How many card shops have become just like this......

[bbcard1]

Not to sound unsympathetic, but you can take a quick glance and see what the problem is. She is displaying sheets of Tom Glavine and Dave Justice rookies. Many of the dinosaur shop owners have never gotten over the fact you can no longer sell Tommy Gregg rookies for $1, but they still keep them in their cases. Might come down to 90 cents in quantity. It is a vicious circle...they won't sell old inventory at market prices so they can't afford new inventory and conclude that the market is dead.

[Harliduck]

bbcard1...I couldn't agree more. I would walk in that shop, and walk right out...nothing in there would interest me in the least, and I won't even admit to my annual card budget, . I know vintage collectors are the minority, but one look at ebay traffic shows our hobby is alive and well, and growing. To gage our hobby by that pathetic shop is like gauging Blockbuster with the movie/dvd business. Markets change, evolve...either move with the times or be left behind. That shop looks like it should have been left behind in 1994...

[MattyC]

I find that article to be very poorly done; it is incredibly myopic, and lazily fails to try and gain an overall perspective of the hobby. If I had more free time, I would write a counter-piece to balance out that hackwork. Bottom line, that writer failed.

[Exhibitman]

Agreed. An intellectually lazy article not at all reflective of the reality of the hobby.

[ZenPop]

Don't you realize that I ate a fishstick, so fishstick sales must be up?!!

[xcgrammer]

There are several baseball card shop in Chicago that are thriving one Baseball Card King has three locations one that just opened this year. They are organized and really have their stuff together. They have a good amount of vintage especially at one of their locations. I enjoy seeing them succeed when most are going the other way. Especially in my home town that once had four stores, now just one that is barely hanging on, mostly just coins. But yes same issue someone previously mentioned, no new inventory in the cases. He has all the early 90's stuff still. I kinda like it because it brings me back to my childhood however can't be good for business.

[Wymers Auction]

What planet does she come from? I would gladly throw away a garbage bag full of Magic cards to get to the baseball cards.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Agreed. An intellectually lazy article not at all reflective of the reality of the hobby.

+1

Comical really, on the heels of an REA auction with around $10 million in sales, and more sports auction houses opening and thriving by the year.

That article was just like the Dave Justice rookies...not worth the paper wasted to print on.

I was at the 2011 Chicago National for 3 days. Absolutely no way baseball cards only made up 15% of the inventory or sales. No way. Don't know how these numbers are determined, but they are way too low. Maybe - just maybe - prewar cards were only 15-20% of what was at the show, but I was practically blinded by row after row of shiny new(ish) baseball cards everywhere I looked. I don't collect this stuff, so it was an annoyance to me how much of it was there...

Having said this, I'm not a defender of the B&M card shop in general. Most every one I've seen in the last 20 years should have been plowed under. Whenever I travelled to a new city 20 years ago I went to every card shop and bookstore I could find. Now I still buy as many (more in fact!) cards and books, but never, ever waste my time looking for a B&M shop. 95%+ of my purchasing is done online.


Cheers,
Blair

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

+1



I was at the 2011 Chicago National for 3 days. Absolutely no way baseball cards only made up 15% of the inventory or sales. No way. Don't know how these numbers are determined, but they are way too low. Maybe - just maybe - prewar cards were only 15-20% of what was at the show, but I was practically blinded by row after row of shiny new(ish) baseball cards everywhere I looked. I don't collect this stuff, so it was an annoyance to me how much of it was there...

I walked the entire show, and while there were fewer tables than when I last went to the National in Chicago in 05, and it seemed that I stopped at at least every other table simply because they were offering vintage. Not sure where the 15-20% estimate came from???

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

I walked the entire show, and while there were fewer tables than when I last went to the National in Chicago in 05, and it seemed that I stopped at at least every other table simply because they were offering vintage. Not sure where the 15-20% estimate came from???

I think you are saying what I'm saying...

The article that is the subject of this thread says that baseball cards - of every kind and age - comprise only 15% of "inventory" at the National now (quoting the organizer of the National).

I was saying (and I think you are also saying) that cannot be...it is way too low.

Cheers,
Blair

[Exhibitman]

The 15% figure could only be right by bulk/size, if you count all of the corporate display area, food court, bathrooms and aisles, Olympics/Euroweirdo zone, autograph area, VIP sitting area, and figure that each piece of crappy manufactured memorabilia can take up as much space as 10,000 baseball cards.

[Leon]

You guys can ask the author of the 15% number as he is set to speak at the Net54baseball Dinner again this year, Mike Berkus. In the next several days, or less, there will be an RSVP thread for said Dinner.

[camlov2]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Agreed. An intellectually lazy article not at all reflective of the reality of the hobby.

Are we talking about the hobby of collecting current baseball cards or vintage? The main focus of this board is vintage cards and I would agree that this segment of the hobby is alive and well. The article does give an accurate picture of current day baseball cards. Current cards have always been the largest part of the hobby, even if vintage is growing every year a drop in sales of current cards means a drop in the overall hobby.