ot - card store

[EvilKing00]

a new card store just opened a block from my house on long island. I have yet to venture in to take a peek and every time I drive by the place is empty. Feel bad for the guy (looks young) whos in there, I can only assume its the owner. No idea how this place will last very long. Dose anyone here even go to brick and mortar stores regularly? Honestly, im 40 years old been collecting since im a little kid, besides buying packs / cases in the candy store, I have never been in a card shop.

[T2069bk]

I used to go to shops all the time when I lived out on Long Island. I moved to North West Jersey and was happy to find a local shop - not much vintage but enough to get me in twice a month to get some instant gratification.

The guy was gruff to say the least but rather fair in pricing so I kept going then one day he got all out surly and I have not been back since- that was 9 years ago...

I stopped at the bank and took out some cash (as I had none in my wallet) to get a few cards I saw in my last visit, but they were sold. So not wanting to leave empty handed I picked up a box to bust for fun and paid in cash. When I got in my car I opened up my wallet to take out some cash for gas as my next stop home and noticed $20 was missing from what I had left. So I went back in and told him I think I might have given him an extra $20 by accident and when he counts the till that night if he is over please give me a call. I can still remember his response: " Get the F*&^ out of here before I call the cops you aren't gonna steal from me!"

As much as I want my fix I refuse to go back on principle!!! Wish there was another choice near-by but alas - they are a dying breed.

[sycks22]

I remember there was one growing up about 15 minutes away and my dad would take my brother and I to get some packs and to keep dreaming about getting my '90 Leaf Frank Thomas (favorite player). One day around my birthday I came up with a plan that if I got a worse bike then my brother I could get the Thomas as well and it worked. Still have the card and even got it signed a couple months after getting it. They closed the shop in the mid '90's and moved to Cali I heard. Once shinders closed down there's nothing within 45 mins of me anyone outside of picking up a pack at target. Those were the days.

[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.

[mrvster]

for more card shops to open! but, like tim said, some of those guys are real jerks! I live in n.j. and there are 3 baseball card shops still in my town unbelievably(Brick, n.j.).......one guy has been there for like 25 years.......his shop is like an episode on "hoarders" , where cards are literally stacked up all around you....its really wild, but mostly crappy stuff..........the owner is very cool to speak with....I stop in occasionally and talk about T206, and he shoots the shit with me about the 'ol days........

I stopped by another shop yesterday in my town, just to see if any T206 or ojs showed up, but his store is filled completely with "magic" cards....

third shop has all modern, or just very little selection of vintage........


id love to open up a vintage shop

[SmokyBurgess]

Video killed the radio star....

...and the internet killed the local card shops.

[slipk1068]

My favorite card store in the late 80's was the Baseball Card Collectors Exchange in Hicksville NY. I would stop in when I got my paycheck every Friday to make payments on a card I had on layaway and talk cards with the owner Bob. He closed the shop many years ago and moved to Arizona. Sad day for me when he closed his shop. I heard from a fellow member he passed a few years back. He was a good guy and taught me a lot about the hobby.

His shop had awesome material. A couple years before I started visiting his shop, he sold the Mastro Wagner. Not to hijack this thread, but the Mastro/Gretzky Wagner was never on an uncut sheet according to Bob. It came from a flea market in Florida. Bob's father called him on the phone to tell him he found a box of colorful cards with players like Cy Young and Ty Cobb. Bob told his dad, "I have no idea what you have, but buy it, bring it home, and we will figure it out". Well it was a box of T206 and I believe some T205 and it contained the most famous card in the world-- the Mastro Wagner.

[AJR]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

a new card store just opened a block from my house on long island.

Where is the store located? What town?

I'd be happy to come and shop at his store, we all should try and support local businesses this time of year... Especially a card shop!

Also, I don't think I've been in a "new" card store in at least 15 years. Didn't know that was still a viable business venture.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by slipk1068

My favorite card store in the late 80's was the Baseball Card Collectors Exchange in Hicksville NY. I would stop in when I got my paycheck every Friday to make payments on a card I had on layaway and talk cards with the owner Bob. He closed the shop many years ago and moved to Arizona. Sad day for me when he closed his shop. I heard from a fellow member he passed a few years back. He was a good guy and taught me a lot about the hobby.

His shop had awesome material. A couple years before I started visiting his shop, he sold the Mastro Wagner. Not to hijack this thread, but the Mastro/Gretzky Wagner was never on an uncut sheet according to Bob. It came from a flea market in Florida. Bob's father called him on the phone to tell him he found a box of colorful cards with players like Cy Young and Ty Cobb. Bob told his dad, "I have no idea what you have, but buy it, bring it home, and we will figure it out". Well it was a box of T206 and I believe some T205 and it contained the most famous card in the world-- the Mastro Wagner.

I would love to talk to the guy who sold Mastro that card.

[Butch7999]

Not sure that grumpy / unhelpful / paranoid / outright hostile shop owners haven't done more than the internet
to hurt the brick-&-mortar card-shop business...

[thescooper]

I went into my local card shop only last week, I asked the owner if he bought collections. He said depends what it is, I said I would buy his non sports from him if he had anyone's collections. He snapped at me no-one is interested in that anymore.
I asked to see a Mickey Mantle card he had on display,he asked if I was goig to buy it, I asked if it is a reprint, dunno was his reply. I had it in my hand, turned it over REPRINT right across the back.
He asked if I collected baseball cards,
I said the only baseball I collect is from 1909,
1999 was his reply,
no 1909 I said,
you must mean 1990 he said, I walked out,
he was rude and very unhelpful.

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by AJR

Where is the store located? What town?

I'd be happy to come and shop at his store, we all should try and support local businesses this time of year... Especially a card shop!

Also, I don't think I've been in a "new" card store in at least 15 years. Didn't know that was still a viable business venture.

Its in massapequa park, on merrick road. Dont know address but the corner of merrick and redwood lane.

[glchen]

There are ways to make a local card shop work, but it has to be more than just selling cards or other collectibles. I was chatting with someone that I bought a few cards from a while ago. He was in his 30s/40s, and he said when he was growing up, he made it his goal to buy his local card shop when he grew up. And he did it. He tried to make it an entertaining place where people would go not just to buy cards, but to also hang out. He had regular group breaks, fantasy football leagues, so that there would always be people dropping by. Also, every now and then people would come into the shop with huge finds which he would be able to buy. That's how he was able to make his business work.

[vthobby]

All:

Interesting stories from around the continent. There are 2 main stores in my area of Vermont that I frequent. Jim's Sports in the Burlington Mall (tons of jerseys, hats, posters, etc but gets some nicer older collections of cards from time to time. Being in a mall downtown is the only turnoff for me as parking is an issue sometimes.

The other store I frequent once a week or more is called Main Street Sportscards in Winooski Vermont. Very cool inventory of older to newer and all the new wax products you can imagine. Graded cards from the big 3 and everything in between to include autographs, figurines, and tons of other cool stuff. EVERY time I visit there is at least one or two people in there and sometimes many more. Owned by a younger guy who knows the hobby in and out and is friendly with his customers. I went today with my son and there were 5 or 6 folks there for the hour I was there.

Great small town cardshop. Sounds like they are a dying breed but not so in little old Vermont.

peace, mike

[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.

[paulcarek]

There are a couple of card shops near where I live (Marin County, California) that sell vintage, but they don't seem to get much new material. I like to stop in once in a while to chat with the owners and pick up supplies.

Near where I work, though (Silicon Valley), is one of the best vintage shops I've ever seen -- Stevens Creek Sports Cards. They're a big eBay seller, too. They're constantly adding inventory, and I stop in every couple of weeks.

Beverly Hills Sports Cards is also great. Whenever I'm in LA for work, I try to make time for a visit.

[EvilKing00]

Never walking into one yet, but if i did id like to see old cards, old advertising sports related, tobacco cards and advertising, old tobacco boxes and stuff. Also old collectables, like tvs, radios from the 30s to 50s, old typewriters, gum or nut machines, maybe an old gas pump, coke signs etc, etc. i can add more but too much to list

[callou2131]

I think one thing killing shops is wax. Look at 2014 Topps chrome football. It was selling pre order for $800 retail. It is now about $520 retail in just one week. That is less than wholesale. If you are a small shop, you cant take too many hits like that. The price of a lot of wax falls days after its release. People realize how massively overproduced things are compared to their numbers. Topps chrome production went up a ton this year. Only do preorder cases prepaid. You can lose your butt quickly otherwise.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

I would love to talk to the guy who sold Mastro that card.

Bob Sevchuk owned the shop and he may have been deflecting attention at that point since Mastro has admitted the card was cut.

Bob used to turn up amazing stuff all the time but was in the middle of a couple of controversial things such as the Gretzky Wagner and the stolen HOF WS programs. I used to go there all he time in the 80's and it was the first card shop I went to when I re-entered in 1981. At that time he shared the shop with Marty Perry, who occasionally still pops up.

[slipk1068]

V&M Sports Cards
5419 Merrick Road
Massapequa, NY 11758

Stopped in yesterday. Two guys running it. Mike was there when I visited. He is more knowledgeable about modern. His partner is more the vintage guy. They had some vintage which is always cool. Not a lot of material, but it looks like they are just getting set up and the other owner usually takes the higher priced stuff home with him when he leaves. Prices seemed high but as Mike explained, they are negotiable. I looked through maybe 15-20 T206 commons and almost bought a mid/low grade T202 because the price was fair. Saw some Bowmans including a mid grade 52 Mantle, Topps from the 50-70's, Gerald Ford and some other autos. We talked cards for an hour or so and I picked up fourteen 1959 commons for my set.

Again, they are just getting set up, so hard to gauge what type of material they will have, but it is what I expect in a card shop. Vintage, a place to stop by a couple times a month, maybe pick up a few things, and talk cards with friendly people. I will definitely check it out again in a few weeks after they are all set up.

I told Mike about net54, so maybe he will sign up and can contribute more information about his shop.

[steve B]

I've been collecting long enough to have caught the beginning of brick and mortar shops, and the boom and the several washouts that happen periodically.

And having lived near Boston and in between there and NY I've also been able to be a bit spoiled by the number of shops.

The good ones were plentiful, even early. Halls Nostalgia was my local shop, maybe a mile from the house, and close enough to walk to from school. Plus my first job was practically next door. I hung out there a lot, and learned a lot. There were a couple good shows a year, and a few other shops that were good. Some I got to some I didn't. Arlington at one time had three or four shops that sold cards.

And of course during the late 80's- early 90's boom, there were lots of shops. My drive home from work had 5 shops plus 4 big retail chains.

Only one shop is left as brick and mortar. And two of the big chains.

The shop that survived did it by using the internet and carrying other stuff. Much of it sports related but not all. They're also very good at moving dead inventory at the right time. Like when Curtis Martin left for the Jets they sold their entire stock of his cards to a dealer in northern NJ almost before the ink was dry on the contract using one of the early dealer to dealer websites. Win for both, they got a decent price for what just became unsaleable cards, and the NJ guy had a complete inventory before any of his competition.

They also use Ebay well. And while they don't carry every product they're great about ordering stuff.

And they're pretty nice.

The shop mostly has newer stuff, but they do sometimes have vintage cards they've picked up for someone. Usually those aren't on display.

Of the shops I used to go to, when things were booming about half were owned by people with hardly any hobby experience, and at least one with no hobby or retail experience. All they knew was cards were worth money and were the hot collectible. And Beckett was pretty much all they knew. Some were nice people, some less so. The clueless places were visited once every couple months just to see what they had stumbled across or what they were willing to sell cheap to raise money for the latest "must have " new product. Not bad if they came across a card from a set not listed in Beckett. They either assumed it was horribly rare and wanted an insane price. Like $50 for a Burger king Phillies set. Or if Beckett didn't list it it must be junk. a couple 49 Leaf in VG for .25 each.

Not many adventures like that left since the rise of Ebay.

Steve B

[slipk1068]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Bob Sevchuk owned the shop and he may have been deflecting attention at that point since Mastro has admitted the card was cut.

Bob used to turn up amazing stuff all the time but was in the middle of a couple of controversial things such as the Gretzky Wagner and the stolen HOF WS programs. I used to go there all he time in the 80's and it was the first card ship I went to when I re-entered in 1981. At that time he shared the shop with Marty Perry, who occasionally still pops up.

Bob never deflected attention from that card in the time I was going there 1988-until he retired and moved. He was proud of it, would show me pictures, and talk about it frequently. I didn't know he was involved in stolen WS programs, but I am not surprised. Stuff used to walk in his door all the time, and he would buy it. I guess you are likely to occasionally inadvertently purchase something stolen when you make a lot of purchases like that.

[EvilKing00]

Originally Posted by slipk1068

V&M Sports Cards
5419 Merrick Road
Massapequa, NY 11758

Stopped in yesterday. Two guys running it. Mike was there when I visited. He is more knowledgeable about modern. His partner is more the vintage guy. They had some vintage which is always cool. Not a lot of material, but it looks like they are just getting set up and the other owner usually takes the higher priced stuff home with him when he leaves. Prices seemed high but as Mike explained, they are negotiable. I looked through maybe 15-20 T206 commons and almost bought a mid/low grade T202 because the price was fair. Saw some Bowmans including a mid grade 52 Mantle, Topps from the 50-70's, Gerald Ford and some other autos. We talked cards for an hour or so and I picked up fourteen 1959 commons for my set.

Again, they are just getting set up, so hard to gauge what type of material they will have, but it is what I expect in a card shop. Vintage, a place to stop by a couple times a month, maybe pick up a few things, and talk cards with friendly people. I will definitely check it out again in a few weeks after they are all set up.

I told Mike about net54, so maybe he will sign up and can contribute more information about his shop.

Good to know! Like i said its like a block away from me, ill have to drop by! You see any t205s? Or ruth stuff?

[slipk1068]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

Good to know! Like i said its like a block away from me, ill have to drop by! You see any t205s? Or ruth stuff?

Nothing like that, but they seemed to be still setting up and getting organized.

[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?

[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.

[bn2cardz]

I stopped in a local shop a couple of month's ago as it is next door to a florist I get flowers from for my wife.

When I went in it looked like my bedroom when I was a young kid with baseball cards in non protected stacks and sprawled out everywhere. The cases were sparse of anything actually in them. Everything was on top and not laid out to be shopped through but litteraly just like stacks of cards had fallen over and never picked up. I saw a case had a dozen cards in it (this is one of those large display glass front cases) the cards were from the 60's. He asked if I collected or was just looking. I told him I did collect but I mainly enjoyed the vintage stuff and added "but I guess you don't have anything older than those cards (indicating the case with a dozen in there) or anything from the 50's or prior?" He said "yeah I have some from the 50's in there." After he looked for a minute at the cards and I pointed out that they were from the 60's he replied with "Then I guess not"

I wasn't rude, but it was obvious he doesn't use the store to sell cards. I told my wife that I felt like the store was front for something else because there was nothing of value in there. The only thing I may buy was supplies, but even those were covered with a thick dust layer.

I asked him if he did shows, he said he didn't because he has the store so he doesn't need to do shows. So, again, I have no idea how this guy is making any money staying open. I know he does IT for the other stores in the strip mall so maybe that is how he makes money and uses the store front to buy collections.

The store has been there since I was a kid (I am now 33) and I only recall being in there once or twice as it wasn't convenient for my parents (there were more choices back then) but I know at that time there were several boxes to look through.

There is one other store I know of that I liked, but it just isn't convenient for me and last time I was there aprox 10 years ago, they stayed open by appeasing the gaming community.

[Jayworld]

We are blessed to have two really fine Sport Card Shops here in the Dallas area; Nick's Sports Cards in Richardson and Triple Cards and Collectibles in Plano. I usually go to the Plano shop due to location, but both are well maintained, well-stocked, and family run. While both cater mostly to the "new card" crowd with box breaks, pulls, etc., they also carry vintage, mostly from the 1950s-1980s. Both also carry a smattering of signed memorabilia, football mini helmets, pennants, posters, and non-sports.

Triple Cards within the past month put out a new table featuring 1950 Bowmans singles and mid-to-late 1950s Topps singles. He has started to buy collections and now sell them in the store. He also carries vintage and new "Pokemon" singles, which appeal to my sons. My youngest looks forward to getting a new pack of Star Wars cards whenever we go, so there is a non-sports market for the younger for sure. It is nice for me to pick up the supplies I need at reasonable prices and add a few 1951, 1952 Bowmans to the collection.

[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

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by SmokyBurgess

Video killed the radio star....

...and the internet killed the local card shops.

Funny, but I was having this same conversation with a dealer friend of mine today. He doesn't have a shop, but he does eBay, shows, etc. I think the idea of internet/eBay killing card shops is a bunch of garbage. If that is the case, why do some shops thrive when others fail (in the same city/town)? It's because the ones that survive keep evolving to keep up with the times. The ones that are stuck back in the '90s with Gregg Jefferies, Jerome Walton and Todd Van Popple RCs in their showcase are doomed for failure regardless of eBay/internet.

There are two shops here in Houston that I've been buying from since I was a kid - Sports Collectibles of Houston and Houston Sports Connection. There are other successful shops as well, but I mention these two because they have been around for nearly 30 years. How do they find a way to survive when other shops fail? Simple, because they change with the times. They don’t rely solely on in-store sales. They do eBay, they promote show/signings, they have events in their stores to draw customers. Heck, Houston Sports Connection is having PSA/DNA in his shop this week (usually flies them in twice a year) just to authenticate for his customers at a discounted rate. How many other shops offer a service like that for their customers? That’s why he survives and others fail – nothing to do with eBay/internet.

I'm not saying internet/eBay hasn't hurt shops. Sure it has. Then again, can't that be said about a lot of businesses? All I am saying is that the majority of shops that fail is due to a management issue, not an eBay/internet issue.