2021 Prediction - Rise of the LCSs
Nathaniel1960
Posts: 2,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
It’s a perfect storm for resurrection of the local card store model. Booming card market, depressed retail real estate market, cheap money for construction, demand for in-person interactions, etc. I for one welcome our new LCS overlords.
Kiss me once, shame on you.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
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Atleast near me, the issue hasn't been lack of LCSs, more so the quality of them. There's a number of them around my area and none of them are worth going to. It's a mix of all low quality items, or high end items that are priced 50% higher than sold listings, grumpy impersonal owners, dirty/unorganized stores, selling ungraded cards for PSA 10 prices, etc. I could go on but you get the picture. From my personal experience, a lot of LCSs hurt themselves more than the market.
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
There was a poll thread on this.
I welcome them back any time
I just don't see why anyone would open a card shop, unless he could do it out of his home.
My dad's uncle once owned a grocery store and lived above the store.
The expenses of operating would force you price items too high in order to make a profit. Even if you had lots of inventory, why open a shop when you can sell on ebay or send your items to a consignor?
put a pretty lengthy post about what the "new" card shops are these days. and they are nothing like what's in your head or how they used to be.
Close to zero chance. Card stores can’t get/keep wax in stock and who goes to a card store? I can buy anything I want 5 minutes after finishing this post. Would take me 30 mins to drive to the nearest store to find that have nothing I’m interested in.
Sucks, but its over for the local card store.
I’m somewhere in the middle on this post. There’s a card shop that opened near me and I expect him to do well, for the reasons the OP mentioned. He doesn’t sell a lot of graded, with virtually no graded vintage, but he has plenty of wax and singles for the modern collector. Of the vintage he does have, a decent portion is overpriced, but deals can be found if you hunt a little. I picked up 41 Coke football bottle caps from the 1960’s for $30. Also found a Yaz piece for about half of what I’ve seen it listed for online. So I think there’s an opportunity for a LCS to make it in the current environment, despite the pricing and convenience hurdles that others above me have mentioned.
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
Card stores don't make money when they sell, they make money when they buy the walk-in deals.
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stupid print dots
That may be only partially true these days. I have been friends with the largest shop owner/operator in Tennessee for over 30 years. He recently told me that he finally can make a good margin on new unopened products. To your point, this was not the norm for many years.
He said he could close his current store and open a much smaller one and thrive just selling unopened and high quality singles now.
Of course, you are 100% on the walk in deals. I was in his shop Saturday and he bought quite a few items at what I thought were fair prices that he will be able to flip for a nice profit for sure.
There is a new store here in Middle Tennessee that specializes in PSA cards, has a grading service and sells a lot of retail unopened and seems to be doing well. He has a large following on Instagram and sells a lot of PSA graded cards there as well. This is similar to the model blurryface posted a few weeks ago.
No doubt this hobby has changed dramatically the past 12-24 months.
I agree, and there is a large market who won't wait days/weeks/months for their cards to sell at retail on eBay. If you want to sell a collection, it's a lot of work to itemize and list on eBay, not to mention the hassle if some of it sells. Far easier to go to a guy in your neighborhood and have him take it all.
I see less need for LCS for buyers, though of course there are those who like to examine their cards in person before they buy them.
If card store are to succeed, they need to offer more than what people can quickly and easily get online. A few ideas come to mind:
Maybe some currently do some of these things. But none of the shops I know. The last one I was in (about 2 years ago) was some old dude and his friends just hanging out and ripping the occasional modern day pack. He carried no vintage stuff. No football. Didn't even have the PSA-sized storage boxes I was looking for.
I had a LCS that did 4 of the 5 things you listed.
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
the old way that won't work:
the new, extremely smart & profitable way
(force yourself to get thru it. might open your eyes quite a bit)
nash cards, i presume? 😉
that guy is absolutely murdering it. offers cards 10% under ebay all day every day and they sell quicker than instantly.
Maybe I'm just an old foggie, but watching that video actually made me hate card collecting a bit more.
I just watched the video and I'm an old foggie too. But I have to tip my hat to the young entrepreneur. He will never have to work a frustrating 9 to 5 job for 25 years to collect a pension. Plus he is making money doing something he loves.
don't feel bad. new & unfamiliar things often envoke those feelings.
pabs and i see it from a different perspective, which is also ok.
this isn't a who's right, who's wrong situation either.
more than ok to feel how you do. nothing wrong w that.
at the very least you gotta respect the kid for setting up "shop" in a house and not wasting money on "rent". if you take the card thing out and insert anything else you weren't passionate about, the kid is very fiscally responsible regardless of a crash or not. add in doing what he loves w/ the added bonus of a "company swimming pool" feet away from his offices. 😉
Yeah, Nash Cards is the newer shop.
He pretty much has the model you posted about. Seems like a good guy and not out to scam anyone. Time will tell I guess.
Totally agree. It's just a personal 2-fer for me.
I can't stand artificial scarcity in modern cards. I think it's a ploy to prop up a market and make a quick buck on unproven players. (But I guess it's not that different from Andy Warhol doing a signed, numbered screen print with a limited run.)
I think one of the biggest benefits to collecting is keeping the history of the game alive. I never saw Mantle or Mays play, but I know their greatness in part from studying the backs of their cards all these years. While yes, this kid is a businessman and not a collector, I'd be shocked if he knew who Bernard King or James Worthy are. Maybe I'm wrong and he cares about the game beyond how much money it can make him.
Not advocating for a return to the "good ol days" but I just don't want to end up like the stock market. No one's passionate about owning a stock. They only own it because it'll make them money. I'd hate to get to the point where a kid who pulls a Zion rookie is thrilled only because it's a valuable card and not because it's his favorite player.
I think I would rather set up at a card shows.
I collect hall of fame rookie cards, https://www.instagram.com/stwainfan/
dead wrong. did you make it all the way thru the vid? it shows him at a very early age doing what he still loves...and thats ripping packs and posting about his hits. while he is a business"man" now, proof is right there showing you he's been a collector first and foremost. pretty big goofy smile on his face while doing it too.
but seems your issues are more about modern, but since you don't participate in that market, really doesnt effect you. kinda weird, imo. i'm not a fan of beanie babies, but i don't get worked up or let it bother me if someone's doing well in that market or changes how beanie babies are sold. guess i'm more of a live and let live kinda guy.
How am I dead wrong? There was nothing in that video at all to suggest he knew about or dealt in anything vintage. Just because he ripped packs 10 years ago doesn't mean he knows who Bernard King is.
I don't participate in the modern market, but it still affects us all. Rising tide. Boats. All that.
I don't worry at all if "someone's doing well." I thought I was pretty clear that what I worry about is the joy of collecting disappearing and being replaced by pure profit motive.
"While yes, this kid is a businessman and not a collector"
are you claiming he's a businesskid and not a collector at age 8?
if not, you're dead wrong, as stated.
I didn't say a single thing about what he was at age 8.
I said right now, all this video shows is he's currently a businessman.
dead wrong again. where do you think that pic posted above came from? that same vid.
at this point you just want to argue, so enjoy your lawn.
For someone who is "live and let live" you seem pretty invested in proving me dead wrong.
Just because he collected at age 8 doesn't mean he's a collector now. Not a single thing in that video shows he's CURRENTLY collecting.
you're dead right. got me.
happy valentine's day.
It's not just you, but I would say that collecting and what is shown in this video are two different things. I'm going to guess that you probably started collecting cards for the FUN of it only, value never crossing your mind (if you predate the 80s Beckett craze). Anyone who has collected for fun and avoided the business/investment side is probably turned off my this type of thing.
I started buying cards in 1978 as a kid. It was what kids did then. I became obsessed with them and continued collecting through High School. However, I joined the Navy and that kind of curbed things for me for a while. I did get back into it right before I got out of the military and have collected ever since. The difference now is that I have been able to collect on discretionary money that might have been spent doing other things. I don't sell or trade for the most part. I stopped buying packs in the late 90s, as I felt I was wasting money. I started buying exactly what I wanted online. I have been going back and forth the last 3-5 years, as my dream of passing the collection on to my boys seems to be unlikely. I don't enjoy it as much anymore and a lot of that has to do with how profit driven everything has become.
At least up until last year, I still enjoy browsing shops and shows, and often was able to find neat items I had no clue existed or were not on my radar, but seeing them created an interest. My favorite shops were those cluttered with piles of stuff that allowed me to randomly look through them and discover fun new items.
Good for that guy and his business. He probably makes more than I do per year, but I could never turn this hobby into a business. I don't have the desire to do it. I used to think it would be fun, but it literally sounds like work to constantly be in the know about prospects, many of which will never make it. I have always collected what interested me, despite the potential value. Sometimes I got lucky with value, (assuming I ever sell them) and sometimes I might be the only sucker buying a certain item. Most of the rest is squarely in the middle. Some interest/some value.