How do you prefer to shop for cards?
 

Although I've done tons of shows in my life, this year I'll be doing my first National (never even attended one as mentioned in a previous post). At normal shows I sell a huge mix of stuff but I intend to sell mostly (90+%) raw vintage at the National.

I'm having some difficulty deciding how I want to organize my cards for sale. Of course higher end will go in showcases. I intend to have a box for HOF/superstars organized by player. The rest of the cards are posing a problem, though.

Which do you think is the best way to organize the lower-to-mid end cards?

A) Separate boxes by price (.50, $1, $2, $3, $5), with cards in those boxes in no particular order because people like to dig and bargain hunt

B) Separate boxes by price (.50, $1, $2, $3, $5), with cards in those boxes sorted by year, because set builders will want to fill holes in their sets

C) All prices mixed in, sorted by year, with price determined by colored sticker on the back, because set builders will want to fill holes in their sets

D) Other (please specify in comments)

Thanks in advance for all your comments/suggestions/feedback!

Lately I seem to prefer shopping via wifi

I prefer to shop for cards in attics, abandoned houses, antique shops, and flea markets.


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The answer to your question is probably what do you anticipate more of - set collectors or people browsing? I can't answer that but usually if I would bargain hunt in $1-$5 boxes, I'd purely be looking for good value.

I haven't done that in years but I think you run a better chance of finding people doing what I used to do rather than finding set collectors and actually having what they need.

Thanks - I think this is the issue I'm having. To be quite honest I am sharing a booth three ways and will not have a ton of bulk as I'm sure other dealers have so I'm not sure that I'll get many people browsing to fill set needs when they could probably go to someone else who could fill ALL of their set needs. But again, this is all guessing on my part since I've never been to a National!

In other words ...

:D

In addition, I think it depends on the type of material you have. If it is nicer condition, then you'll probably want them to be a bit more organized. If it's mid-lower grade condition, then you'll be catering to the bargain hunters, and they enjoy a good hunt, providing there are bargains to be found. (Personally, I fall under both categories, LOL).

Similarly, if it's 50s-70s Topps (for example), there will be a lot of seller competition there so you'll need to provide additional incentive to buyers (better organization, better prices, or something). If it's older or odd-ball stuff, then you'll need to draw attention to that somehow.

Yep, I agree with that. It's a fine line since people looking for specific things may be put off by having to sort through several boxes for only the chance to find them.

Thanks for the feedback Taylor (I was actually going to message you directly about this as you're one of the few people on the board who has seen me set up at a show!)

Most of the stuff is 50s-70s and that's what I've figured - there will be so much competition that my selling point isn't that I have cards, it's that I have cheap cards. Most of my stuff is low-mid grade and I price it to move, so I think I'll have a lot of bargain hunters as opposed to set collectors. Because of this, my initial thinking was to have boxes separated by price in order to allow someone to say something like "hey, let's see what I can get for a buck a card", but seems like the overwhelming response here has been that the preference for bargain hunting would be to have all prices mixed in with price stickers on the back.

It'll be a trade off no matter what method you use. Some 'categorization' is probably good to attract the casual 'digger'. For example, you might have a '50s bin, '60s bin, etc if you are going to have mixed pricing.

Or like you suggested, $5 bin, $2 bin, etc. Going that route, you might want to 'color code' your cards/holders as well with those colored dots. Makes it easier on your eyes and brain by Saturday. ;)

The only thing I would recommend is keep the sports separate. That is probably one thing that might annoy many collectors who enjoy the hunt for bargains.

I have 95% baseball, so most likely all other sports will have their own box with prices mixed in as I wouldn't have enough to justify separate boxes.

I do like the idea of some categorization of some kind which is why I thought about having boxes based on price, but not sorted by year. I hadn't thought about separating by decade...

I used to run some fast food joints and the sales sucked most of the times. I will never forget what a wise person once told me. He said all you have to do is lower the price and someone will buy it. :)

And as I was speaking with a friend this morning, concerning buying and selling, he said the same thing, you just have to find your niche. I say you should do what you enjoy doing because then you will do it better.