Thinking of opening a shop

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by jiw98

The area that I live in currently has 3 BM cards shops. Two of the shops do the majority of their business with items other than sports cards. (toys, non-sports cards, sports equipment, etc.) The other one is sports cards only. All 3 have been in business for 25+ years and seem to be successful.
This is in a county with approx. 170,000 people. If I were to go to the neighboring counties I can think at least 5 more BM cards shops. Most of them have also been in business for several years.

+1

I believe the advent of the internet had zero to do with card shop closures. Their downfall was oversaturation of stores and mass production of cards. In the late 80s and early 90s, there was a card shop on every block. Everyone thought cards were going to be their retirement fund. Come on, if I can admit it, you can too. Anyway, the smart shop owners find a way to survive (games, gaming cards, toys, memorabilia, etc.), but most perished. Of all the shops I currently frequent, not one is cards only.

[RL]

Would be nice to open a card shop.

However, all the start up costs will be a lot of money.

[conor912]

This guy just opened his own shop and did/does a great job of chronicling what went/goes into it. The videos go back a ways, and he's busting his ass constantly. Now he pays people to run the shop while he travels the country attending shows. It looks exhausting.

https://www.youtube.com/c/cardcollector2/videos

[packs]

If you've been in the business for a long time and you have long-held distributor contacts that enable you to get a constant stream of modern cases at wholesale prices, MAYBE you'd have a decent chance. But my question would always be: why would you have a brick and mortar when you can do this all online?

The argument may be that people like looking at cards, but if the market is modern lottery cards then the in person aspect doesn't translate the same way. Though I do agree it's nice to walk away with what you bought.

However, if you're just dreaming this up and you have no manufacturer contacts and no wholesale distributor contacts, you are likely never going to acquire enough product to have a constant enough inventory at a price point that enables you to make money.

At shows modern wax dealers refuse to come down even a dollar because any variation in their listed price eats into profits.