Card Shops And/Or Shows In Raleigh NC Area

jfkheat

I am currently working in Raleigh NC and would like to know if there are any good card shops or shows in the area. I'll be here for the next several weeks.
Thank you, James

Bliggity

James - welcome to Raleigh! Unfortunately the only store in Raleigh "proper" closed a few weeks ago (Big D's Sports Cards). There's a store a couple minutes away in Cary called Cardiacs, http://www.thecardiacs.com/. The biggest positive with them is that they carry a pretty good selection of all sports, even golf, soccer, etc., and nonsports cards. Lots of new boxes and star singles, and a lot of unopened junk-era boxes. They also have a decent amount of supplies. The bad: the prices are really high. While I'm willing to pay a little higher to an actual local store, I rarely buy boxes from them because the markup is so big. They do have one display case of vintage cards including some T206, Goudey, and then 50s-70s vintage, but again, the prices are ridiculous. He charges near full book value regardless of condition. I tried to buy a G/VG '34 Goudey from him a couple weeks ago that could be had for $35 all day online, and the lowest he would go was about $125 or so. It's too bad, because if he charged reasonable prices, he'd be able to move some product.

There's a small place called E&E Baseball Card shop about 20 minutes north of town on US 1. He does mostly Magic cards and stuff like that, but does have some sports. The hobby has kind of passed him, and I don't think he has a real sense of modern selling/collecting. I don't shop there because he has some early-mid 80s boxes that he sells "unopened" packs out of, and they've all clearly been opened and searched - like, some packs only have 4 or 5 cards in them, and he sells them as NIB unopened. Got mad at me when I called him on it.

We do have a pretty decent show every couple months at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh put on by http://insidepitchpromotions.com/. The next one is June 20-21. Very good selection of 50s-70s vintage. Sometimes there's a lot of prewar also, but it varies.

Hope that helps, have fun!

jfkheat

Thank you for the information. I'll try to check out Cardiacs while I'm here. If nothing else, I can get some supplies. I think I'll still be here the end on June so I may be able to make it to the show. I have a good friend that owns a shop in Greenville. I plan to make it over there a time or two while I'm here.
James