What are the odds that a shop sells no graded cards or has no online presence can succeed?
RonBurgundy
Posts: 5,491 ✭✭✭
Does anyone seriously think that a card shop that does neither of these things can survive today?
Ron Burgundy
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
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Card shop near here sells cards and singles, but sells tons of CCGs, comics, and supplies. Key today is diversity.
<< <i>Key today is diversity. >>
Some would call that trying to be a "jack of all trades". I'd rather go to a card show where BASEBALL CARDS (or at least sports cards) are the main attraction and its focus, not just some sideshow in the corner while the Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon command front and center stage.
D's: 50P,49S,45D+S,43D,41S,40D,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 241,435,610,654 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings
A startup with today's real estate/lease prices and a long growth curve (based on passers-by and the yellow pages or other "old", non-internet marketing) seems destined for a tough road.
Bosox1976
I just last year help liquidate a friend's card shop, and he managed to keep afloat like this:
1) Started with 1000sf shop on the back side of his town's main street.
2) After 1994 baseball strike moved into LARGER location, split the space (and business) with a partner who opened a smoothie shop.
3) Relocated card shop to back of new location with only about 250sf. The shop was situated in such a way that you had to pass the card shop if you parked in the back lot and were going to the smoothie shop.
4) As cards were slow to recover from the baseball strike, branched out into Pokemon, Magic, etc cards and also sold candy (bulk Jelly Bellys mostly) and even got some corporate accounts.
5) Basically did OK until about three years ago when the Atkins Diet crazed slowed smoothie sales and then Xmas 2005 was really bad for the card shop, so he decided to pull the plug on the whole operation.
He never sold online and never did shows and managed to make a go of it all those years and was probably one of the last of the local shops to close.
<< <i>
<< <i>Key today is diversity. >>
Some would call that trying to be a "jack of all trades". I'd rather go to a card show where BASEBALL CARDS (or at least sports cards) are the main attraction and its focus, not just some sideshow in the corner while the Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon command front and center stage.
Unfortunately in today's market there's no way to stay afloat without catering to both crowds.
Take it easy,
Jared
Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes,
Hypnotized by you if I should linger,
Staring at the ring around your finger" - Sting
Ray Thiel (1964-2007) - the man who showed me more wonderful games & gaming sessions than I ever dreamed possible... you ran out of hit points too young, my friend.
Conversely, two of the other shops in town are going downhill partly because they spend so much time maintaining their online business on Beckett marketplace. One guy even makes you go online to buy anything in his shop, as he is just waiting for his lease to expire to go totally online.
Ron
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
The second guy strikes me as lazy, in a business sense, and I'll bet he's not a "people person". My guess is he has a lot in common with Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons...