Atlantic City Weekly

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Anthony Alberici & Corey Biscieglia

Egg Harbor Township residents Corey Biscieglia and Anthony Alberici followed a dream when, last summer, they left successful real estate careers to become co-owners of Top Shelf Sports & Memorabilia in Somers Point. At a new and relatively upscale shopping center (think bookstore, Starbucks, and attractive outdoor seating), they're doing well selling wonderful but non-essential items at a time when everybody's worried about disposable income. Their secret? Part merchandise, part personal enthusiasm -- and part Corey's dad.

You're among the fortunate few able to follow a career dream.

Corey: Anthony and I were selling real estate in Ocean City, but wanted to open our own business. We were looking at different types of franchises when it hit me: Why not do what I know works? I'd been involved in sports memorabilia for a long time, selling on the Internet. We both loved sports, and this area lacked a store like this. We didn't want to be as commercialized as a mega-store or the mall, though. People actually care when you walk through the door here.

Anthony: We're both community-oriented, and, doing this, we get to donate a lot of our time. We do a lot with the United Way, and with partnering. The weekend of April 3, Greg Luzinski from the Phillies' 1980 World Series team will do a signing here, and we've partnered with Gilda's Club, which will receive part of the profits. Also, we both have kids and know what families go through with Little League, football leagues, and so forth. So we've offered local teams the opportunity to set up refreshment stands for customers at the Luzinski event. This gives others a chance to benefit, too.

You started a business in rough economic times.

C: Yet we were busy from day one, and didn't have a slow week until late last month. When the Phillies won the World Series that carried us all the way into Christmas. In January, people still were buying Phillies stuff, and the Eagles were playing well. Now things are picking up again -- it's getting warmer, and closer to baseball's starting season, and the Flyers may be headed to the playoffs.

A: Customers don't identify as much with the NCAA product-wise, but they like to come in, watch it on our TVs, talk with us and other customers about the tournament. We're like a bar without alcohol.

What are your hottest items?

A: In apparel, it's mostly jerseys. We started personalizing apparel last month, and that's already very popular. Then we have the memorabilia -- jerseys, baseballs, footballs, what have you, signed by players.

C: Plus, a very good group of repeat customers come in every week to purchase trading cards.

What led you to choose this venue?

A: Of course, many places were cheaper, but we wanted traffic. Hundreds of people go by every hour. At first we thought our customers would be men between 18 and 60, but it turns out that women are a huge part of our customer base. Working with all these business aspects, Corey's dad has been our foundation -- his background, his brains, his business sense, put this all together. This business is all three of us, really.

C: My dad helped from the business plan forward. We learn a lot from him, all the time. ... As Warren Buffett says, when you wake up in the morning and you're not excited, it's time to find a new job. For 10 years in real estate, I couldn't say I was happy every morning, but this job, I absolutely love it.