ot - card store

[SmokyBurgess]

Video killed the radio star....

...and the internet killed the local card shops.

[slipk1068]

My favorite card store in the late 80's was the Baseball Card Collectors Exchange in Hicksville NY. I would stop in when I got my paycheck every Friday to make payments on a card I had on layaway and talk cards with the owner Bob. He closed the shop many years ago and moved to Arizona. Sad day for me when he closed his shop. I heard from a fellow member he passed a few years back. He was a good guy and taught me a lot about the hobby.

His shop had awesome material. A couple years before I started visiting his shop, he sold the Mastro Wagner. Not to hijack this thread, but the Mastro/Gretzky Wagner was never on an uncut sheet according to Bob. It came from a flea market in Florida. Bob's father called him on the phone to tell him he found a box of colorful cards with players like Cy Young and Ty Cobb. Bob told his dad, "I have no idea what you have, but buy it, bring it home, and we will figure it out". Well it was a box of T206 and I believe some T205 and it contained the most famous card in the world-- the Mastro Wagner.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by slipk1068

My favorite card store in the late 80's was the Baseball Card Collectors Exchange in Hicksville NY. I would stop in when I got my paycheck every Friday to make payments on a card I had on layaway and talk cards with the owner Bob. He closed the shop many years ago and moved to Arizona. Sad day for me when he closed his shop. I heard from a fellow member he passed a few years back. He was a good guy and taught me a lot about the hobby.

His shop had awesome material. A couple years before I started visiting his shop, he sold the Mastro Wagner. Not to hijack this thread, but the Mastro/Gretzky Wagner was never on an uncut sheet according to Bob. It came from a flea market in Florida. Bob's father called him on the phone to tell him he found a box of colorful cards with players like Cy Young and Ty Cobb. Bob told his dad, "I have no idea what you have, but buy it, bring it home, and we will figure it out". Well it was a box of T206 and I believe some T205 and it contained the most famous card in the world-- the Mastro Wagner.

I would love to talk to the guy who sold Mastro that card.

[Butch7999]

Not sure that grumpy / unhelpful / paranoid / outright hostile shop owners haven't done more than the internet
to hurt the brick-&-mortar card-shop business...

[thescooper]

I went into my local card shop only last week, I asked the owner if he bought collections. He said depends what it is, I said I would buy his non sports from him if he had anyone's collections. He snapped at me no-one is interested in that anymore.
I asked to see a Mickey Mantle card he had on display,he asked if I was goig to buy it, I asked if it is a reprint, dunno was his reply. I had it in my hand, turned it over REPRINT right across the back.
He asked if I collected baseball cards,
I said the only baseball I collect is from 1909,
1999 was his reply,
no 1909 I said,
you must mean 1990 he said, I walked out,
he was rude and very unhelpful.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

I would love to talk to the guy who sold Mastro that card.

Bob Sevchuk owned the shop and he may have been deflecting attention at that point since Mastro has admitted the card was cut.

Bob used to turn up amazing stuff all the time but was in the middle of a couple of controversial things such as the Gretzky Wagner and the stolen HOF WS programs. I used to go there all he time in the 80's and it was the first card shop I went to when I re-entered in 1981. At that time he shared the shop with Marty Perry, who occasionally still pops up.

[steve B]

I've been collecting long enough to have caught the beginning of brick and mortar shops, and the boom and the several washouts that happen periodically.

And having lived near Boston and in between there and NY I've also been able to be a bit spoiled by the number of shops.

The good ones were plentiful, even early. Halls Nostalgia was my local shop, maybe a mile from the house, and close enough to walk to from school. Plus my first job was practically next door. I hung out there a lot, and learned a lot. There were a couple good shows a year, and a few other shops that were good. Some I got to some I didn't. Arlington at one time had three or four shops that sold cards.

And of course during the late 80's- early 90's boom, there were lots of shops. My drive home from work had 5 shops plus 4 big retail chains.

Only one shop is left as brick and mortar. And two of the big chains.

The shop that survived did it by using the internet and carrying other stuff. Much of it sports related but not all. They're also very good at moving dead inventory at the right time. Like when Curtis Martin left for the Jets they sold their entire stock of his cards to a dealer in northern NJ almost before the ink was dry on the contract using one of the early dealer to dealer websites. Win for both, they got a decent price for what just became unsaleable cards, and the NJ guy had a complete inventory before any of his competition.

They also use Ebay well. And while they don't carry every product they're great about ordering stuff.

And they're pretty nice.

The shop mostly has newer stuff, but they do sometimes have vintage cards they've picked up for someone. Usually those aren't on display.

Of the shops I used to go to, when things were booming about half were owned by people with hardly any hobby experience, and at least one with no hobby or retail experience. All they knew was cards were worth money and were the hot collectible. And Beckett was pretty much all they knew. Some were nice people, some less so. The clueless places were visited once every couple months just to see what they had stumbled across or what they were willing to sell cheap to raise money for the latest "must have " new product. Not bad if they came across a card from a set not listed in Beckett. They either assumed it was horribly rare and wanted an insane price. Like $50 for a Burger king Phillies set. Or if Beckett didn't list it it must be junk. a couple 49 Leaf in VG for .25 each.

Not many adventures like that left since the rise of Ebay.

Steve B

[slipk1068]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Bob Sevchuk owned the shop and he may have been deflecting attention at that point since Mastro has admitted the card was cut.

Bob used to turn up amazing stuff all the time but was in the middle of a couple of controversial things such as the Gretzky Wagner and the stolen HOF WS programs. I used to go there all he time in the 80's and it was the first card ship I went to when I re-entered in 1981. At that time he shared the shop with Marty Perry, who occasionally still pops up.

Bob never deflected attention from that card in the time I was going there 1988-until he retired and moved. He was proud of it, would show me pictures, and talk about it frequently. I didn't know he was involved in stolen WS programs, but I am not surprised. Stuff used to walk in his door all the time, and he would buy it. I guess you are likely to occasionally inadvertently purchase something stolen when you make a lot of purchases like that.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by SmokyBurgess

Video killed the radio star....

...and the internet killed the local card shops.

Funny, but I was having this same conversation with a dealer friend of mine today. He doesn't have a shop, but he does eBay, shows, etc. I think the idea of internet/eBay killing card shops is a bunch of garbage. If that is the case, why do some shops thrive when others fail (in the same city/town)? It's because the ones that survive keep evolving to keep up with the times. The ones that are stuck back in the '90s with Gregg Jefferies, Jerome Walton and Todd Van Popple RCs in their showcase are doomed for failure regardless of eBay/internet.

There are two shops here in Houston that I've been buying from since I was a kid - Sports Collectibles of Houston and Houston Sports Connection. There are other successful shops as well, but I mention these two because they have been around for nearly 30 years. How do they find a way to survive when other shops fail? Simple, because they change with the times. They don’t rely solely on in-store sales. They do eBay, they promote show/signings, they have events in their stores to draw customers. Heck, Houston Sports Connection is having PSA/DNA in his shop this week (usually flies them in twice a year) just to authenticate for his customers at a discounted rate. How many other shops offer a service like that for their customers? That’s why he survives and others fail – nothing to do with eBay/internet.

I'm not saying internet/eBay hasn't hurt shops. Sure it has. Then again, can't that be said about a lot of businesses? All I am saying is that the majority of shops that fail is due to a management issue, not an eBay/internet issue.