So I walked into a card store today, and was puzzled by...

[glynparson]

Ignorance that’s why he said it. I have heard fools saying this since I started collecting over 40 years ago. Anybody can say anything. Put absolutely no stock in what he said. He doesn’t have a clue.

[jchcollins]

I would agree that for the few remaining storefront LCS operations, modern in the vast majority of cases is their bread and butter. For the past 2+ years, I've been lucky enough to have an LCS that did both that and vintage well, but with the onset of Covid, I went in one day probably in early June and the vintage was suddenly all gone. The owner had removed all the singles from his cases - citing I guess an increased risk if passing back and forth single cards - and is now "for the time being" (I'm guessing longer...) doing just new product and the breaks and the hobby boxes, etc. I was lucky enough to get some fantastic deals from him on vintage that I was interested in in the past, but the truth is he has more than enough customers that I would guess average in their 20's and early 30's who will come in and loiter for hours at a time, dropping cash left and right on modern and breaking it with him. Just over the last month or so I really kind of tried to plead my case - saying hey, can you look for XYZ for me? He knows what I collect, and has the stuff somewhere - but it's just not worth his time anymore. He of course promised to go hunting for me, but never has. Last week I was told "Sorry, we had 4 new releases this week." Ok. Disappointing, (especially considering the cash I have dropped with him on vintage in the past 2 years...) but I guess I get it. As for me anymore, eBay singles and buying elsewhere online for vintage is simply a ton easier. That's where I'm going to focus my efforts in the future. I'm all for supporting the local little guy, but if he's not interested anymore, then I'm not going to hound him to death forever.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

with the onset of Covid, I went in one day probably in early June and the vintage was suddenly all gone. The owner had removed all the singles from his cases - citing I guess an increased risk if passing back and forth single cards - and is now "for the time being" (I'm guessing longer...) doing just new product and the breaks and the hobby boxes, etc. I was lucky enough to get some fantastic deals from him on vintage that I was interested in in the past, but the truth is he has more than enough customers that I would guess average in their 20's and early 30's who will come in and loiter for hours at a time, dropping cash left and right on modern and breaking it with him.

...which is, ironically, far riskier from a Covid standpoint than handing a vintage card to someone.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by ASF123

...which is, ironically, far riskier from a Covid standpoint than handing a vintage card to someone.

Of course. I would go in, find what I wanted, sometimes spend hundreds of dollars on a single card, and then leave. The guys who do the hobby boxes are ALWAYS in there, no matter if I come in at 10 am or 4:30 pm. They are there when I come in, there when I leave, and there the next week. Sometimes I wonder if they have jobs.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Of course. I would go in, find what I wanted, sometimes spend hundreds of dollars on a single card, and then leave. The guys who do the hobby boxes are ALWAYS in there, no matter if I come in at 10 am or 4:30 pm. They are there when I come in, there when I leave, and there the next week. Sometimes I wonder if they have jobs.

"If I flip two Jasson Dominguezes, I can pay my rent for the year!"

It's difficult to even find a card shop near where I live must less one with any vintage cards. The ones we do have deal in mostly new stuff. Every now and then they'll get a vintage card but it does sit for a long while before it moves. Online sales don't seem to have been affected. I end up bidding high on most of what I want and seems other do as well. He's probably not an internet guy but has been strictly brick and mortar the lifespan of his shop. Even though I'm mostly a vintage collector I have been really digging some of the new tobacco card sized new cards and I still love to open packs.

[rhettyeakley]

Originally Posted by glynparson

Ignorance that’s why he said it. I have heard fools saying this since I started collecting over 40 years ago. Anybody can say anything. Put absolutely no stock in what he said. He doesn’t have a clue.

I agree with Glyn.

He lives in his own bubble and doesn’t know the actual market for vintage.

[Rich Klein]

A few random thoughts:

The store that survives on supplies may very well be doing just that. Back in the day the promoter (no longer with us) who used to promote the Nassau Coliseum show said he paid his rent with the profit from supplies. I know for me, it's easier to go to a LCS and have pre-made 3200 ct or monster boxes than for me to do them. The extra money is worth it for my aggravation. Plus getting sleeves and semi-rigids gives me a reason to visit the four stores within a half hour of my domicile.

Nick's Sportscards near me got in a large collection of Goudey's in a few months ago. They sent them to BGS for grading (frankly because they could drop off and pick up in person) and this was an original collection. I think maybe 10 percent of that collection was still there 3 weeks later. Sometimes you just have to be lucky as a vintage collector to visit a store when cards come in.

When we discuss vintage on hobby hotline (I do try to bring some vintage discussion in when I'm on the show) one aspect which gets pointed out is the lack of film about vintage players. Back in the day when we got our news via daily papers and television that mix allowed us to read about the older players. In today's world it's far more important to have visuals than printed word.

With the profits out there on modern boxes/cases/singles what do you do? You got to sell what more of the people want. As Leon has said (and I apologize if I get his quote wrong): We're about 1 percent of the card collecting community albeit a very important part thereof. I received the REA Catalog last night and even there with all the great vintage in it, there is a lot more modern stuff than ever before.

More thoughts later

Rich

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

The store that survives on supplies may very well be doing just that.

I used to have an LCS 15+ years ago that I only bought supplies from. Not sure if they totally made their living that way, but I would not have been surprised. The "cards" in the store were mostly Pokemon and a small selection of modern boxes, one tiny display case of beat and overpriced raw vintage and junk era stars. I literally never bought a card in the place, only boxes and toploaders and sleeves. It closed some time back.

[luciobar1980]

For the record and to clarify my original post, I don't hold it against any shop owner for focusing on modern. It totally makes sense. If I owned a card shop I would definitely focus on modern in store and then sell vintage online. I was just surprised at how down on vintage that owner seemed to be. And unrealistically down, the way he talked about Mays card being worth $20. He sort of vaguely lumped all vintage Mays card together and said they aren't worth what they used to be. And clearly that's just not true.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by luciobar1980

For the record and to clarify my original post, I don't hold it against any shop owner for focusing on modern. It totally makes sense. If I owned a card shop I would definitely focus on modern in store and then sell vintage online. I was just surprised at how down on vintage that owner seemed to be. And unrealistically down, the way he talked about Mays card being worth $20. He sort of vaguely lumped all vintage Mays card together and said they aren't worth what they used to be. And clearly that's just not true.

As is true elsewhere in multiple other walks of life - either he was deliberately lying to you, or he was genuinely uniformed. I've gotten some very nice deals in the fairly recent past on prewar HOF in person - and in retrospect I think it's because the dealer was mainly a modern guy, and didn't realize how on-fire some of that stuff was. They make mistakes like everyone else.

[luciobar1980]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

As is true elsewhere in multiple other walks of life - either he was deliberately lying to you, or he was genuinely uniformed. I've gotten some very nice deals in the fairly recent past on prewar HOF in person - and in retrospect I think it's because the dealer was mainly a modern guy, and didn't realize how on-fire some of that stuff was. They make mistakes like everyone else.

I totally get that. It seems lately some cards can change in price from week to week! So I'm sure some of these dealers aren't informed up to the last sale.

[rhettyeakley]

Funny but true story.

A few years back at one of the local card shops by my house here in Boise that has some vintage but not a ton. I was looking through a bargain box and found (3) 1914-1915 Cracker Jack cards in the $1 each box. They were real but the shop owner had never seen a real one and thought they were cheap fakes because they were on such thin paper. I paid him much more than what he had on the cards (I want to say I gave him $300 for them) and showed him how to tell they were real. He was pretty happy to get the extra money. He had gotten them in a collection of mostly 1950-60’s cards and just never thought in a million years that they were actually that old. Unfortunately they weren’t major stars or anything, just 3 pretty decent condition commons.

He sells almost exclusively newer cards and some Pokémon but I’ve never seen another pre-war card in the shop.