New Card shop opened in in Connecticut
72skywalker
Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭
It is nice to see a new card shop just opened up in Connecticut. The Sandlot is the name of the store. I have yet to go in but hope to this afternoon. That makes three brick and mortar shops within a few miles of each other. We have Ideal Cards in Canton, Ken's Cards in Berlin and now this one in Southington. Hopefully these shops start making a comeback.
Collecting Yankees and vintage Star Wars
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Comments
Hope it does well good to see brick and mortar is alive and well
I also hope it is a success. My "lcs" is a 2 hour drive. When I was a kid we had 12 shops just in my immediate vicinity. Of course that was 25 years ago...
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
In the heyday of the late 80's /early 90's I can remember about 9 stores all with in a few miles. They are all gone of course.
It must be hard to compete with shows, Ebay, other auction sites, dealer web sites, etc. All of those have less overhead.
The funny thing is in CT there is a show pretty much every weekend. And since it is such a small state they are all very close by. I wonder if the owner of the shop is a dealer at the show. I know one of the other stores is a dealer at the shows as well.
I miss the days of card shops in malls. Even some small trucker mini malls would have a card shop. I don't know of any today.
IT CAN'T BE A TRUE PLAYOFF UNLESS THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ARE INCLUDED
I went to the new shop today at lunch and the owner was very nice. It was a very nice shop. He had a some vintage and newer stuff and newly released products. We talked for about 1/2 hour and I will go back to pick up more stuff. Today I bought a 1970 Reggie Jackson card I needed for my 1970 set and a 1980 Burger King Reggie Jackson card. Like I said the owner was pleasant and very nice to talk to.
It's not as hard as some think. If you are willing to work hard. You must be able to use social media.
Brick & Mortars are generally not worth the time imho. Every location I have been in since I started collecting again a few years back tends to be the same. The cards on display are mid-grade(at best) cards with mint pricing. Any higher grade stuff that comes to the store lands on their eBay account. It just seems to me that many of these locations are just looking to sell off their junk to offset the cost of their store so that they can stay open so that they can be available to take advantage of unknowing people that come in to sell their cards. Even if you find a mid-grade card you are interested in good luck on getting the store owners to budge on pricing. It's this kind of mentality that has stopped people from going into the store as eBay offers better pricing as well as an inventory that no brick and mortar store can ever wish to compete against.
On top of that, it always seems that the owners of these stores have some quirky personality issues. I have been in stores where the owners/staff are great but they are far and few between. One of my most recent store visit I expressed an interest in buying a $200 priced 1986 fleer basketball sticker set. I asked to look at it so that I could see the condition. As I was looking at it the owner disappears and the other guy starting helping me. All the sudden he gets a call. Then he comes up to me and says "the boss no longer wants to sell this". Apparently the guy went downstairs and looked online and found that he could get more on eBay for it so mid transaction he cancels it. I would say this was strange... but these kinds of things seem common in the Brick & Morter locations.
Good luck to them let use know if you end up going in. I will take a trip and check it out when I have time,
Also, after I bought the Reggie Jackson card we started to talk more and we are both Yankee and Star Wars fans. we geeked out about the new Star Wars movies for a bit and as I was leaving he tells me to hold on and gives me a signed Babe Ruth photo signed by Babe Ruth's granddaughter. He told me he had her in the shop when he opened signing autos. It is a really cool piece. I know it is not worth much but it is a great conversation piece. I thought that he was very nice to just give it to me. I will visit him often since he is 1/2 mile from my house and 3 miles from my work. It will be a lunch time stop in to visit kind of place.
The best store in CT was Aaron's in Bethal! I used to drive the hour and a half from Vernon once or twice a month. I wonder if he is still there? He had loads and loads of 70's of all 4 sports! How many shops could you walk into and that had Larry Robinson rookies displayed?
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
You also have Matts Sports Cards in Enfield, CT. Just about 15-20 min. north of Hartford.
MY GOLD TYPE SET https://pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/complete-type-sets/gold-type-set-12-piece-circulation-strikes-1839-1933/publishedset/321940
Right now Ideal Cards in Canton is my favorite. The owner is nice, fair prices and a great selection. He also has JSA come in once in a while to authenticate.