Back Alley Sports & More
Back Alley Sports is an online retailer of sports memorabilia, sports collectibles and other sports related products.
How We Got Started:
I'm John Dexter (please call me Jack), owner and operator of Back Alley Sports.
I started selling single sports cards from my own collection on Ebay back around 2000-2001, back then I decided to name my Ebay store Back Alley Sportscards. I found that I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the folks that would come into my store to purchase cards they needed to complete sets, add to their collections etc. and the store got a fairly good reputation.
As time went on, I got the idea to maybe take it a bit further and start adding unopened boxes of sports cards to the store, I contacted some people and before you know it I was hooked up with a supplier that could provide me with sports card boxes, cases and collectibles. Being a collector myself, I was quite excited with this new supplier. My sales rep toured me through their facility and I must admit, it was a bit like being a kid in a candy store.
Well, ideas took off from there and I dropped the "sports cards" from my Ebay stores name to Back Alley Sports and started working on putting up a website. Back Alley Sports became an official business back in 2004 and since then we have developed relationships with some of the top suppliers in the sports collectibles industry.
Who We Are & What We Do:
Back Alley Sports is a family business, we are basically collectors ourselves who decided to go into the collectibles business, our goal is a simple one....We want to provide a friendly, reliable, trustworthy online source for sports fans and collectors to find great autographed sports memorabilia and sports collectibles at reasonable prices, and a place for them to actually enjoy themselves in the process!
We are not looking to become millionaires from doing this, only to make an honest living doing something that we love to do. You may find our website to be "not quite as professional looking" as most of the big sports memorabilia businesses on the web, but see..... that is the way we want it to look, the way we like it.
I remember when I was younger, growing up in Massachusetts, going to my favorite sports card shop....it was a friendly place where myself, some friends and other collectors would go and have fun, buy and trade some cards, talk sports with the owner etc. and enjoy ourselves.
That is the way I want people to feel when they sit down and browse through our website. I want them to know that they are considered friends here in the Back Alley, to feel like the people they are dealing with actually care about them and will go out of their way to help them.
What We Sell:
Here at Back Alley Sports you can count on finding only genuine, 100% authentic sports memorabilia! We deal with some of the most well known suppliers around, who get their products autographed at their own signing sessions where there is always a representative there to witness and affix a numbered hologram (that has a matching numbered COA) to each piece that is being signed. Any game used or autographed item that we sell comes with a certificate of authenticity from the best names out there and is guaranteed by Back Alley Sports to be 100% authentic.
We have never had any customer that purchased any kind of signed sports collectible from us ever complain or question the items authenticity.....Never.
We have kind of laid back on listing boxes of sports & trading cards because, to tell you the truth.....it was getting just too hard to compete with these big wholesale outlets (you know who they are) that can sell boxes of cards so cheap. The time involved in listing and updating prices and so on just didn't seem worth it any more, it's tough to sell boxes when there are 3 or 4 well know sites on the internet that can sell them quite a bit cheaper than we can, never mind Ebay. But we still list a few card products (and if you're looking for a box to order from us and it's not listed on our site - email me if you like and I'm sure I can help you.) and who knows maybe some day we'll get back into the sports cards fully again.
Also we are trying out listing quite an assortment of fishfinders for you fisherman out there, I think we have some pretty compatible prices on those and we're going to see how they sell. We will be adding even more makes and models soon.
Well.... if there's anything else you would like to know, or if you have any suggestions for our site or if you just want to say hello, feel free to send us an email.
You can email me - Jack or send one to sales@backalleysports.com
Thanks, and I hope you enjoy our site..... Jack
