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

[dabigyankeeman]

No good card stores around here at all. One good one closed up to sell on the internet only not too long ago. Nowhere to go anymore, just one decent show a month.

Cant believe the National is only 15% baseball cards? Geez!! Thats all i am buying now. I was intending to go up to Cleveland next year as i can visit a close friend who lives there, not sure about the show now if its so weak on baseball cards. Last show i went to was Dallas around 1990, boy, that was almost all baseball cards!

[insccollectibles]

My local card shop seems to be thriving. They have a great inventory of vintage cards and have been on ebay for a very long time. Online sales are critical to maintain in today's card market.

[Julz24]

I only have 1 shop that's near me at the moment and it's surprising to me how he stays in business. He almost never has new inventory and the cards behind the glass never get changed out. In the few times I've been there, I was the only customer.

The guy doesn't sell on Ebay either so its kind of a mystery how he pays the bills??

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by Julz24

I only have 1 shop that's near me at the moment and it's surprising to me how he stays in business. He almost never has new inventory and the cards behind the glass never get changed out. In the few times I've been there, I was the only customer.

The guy doesn't sell on Ebay either so its kind of a mystery how he pays the bills??

This is EXACTLY what I could have wrote about the 1 store in the Nashville area.
Not such an uncommon occurence I guess.

[bbcard1]

Originally Posted by quinnsryche

This is EXACTLY what I could have wrote about the 1 store in the Nashville area.
Not such an uncommon occurence I guess.

I think I went there! Excellent selection for about 1992...but it was 2012. Went pretty far out of my way and left without finding anything I could possibly consider purchasing.

[BruceWayne]

Some very interesting observations made here. Personally, I think it is difficult to refute the fact that the retail store model has needed to change with the advent of the internet. I attended the Industry Summit in Vegas this past March and I was extremely impressed with how hard-working and innovative some of the shop owners were who were in attendance. Granted, those dealers may not be a representative sample of all the shop owners in the industry but I was pretty impressed with the things they were doing to cater to the needs of their customers.

Notably, it was quite obvious to seeing the growing trend for card shops to focus on unopened wax for customers hoping to pull big insert cards. This is clearly a byproduct of the card manufacturing marketing strategy. While I understand that may make little sense to a vintage card collector, I think we need to accept this as a reality for store owners in today's environment. In addition, I noticed the new trend of "Case Breaks" is becoming more popular and that is also a product of the proliferation of information technology.

I also see a trend toward contests which include the gaming segment. Again, this stems from the reality that the younger generation is much more interactive than previous generations (a byproduct of the world in which they are reared) and these contests allow customers to come to the shops and spent time together. To my understanding, many of these contests are done with non-sport product.

Just a few observations I noticed from my attendance at the Summit. Again, I cannot stress enough how impressed I was with how hard-working and dedicated some of the shop owners are and how they work to reach the grass roots of the hobby.