Business question about vintage baseball cards

[Cfern023]

Go the online store route- anything anyone wants these days they heck online for it. If the price is the same, they go to the brick and mortar.

Undercut the local card shops by not having a store front. Make a home office, scan each card you want to sell that's high end / star players.

Set up at card shows throughout your region, buying a table for x amount of dollars. I know here in South Florida we have a Dania Beach card show every month. My the biggest event- but your name and basic inventory structure gets some face time with the locals. Business cards and a great personality will go a lot farther than hanging out and goings broke in a dying medium for collectors.

Maybe try to set up contracts with Topps or other companies to presell / stock cases of product of new releases to sell on eBay.

A storefront should only be used these days as a warehouse / office/ sales counter for a well established online presence these days.

Kind of hard to do, but a hobby at night while you work your 9-5 can grow in a few years to a full time job with some nurturing and sound decisions.

As a card collector, I buy strictly online and pass by shows once a year when I have some money burning a hole in my pocket and I want some supplies (another idea for you).

Everyone online undercuts the brick and mortars by atleast 50-60% down here. Most store look like relics from a forgotten decade or when stocked with cool inventory an expensive auction house. Most autographed photos in one store down here are faded because of sun damage- and they still want full price.

Pack pulled game used cards from the 2007 season are priced at $35 bucks and sell online for 99 cents.

Vintage cards have such a high premium for "being old" eventually he'll need to display them in a ziplock bag for their degraded ashes when they never sell.

Maybe offer on various online forums to buy game used cards and rare inserts for .50 cents to $1 a card sight unseen.

In short-
keep your day job, (easiest to say for me, hard for you to want to do)
maker the idea a hobby- and maybe even claim the loss on taxes
develop a strong online presence,
set up at multiple card shows and get your face/ stock out there
Sell supplies
Sell cases/ boxes of big current releases online
Look into drop shipping too- might help with modern product sales.

And enjoy yourself. No one is going to get rich these days in this hobby, but you can make a modest living and enjoy it.

Ps: sorry for all the typos and spelling/ grammar mistakes. Didn't think I'd type this much on my iPhone. GoodLuck with whatever you choose and just try to be happy. You don't have to listen to this 27 year old kid, but hopefully I have you some ideas.

[vintagesportscollector]

I would be willing, IF it was ONLY a 10-20% premium I saw in the store. I recently got into cards from years in memorabilia only, and I have yet to come across any brick-mortar store that only had a premium that low. I would think you would need to price higher to pay the bills, unless you can move very very high volume. Best of luck with whatever you pursue.

[MooseDog]

I opened a small general consignment shop in a downtown area of a Northern California (Bay Area) town that was recently listed as #1 based on per-capita income and despite a great lease and low expenses I have not been able to make it and am closing after 2 1/2 years of futility.

Granted, I started with one foot in the grave by not having enough capital (retail requires at least access to large amounts of cash) and hanging on much too long (I don't have many options - companies around here don't hire self employed people).

Brick and mortar retail is dead. Even established retail stores here have noted sales are trending down, and we're talking about the 1% who make up a large part of the population here.

If you have a lot of money you can afford to lose (don't touch any pensions or IRAs for startup capital), and you figure you can make your sales goals by selling 80% online and 20% in the retail store, you can probably make it. But don't count on making a high five figure salary on walk-in sales. Be VERY conservative with your estimates though. Running your own business can be a big headache and time sink, but nothing beats being your own boss.

[Runscott]

Ten years ago all you needed was knowledge and money. You bought inventory and you sold it. Because there are now loads of wealthy people buying the large lots at retail or more, just to get a few cards, then selling the rest at a loss, you now have to be connected to get inventory (e.g-established presence as a dealer). That may be a hurdle for you, as it has been for me, along with the issues others have cited regarding the feasibility of brick-and-mortar.

A physical shop will actually help my business, and that's what I'm looking to do - the plan is to make most of my money through the internet and a coffee shop, but the antique/memorabilia area won't take up much room and will bring me walk-in inventory opportunities. I also plan to put it in an old house that is zoned so that I can live in it as well, and I'll be located in a downtown area in a small town so that I can purchase the property, as opposed to leasing. Sounds weird, but to make money in this business you have to get creative.

[Lordstan]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Ten years ago all you needed was knowledge and money. You bought inventory and you sold it. Because there are now loads of wealthy people buying the large lots at retail or more, just to get a few cards, then selling the rest at a loss, you now have to be connected to get inventory (e.g-established presence as a dealer). That may be a hurdle for you, as it has been for me, along with the issues others have cited regarding the feasibility of brick-and-mortar.

A physical shop will actually help my business, and that's what I'm looking to do - the plan is to make most of my money through the internet and a coffee shop, but the antique/memorabilia area won't take up much room and will bring me walk-in inventory opportunities. I also plan to put it in an old house that is zoned so that I can live in it as well, and I'll be located in a downtown area in a small town so that I can purchase the property, as opposed to leasing. Sounds weird, but to make money in this business you have to get creative.

Too bad you're not in this part of the country. It sounds like a nice place to go hang out and talk sports and stuff.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

Too bad you're not in this part of the country. It sounds like a nice place to go hang out and talk sports and stuff.

The goal is to get a place where, even if I make no profit on either memorabilia or coffee, the mortgage is still reasonable as a living space. It probably would be a good place to hang out and talk sports, but the area I'm looking at won't have many collectors - it will be locals drinking coffee and tourists who hopefully have too much money in their pockets.

[Lordstan]

Originally Posted by Runscott

The goal is to get a place where, even if I make no profit on either memorabilia or coffee, the mortgage is still reasonable as a living space. It probably would be a good place to hang out and talk sports, but the area I'm looking at won't have many collectors - it will be locals drinking coffee and tourists who hopefully have too much money in their pockets.

Gotcha.
Still, It would be nice to have a place like that here. No good card shops in my area. It's too bad, something has definitely been lost.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Runscott

The goal is to get a place where, even if I make no profit on either memorabilia or coffee, the mortgage is still reasonable as a living space. It probably would be a good place to hang out and talk sports, but the area I'm looking at won't have many collectors - it will be locals drinking coffee and tourists who hopefully have too much money in their pockets.

I think you have a great idea. The only way to make it in retail is minimize your overhead (as you are amortizing it well) and also have other streams of revenue. I am a huge advocate of this approach as it limits your exposure somewhat, to any one thing. I just got out of 2 retail restaurants after 9 yrs and don't think I would want to deal with a brick and mortar anything unless it was on my conditions, and it would have to cost virtually nothing (somehow)...but as you are doing. You have very little downside.