The Further Decline of Brick & Mortar...

[doug.goodman]

I travel for a living, and have been to hundreds of card stores all over the country. Very few people have been to more different card stores than me.

There have always been asshole owners, and there have always been super friendly owners. In my experience, the better stores had the nicer owners, although they sometimes had a veneer of asshole that you needed to peel away to get to the friendly guy.

The internet has of course pretty much ruined card shops, there is a shop close to me that used to be one of the top three stores in the country, with thousands of boxes of cards from all years and all sports, but they made a conscience decision near the beginning of online sales that they didn't care about the walk-in customer. Even their online customer gets to see stock images of most of their cards, so nuances are impossible to see. If you walk in and want to see a card, you have to type it into their computer, to check the inventory, and they will then go get it for you, no more looking thru boxes for that weird back variation. It was a business decision on their part, and I'm sure that it has worked out for them. But, they no longer get any of my money, not even for supplies.

I still go to stores on the road, but there are way less of them, and most of them are filled with shiny stuff, but when I find a good one, it sure is fun, and they sure are happy to see me.

Doug