Question for former brick & mortar card shop owners from the '80s

[Brent G.]

My uncle opened the first card shop in our area around Bloomington, IN in 1985. It was a dream for me as a kid -- he always gave me 50% off sticker, which made my $ from mowing cemeteries go a long way.

My uncle pretty much had a monopoly until '88. By '93, there were six total card shops in our area ... and by '97, they were all closed, his included. He sold NASCAR stuff following that circuit around the U.S. for a couple years but got tired of the grind and got a regular 9-to-5.

I'd love to hear the stories of you former card shop owners out there. When did you open? How was business before the crash? When did you know it was over?

[Hankphenom]

And what was your greatest find, walk-in, call-in, etc.?

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

My uncle opened the first card shop in our area around Bloomington, IN in 1985.

My uncle pretty much had a monopoly until '88. By '93, there were six total card shops in our area ... and by '97, they were all closed, his included. '

I'd love to hear the stories of you former card shop owners out there. When did you open? How was business before the crash? When did you know it was over?

I suspect your uncle's experience will be par for the course. Prior to about 1988 dedicated card shops were few and far between. London had no such thing when I moved to Toronto in 1977. In the big city I found two comic shops that also dealt in cards, Comics Unlimited plus Queen's Comics and Collectibles. I bought quite a few sets of hockey cards from the 1970's plus sets of Funny Valentines, Casper, Civil War News, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Drag Nationals cards at Comics Unlimited in 1979-80.

But I also remember a pile of about 150 1952 Baseball cards priced at Cdn.$10 each at Queen's Comics and Collectibles in 1982. In that pile was a Mickey Mantle at $600. I remember thinking that they were rather dull looking cards but the corners were sharp so they'd have to be considered NM. Still $600 was a lot of money to me back then and I didn't really covet a 1952 Mickey Mantle despite its notoriety so I passed.

Then I also discovered a comic shop on James Street North near Barton Street not far from the old CN station in Hamilton which also carried cards. It was there that I discovered and quickly snapped up sets of 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1964 CFL cards. Unbeknowst to me, the coin shop less than a block north of the comic shop also carried cards and was where Angelo Savelli bought his Honus Wagner card. For whatever reason, Paul the proprietor of the comic shop told me nothing about that coin shop also carrying cards. Oh well....

By 1987-88 card shops started to explode everywhere. The only thing that was in short supply was money.

[Tao_Moko]

Didn't own, but did work at and sometimes solely ran one as a kid in OH. The late eighties were solid and specifically up to the 1989 Upperdeck release (Griffey brought a lot of folks to the hobby). We sold prewar to modern and the shop was diversified to include vinyl, regional indigenous artifacts, comics and some odd ball antique items. It was still a time when shoe boxes of cards walked into the shop. Was not a surprise to have large amounts of 1950's come in, and occasionally back to prewar cards. The celebrity of the Wagner had everyone going through attics and basements, especially in a poor coal mining town. Probably the best walk in discovery was a box of late fifties football containing pristine Brown RC's. However, my personal favorite was multiple 1939 Play Ball sets that contained more than a dozen combined William's and DiMaggio's. Of which two ended up in my personal collection. I'd say the flood of production began to negatively impact the shop by the early '90's. Same for the regional shows.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

Didn't own, but did work at and sometimes solely ran one as a kid in OH. The late eighties were solid and specifically up to the 1989 Upperdeck release (Griffey brought a lot of folks to the hobby). We sold prewar to modern and the shop was diversified to include vinyl, regional indigenous artifacts, comics and some odd ball antique items. It was still a time when shoe boxes of cards walked into the shop. Was not a surprise to have large amounts of 1950's come in, and occasionally back to prewar cards. The celebrity of the Wagner had everyone going through attics and basements, especially in a poor coal mining town. Probably the best walk in discovery was a box of late fifties football containing pristine Brown RC's. However, my personal favorite was multiple 1939 Play Ball sets that contained more than a dozen combined William's and DiMaggio's. Of which two ended up in my personal collection. I'd say the flood of production began to negatively impact the shop by the early '90's. Same for the regional shows.

Eric, that would've been my dream job ages 9-16. Did you get paid in cash or a combo of cash and cards?

[Tao_Moko]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

Eric, that would've been my dream job ages 9-16. Did you get paid in cash or a combo of cash and cards?

I rarely made a dime. But, always walked away with something for the collection. Often times there was a card in the safe with a piece of paper ticking away at what I owed until I could take it home. The knowledge and general intelligence of the people I met ranging from archaeologists and professors to enthusiasts(that were probably more intelligent) made for a good upbringing. Learning about the Clovis peoples while also hearing stories from first hand accounts of seeing Mantle and Mays play is something I cherish.

[bbcard1]

We had a great little shop from 1987-1995 with both new wax and vintage. Sold it right before the baseball strike, didn't get a lot out of it but it was time to get a grown up job which has worked out very well for me. I met a lot of people who remain friends to this day. I had a great time. Picked up some good stuff for my collection and also wasted a lot of money on 1990 Donruss boxes. Although as I near retirement, I hear the siren call every now and then, I wouldn't have traded it for the world, nor would I do it again.

[Rich Klein]

Card Stores really exploded about 1988-91 when the economy was on a downturn and many people were trying to use their money to open what they thought would be a safer longer term business

The plethora of stores was already beginning to crest and then in 1994 when the Baseball Strike coupled with the Hockey Lockout put a serious hurt on business. One long-time DCS store owner told me his wife started cleaning houses so they would have guaranteed income during that period. They did survive and later thrive.

Then EBay (and other internet selling ways but primarily EBay) took over and many people did not then go to stores because anything they really wanted they could find on-line and usually cheaper. Plus, the world of unopened had taken such a hurt after the overproduction years that people did not want to buy those anymore. (Which partially accounts for how difficult many of the tougher 1990's inserts are even harder to find than you would expect)

So, as the OP posted, about the time his uncle gave up his store (as well as the others in that area) there was a severe reduction in shows and stores.

We had fpr a gppd 15-20 years (1998-2018) maybe 5-10 stores in the DFW area and for shows (1998-2014( Maybe 5-6 shows a year of any size. I went monthly with my show in 2014 and there were some others as well so that's why shows got going before the store total increased/

Now we have a ton of stores again and a boatload of shows and we'll see what the future holds

Rich

[Brent G.]

Great stuff, Todd. So how many boxes of these red/speckled beauties were you still sitting on when you sold?

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Plus, the world of unopened had taken such a hurt after the overproduction years that people did not want to buy those anymore. (Which partially accounts for how difficult many of the tougher 1990's inserts are even harder to find than you would expect)

I heard a cards podcaster theorize a couple years ago that there's still as much unopened junk wax era product out there as was opened during that time. I couldn't fathom that being the case, but there are literal tons of it all over the country.

[bbcard1]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

Great stuff, Todd. So how many boxes of these red/speckled beauties were you still sitting on when you sold?

Score football and hockey were the things that we had case after case of. I think we pretty much threw them in when we sold. The buyer of my shop had an "unfortunate accident" where a pipe burst and oddly seemed to find all the unsellable score product which he turned into a profitable insurance settlement. The guy we sold to wasn't the best guy, which was a shame because we had built a very good name.

[JollyElm]

barbecuedribsthumbsup.jpg

Wait, your uncle only gave you 50% OFF???
And was it a lone sticker, so you only got half off of a single card???
WOW, some uncle!!!

My family is dog eat dog, so at the next backyard barbecue, we would've nicely charred the outside
of my uncle's ribs to disguise the fact we left the middle absolutely raw.

Take it from me, trichinosis is the best revenge!!

[MooseDog]

I had a store from 1988 - 1994, I closed it when sales went south during the MLB strike, many other shops had already close before that, and I probably could have stuck it out, but my very first business venture collapsed under similar circumstances (sudden downturn in the market) and I just didn't want to go through that again.

It was great fun while it lasted, and looked forward to going to work every single day.

[90feetaway]

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

Didn't own, but did work at and sometimes solely ran one as a kid in OH. The late eighties were solid and specifically up to the 1989 Upperdeck release (Griffey brought a lot of folks to the hobby). We sold prewar to modern and the shop was diversified to include vinyl, regional indigenous artifacts, comics and some odd ball antique items. It was still a time when shoe boxes of cards walked into the shop. Was not a surprise to have large amounts of 1950's come in, and occasionally back to prewar cards. The celebrity of the Wagner had everyone going through attics and basements, especially in a poor coal mining town. Probably the best walk in discovery was a box of late fifties football containing pristine Brown RC's. However, my personal favorite was multiple 1939 Play Ball sets that contained more than a dozen combined William's and DiMaggio's. Of which two ended up in my personal collection. I'd say the flood of production began to negatively impact the shop by the early '90's. Same for the regional shows.

I had a somewhat similar experience helping a family run a store and with shows during the same period. The market really saturated around 1990 with many stores nearby, granted this was in Brooklyn, so heavily populated. I remember a flood of people coming in looking for U.D. Kevin Maas rookies and I think we were charging $25 or more for them.. fun times. Store closed around 1996 as interest died down and rents went up.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

I'd love to hear the stories of you former card shop owners out there. When did you open? How was business before the crash? When did you know it was over?

I opened my first shop in 1984 and either did shows or had a retail store until 2015.

What crash?

It was over when I felt like retiring.

[Directly]

I had a shop from 1990 until 2006. Many great items walked into our shop, 1952 Mantle, and high numbers, Ty Cobbs, a wonderful Brooklyn Dodgers collection, a rare Joe Jackson stamp, many more wonderful items. 2006 a chance came along to sell the Building to a doctor. If you think you might open any business, if all possible consider purchasing a place with a good location. Paying rent might have its place, but paying toward ownership usually will pay you back, I now have a place inside a antique mall , being retired gives me something to do. Thanks Tom

[steve B]

I was close in maybe 89 or so. Local shop owner had a manager that was considering leaving and I was put in touch by another shop owner.
That manager ended up staying, opened a second location in maybe 93. Second place closed after maybe 2-3 years, and the original spot around maybe 95 or 96.

I was pretty regular at shops near me, and my area had lots of shops a few going back into the 1970's and I had hung out at one a lot, doing some seasonal sorting for a couple years.

For some reason many of the places I went to regularly were comfortable talking business with me.
Sooo many went into it under funded, and as the number of products increased, couldn't keep up financially with carrying nearly every new thing. They got into a bad cycle of buying cases from wholesalers, getting maybe 2 weeks before the next "sure thing" came out and having to find money to buy that. Which ususally meant selling off last weeks stuff at cost or lower.

The ones I liked - I tried to tell them they didn't have to carry everything, especially since so much of it was just surplus after a month or less. Every one of them was too panicked about maybe missing out on the next big thing. I felt bad for them.
The guys I didn't like.... well, they had some fun sales to take advantage of. Not that I had enough money to really do much.

One of the good ones was a small time wholesaler. He closed to get into arcade games and managing a band or something. He had a large stack of 90 donruss for $5 a box. When I was talking to him during the last week, he said he had two more pallets of them in the basement, and there was a liquidator type buyer who would pay $1 a box. If I would go 1.05 a box I could have them all. Fortunately a bulk buy I didn't go for.

[Fred]

I didn't own a shop but I used to hang out at a card shop in my area that was opened from around mid/late 1980s until mid/late 90s. I didn't work the counter, rather I helped with the technology. This was the day of dial up modems for the internet. Coin Net opened a baseball trading platform which was very DOSy. If memory serves me correctly, I think it was called Sports Net. I set up a few dealers in my area on that platform. Back then, prices of computers were just nuts. This is back in the day of the Intel 286, 386, and 486 processors.

It was pretty fun to hang out in the back office and see the cards that were being traded and purchased.

One person that dropped by frequently was part of the WIWAG team that was one of the early hobby busts that resulted in a conviction. So many stories to tell about some of the people that dealt with the owner. I can still remember buying a box of 86 Fleer basketball for about $15, same price as the set. It was fun having a front row seat back then. Wow, now that I look back, that was over 30 years ago... wow... time has flown.
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[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by Fred

I didn't own a shop but I used to hang out at a card shop in my area that was opened from around mid/late 1980s until mid/late 90s. I didn't work the counter, rather I helped with the technology. This was the day of dial up modems for the internet. Coin Net opened a baseball trading platform which was very DOSy. If memory serves me correctly, I think it was called Sports Net. I set up a few dealers in my area on that platform. Back then, prices of computers were just nuts. This is back in the day of the Intel 286, 386, and 486 processors.

It was pretty fun to hang out in the back office and see the cards that were being traded and purchased.

One person that dropped by frequently was part of the WIWAG team that was one of the early hobby busts that resulted in a conviction. So many stories to tell about some of the people that dealt with the owner. I can still remember buying a box of 86 Fleer basketball for about $15, same price as the set. It was fun having a front row seat back then. Wow, now that I look back, that was over 30 years ago... wow... time has flown.
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Man I remember seeing ‘86 Fleer basketball sets for $9.95 all over Baseball Cards magazine. Nobody wanted them…

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by rats60

What crash?

It was over when I felt like retiring.

Same here, I opened a full time shop in early 1987 & closed when someone offered to buy all the contents in late '98
I then sold the property & moved w/ the wife & kids 150 miles away to our current location
& have been selling online ever since

Here's a shot of the counter in '88
w/ auth uniforms of Nolan Ryan (Rainbow), Dave Winfield (Padres), Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins etc..

[Brent G.]

That’s beautiful, Jay! Love that rainbow of Topps Traded on the shelf. It was amazing as a 10-year-old to have the hottest card on the planet — the Gooden in that ‘84 set.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Jay,

Whose jersey was that gorgeous A's?

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Jay,

Whose jersey was that gorgeous A's?

Would love to say Roger Maris, but I believe it was Lou Klimchock from '59 or '60

[SteveWhite]

This is a great topic. I am from Grove City, Ohio and the year I graduated high school, 1988, not one but two card shops opens within 500 yards on the main way through town. One was Home Run Hobbies ran by a man named Dana and the second was by a group of guys, and it was called Jake's Comics.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by SteveWhite

This is a great topic. I am from Grove City, Ohio and the year I graduated high school, 1988, not one but two card shops opens within 500 yards on the main way through town. One was Home Run Hobbies ran by a man named Dana and the second was by a group of guys, and it was called Jake's Comics.

How’d the Grove City Card War turn out, Steve — who survived the longest??

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Jay Wolt

Would love to say Roger Maris, but I believe it was Lou Klimchock from '59 or '60

I'm likely part of the minority, but I've always been more fond of jerseys and bats that belonged to lesser-known players. I say that never having owned a single jersey and no more than a few bats, but still.

I should have asked who that nice Phillies jersey belonged to as well! It was a great display you had. Glad you took that photo.

[sreader3]

I could hardly believe my good luck when Sports Gem baseball cards opened in Upland, California in 1981. Fleer and Donruss were introducing sets to rival Topps. Fernando Valenzuela and Tim Raines rookies were all the rage. A remarkable $3 for “Nando” rookies. I got to know the owners and they put me to work in the back room sorting sets into numerical order. They let me pick out a few cards from the display cabinets at the end of the day as compensation. I probably got paid about $2 an hour, at inflated prices. But I loved it. They were out of business by about 1986 when they ran out of inventory.

[SteveWhite]

Homerun Hobbies lasted the longest between the two shops. Jake's Comics had another shop in Groveport, about 20 minutes away. Homerun Hobbies, I think lasted into the 2000's. Jake and his partners, I think still do the Hilliard Sports Card Show in Central Ohio and set up at the National.

[philo98]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

I heard a cards podcaster theorize a couple years ago that there's still as much unopened junk wax era product out there as was opened during that time. I couldn't fathom that being the case, but there are literal tons of it all over the country.

I spend most of my time in SE Asia and you will even find it around the region. 1988-1991 baseball wax boxes in Singapore, Thailand, and elsewhere. Since Asians love anime, the shows with anime is where you will generally find these boxes for sale, kind of as an after thought on the table.

[Leon]

Cool pic!

Originally Posted by Jay Wolt

Same here, I opened a full time shop in early 1987 & closed when someone offered to buy all the contents in late '98
I then sold the property & moved w/ the wife & kids 150 miles away to our current location
& have been selling online ever since

Here's a shot of the counter in '88
w/ auth uniforms of Nolan Ryan (Rainbow), Dave Winfield (Padres), Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins etc..

[Jay Wolt]

Thanks Leon
The other day I saw that I still had the signed Jerry Reuss photo thanking me for donating to his charity
& for buying his uniform, though I don't remember what happened to the uniform