Banach Family Has Created A Sports Mecca At Matt’s Dugout

Banach Family Has Created A Sports Mecca At Matt’s Dugout

by Mike May

If you’re interested in sports trading cards and collectibles, you’ll be delighted to know that Wellington has a family-run business that serves as a local go-to source to buy, trade, swap and sell those items. It’s called Matt’s Dugout, and it’s owned and operated by the Banach family — husband John (53), wife Katie (52) and son Matthew (26). Katie’s nephew, Dylan McKercher, 28, also works at the store.

Matt’s Dugout has been in existence for two and a half years. Located in the Kobosko’s Crossing shopping plaza in eastern Wellington, the store is filled with thousands of trading cards, as well as jerseys of prominent athletes and a plethora of autographed footballs, baseballs and basketballs. The store is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The store is closed on Mondays.

At Matt’s Dugout, the walls are adorned with large picture frames featuring the jerseys of well-known athletes, such as Tyrese Maxey of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, Stephen Curry of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, Tom Brady of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots, Luka Dončić of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers, Tua Tagovailoa of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and Bryce Harper of baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies. Some of the other premium items for sale include a football signed by quarterback Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, a football signed by Super Bowl-winning quarterback Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers and a basketball autographed by ex-NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets. The most expensive card for sale is of the late, great NBA superstar Kobe Bryant for $7,500.

As you continue to peruse what’s on display, you’ll notice other cards and collectibles from an array of other sports, such as ice hockey, soccer, car racing, wrestling and more. There are also non-sports memorabilia affiliated with Pokémon, Star Wars and Marvel.

While Matt’s Dugout stocks and sells a wide variety of sports memorabilia, the sports cards and collectibles are the heart and soul of the business, as shown in the store’s logo, which features a football flanked by a basketball on the left and a baseball on the right.

“More than 95 percent of our business is selling sports cards,” John said. “Baseball card sales represent the most volume, while football cards generate the most in sales.”

The family’s joint interest and passion for sports is what motivated them to start their business, making the Banach family’s avocation their vocation.

For more than 25 years, John worked in the food business as a chef for Sodexo, and Katie worked in sales for D’Artagnan Foods, a high-end meat company. They met while both were attending the Culinary Institute of America in the mid-1990s.

For the majority of their careers, they lived and worked in central New Jersey. But in 2018, their careers brought them to South Florida. They first lived in Plantation, when John was an executive chef for Sodexo at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and Katie continued in her sales role with D’Artagnan.

The idea of starting a sports collectibles business began when Matthew was working at a similar business in Broward County in 2018. In 2019, he professed his interest in starting his own sports card, collectibles and memorabilia business. That declaration started the family thinking about it, and in October 2022, the dream became a reality — and they chose to base it in Wellington.

“I loved the tree lines along Forest Hill Blvd.,” Katie said. “It reminded me of Beverly Hills, California.”

Just like the key to the success of a restaurant is “location, location, location,” that same theory applies to the success of Matt’s Dugout.

“I attribute much of the store’s success to our proximity to the Olympia subdivision,” Katie said. “We are so close to Olympia that many children can ride their bikes here and hang out during the day. And in our shopping plaza, there are two family-run businesses — Basilico’s Pizza and Kobosko’s Kreamery — which helps attract families, which is also good for our business.”

Clearly, starting a collectibles business is quite a professional transition from working in the food business.

Over the years, John and Matthew’s ongoing fascination with sports never wavered. Now, Katie also has the sports bug, but she’s not as consumed by sports as her husband and son.

“John and Matthew love sports and love watching sports,” Katie said. “They live and breathe every single sport.”

Not surprisingly, there are two big-screen TVs inside Matt’s Dugout, which are always showing some game being played somewhere.

The family is so committed to sports that their cat, Jimmy, is named after former Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

“Having grown up in central New Jersey, we’re all big fans of Philadelphia pro teams — the Eagles, the 76ers, the Phillies and the Flyers,” added John, who said that his favorite pro athletes who played in Philadelphia are Randall Cunningham (Eagles), Jimmy Rollins (Phillies), Allen Iverson (76ers) and Simon Gagné (Flyers).

As for their day-to-day roles, John and Matt oversee inventory, pricing and dealing with daily customers, while Katie oversees purchasing and handling invoices. Dylan is in charge of all the card grading.

To attract customers, many events are held at the store throughout the year. One of those special events is called “trade day.” It’s held four times a year. Six tables are placed inside the store. Each is surrounded by a number of chairs, where customers gather to review the latest cards from Topps, Upper Deck and Panini.

On “trade day,” customers will also bring in their own collection of cards, which they may swap, trade or buy from one another.

“A trade day experience lasts four or five hours,” Katie explained. “We provide pizza from Basilico’s and drinks for our customers.”

Other special occasions include trivia night and rip night. To excel on trivia night, it helps to have an extensive knowledge of sports. On a rip night, customers arrive and then literally rip open new packages of sports cards to see what’s inside. To add some sizzle and excitement to a rip night earlier this year, two members of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, who were in Palm Beach County for spring training, were on hand to pose for pictures and sign autographs.

Meanwhile, during the recent March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament, Matt’s Dugout encouraged customers to complete their own brackets and then offered prizes to the participants who correctly picked the most winning teams.

To stay in touch with its ever-expanding customer base, Matt’s Dugout utilizes social media and electronic forms of communication.

“We utilize Facebook, Twitter [now X], Instagram, e-mail, text messages and pop-up displays on our web site to promote and publicize what’s happening in the store,” Katie said.

According to John, business has been good since the store opened in 2022.

For those older customers who remember getting a piece of bubble gum inside their packets of sports cards years ago, that tradition has been discontinued, but not at Matt’s Dugout.

“Every day, we offer free Big League Chew bubble gum to our customers,” John noted.

Matt’s Dugout is located at 9180 Forest Hill Blvd. in Kobosko’s Crossing. To learn more, call (561) 235-0860 or visit www.mattsdugout.com.

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