ot - card store

[t206blogcom]

There's a small store near my house I go to a few times a year just to walk through, maybe pick up some supplies or buy an old wax box for cheap entertainment.

There's a store about 15 minutes away from me that I've been to only once. The shop was small and a complete mess. Guy wasn't the friendliest either.

Around once a year I go to a store up in Maryland just to browse, get a few supplies, etc.

When I travel down to my hometown of Williamsburg, I stop into a hole in the wall place down there. Never buy anything; just visit with the owner.

[David Bender]

I'm in Virginia too. I'm guessing the first shop is on Columbia Pike and the second on Duke Street.

Originally Posted by t206blogcom

There's a small store near my house I go to a few times a year just to walk through, maybe pick up some supplies or buy an old wax box for cheap entertainment.

There's a store about 15 minutes away from me that I've been to only once. The shop was small and a complete mess. Guy wasn't the friendliest either.

Around once a year I go to a store up in Maryland just to browse, get a few supplies, etc.

When I travel down to my hometown of Williamsburg, I stop into a hole in the wall place down there. Never buy anything; just visit with the owner.

[abothebear]

There are three stores near me. One is a small dump of a place with stacks of cards everywhere, nothing pre-1950, and bad prices. The owner isn't very warm, but he isn't a total jerk either. Every time I go in there and ask if he has anything old he shows me a stack of early 60s exhibits in average condition and tries to sell them to me for Beckett's high value.

Another shares space with a gift shop. He is a decent fellow and he has some nice older cards, but nothing very old, and his prices are high.

But the one I go to fairly regularly is well organized and has tons of modern stuff for good prices. He doesn't have anything pre-war either, but he hosts a bid board so sometimes you can find some older stuff there. The owner isn't socially gifted, but he is a nice guy and he runs a good clean store. One thing I like about him is that he is often working on a non-sport set. Something that usually doesn't have a lot of value.

[polakoff]

So let me ask you all a question - what WOULD you like to see in a local card shop that would make you a regular customer?

I've seen dozens of local card shops close over the years, especially recently, and yet, a friend and I are confident we can make it work and plan to open one soon. One that's along the lines of what glchen mentioned. I've always hated the snarky card shop owners and the jacked up prices and the stores that sell nothing but ultra high end modern cards.

[vthobby]

I'd like to see a barber shop area and maybe even a game room area. Seriously! Never seen it and it would be expensive to set up but would consistently draw all ages and keep folks around a bit. peace, mike

[Econteachert205]

Growing up in northern Rhode Island there were 4 shops I frequented as a kid 6-15 all of which are no longer there. Two were in Pascoag, one run by a nice guy named Dan who used to have me make grab bags in the back room and who wasn't the most business savvy guy. I ended up buying out his entire 80s commons inventory for 100 dollars when I was 9 or so and he went out of business. Lots of 84 donruss that helped me turn a small profit at the time. The next shop that replaced his sold video games and non sport, was not a trustworthy place but friendly enough and had mostly new stuff. The two in Woonsocket were much better. One was run by a guy named Don who had a great business sense and was very friendly. He retired off cards and moved to Florida I think, very successful. The other was Joe 's moldy oldies , a record store mostly with cards. It was run by a great old time dj who was very fair with prices. The formula for success in the bigger shop in Woonsocket was a pleasant knowledgable owner with solid inventory and competitive though not low prices in a fairly busy location.

[bravesfan22]

Baseball card exchange in Indianapolis is a great card shop. Mostly modern but has some vintage as well. The owner is very nice guy and is ways helpful.
As far as making the card shop work they do case and box breaks every week, most his customers are into modern cards. He sends out emails about the breaks and card shows and any other info that may be important to his customers. Overall he runs it very well. From the stories on here and what I've seen, if the owner/workers are nice, helpful and genuinely interested in the hobby it's got a chance to survive. You got to go with the times though ie: box/case breaks, magic cards etc. I live about an hour from indy and if that shop was within a half hour Id probably go once a week or so.

I've always wanted to open up a store but the general overhead and start up costs have scared me away. Sure we all can talk on here about cards and buy cards off ebay and through auction houses but sometimes it's nice to sit down with people in person and talk about your cards or current things going on on the hobby. To me that's the best part about cards shops.

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by polakoff

So let me ask you all a question - what WOULD you like to see in a local card shop that would make you a regular customer?

I've seen dozens of local card shops close over the years, especially recently, and yet, a friend and I are confident we can make it work and plan to open one soon. One that's along the lines of what glchen mentioned. I've always hated the snarky card shop owners and the jacked up prices and the stores that sell nothing but ultra high end modern cards.

A place to hang out and talk cards would be cool, but unless prices are in line with what can be found on ebay or even N54 B/S/T, I am not spending money there. I am willing to pay a little bit more for instant gratification and the chance to knock off a lot of a want list in one stop - but only a little bit more.

[mattsey9]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

A place to hang out and talk cards would be cool, but unless prices are in line with what can be found on ebay or even N54 B/S/T, I am not spending money there. I am willing to pay a little bit more for instant gratification and the chance to knock off a lot of a want list in one stop - but only a little bit more.

Pretty much this in a nutshell. I recently went to a LCS in the Gulfport/Biloxi area and the prices were through the roof. I went in ready to spend money, and walked out in five minutes empty handed. Like many of us, I remember fondly the days when seemingly every town had a store or three that had a stranglehold on the business but ebay and the internet have changed that paradigm forever.

[vintagesportscollector]

Coincidentally I was just in the only surving shop near me on Friday. Was driving near by and had time to kill. I hadn't been there in 10 months, so I wasn't sure it was even still there. When I waked in the owner immediately recognized me because I think I am the only guy to come in there in years asking for vintage. I only started building vintage a few years ago, and this shop owner actually helped me build solid parts of a 51B and 53T sets.

Shop owner is a very nice guy, but I am not sure how he survives. Stacks and stacks of boxes and terribly unorganized. Mostly modern, but he has an aged inventory of vintage that he is sitting on. I am not even sure he knows what he has. I used to call ahead and give him a few days to dig through his floor to ceiling stacks of boxes to pull out stuff for me to look at. He is not acquiring any more vintage stuff, and probably hasn't for years, so when het gets rid of what little he has left, that's it. I don't think he even knows what he had into most of it, so is willing to give very reasonable prices - but he does know the value of what he has.

On Friday he said I should have called ahead because he couldn't get to anything that would interest me at that moment, but he did have a stack of 41PB and a few 33/34G and a couple T201s that were beat and split in half. Nothing that was priced very well so I just got a nice fix of browsing, some good talk, picked up a few 5x7 top loaders I needed and enjoyed killing about 45 mins.

[abothebear]

The shop that is successful where I live has several things going for it:

- It is in a good location, but the rent probably isn't too bad.
- the shop owner has two guys working for him, one is full time and the other is a retired postman who probably works for minimum wage.
- The shop is well organized and well lit.
- he has a TV in there running sports all day.
- He has tons of cards in penny sleeves sorted by teams and sells them for something like 50 cents a piece. And he has bad weather half-off deals.
- Same as above but for rookie cards that haven't "hit" yet.
- the shop knows his customers and stocks and sells modern according to his customers tastes (The modern pack sales is where I think he gets most of his profit). Football seems to be a big deal.
- he knows what sells well on ebay and has an ebay store.
- he has a good eye for grading and sends some stuff to beckett for grading so he can then sell it on ebay.
- he has his vintage cards in the case at the front of the store. I don't think he sells much, but I think it plays to the nostalgia of the customers pretty well.
- *the bid board is the key* he has space and a system whereby folks bring in their stuff to auction by Thursday, he has it on the board on Sunday, people bid all week until Saturday, and then the auctions close and he deals out the wins afterwards (through the following week). Customers come in each week to see what is up for auction, sometimes twice a week (to see what went unclaimed by the following Friday). And people can sell their stuff through the auction. The shop gets a dollar per sold item (unless it sells for over $10) so the income isn't great, but it doesn't cost him anything, and it creates regular customers, regular visits, and an event to center his store around.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by David Bender

I'm in Virginia too. I'm guessing the first shop is on Columbia Pike and the second on Duke Street.

I moved to Fairfax a few months ago. Any advice on shops?

[t206blogcom]

Originally Posted by David Bender

I'm in Virginia too. I'm guessing the first shop is on Columbia Pike and the second on Duke Street.

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

I moved to Fairfax a few months ago. Any advice on shops?

The first one is:

Collectors Corner
47024 Harry Byrd Highway #106
Sterling, Virginia 20164
(703) 450-7280
collectorscornerva.com

The second one is:

AJ's Sport Shop
255 Maple Avenue West
Vienna, Virginia 22180
(703) 938-1688
ajsportstop.com‎

The third one is:

HOF Cards
11325 7 Locks Road
Potomac, Maryland 20854
(301) 299-9201
hofcards.com‎