The Further Decline of Brick & Mortar...

[Leon]

Nice post and thread John. I took the liberty of moving it to the forum front page so more folks could see it. We have one decent card shop within an hour of where I live but even he has limited vintage. I haven't been there in probably a half a year or more. The internet, for all it's good and bad, casts a wide net.

[jimm]

Pet peeve of mine (and most everyone I imagine) is walking into a store looking around for several minutes, all the while the shop worker (or owner) has their head buried in a cell phone, no look up, no nod hello, nothing. Good gosh what a way to greet the public!!

[Rich Klein]

the one nearest us does not have much in vintage but he is a decent enough person and there is another store Nick's at Campbell and Coit who usually has a nice selection of older singles (usually a tad off condition) at ebay competitive prices. He even occassionally has some pre-war as well

Rich

[queencitysportscards]

I can tell you that the "old card shop" has since faded, however, there are many of us (me included) who miss the days of working around the house & neighborhood to earn extra money to get cash to go to the local card shop and purchase packs or singles. I miss those days like many of us do. So...I am proud to announce that I am opening my own card shop / auction house in mid-April. We will be located in a historic village of Glendale, OH and our name is Queen City Sports Cards (Cincinnati is called the Queen City). We have an old fashioned approach and will even have free coffee on us to talk shop.

Times have changed and we will be current with the times with monthly auctions, but we will still have that old fashioned feel and experience. I hope Leon is OK with with me posting this (not a free plug as I want to advertise here and we have discussed this), but it has been a lifetime endeavor to put all of this together. Plus, I have a 4 year old son and he will be able to grow into the hobby with dear old dad...I can't think of a better experience than that...

We are going to have some fun on Tuesday as we will be hosting Chris Heisey of the Cincinnati Reds with more current and former players to visit in the near future.

I hope I get to work / deal with many of you on the board (and thank you to those I have...you know who you are).

I look forward to providing a great experience and you will never get any "gruff" from me if you stop by.

Thanks for all of the knowledge and participation on this forum...I enjoy reading through the post every day.

Happy Collecting!

[Ease]

Good luck with your store Hank!

[Orioles1954]

Has there ever been a primarily vintage card shop?

[mintacular]

Yes, 90% of store owners will overcharge for vintage. I find that the only way to get a good price is to cherry-pick commons and pay "book price" which in some cases is ok. I did recently pay decent coin for a '57 ungraded that would have been very hard to buy online....But most run of the mill off-centered stars/rc's are way overpriced....Also, sometimes Beckett is wrong in the other direction, i.e. underpriced. Would gladly pay for '57 Lucky Penny cards at their prices. Anyway, the card I bought for $100, would not have bought the same card online:

[Tanman7baseball]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

Has there ever been a primarily vintage card shop?

I remember a primarily vintage shop near Orange County, CA back about 10 years ago. It closed down (don't remember when) but it only carried extremely high-end cards and memorabilia. Literally I can only remember things being in the thousands... Since I was only 12 years old I obviously couldn't afford anything. I'm assuming it closed down because it just turned into a museum instead of a card shop. Sadly, I feel most shops are like this.

I have been thinking about our hobby a lot lately. I am in my early 20s and rarely do I find a vintage collector that is my age. Now this makes me think...what is the average age for a vintage baseball card collector? 45-55 years old or so?

I collect cards, because I love baseball. I have yet to sell anything I own, but I know there will come a time when I will. My question is, what is going to happen to the card market when the average 45-55 year old "kicks the bucket"? Will card prices plunge? I know about 2 other people who enjoy collecting vintage baseball cards that are my age. I am finishing up college here at Oklahoma State University and have talked to hundreds of people about the baseball card world. No interest. The last 6 months I have tried to help a man start up a local card shop. Within that 6 month span I did not meet one person my age who collected baseball cards (modern or vintage).

My ultimate question is who will I sell to in 40 or 50 years?

[varsitycollectibles]

Originally Posted by Leon

Nice post and thread John. I took the liberty of moving it to the forum front page so more folks could see it. We have one decent card shop within an hour of where I live but even he has limited vintage. I haven't been there in probably a half a year or more. The internet, for all it's good and bad, casts a wide net.

If you don't mind me asking, is Nick's your shop of choice in the Dallas area?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by varsitycollectibles

If you don't mind me asking, is Nick's your shop of choice in the Dallas area?

Yes,That is the only one I am familiar with since the JW's? over in Addison closed (or does something different now)....I think Rich knows of another small one in Frisco that he used to do a little work at. But Nick's is the only one I know of now.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Leon

Nice post and thread John. I took the liberty of moving it to the forum front page so more folks could see it. We have one decent card shop within an hour of where I live but even he has limited vintage. I haven't been there in probably a half a year or more. The internet, for all it's good and bad, casts a wide net.

+++1. It used to be that if you were seeking a really rare item, you might have to attend all the nationals plus tons of regionals to find the card, and even so, the task might take years of effort. Now, no matter how rare, it will eventually appear either on ebay or through one of the auction houses (which have grown so tremendously in the past decade plus) if you simply have the patience to wait.

Best to all,

Larry

[K-Nole]

Count me in as one of those that stopped in the 90's. 93 to be exact.
I returned in 2011, so I am just getting back in.
So what I am doing with my son, who is the reason I am back in the hobby, is putting sets together along with filling the 1994-2010 void of complete sets.

I live in Topeka, Ks.
We have 2 card stores, with one of those being one of the aforementioned, gamers store too.
The owners of both stores are extremely nice. However, neither has much vintage stuff, so i just buy my supplies from them. But again, both very kind.
What I have found, and you might check your local one, is that actually, the best place for vintage cards is actually, "Vintage Stock" here in Topeka.
They have a HUGE selection of 58 Baseball, a lot of other 50's stuff. HUNDREDS of 60's stuff and again 70's.
and all are priced at, or right around what you would pay on EBAY/Net.
So you might check that if you have one near you.

Another story thou. I vacation in Tampa, Fl. once a year. There is a store off of Indian Rocks Blvd and Walshingham Rd. I visited/found him this last vacation. He had a LOT of great vintage stuff. He was average on his kindness, not rude, but not overly pleasant either, just normal.
His prices were about $4-$5 over what EBAY/Net are, but I went ahead and paid it just to keep an old time dealer going. I felt it was my duty to over pay a bit just to keep a good old dealer happy. I got a nice 71 Carew, and a really good 61 & 65 Killebrew, all 3 for around $30 if i remember right.
So if you are around Tampa, Fl. go by and check him out.

[BruceinGa]

Originally Posted by K-Nole

So if you are around Tampa, Fl. go by and check him out.

We were in Tampa about a year ago and I tried to find a card shop. I used our gps and it lead us to a dead end.
I'll look a little harder next time, thanks.

[K-Nole]

Just put those roads in the GPS for that intersection, but put it in for Largo, Florida (NOT Key Largo, but just plain ole Largo, Fl.).

It is in a strip mall right behind a "Beef-O-Brady's" which is DELICIOUS and worth the stop as well

[BruceinGa]

Originally Posted by K-Nole

Just put those roads in the GPS for that intersection, but put it in for Largo, Florida (NOT Key Largo, but just plain ole Largo, Fl.).

It is in a strip mall right behind a "Beef-O-Brady's" which is DELICIOUS and worth the stop as well

Thanks, we have Beef-O-Brady's here also.

[BruceinGa]

Friends of mine closed their card shop in Raleigh about a year ago. I googled their name out of curiosity and found several customers that didn't like the owners
Apparently they did very well, able to sponsor a senior softball team for many years.

[DHogan]

When I first started collecting around 1990 or so, Dolloff Sports Cards had a brick and mortar store on route 1 in Portsmouth NH. From what I recall he had mostly pre-war cards. I had just started collecting the new over produced cards. I wish I had known better. He had a sign posted in his store where he would charge for his time if you had any questions about what he had for sale. Or vintage cards in general. He charged $1.00 a minute. I only know of 3 or 4 stores around Boston now.

[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