Great article and topic. In my experience, few card shops have anything out worth buying and most vintage stuff is ungraded; they may have stuff "in the back" that they have on their ebay store and would show you (once you prove you are not an idiot). Let me qualify -- I collect high-end/rarer cards, so maybe I am a bit biased, but it seems to me that the advent of grading and ebay have really hurt the sticks-and-bribks shop.
As far as DC/MD/NVA -- House of Cards is great. They have been there since at least I was 10 (and I am 42); although moved locations. They are old school and very friendly. My kids love the place. And Huggins/Scott is there so you can generally see stuff in their auctions (some of the good stiff). Sports Card Heroes in Laural is decent and there is a shop in Westminster (owner John, who is a great guy), which my bro-in-law loves. DC has nothing and NOVA has a few random places, but nothing special.
I have been to the ship in Westchester County (I think its in Scarsdale). Great people but nothing of particular worth. When I was there, the people working the shop were all women and they knew their stuff -- nothing coller than a woman who can talk cards!
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