[jchcollins]

I would agree that for the few remaining storefront LCS operations, modern in the vast majority of cases is their bread and butter. For the past 2+ years, I've been lucky enough to have an LCS that did both that and vintage well, but with the onset of Covid, I went in one day probably in early June and the vintage was suddenly all gone. The owner had removed all the singles from his cases - citing I guess an increased risk if passing back and forth single cards - and is now "for the time being" (I'm guessing longer...) doing just new product and the breaks and the hobby boxes, etc. I was lucky enough to get some fantastic deals from him on vintage that I was interested in in the past, but the truth is he has more than enough customers that I would guess average in their 20's and early 30's who will come in and loiter for hours at a time, dropping cash left and right on modern and breaking it with him. Just over the last month or so I really kind of tried to plead my case - saying hey, can you look for XYZ for me? He knows what I collect, and has the stuff somewhere - but it's just not worth his time anymore. He of course promised to go hunting for me, but never has. Last week I was told "Sorry, we had 4 new releases this week." Ok. Disappointing, (especially considering the cash I have dropped with him on vintage in the past 2 years...) but I guess I get it. As for me anymore, eBay singles and buying elsewhere online for vintage is simply a ton easier. That's where I'm going to focus my efforts in the future. I'm all for supporting the local little guy, but if he's not interested anymore, then I'm not going to hound him to death forever.