Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman
The other thing I cannot understand is the unprofessional, short-sighted attitude. It just blows my mind how parochial the thinking can be. There is a local shop I go to for supplies and occasionally for cards [usually just a pack rip]. I and a couple of other guys are running a local card show in May [you've seen our banners here...I hope]. We are trying to revive face to face collecting, looking at starting a card collectors club for locals, and generally trying to revitalize the hobby as a personal and social thing. We are offering card shops cooperative advertising: carry our flyers for the show and we will put out your flyers for the store at our show. No costs involved, just an effort to build community. I explain all of that to the shop owner and he says no to the offer. Nevermind that the collecting base has declined markedly over the last 20 years and that part of it may be the loss of personal relationship-based hobby events, and that we are looking to get people involved locally and off their computers.
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Adam,
I totally understand what you are saying here regarding the short-sighted attitude. In the past (pre-internet days) it may have made some sense for a store owner to view themselves as "the only game in town", but these days their "town" has grown quite a bit larger, essentially world-wide. People don't even have to LOOK in the B&M store anymore, let alone wonder/worry if they will even find what they are looking for.
This is very similar to the idea of "trading areas", either at shows or at B&M stores (another thread I just
started). Something oddly enough, which stores that deal in Magic and other gaming cards promote (or at least, don't prohibit) with seemingly large success during their gaming nights.