A Philly Past-Time Is Back for the Future
In 2024, Philly Sports Are Back.
So Is One Of Its Fans’ Biggest Hobbies.
It’s a warm fall weekend around Philly, and about fifteen miles north of Center Center is one of Pennsylvania’s oldest shopping malls — Plymouth Meeting. Like most malls in America in 2024 — shopping is no longer the big draw in this indoor mall.
Entertainment options include a multi-floor Dave & Buster’s Eat & Play, multiple restaurants now lining the mall’s exterior, and Edge Fitness, where you can burn some carbs while watching your favorite movie.
But this November weekend, the main attraction will still be in the mall.
This fall weekend, the mall is pumping elevator music into its corridors. The Sports Card & Collectibles Show is in the center of the mall.
Despite a Phillies loss last month and an early exit from the NL Playoffs, Philly sports is again on the upswing. The growing popularity of Philly athletics isn’t just due to the recent playoff relevance of the Sixers, Eagles, and Phillies since 2021. It’s an ever-increasing international fame — aided by the Eagles opener in Brazil in early September. It’s estimated that the combined digital and physical sports card market will be worth $20.48 Billion by 2030.
PHOTO: WikiCommons
Unlike Stamp and coin collecting, the sports card industry has once again ignited since the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020. In 2020, Ebay reported an upswing of 4 million additional transactions related to sports cards. EBay is the largest retail website for card transactions. In 2021, sales on the site of sports cards will reach the top 2 million. And the popularity isn’t just among old curmudgeons like me — who grew up with the past-time — younger fans have also embraced the hobby.
Plymouth Meeting Mall is a microcosm of current-day Malls in America in 2024. Having first opened in 1966, Plymouth Meeting Mall is unique. It opened with a two-story R.F. Woolworth’s, including a first-level Grille. A movie theater that now sits outside of the mall, even a Strawbridge and Clothier, and a Lit Brother’s Department Store, which had significant damage from a fire in 1970. The iconic Art Deco clock that hung over the fountain has long since been removed.
It even still has a Church on the Mall, the merging of three area Presbyterian Churches into a House of Worship that utilizes the mall fountain and storefronts for Sunday School Services. This allows you forgiveness after your perhaps not-so-frugal shopping experience.
First constructed on the grounds of the old Meehan’s Nursery, one of the interior walls still has a tree stump whose rings date from Benjamin Franklin’s time, and its second floor still bears the iconic seal of Strawbridge & Clothier.
With every cash transaction of collectible cards, display books, and holders, another event goes by that showcases an American Hobby that can be traced back to 1887 with the tobacco company Allen & Ginter. Modern photography that catches every DeVonta Smith one-handed grab, every Bryce Harper home run, each Saquon Barkley insane back flip, and each Joel Embid block gives new hobbyists a glimpse into an American obsession.
Perhaps those moments have preserved it.
For generations yet to come.
PHOTO: WikiCommons
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