First let me say that my comments are not at all against David, and that I agree with some of what he says.
Maybe it's because I spent way too much time hanging out at a dealers, and did some work for a dealer in another hobby, but I'm often surprised by how little many collectors know about how the cards get to them.
For a very long time, dealers could buy the individual cards wholesale. Probably still can for a lot of cards. So if you were willing to spend a lot on a certain card it could be had for very little. Especially if you pre-ordered before the cards arrived. A small order was 20 vending cases, 240,000 cards. Or for a late 80's early 90's set roughly 300 of each. Big wholesalers bought much more, probably hundreds of cases. Even older cards could be ordered by the hundred from a few people who had been around a long time. So for most cards there was no reason a business would pay more than wholesale, no matter what the book value was. Especially if they already had a hundred or so put aside.
And the book value is usually unrealistic. Usually wildly unrealistic. Having tried to sell at flea markets, shows, and Ebay, getting book value just doesn't happen. Maybe on certain "hot" cards, but everything else will sit in inventory for a long time. Unlike regular retail where the concern is how quickly the inventory turns over, hobby retail is more about if it will ever sell. Last time I was at the stamp shop I did some work for I found a couple stamps that I'd priced.
In 1985! And all that has to generate enough to keep the lights lit and feed the shopkeeper. It's not an easy job, and that's part of why so many places eventually closed.
One guy I used to go to turned inventory pretty quickly- or so it seemed. He just rotated his display case cards roughly monthly. When I expresed some disappointment that a card I'd considered had sold, he got it out of a drawer under the case. Nearly all of the same cards were there again a year later.
And a year after that he was closed.
The internet has been a great equalizer, and it's really let everyone see just how much of some stuff is out there. Which has killed values as it should have.
We all get down on dealers for the lowball offers, but without them we'd have less to buy. Often a dealer is the only one A) willing to buy an entire collection AND B) Able to buy an entire collection. I'd love to buy collections and deal the duplicates, but I just don't have the money to tie up for that long.
Steve B
Quote:
Originally Posted by novakjr
I agree. I think it's a damn good thing. As a kid, there was nothing worse than finding a card you wanted at the local shop, then deciding which cards from your collection that you wanted to trade in towards it, only to find that he offers you $6 in trade for a mint card that booked at $40, and then the next time you go in, he's selling it for $35.
Experiences like that, are the kind of thing that drove people away from the industry. Now I think I know why I stopped collecting when I was 13, and then started again 6 years ago when I started buying off the net.
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