Ben's Card World — Local services in Pensacola

Unfortunately, I strongly recommend avoiding this place if you are a sports card or non-TCG collector. Especially if you are new! I have realized that Ben’s card world is taking advantage of its customers in a few different ways. First; Ben’s Card World has a demographic monopoly on sports trading cards in the Florida panhandle. You either shop at your nearest convenience store for wax and hope you find the shelves stocked, you drive an hour to Alabama, you purchase online with a few days' shipping, or you pay their prices. Their prices stand as high as 80% higher than comp value; and about 40-60% higher on average across all sports and non TCG. Consider it a markup for their services. Second; if you want to sell to Ben’s card world, you should expect a minimum 25-30% fee for their services at bottom comp value. That comp value is based on their system… not eBay, Card Ladder, or market movers. So do not go in with your own number… it’s most likely wrong. Third and last point; if you want to purchase their singles, expect to keep them raw. Their staff inspects their ‘grade-worthy’ cards and submits them to PSA to resell later. Granted, card grading is perspective-based, and “you can never know what you’re gonna get”… sure… but, it is difficult to purchase their raw cards knowing they hand pick their nicer cards for themselves to grade, then throw out their less desirable, or more damaged cards on the shelves for collectors to purchase at their self determined price. Now with these points being made, a business is a business. They have to make money the best way they can, and trust me, I do not doubt that they make their share. Customer service is everything. Ben’s Card World, in most cases, refuses to negotiate their prices on wax products. Even if you negotiate with Ben, the owner, I will refer to using another customer's words... "Ben is generally very abrasive" -Facebook (Santos Jan 17-2025). Anyways, the collectible world is a volatile and ever-changing market. Customers should not feel guilty or wrong to request price matching on products sold in-store. Even if they politely say ‘No, we can’t or won’t price match that product’ it is difficult to purchase their wax selections knowing you could get the same box for sometimes $100s less elsewhere. Their trade offers are slightly sub-average as they still take their services into account and any singles trades for wax will still be done at their listed prices or at least very near to that. They are flexible on their single prices… but as I said before, these are not Gem Mint 10 cards on the shelves they are ‘discounting’. These cards, although sometimes minuscule to the naked eye, are damaged or in some other way less desirable to collectors in any condition other than raw because they hand-pick cards to grade on their own. I would not purchase wax, purchase singles, or trade good-conditioned cards at Ben’s Card World, and I don’t anymore myself. If you are going to do anything, I would trade the cards you know will remain in raw condition for another card that will remain in raw condition… or find one that’s already graded if they have it… I cannot speak on behalf of their TCG collection. So all you Pokémon, magic, and even one-piece collectors, if you enjoy this store please don’t let me discourage you. Just keep in mind that there are multiple TCG competitors in the Pensacola area that likely force Ben’s card world to at least remain competitive with their prices in that market. For those of you sports card collectors, be smart. If you are worried, look online yourself, don’t take my word for it. I’m sure this post will be flagged for this and taken down… but I would recommend just making the drive over to Big Hits Sports Card at the Spanish Fort in Alabama. Thank you for taking the time to read this if you did, I apologize to Ben’s card world for feeling obligated to share my experience, and I wish the best to all you collectors! -This Google post is fragmented due to character limits for reviews full review...

I'm an older customer who recently got involved with Pokemon card collecting because of an interest I started in 2016 with the Pokemon game online.

I have five grown kids and 9 grandchildren. Several of my grandchildren right now are into Pokemon and it's something we can do together. We each have our own Pokemon albums. We share cards and we watch for cards for each other if we go to the store separately, but we often go together. I learned all about Pokemon from the game online, but their knowledge comes from TV shows and starting a collection when they were quite young.

I wanted to give you some background because I think this place is really special. They've got the shop divided between sports cards and Pokemon. When you come in there are hundreds of Pokemon cards you can touch and search through that are quite affordable, many as low as 50 cents. The cards are in displays that are on low tables to the ground so that children are easily able to look through them. There are interesting tabletop displays in the same area with the more expensive cards locked behind glass. Again, the kids can easily see these cards.

Their selection is very good. I often buy special Pokemon cards at Ben's that I have found to be much more expensive online.

The shop is family - friendly, the employees are knowledgeable and very nice. There is 80's and 90s music playing on the radio all the time.

They are open 7 days a week. They are located near Cordova Mall. There is parking not far from the building in the same plaza where Target is located. I mention it because it's not like a big mall parking lot where you have to walk a long way to get inside. The traffic has always been light.

The location makes it nice for family members who aren't into trading cards to go shopping while other members of the family visit Ben's.

Oh, also, Ben's buys merchandise from the public consistently so there's frequently fresh cards for sale.

I'm 63 years old and disabled. I don't think I'm the average customer, but you certainly can't tell. I'm quite comfortable visiting there and always greeted as I come into the store.

I like it a lot and wanted to let other people know that it's a good place to...

TERRIBLE SERVICE! Came today 12/9/24. Was looking to sell. Was greeted with a friendly face at the front (owner I believe). And went south after that. I brought in cards to sell. I had all my comps and was looking to do actual business with a local card shop instead of eBay. And I get a $500 lowball in response. The lady that helped was rude, straight faced, and when I would try to have a conversation about cards she seems disinterested. I brought in 11 cards, one of them sold eBay for $250 raw a week ago. And I told her that, which I got no response of course.

I also had a case of cards that I brought in and had opened up. I turned around to look at some of the items in the shop. And I turned back around to her 5 fingers deep in my box that I had not even mentioned I wanted to sell anything out of. THIS IS TERRIBLE SERVICE AND NOT OK!

Sadly there is more. Once she was done trying to steal my cards off me, I told her I had other items in my car. Including some stuff from NASA, that was signed. She proceeded to act uninterested in what else I had to say. And truthfully I think they missed out on a pretty cool and rare item. They wouldn’t know that since she didn’t ask me what it was I had.

This is why, whatsapp, eBay, Facebook, and individuals who sell cards is so much easier. You might deal with people in those things too. But at least it’s not somebody being rude and lowballing to my face. I will obviously not be returning to sell or buy. And will be informing everybody I know in the card seen in Milton and Pace area to do the...