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COMMUNITY BUSINESS
Business is booming for Northborough-based National Card Investors
By Melanie Petrucci Senior Community Reporter
NORTHBOROUGH – Jeffrey Weisenberg of Northborough has a passion for baseball trading cards.
He has been in the business since 1978 since he was just 10 years old. Now, with over 40 years of experience, Weisenberg isn’t slowing down.
“I love what I do,” he remarked.
Having traded cards for years, Weisenberg formed his company, National Card Investors, in September of 1995.
Six years later, he became a high school computer science teacher at Doherty Memorial High School, his Worcester alma mater.
“I’m a full-time high school teacher and a full-time baseball
Jeffrey Weisenberg of National Card Investors.
card dealer,” he said.
Luckily, though, Weisenberg loves both these jobs.
“They don’t feel like work,” he said.
According to Weisenberg, the card and memorabilia market is massive, counting as a multi-million dollar, if not a billion-dollar industry. Right now, specifically, business is booming.
“It’s a bull market,” he said.
Through his company, Weisenberg buys and sells sports memorabilia and collections from modern-day all the way back to the 1800s. That makes National Card Investors one of the biggest buyers of sports memorabilia in the country.
Weisenberg purchases inventory with the intention to resell, whether on eBay, his website or on online auctions.
In person, Weisenberg participates in the annual Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club Show held at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, Mass. A trade show, this year’s event is scheduled for November 5 - 7, 2021.
Weisenberg says he has the capability to even buy milliondollar collections, dealing in cards, memorabilia, autographs and more. While his focus is on sports, he does “dabble in comics, coins, stamps and non-sport cards.”
“I have experts that I’ve known most of my life who are experts in those fields that take care of those items for me,” he noted. “I’m the sports memorabilia guy and it doesn’t have to be baseball, basketball, football or hockey. It could be golf, tennis, boxing, wrestling, Olympics – anything sports related.”
When asked what cards are hot right now, Weisenberg had a quick response.
“The modern guys,” he said. “Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Ja Morant, Mike Trout, all the big-name modern players are really hot.”
However, Weisenberg still concentrates on material focused more on the 1980s, 1970s and earlier.
Weisenberg explained that because the market for cards and memorabilia is so good, now is the time to clean out the attic.
He is available for appraisals - free of charge, and he will offer his expert advice to help customers sell their items.
“It’s a great time for you to buy, and it’s a great time for you to sell,” he said. “If you’ve got your collection sitting in your attic, give me a call, and I’m happy to see what it’s worth.”
For more information, visit the National Card Investor website https://nationalcardinvestors.com. Weisenberg can be reached by phone: (508) 8422324 or email: jeff@nationalcardinvestors.com.
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MGB | from page 1
Expansion effort part of larger MGB plan
In addition to this Westborough facility, MGB has two other outpatient centers in the works for Woburn and Salem, NH. It’s also looking to expand an existing clinic in Westwood.
The proposal is currently in the “determination of need” process, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
As a result, Westborough town government is not involved at this juncture. If the project gets the green light from the state, though, MGB would submit a site plan to the Planning Board, which would then initiate a more typical permitting process, according to Town Manager Kristi Williams.
Clinic proposal earns support
The proposed outpatient center would offer surgery, pri-
PHOTO/DAKOTA ANTELMAN
Marlborough Hospital stands a short drive away from a proposed Mass General Brigham clinic in Westborough. mary care, behavioral health, orthopedics, neurology, diagnostic imaging and other specialty care.
According to Mass General Brigham Director of Communications Bridget Perry, these services would fill a vacancy, as the MGB system currently treats roughly 42,000 patients living within a 20-minute radius of this possible new clinic.
“Today, most of our patients travel to Boston, or NewtonWellesley, to receive care in our hospitals,” she wrote in a statement to the Community Advocate March 31. “The proposed Westborough facility will provide more accessible and affordable care for our existing patients who live in MetroWest, including primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care.” Multiple individual selectmen agree with Perry’s assessment.
At a recent meeting, Selectman Shelby Marshall noted that, in her work with elderly people, she’s witnessed how difficult it can be for some patients to coordinate travel to Boston for care.
“It would be a huge enhancement to the residents and those in surrounding communities,” she said of the clinic proposal.
She added that the project could boost the economy by locating in a parcel that has been vacant for some time.
“I see all positives,” Marshall said.
Others joined in the praise.
“It’s definitely a win-win for patients and the town as well,” noted Selectman Ian Johnson at the Board’s last meeting.
MGB | 13
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REGION – Mass General Brigham wants to build a new outpatient care clinic in Westborough. But executives at Marlborough Hospital and its parent organization, UMass Memorial Health Care, are sounding the alarm.
As both companies delve into a high-stakes discussion on health care accessibility, they do so from vastly different positions in the state medical industry.
Mass General Brigham, for one, does dwarf UMass Memorial on a number of metrics.
MGB is both the single largest health care organization and the largest employer across all industries in the state. Operating over a dozen hospitals, among other ventures, MGB operates an array of urgent care clinics, community health centers and an insurance plan.
UMass Memorial organizes itself around its three main hospitals spread across seven campuses. It has affiliations for urgent care services with the company CareWell and provides outpatient operations through the Surgery Center in Shrewsbury. Handling recent economic struggles, though, it had to sell off its stake in a management and consulting specialty pharmacy company.
Regardless, as MGB sprawled, weathering rainy days that hit UMass hard, its business remained clustered primarily around Boston and Eastern Mass.
That left UMass Memorial, headquartered in Worcester, as a preeminent hospital destination in Central Mass., with facilities in downtown Worcester, Marlborough, Clinton, Fitchburg and Leominster.
This new effort has UMass Memorial concerned as MGB makes a foray into the region.
Westborough community rallies against anti-Asian hate
Protest | from page 1 as nurses at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester.
Each living outside of Westborough, the three came to town as the Chinese American Association’s initial Facebook event post quickly expanded its reach online over just three days.
“I wanted to raise awareness of all the hate that’s going on for Asians,” Truong said. “I must start somewhere. So, starting locally, I’m hoping that more people will be aware of what’s going on.”
Anti-Asian hate is no new issue, activists note.
The topic has jumped to the forefront of public conscience in recent weeks, though, after a series of individual attacks on Asian-Americans followed a mass shooting in Atlanta that killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent.
That, in turn, followed a documented national surge in acts of hate against Asians since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Though Truong said she hasn’t seen overt discrimination or hate in her workplace or immediate social life, Ping said she and other members of a local running group she frequents have heard racist taunts shouted from passing cars, recently.
There have been lewd gestures.
Ping said she’s heard a number of hateful coronavirus-related jokes shouted in her direction.
“This opened eyes,” Truong said of all of this. “But there’s been hate all along. It didn’t start overnight.”
“This is not just one incident,” Ping agreed. “It’s continuously going on.”
Outside of Westborough, protesters recently gathered in large numbers in Boston and other major cities across the country. Organizers also massed separate events in neighboring communities like Hopkinton and Southborough,
Having seen these outpourings of support and energy, the next step, Troung says, is to maintain activist momentum.
“This is where we start,” she said. “This is where we become united and get support from our families and friends.”
TURNING
Selectmen support plans for MGB medical facility
MGB | from page 12
A bonus beyond access to care, Johnson suggested that this project presents an opportunity for the local economy as physicians, nurses and hospital staff may take high-paying jobs and reside in town.
Selectmen have unanimously agreed to send a letter of support for the proposal.
As Westborough supports clinic, Marlborough raises concerns
Not everyone is pleased with this effort, however.
UMass Memorial Health Care has filed paperwork opposing the plan. It argues there is not a need for a new clinic and notes that Marlborough Hospital, which it administers, sits six miles from this possible development. That facility, executives say, already provides care to a broad region that includes Westborough and its surrounding communities.
Ultimately, executives are worried a Westborough hospital would pull private insurance clients away from Marlborough, leaving behind the set of “public payers” who sometimes might lack the means to commute to Westborough.
Without private insurance to offset disproportionately low Medicare and Medicaid payouts, Marlborough Hospital fears its budget could falter, forcing rate hikes or service cuts.
“Allowing this expansion will fundamentally and irreparably change the health care landscape in the area” UMass Vice President of Community and Governmental Affairs James Leary told City Councilors at a Health Services Committee meeting March 29.
Next steps to follow
Supporting its hospital, the City of Marlborough recently sent a resolution to the state calling for an independent cost analysis to be done to show whether this MGB facility would keep healthcare costs affordable.
Perry has said MGB remains committed to a continued working relationship with Marlborough, which already houses an MGB data center on Forrest Street.
“We look forward to working with the Marlborough community and others to provide our existing patients with more accessible and affordable care,” Perry said.
Comments can be submitted to the Department of Public Health, Determination of Need Program, by email to DPH. DON@MassMail.State.MA.US (preferred) or in writing Attn: DoN Support, 67 Forest Street, Marlborough, MA 01752.
The deadline is 5 p.m. on April 16. Written comments may be posted on the DPH website and released in response to a request for public records.
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