Local Card Shop Report
jbox
Posts: 408 ✭✭
It has been a couple of decades since I've been in a card shop. I live in a rural area and the nearest metropolitan area is about an hour away. My oldest son, 13, found a shop he wanted to visit and has been begging me to go. We finally made the trip yesterday along with my other son, age 10, and my mother. My mom used to take me and my buddy to shops/shows all the time so she looked forward to reliving those times.
We had a good day in terms of spending time together around a common interest, but the shop experience sucked! I really do not see how this place does enough business to cover overhead.
First, the guy behind the counter was the typical grumpy, tired, 50-something, beaten down dude. He was obviously annoyed by my kids asking him if he had any "player xyz". My son loves a lot of players from the 80's. Every time he asked about someone from that era they guy would say, "No, he played in the 80's/90's. All those cards were overproduced junk so we don't stock any of it". They mainly had modern shiny stuff with a small amount of vintage which brings me to my biggest pet peeve. Please do not put a sticker with "Book" price next to the "Our Price" sticker which is 1/2 off book and expect me to think that's some big deal. Listing your '69 Nolan Ryan "Book $200", "Our price $125" would be great if the card wasn't miscut along with 3 surface creases and some unknown stain. My son is no dummy, so on a few cards early along he asked the guy what his best price was on a few cards. The guy says, "I spend hours putting prices on cards for a reason...that's the price". Just to be clear, my son is a quiet, polite and friendly kid who speaks to adults with nothing but respect. My son just says, "Okay, thank you." while I bite my tongue. My mom asked the guy if he had any Sammy Baugh cards. He points her over to the vintage football common box and tells her to look under "B". I mainly sat in a chair in the corner and soaked it all in. I don't think my boys realized just what a crappy place this was, they still seamed in awe of it all.
Also, I see that ridiculously over-priced autographs are still the norm. Let's see, I take a $40 autographed 8x10, put it in a frame with some fancy matte, and suddenly I'll charge $325 for it.
My youngest son got sucked in by the "grab bags". I remember doing the same thing as a kid. I pay $5 for a bag of cards that the shop owner put in a white bag and then I'm shocked when it's a bunch of crap. I didn't ruin his fun. He sat at the bin and held every bag before he chose a couple to buy. He couldn't believe his bad luck when he opened a bunch of commons.
Lastly, I found the pack prices of modern stuff silly. All packs/boxes were roughly twice the price they can be had for on ebay. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the guy charging enough to make a profit, and I'm happy to pay a bit more at the local shop, but I can't stomach paying $120 for a box I can buy all day for $65 online. We bought a few packs and moved on.
I am certain that there are some great shops out there with friendly operators, good product, and fair prices. However, this wasn't it. It had all the gimmicks and over-priced crap I remember seeing as a kid. Even with that, we had a good time. I'll keep looking for a shop where we can go and have a better experience. I know they are out there!
JBox
We had a good day in terms of spending time together around a common interest, but the shop experience sucked! I really do not see how this place does enough business to cover overhead.
First, the guy behind the counter was the typical grumpy, tired, 50-something, beaten down dude. He was obviously annoyed by my kids asking him if he had any "player xyz". My son loves a lot of players from the 80's. Every time he asked about someone from that era they guy would say, "No, he played in the 80's/90's. All those cards were overproduced junk so we don't stock any of it". They mainly had modern shiny stuff with a small amount of vintage which brings me to my biggest pet peeve. Please do not put a sticker with "Book" price next to the "Our Price" sticker which is 1/2 off book and expect me to think that's some big deal. Listing your '69 Nolan Ryan "Book $200", "Our price $125" would be great if the card wasn't miscut along with 3 surface creases and some unknown stain. My son is no dummy, so on a few cards early along he asked the guy what his best price was on a few cards. The guy says, "I spend hours putting prices on cards for a reason...that's the price". Just to be clear, my son is a quiet, polite and friendly kid who speaks to adults with nothing but respect. My son just says, "Okay, thank you." while I bite my tongue. My mom asked the guy if he had any Sammy Baugh cards. He points her over to the vintage football common box and tells her to look under "B". I mainly sat in a chair in the corner and soaked it all in. I don't think my boys realized just what a crappy place this was, they still seamed in awe of it all.
Also, I see that ridiculously over-priced autographs are still the norm. Let's see, I take a $40 autographed 8x10, put it in a frame with some fancy matte, and suddenly I'll charge $325 for it.
My youngest son got sucked in by the "grab bags". I remember doing the same thing as a kid. I pay $5 for a bag of cards that the shop owner put in a white bag and then I'm shocked when it's a bunch of crap. I didn't ruin his fun. He sat at the bin and held every bag before he chose a couple to buy. He couldn't believe his bad luck when he opened a bunch of commons.
Lastly, I found the pack prices of modern stuff silly. All packs/boxes were roughly twice the price they can be had for on ebay. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the guy charging enough to make a profit, and I'm happy to pay a bit more at the local shop, but I can't stomach paying $120 for a box I can buy all day for $65 online. We bought a few packs and moved on.
I am certain that there are some great shops out there with friendly operators, good product, and fair prices. However, this wasn't it. It had all the gimmicks and over-priced crap I remember seeing as a kid. Even with that, we had a good time. I'll keep looking for a shop where we can go and have a better experience. I know they are out there!
JBox
0
Comments
Not defending the guy at all, but he probably pays $500+ per month in rent, a few hundred in utilities, if you pay with a debit card, he gets hit with 1-2% plus a swipe fee, he pays taxes on all/most his sales, plus he has to sit and BE at the store whereas on ebay, you just check on it when you feel like it.
I will agree that in every card store venue I go to for the most part the stuff is overpriced, especially on overgraded raw cards, the modern stuff IS overpriced even on ebay. Most of the reasons about overhead is exactly WHY card shops no longer exist for the most part, but the main reason is that people want to get something for as little as possible, even below what it SHOULD sell for because they saw it on ebay sell for less. People can charge what they want for anything, but the market sets the price and some people will never use online as a way to get their stuff and as long as thats true, the few that are left will continue to sell the way they do. Honestly, the best thing for the hobby would be for ebay to go under.
<< <i>Be nice to my kids and I'm much more likely to overpay for a few things. I don't need a great deal, just fair. I honestly would be happy to support a local shop that adds value to the experience for me and my boys. >>
<< <i>That is why the Simpson's are dead on with their "Comic Store Guy" character. >>
HA!!!!! Good one................................
"Alright, here you go.....mutton-chop Yaz"
"Now I don't want it"
"Freakin' kids!!"
As for the store operator, it never ceases to amaze me how guys start or stay in business with such poor customer service. I could not imagine treating any of my customers that way. It's hard enough to make progress when you treat them like Kings and Queens.
1991 & 1992 Fleer Pro Visions
1952 Topps
I do intend this post to be sincere, and I tried to edit it before I posted to eliminate the possibility that someone misconstrues it as "flip"; if I failed in that venture, I apologize, as I did not intend it to be read that way.
Owning a hobby store is challenging, and you have high points and low points on a daily/weekly/monthly basis--in 24 years, I have had plenty of both.
That said, I go in every day with the goal of trying to make everyone happy, whether it be looking for commons on a list to finish a set, answer questions about why modern wax is so much more expensive than boxes were in 1992, evaluate a walk-in collection, complete a sale on some single cards, etc.
At the end of the day, the interpersonal element is the biggest asset a hobby store owner has over Internet sales in the sports card and memorabilia business, and if you ignore that as a store owner, you won't do well. I don't try to be the cheapest (compete with both wax dealers who wholesale to the public and people who sell on eBay as a hobby), because it wouldn't work for me if I did; I try to stock a diverse inventory (from new cards to old cards, autographs to publications, supplies--I've even dabbled in sports art, comic books, and Lionel trains on occasion), offer fair prices (if a vintage card is off-condition, I do mark it down!), and provide quality customer service.
I don't always succeed--sometimes I'm just not on my game that day, some people care about nothing but price (as mtcards discussed), some people you can't make happy no matter what you do--, but I do my best, and anything beyond that is out of my control.
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)
I agree with pretty much everything said on it, which is rare. I too, have found that when I go to card shops, that when the seller is informative and/or entertaining, it makes it easier to purchase items. Plus, getting a card instantly has some satisfaction as opposed to the waiting for the postman game. Although, I dont consider my store a card store, I do have a card display in it (just for info, my sales were about 150k, of which about 1k were cards). I spend time talking with the kids and even the adults, while trying to give them some of the knowledge I have attained. I have people that come in and buy wax packs (obtained from BBCE usually) a lot of the time and because I am not really in it for the money from cards, have actually turned some of the locals into BBCE customers because it's about them being in the hobby, which even if I dont sell them the packs, they come in to the store for supplies and with that 1984 Donruss Pack Smiling at them, they usually buy one of those too.
I have even thought of setting up at a show again, something I havent done in almost 15 years. I think I enjoy the hobby more now than when the hobby was at its height.
As an x-store owner, I think a baseball card shop can be one of the most fun experiences of our lives, and that was the goal of our store!
Our family store started with 4 brand new beautiful 6ft display cases & 600 sq. ft. After 6 months we had to move to a 1300 sq. ft store and had 14 matching display cases.
The key to our success, besides be super friendly & having a great selection of vintage inventory, was a variety of events:
#1 For every $5 spent, a customer would receive a raffle ticket good for give-a-ways at a once a month auction.
#2 The once a month auction / back in the late 80's & early 90's, if a person wanted to sell cards, too often their only recourse was to take them to a dealer & get 30% to 50%. At our auction, it was a better way for them to sell items & get 50% to 80%. As a buyer, you would like to buy in the auction, since 50%-80% was a deal. It was a win-win situation for all involved.
Now we would charge 10% commission, and a normal auction would generate $2000 in sales or $200 for the store. The $200 would go to the raffle give-a-way, not in cash but usually a Mantle card, or everybodies favorite, one wax pack of every wax product we had & we always carried late 70's basketball, early 80' football (80,83,86), huge selection of baseball plus all the new stuff at the time.
#3 On auction day, we always had specials going on, took an extra 10% off singles and made sure we were freshly stocked. Also, customers buying from the auction had 7 days to pay for their items. This means that for the following week after a auction, sales were always up a little. Auction day itself was always the biggest day for sales every month, by quite a bit.
#4 We would always pick a few really nice vintage items that we were not into for much, to put in the auction also. Not so much to make a big profit, but to make sure there were at least a few really nice items. Sometimes they sold really high & sometimes not, but that was fine.
On auction day, we always had between 40 and 70 customers, bidders, other shop owners, etc.... That was more than could fit into the store.
I can not tell you how many other store owners tried to copy our auction, but not knowing exactly how our auctions worked, they would cancel the bidding right in the middle of the auction because their items were not going high enough. Our regular customers would go & come back & tell us about how crazy the owners would get, actually yelling at their customers right during the auctions!
In our last store, we had our monthly Magic tournaments & made sure the prizes were a little more than what the entry fees would cover.
There was always coffee & donuts being served in the morning, big TV with games on, places to sit with women magazines. That was my wife's idea from experience, when I would drag her into a store she always wished there was a place to sit and something to read.
I could go on & on, but you get the idea, there is just so much a store owner can do so and unfortuntely, there are too many like this guy!
<< <i>There was always coffee & donuts being served in the morning, big TV with games on, places to sit with women magazines. That was my wife's idea from experience, when I would drag her into a store she always wished there was a place to sit and something to read. >>
That is a FABULOUS idea! I took my girlfriend to one baseball card show. She was bored out of her mind, and never went back. She has also never set foot in the local card shop in her town.
Since I got back into the hobby seriously again early this year I have been to 3 shops. Not that anyone really cares, but I will give my personal rundown of them.
SportsDome - Kenosha, WI - This is my home shop where I buy 90% of my modern wax. The price is always spot on and I have gained some good friends in the hobby hanging out here. The only downfall they have is they don't carry many commons so you can't really finish a set by buying from them, but the upside is they have a lot of loyal customers that are great guys that you can trade with. It doesn't hurt that I have also pulled 5 Major hits for me from this place. (2 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Young Guns, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins SPX Auto Patch, 2012 A & G Rickey Henderson Rip Card, 2011/12 SPA Sign of the 5 Times Orr, Hull, Beliveau, Kelly, Delvecchio Auto).
Jim and Steve's Sports Cards - Waukegan, IL - This is the definition of the mega shop. Tons of new wax and tons of older wax as well. Absolutely great guys to deal with as well. What sets this place apart is the millions upon millions of single cards they have. If you need to finish a set whether it be 72/73 Topps Hockey or 2011/12 Score Hockey, they will have 90-100% of what you need, priced very fair as well.
Tim's Baseball Card Shop - Chicago, IL - Tim was very friendly and I really wanted to spend more money at his shop, it just so happened the day I went he really didn't have anything that jumped out to me. I will for sure go back though and give it a second shot because of the way he treated me. Customer service is top notch.
Red flag!!!