In the case of a local card shop (LCS), the answers can be quite varied based on location, population and overall demographic of the community. At its core, a LCS provides an escape.

If your local shop doesn’t have booster packs or you’d prefer to buy singles to build a deck, a lot of popular online card sellers are carrying Disney Lorcana cards.

In this new series, I intend to explore the heartbeat of the hobby: local card shops. The sports card market is valued at over $20 billion, and that number is expected to skyrocket in the next decade.

More than 100 shops were considered for this award. “It is a great honor to be named one of the top local card shops in the country,” Seth Cannon, General Manager of CARDIACS said.