The Old Brick and Mortar Card Store

[wolf441]

No card shops near me in Mass (as far as I know). But there's an antique/consignment shop in Buzzard's Bay, MA and I'm amazed at how optimistic people are on prices. Nothing vintage, but cards from the mid '80's listed for ridiculously high prices that have been sitting in there for literally years. I can't imagine what the monthly fee must be for a table ($5? $10?) as nothing ever sells.

[frankbmd]

Visited 2 shops on my recent road trip.

Both owners were willing to chat.

Both stayed in business with large framed modern display pieces for affluent mother's and dad's to buy for their kid's bedroom walls. The cards were not their bread and butter.

One guy had a few 50 Bowman FB cards in G/VG condition. I asked him to give me a price on 4 together. He went in the back room to look at the price guide , came back with a $900 figure (NM), but said he would let me have them for $180. The lot included Graham, Groza and two other minor stars. I passed, but he was very close to what I would pay. When I got home, I still had some money in my pocket. Maybe I should have had 4 cards as well.

The other guy says occasionally he gets old stuff in. He said he will email me when that happens. When I said prewar only, he said which war.

[bigwinnerx]

Here in Northern VA, we have the modern equivalent of a card store in Blowout Cards' retail operation. No or very little amount of singles of any kind, tons of wax, and supplies. (Disclosure: I'll buy a box of Heritage, not going to lie.)

That said, at least we also get the Dulles show a few times a year, so, definitely not complaining. Already have my supply shopping list ready to go for April 5-7.

I've looked at prewar at Dulles before and haven't bought, but, maybe will keep my eyes open for some deals this year.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Two shops near me that have each been in business nearly 30 years: Sports Collectibles of Houston and Houston Sports Connection.

Sports Collectibles of Houston has some nice 50's and '60s stuff, but no pre-war. They cater to the set builder. They have boxes and boxes of commons from the '50s on up.

Houston Sports Connection is the same, but he does have some pre-war. However, he doesn't display it in the cases, he keeps it put up. You have to ask to see it and I get the feeling that he just really doesn't want to sell it. He'll pull it out when I'm there to show me any new acquisitions, but I think he really wants to keep it for himself although he might part with something if the price were right. He doesn't need the money - there are plenty of other things in the store from which he generates revenue.

[Oil Can Dan]

Originally Posted by bigwinnerx

Here in Northern VA, we have the modern equivalent of a card store in Blowout Cards' retail operation. No or very little amount of singles of any kind, tons of wax, and supplies. (Disclosure: I'll buy a box of Heritage, not going to lie.)

That said, at least we also get the Dulles show a few times a year, so, definitely not complaining. Already have my supply shopping list ready to go for April 5-7.

I've looked at prewar at Dulles before and haven't bought, but, maybe will keep my eyes open for some deals this year.

Have you ever been to AJ's in Vienna, VA? I worked in that shop when I was 12 years old back in 1983, and my understanding is that it's still there today. I moved from the area in 2004 and haven't been back, but would love to know what became of it. I'm quite sure the owner, Jim, is long gone as he was in his 50's back then and smoke like a carton of cigarettes a day.

[t206blogcom]

Originally Posted by Oil Can Dan

Have you ever been to AJ's in Vienna, VA?

I've heard about AJ's, but could never seem to locate it. Where exactly in Vienna is it?

[bigwinnerx]

Funny, never heard of AJs and thought "It's Vienna how hard could it be to find it?"

So I loaded up Google Maps and placed my little guy in the 3D mode and sure enough, couldn't find it. Until I started zooming around the view a bit. Took someone's note of "a small little store" and sure enough, found it.

Picture should leave enough area awareness.

[Wite3]

When I sold my 1993 Chevy Cavalier in 2008 (after 200,000 miles), I cleaned out the glove box...it literally had 100s of ripped out yellow book pages. Wherever I visited, I would tear out the baseball card store page, make calls, and visit. Found some great stuff.

Still do it sometimes. In Vegas about six months ago and went to a store about 4 miles off the strip going west on Maryland I think that had some decent vintage and was willing to work on price. Picked up a psa2 t206 crawford batting pose, a '33 goudey, a bunch of early bowman for a decent price. He had a huge zeenut collection that he purchased when pawn stars turned it down. Not sure how much longer the store will be there because he was trying to expand and compete with Blowout Cards and Dave and Adam's to become the west coast dealer in wax. Risky.

Going to be in Colorado in a month and looking forward to ripping out a couple pages from my hotel room's yellow pages!

Joshua

[steve B]

There's one fairly close to me in Tewksbury Mass.

At first glance it's not much of a card store, they have lots of stuff like pennants, posters, all kinds of souvenir stuff. And a decent selection of modern cards. They also do some vintage, mostly postwar Redsox. They sometimes have prewar. They have at least one buyer for T206s whenever I'm there they show me the ones they have for him. Priced a bit high, but not crazy.

They also sell pokemon and that sort of stuff, as well as a few kid favorite gag items. I got my nephew a pair of "crazy eye" glasses (Kid size glasses with bloodshot eyeballs mounted on slinkys if you've never sen them)

They also do a lot of internet selling, and were ahead of many places doing that. When Curtis Martin went to the Jets they packed up the whole inventory of his cards and sold them onlline to a dealer in NY in under 24 hrs. They got rid of what would become dead inventory and the NY guy had a nice selection well ahead of the other shops around him. A win for everyone.

Steve B

[Shoele$$]

There's nothing of quality here in Vegas either. I did have a good experience back in Ohio where I came from though. It was around 1997-1998 when I stumbled upon a small brick and mortar on the south side of Youngstown. He's the one who actually got me into vintage. He used to always have a bunch of T206's and E cards available amongst a buffet of the new "shiny stuff". I remember buying a good amount off of him for great prices back then. He also was the first one to turn me on to Ebay back in 1998. He told me that used to sell some of his stock on this auction website called "Ebay".....I quickly went home to discover a whole new world of online vintage cards, lol.

About three years later I sent all the vintage that I had bought off of him to PSA to be graded.....then flipped em on Ebay for a nice profit when vintage cards took off in the very early 2000's. I've been hooked ever since

[ullmandds]

I used to make a habit out of checking for bb card stores when I'd visit a new city...back in 92-93' while visiting cleveland Ohio interviewing for dental college...I found a store...maybe on euclid ave that had tons of vintage. I ended up buying a nice red hindu t206 and 2 e97 b/w's...ahhhhh...those were the days...even though I overpaid for them all!!!!!!

[peterose4hof]

When I used to have a brick and mortar store, I would keep a few T206s and 33 Goudeys prominently displayed in a display case. I priced them really high on purpose with no real intention on selling them. They were great conversation pieces.

[bigtrain]

Have a local guy who has a case in one of the antique co-ops in town. Same deal. He puts out a couple of T206 commons in fair condition for $100 bucks each. They are not really for sale. What a tease.

[mattsey9]

Originally Posted by bigtrain

Have a local guy who has a case in one of the antique co-ops in town. Same deal. He puts out a couple of T206 commons in fair condition for $100 bucks each. They are not really for sale. What a tease.

There's an antique store here in town that has a fake T206 Wagner, appropriately labelled, with a $50.00 price tag on it. I saw it, and didn't even bother to look at what else he had figuring it was similarly overpriced.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by bigtrain

Have a local guy who has a case in one of the antique co-ops in town. Same deal. He puts out a couple of T206 commons in fair condition for $100 bucks each. They are not really for sale. What a tease.

Tom, is this one of the antique shops in Somerville?

Judson, I think I know the store you were talking about. The changed names for like a month or two before closing the door. I was only in once before they shut down, but was actually really impressed with the inventory.

Dj

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Shoele$$

There's nothing of quality here in Vegas either.

A couple of years ago I went to a shop about a mile off the strip in what appeared to be the Chinatown area of LV; they had some decent stuff. I ended up with a Joe Louis item I'd been looking for.