Centre City Sports Collectibles

Downtown San Diego's old-guard card store since 1989 — vintage baseball wax, Padres memorabilia and rare Pokemon inside a converted Gaslamp theater.

A block off the Gaslamp Quarter's main drag, Centre City Sports Collectibles has been selling cards from the same Sixth Avenue storefront since 1989, making it downtown San Diego's longest-running card shop by a wide margin. The building itself is part of the experience — a high-ceilinged space that once housed a movie theater, now lined floor to ceiling with cards, memorabilia, and fan gear.

Vintage is the specialty. The cases run deep into older Topps baseball, and the shop's Padres material — autographs, game memorabilia, and decades of team sets — makes it a natural stop before or after a Petco Park game, which sits about a ten-minute walk south. Alongside the sports inventory there's a legitimate non-sports section, including rare Pokemon and other collectible card lines that reward a slow browse.

The store is family owned and operated, and owner Henry is the institutional memory of the place: reviewers regularly mention his three decades of knowledge and willingness to talk through a card's history, valuation, or grading prospects with anyone who asks. This is a shop for conversation and discovery more than tournament play — there are no event tables here, just inventory accumulated over 35+ years.

Hours are steady: 11am to 6pm Monday through Saturday, with a short 10am to 2pm window on Sunday. Parking downtown is metered and competitive, so many visitors fold the shop into a Gaslamp walking day. For anyone searching out a vintage San Diego card shop with true old-hobby character — the kind where the stock isn't all fresh wax and slabs — this is the downtown anchor.