About Us

Dean and Marilyn Bapes

Dean and Marilyn have been collectors since they were kids. Born and raised on the South Side, the White Sox were their favorite baseball team. Some of their Sports Heroes are Aparicio, Fox, Landis, Minoso, Mantle, Maris, and football greats like Unitas. They started doing card shows out of their garage, then set up at card shows. They opened their first store in 1991 in Aurora moving to Naperville in 1996. They expanded in 2002 by adding the 4U2Room to accomodate meetings signings, parties, and gaming tournaments. "The Dugout is committed to make your collecting experience a positve, fun time."

Michael Paniak

Michael joined the Dugout team in 2008 but is far from being a "rookie" when it comes to a collector. Starting over 30 years ago, Michael's hobby started thanks to his cousin David. He began doing card shows at a Holiday Inn and Brother Rice School selling a vintage card collection for $12,000. He has been a member of eBay since 1998 and is recognized as a Power Seller. With his computer skills and technical knowledge he helped re-design our first website and introduced a fun program called Diamonds in the Dugout.