I posted the following at the Non sport site but it mostly relates to my baseball tobacco cards. Thanks and if you are as honest as I am then this should not offend you in any way. If not, such is life!
I would love to hear from some tobacco card dealers about their experiences as well.
Steve
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National Dealers: How do you protect against Theft?
July 30 2010 at 9:20 PM
No score for this post Steve Sabow (Login Steve_NY)
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I've done 27 of the National shows and have noticed a large jump in people stealing things in the past few years as the economy went sour. Last year, I also only accepted checks from people who left the merchandise with me for future delivery--they paid the shipping and insurance. This years it's cash - or -checks with merchandise held -- no exceptions. Truthfully, most customers are fine with that.
This year, I have talked with my partner Mitch and we are also instituting a new policy: We will only help one customer each at a time. If we have merchandise from the showcase out for one customer, we will not help another customer until the finish of the current transaction. We will also not be handing large stacks of cards to anyone throughout the show. We will be limiting the number of cards that we remove from our showcases to 20 cards each in a stack that we provide to customers to review. We will be making sure that we get all 20 cards back.
My big beef is not with the non sports dealers or customers, my main beef is with some of the sports card dealers themselves (and some of their customers). In particular, the Tobacco card entusiasts. Without going into too much detail, they are very good at palming cards that they move to the top or bottom of the stack. I also know who they are -- so I'll be on alert for them. But there are many more from where they come from.
Anyone have any better ideas? How do you protect against theft from your booth at a large show such as the National?
Steve
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