Comments on: Card Shops and Why They Suck…

By: Joey

Joey — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:42:33 +0000

I wish I had a local shop to support, but if it was run like the one you visited I would pass. We had a shop here and there in the early days of Ebay but they are all gone now. My favorite shop in town was run by a guy named Mike and he never quoted me a price out of Beckett. Yes he had plenty of cards in cases with prices on them that were priced with Beckett in mind but not as the gold standard. But everything else he would just eyeball and price because he knew the market and his customers.

He had a competitor a few blocks away that priced every single card in the shop by Beckett. Unless it was a really hot card it was 65% of Beckett. I didn’t bother with his singles but instead I plowed through his cheap wax packs.

I would support a shop that fills the gap that Ebay cannot fill and prices their cards competively. I would not even darken the door of a shop like you described in your post.

By: darkship

darkship — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:45:57 +0000

I support my local shop but this is also the guy that will do his best to compete with ebay for singles and has given me some great deals on boxes… i.e. 2008 UD Masterpieces 2 box for $140. He also has two huge displays of auto and jersey cards for $3 a pop and several shelves that state 50% off book value so he knows how to keep us coming in!

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:03:18 +0000

There are two shops in my town, one like you described that I never go to, and one which is excellent and I try to get to once a month. He knows the business in and out (was one of the good guys in Operation Bullpen) and he prices everything reasonably. For example his whole case of on card autographs (multi-sport) is priced at 50%. So I think the key is keep trying different card shops until you find a home base and then support them. I still surf Ebay and get good deals on a regular basis.

By: Cody

Cody — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:01:46 +0000

I find it hard to buy from somewhere that still heavily relies on book value. It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve cared at all about that nonsense.

Small shops are nice, but I’m a firm believer that more sales at lower prices work out better than few sales at high prices in the long run.

By: Michel

Michel — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:30:28 +0000

I think is good enough for the hobby to have sites like eBay around. eBay is the Beckett for the new era, it’s the real market. Today’s markets demand adaptability, to be flexible so in order to survive, you have to adapt or you will be disappear that’s why many hobby shops around the country are gone or migrated to on line business. Today’s collectors are grown people who actually do their research before buying some products, of course when it comes to go to your favorite hobby shop you will find some kind of extra value, friendly atmosphere, nice talking, first hand information, but business is business and nobody likes to be robbed or treated like a child. Besides that, people and some shop’s owners, must understand that Beckett is just a reference book not the constitution of the United States, sometimes you need just your feelings to realize when something is over priced or out of context and this is something neither MBA is gonna give you.