Disappearing Hobby Stores

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Posted By: peter chao

It's only been about 6 years ago, but there use to be about a dozen baseball card stores that sold vintage cards in the Bay Area. Now there are approximately 3 left that I know of. Is it the end of the line for baseball card stores? Are they out-dated and soon to be extinct? If not, what are they need to do in order to stay in business?

Peter C.

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Posted By: Sean

I can't answer your question
but i remember when me and my dad would go to a hobby shop in the local area everytime he was happy with me. Back then i liked trains alot. and the owner would always say a troo troo train is coming when a train comes. i miss him he had to close down. cuz he didnt make enough money. I got so much cards from him. but it wasnt vintage

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Posted By: peter chao

Well you basically pointed out the reason why I would hate to see the Baseball Card Store disappear. There really aren't that many father, son activities anymore. Going to baseball games is one of them and the Baseball Card/Hobby Store was becoming one of them, so I would hate to see them disappear.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Ricky Y

I recall 4 or 5 card shops I used to frequent in the southbay area in N. Calif when I was putting together my early 70's Topps sets...the only one in the South Bay that's still going strong from the pre ebay days is Baseball cards and Souveniors..

the Bob Lee conventions was also great and you could meet dealers and collectors from other parts of the US. I remember running into long time collector Charlie Conlon from Michigan there..we talked for a bit..and then introduced one another and then realized we had dealt by mail and phone previously...

The San Mateo antique collector's festival was another great place to find sports memorabilia..I used to see the late Dick Dobbins there selling uniforms and we used to visit and chat about the current game, collecting baseball memorabilia of all kinds, PCL history, just for fun...I miss those days..ebay killed that show.

The east bay show with Mark Mcrae...I'm glad he's still doing that show..its one of the few left that reminds of the good ol days..

Ricky Y

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

A computer and Ebay are much less expensive than paying to keep a store front open. Simple economics. Many of these sellers are still around, but they sell online. It is also easier to find things online than to sort through boxes of poorly displayed cards. Just a sign of the times. I do miss talking with store owners and sorting through the cards.

Ken

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Posted By: Jim Dale

Lets face it. "I can get it on ebay for" means you don't need a store. Any online venue is going to offer up cards for less then a brick and mortar location with rent, utilities, and about the only thing they can argue back with it a lack of shipping and handling charges (no paypal or ebay fees maybe). That isn't going to be enough. The remaining card companies are reducing new card products (as they should) so the stores have even less to sell. And even then they have to compete with ebay sales of new product too. I can see them all being gone in 10 years.

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Posted By: leon

I agree with Jim. I have my website and it costs me about $100 a yr....That won't pay 1/5 of the utilities for 1 month of brick and mortar. I am open 7x24 also. I know of one friend that still has a store, John Richmond, in San Antonio. I need to see how he is doing next week at the National as he is usually setting up with John Billingsly. If you have never met him he is one of the funniest, nicest, guys around. He tells a story of his small shop being so disorganized and cluttered that when folks come in they don't know if he just moved in or is just moving out....regards

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Used to be ten or twelve stores here in Louisville. Now there are three and only one of those is really viable. They also only make it because they sell a lot on ebay. I bet Richmond only stays open to get people come in to sell him stuff. Would be interesting to know what percent of his sales are online versus walkin.

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Posted By: Sean BH

Another thing with the advent of eBay is a "global store." Where for the most part many of the buyers at card shops were local people; now a seller can offer his cards to anyone in the world and have a far larger buying audience.

You really can't argue about the costs of a shop with rent, utilities, INSURANCE (every card store in my area growing up at some point was broken in to), kids stealing cards and having to staff/be at the store.

Sean BH

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Posted By: T206Collector

...but this thread is about 10 years late. Ebay and the internet constitute paradigm shifts for many small businesses, not just baseball card shops.

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

Going back to Sean's concern earlier. He misses the local hobby store. Suppose, the hobby store has an online presence also, would that be enough to stay in business?

Peter C.

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Posted By: leon

Good question...and the same one raised by Tom B. a few posts ago. I will bet that when I speak with John R. at the National he will tell me 95% of his stuff is done through ebay. My guess is that he has a small shop to get out of the house .....which I can certainly understand. When our computer company got bought a year and half ago I had the option of working from home (and still do) but I drive in every morning instead....1 way is about 45 minutes....but it gets me out of the house and more focused on work....not sure if I am disciplined enough to work completely from home.....

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Posted By: Craig H

I believe a lot of the remaining stores do have an online presence. Burbank Sportscards has a brick-and-morter shop, but the owner told me a few months ago that the shop will become strictly mail-order/online in the near future. The shop is only there to house the 15 million card-inventory. I used to go there to fill sets, but was kinda bugged that the last time I was there they made me order cards on their computer and then they went to fill it.

There are some things I like about hobby shops and other reasons why the internet is better. Finding scarcer, oddball issues are easier to find online especially when I live on the West Coast and more of the rare and obscure stuff in on the East Coast.
But buying online is annoying when you're looking for something common and cheap(i.e. buying a 1977 Topps common) which I would rather find in a hobby store and not pay more for S&H and waiting then the card is worth.

Craig

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Leon, having bought from Jon on ebay and watching his auctions all the time it's not too hard to see that his store looks like it may be in a little disarray. He offers some of the best stuff on ebay for memorabilia collectors on a pretty consistent basis. He does need to learn how to rotate his scans though so I don't have to look sideways at the screen.

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Posted By: Bob

Not just baseball card shops, I have seen the disappearance of comic book stores too.

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Posted By: Mark T

The card store near me in a plaza (only sells 60's-new cards) is offering 50% off, going out of business sale. The funny thing is, i have never seen 1 guy in there when i shop near his store. His rent must be crazy each month and he don't sell on Ebay.

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Posted By: dennis

card & comic stores & card and comic shows boomed in the mid 80's and it's been all downhill ever since.the rent in a viable location (including employees/insurance/gas & electric etc) renders this type of business obsolete. hard to compete with web sites and ebay which can be a 1 man operation.

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Posted By: Rich Klein

For the next and future generations of collectors need to get exposure to cards otherwise we might truly be looking at cards being where stamps are today.

In some ways you can parallel this argument to the famed discussion on the board about closing EBay auctions early. So many people lament the dearth of shows and stores but if you ask them to pay 10-15 percent more to buy their items in person they don't want to know about any supposed extra price. Yet, if you buy an item in person, there is no shipping, etc.

Yes, I'm a big fan of shows and stores for the interpersonal relationships one can build and we do need more of them for the hobby to flourish in the long run

Regards
Rich

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Posted By: peter chao

Some store owners have gotten pretty desperate, they not only sell vintage cards but they also sell Magic and Yu-gi-oh cards. They also sell everything from shiny new stuff to memorabilia. Hopefully all this will be enough to make ends meet.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Alan

Some years ago, there used to be a dealer with a store in San Antonio named "Smitty". Nicest man on earth. He & his wife used to set up at the National every year too. Is he still around ?

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Posted By: peter chao

It's good that you mentioned Smitty. A half dozen years ago every Joe Smith thought that they could run a baseball card store so you had some pretty inexperienced retail people trying to make a go at converting their hobby into a business. The remaining retailers are hardcore entrepreneurs that have been around for a while.

Stores that are still around know how to deal with customers and know full well that the retail store of today competes with Ebay. The card store I go to in the Bay Area has prices comparable to Ebay and you get to actually see and hold the card before you buy. You couldn't ask for more.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Pcelli60

Totally outdated..On-line buying is King now.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

is like a lot of others.......when the new stuff first got auto cards and bat cards and jersey cards, the sold STRONG. Regardless of WHO it was. Now he's buying that stuff for $1 each (if that) and selling it in lots on ebay for $1.50 or so each. If you sell 100 of them in a lot you make $50 profit (minus the exorbitant ebay and paypal fees). He keeps the ones that he knows will sell in the store at 25% of book.....maybe $5-$7 each and then wholesales the others. Kinda sad since the companies are cutting up jerseys at record paces. Not a big deal for Griffey Jr and Frank Thomas but you hate to see that for Ruth and the older guys. Of course, they bring more money. Big mess overall. Glad I don't do new stuff anymore.........

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Posted By: Mark

Peter, what are the 3 Bay Area vintage card stores? Stevens Creek and..?

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Posted By: peter chao

Mark,

There really aren't that many good stores with vintage anymore. I pretty much limit myself to Stevens Creek, but there is also Lefty's in Burlingame. There's also Dave's Dugout in Albany. I'm sure there's probably a couple others that have vintage ocassionally.

Maybe stores won't survive, it would be a shame.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I don't do new stuff anymore either, but I still give my local card shop some money by buying my supplies from him and the Topps factory baseball set every year....the owner has been a friend since the days when we were kids buying out of the only card shop in town which was some guys basement. The card shop has become more of a gambling parlor than anything else...I don't go often, but usually when I'm there it's grown men buying a box and cracking it open, keeping the inserts and doing who knows what with the regular cards. I'm pretty sure that we only have one card shop now...there used to be 4 or 5 during the early 90s haydays.