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entrepreneur

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

ashington Nationals phe-
nom Stephen Strasburg
has pitched only a few
games in the major
leagues, but his rookie baseball card
already is worth about $16,000. Jewish
Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg's rookie
card from1934 can be bought for
$3,800.
A perfect-condition Honus Wagner
rookie card from 1907 (Pittsburgh
Pirates shortstop) has the biggest card
value today — $2 million; even a crud-
dy one goes for $100,000. The condi-
tion is determined by an impartial firm.
The value of cards of most baseball
stars affected by the steroids scandal,
such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire
and Roger Clemens, has "plummeted
right down the toilet," says Rick Behar,
49, of Farmington Hills, owner of
Rick Behar's SportsCard Central in
Farmington Hills.
A sports card enthusiast visiting
the store can get delightfully dizzy
with facts and statistics about every-
one from Red Wings hockey great
Gordie Howe to the Tigers' Armando
Galaraga, who lost a perfect game
recently after umpire Jim Joyce's erro-
neous "safe" call in the ninth inning.
Incidentally, Galaraga's card hasn't
increased much in value because,
Behar explains, "because he still isn't
well known enough nationally."
Card packages with groups of col-
lege sports teams include coaches,
"so you could pull a [Michigan State
Uniersity basketball coach] Tom Izzo
card out and possibly make it a valu-
able commodity because he stayed at
MSU," Behar points out.
Despite his habitually low batting
average, Brandon Inge's card is the
most popular among the Tigers and
fans flock to see him at public appear-
ances. Justin Verlander's card sells for
$150; Miguel Cabrera's for $100.
Inside the 1,600-square-foot store
on the southwest corner of Orchard
Lake and 14 Mile roads, plus a 10,000-
square-foot Troy warehouse, Behar
figures he has about 10 million cards
worth "many millions of dollars."
After 33 years of traveling the coun-
try for card shows while also operat-
ing a store on Detroit's far east side
for almost 20 years, Behar says he's
"finally home" in Farmington Hills. He
opened the store in February, but is
holding a big grand opening this Friday-
Sunday.
Behar enthusiastically points out he

King Of Cards

Owner of SportsCard Central
comes home to open new store.

"Buying a sports card is an emotional purchase. It's like a poor man's stock market,

where a person invests in a valuable player, but in a card form," says Rick Behar

has the "largest sports card store in
the eastern United States, selling, buy-
ing and trading all kinds of sports and
entertainment cards (most of them the
TOPPS brand), photos, memorabilia,
even offering dolls, modern beanie
babies and the popular new silly band
bracelets; they have figures shaped like
letters, numbers, fruit and animals, and
go for $1.99 or $3.99 apiece.
Other popular cards are the YuGiOh,
MIG and Pokemon cards used in tour-
naments. He also buys and sells on the

Internet's eBay system, dealing with
about 800 other card dealers around
the nation on almost a daily basis.
"The formula for success in this busi-
ness is scarcity, plus demand equals
value," Behar says. "Buying a sports
card is an emotional purchase. It's like
a poor man's stock market, where a
person invests in a valuable player but
in a card form."
Behar caught the card "bug" around
age 11 when he mowed lawns and
shoveled snow in his Southfield neigh-

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borhood in exchange for the people
paying him in old cards collected, then
neglected, by their children. "I'm a life-
long sports fan and I was inspired by the
love of mathematics, so I could read the
statistics on the backs of the cards and
figure out all the batting averages and
pitching percentages," he says.
Behar graduated from Southfield High
School and MSU with an education
degree, running on the cross country
team, and winning several table tennis
tournaments. He taught kindergarten
in a Paris, France, English school, then
a San Francisco private school for one
year each before returning to the Detroit
area to resume his sports card career.
Behar also worked part time for a
Birmingham law firm that launched a
class action suit against companies that
put asbestos in area schools and still is
involved in an asbestos-consulting firm.
"I kept collecting cards until I had an
awakening one day and decided that
just hoarding cards wasn't that impor-
tant; I should go into the sales and
trading business. Also at that time, I
lost a lot of cards that were thrown out
when our family moved."
Behar operated stores in Roseville
and Sterling Heights after traveling the
card show circuit throughout the coun-
try. "That was really a taxing and ardu-
ous experience," he says, "setting up
and tearing down displays, rushing off
to the next city, dealing with all sorts of
people. It was better to stay home."
He also suffered a major theft at
one of his stores when a "customer"
swindled his employees out of thou-
sands of dollars worth of cards while
Behar was home on the Jewish High
Holidays. Although the Farmington Hills
store is open seven days a week (11
to 7), Behar doesn't work on Shabbat.
On that day he can be found on the
bimah of Keter Torah Synagogue in
West Bloomfield, where he currently
is president. His grandfather, Cantor
Jacob Chicorel, founded the Sephardic
Community of Greater Detroit, Keter
Torah's predecessor.
Behar and his wife, "T.G.," have two
children.
SportsCard Central customers are
adults as well as children, but the store
relies on customers like Noah Kahan,
10, of Bloomfield Hills, a fifth grader
at Hillel Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit, who buys five cards a week, at
around $5 apiece.
"My favorite card is a Pete Rose [of
the Cincinnati Reds, baseball's all-time
hit leader] and I already have 1,000
cards altogether," says Kahan.
"I love going to Rick's."

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July 8 • 2010

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