Bases Loaded History
Bases Loaded was established back in 1989 at the Farmers Market shopping center at the corner of Tulare and Divisadero in Fresno, California by 2 high school brothers. Marc and Chris with support of their family, started Bases Loaded as an after school job.
Marc and Chris along with the help of their parents Mike and Barbara, also started promoting sports card and collectibles shows as M&C Cards. The first show was a fund raiser for their new Sunday School building at the church they grew up in, they raised $1200 for the Sunday School. They promoted shows for the next 3 years.
After 2 years, the business grew so much that Bases Loaded needed to move to a larger location. It moved to the Foodmaxx shopping center at Shaw and Feland in Fresno, CA.
Bases Loaded was there for a wonderful 25 years until it was time to once again move to a new location. They found their current home at the corner of Marks and Shaw in the Outback Steakhouse shopping center and has supported both Marc’s family and Chris’s family for the last 25 years.
In 2020, right before COVID struck Marc and Chris had decided to close Bases Loaded and even started a going out of business sale. This was devastating to Marc’s son, Thomas, who had always dreamed of taking over the family business. After more discussion and prayer, Chris decided it was time to retire and move on to the next chapter of his life, and Marc decided to keep the business going with a new business partner…Thomas.
Marc and Thomas signed a new 3 year lease and 2 days later COVID struck and Bases Loaded had to close for 2 months. Since then Bases Loaded has flourished getting new arrivals in several times a week.
Bases Loaded is happy to be one of the longest running collectible stores in the central valley.