a Northeast Catholic grad who died in July at 86.
As for today’s Eagles stars, running back Brian Westbrook is the most popular guy among local collectors, according to Peters.
Customers from different generations typically are driven by nostalgia and their own memories as they search for meaningful sports memorabilia. Shoppers 30 and under usually are partial to collectibles relating to current players. If they’re 40 and older, they’re usually after vintage cards, like those of Richie Ashburn and other Phillies popular between the late 1940s and ’60s.
But that doesn’t mean today’s kids don’t have an appreciation of the past, Peters noted. Although the 10- and 12-year-olds are looking for the cards of today’s popular players, some will walk into the shop in search of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams reproduction cards, he said.
"It’s nice to see little kids interested," Peters added.
The kids also ask for a lot of Mike Schmidt items. Speaking of the Phils’ former third-baseman, 4 C’s has a circa-1979 Mike Schmidt trash can, something you don’t see every day. It sells for $60.
Folks also bring their own collections to the shop with hopes of making a trade. One such collection at 4 C’s, an assortment of cards produced by the Fleer Co., sells for $60 and includes a Barry Bonds rookie card.
"It’s worth forty to fifty dollars on its own. The rest is thrown in to round out the collection," Peters said.
Controversies, such as those surrounding Bonds’ alleged steroid use and his recent indictment on charges that he lied to a federal grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, don’t have much impact on memorabilia sales, Peters said, though some customers tell him that controversy drives up the demand.
Some patrons come in and find no fault with Bonds. Others can’t stand him. The same goes for Pete Rose and a stellar career tarnished by gambling, Peters added.
The Mayfair business also faces its own challenges. According to Peters, businesses along the 7200 block of Frankford Ave. faced the prospect of demolition for a proposed Chinese supermarket, but the deal eventually fell through. By that time, however, it was too late for many of the established businesses to change plans they had made to close or move elsewhere, leaving a number of neighboring storefronts along the block vacant.
Peters also noted that the rise of Internet sellers and buyers has pushed collectible stores out of business. Unlike Internet sports-collectible sites, though, at 4 C’s you can examine baseball cards and other memorabilia with your own eyes, while holding it with your own hands, before making the purchase.
"That’s our advantage," Peters said. ••
4 C’s Four Collectibles is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Call for possible Sunday holiday hours, 215-331-7378.
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com