Thinking of opening a shop

bobbyw8469 · #1 07-13-2021, 11:39 AM

You can have all my crap. I am so sick of the hobby, you can have it all for pennies on the dollar.

Howe�s Hunter · #2 07-13-2021, 11:58 AM

The internet comes along and all the card shops go out of business.

The internet comes along and all the porn shops along the interstate are still in business.

Exhibitman · #3 07-13-2021, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howe�s Hunter

The internet comes along and all the card shops go out of business.

The internet comes along and all the porn shops along the interstate are still in business.

Don't want the wife stumbling across the browser history. Allegedly.

egri · #4 07-13-2021, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Don't want the wife stumbling across the browser history. Allegedly.

Couldn't she look at credit card statements to the same effect?

todeen · #5 07-13-2021, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howe�s Hunter

The internet comes along and all the card shops go out of business.

The internet comes along and all the porn shops along the interstate are still in business.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Don't want the wife stumbling across the browser history. Allegedly.

Lol reminds me of another thread on Net54 with the comment that "B****** be tech savvy!"

Hahahahahaha I laughed at that comment all day. You two cracked me up again. Nice work gentlemen.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

steve B · #6 07-14-2021, 09:13 AM

One thing that the stamp guy whose shop I hung out at said was

You don't have a shop to sell, you have a shop to buy.

He got many good deals and even more that were a bit profitable from people who brought stuff to the shop to sell.

And he worked a lot of angles on stuff that was usually not wanted by other dealers.
Like discount postage - Lots of people saved full sheets as an "investment" but like junkwax cards, only worse. Nearly all US stamps made since the 1930's have minimal value. People would bring him stacks of sheets a relative had "collected" and he'd do a quick look through and some even quicker rough math. 100 sheets of 50, mostly 8 cent... $400 face value he'd tell them to use it as postage, but people couldn't be bothered. So he'd ask what they wanted. Nobody ever did the math, so most stacks like that were around $100 And he would buy anything similar that was under around 200.
The sheets were sold bulk to a convent near his house that needed lots of postage, at usually 20% less than face value.

He made most of his money during the hour and a half setup before a show. All dealer to dealer.

egri · #7 07-14-2021, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve B

Like discount postage - Lots of people saved full sheets as an "investment" but like junkwax cards, only worse. Nearly all US stamps made since the 1930's have minimal value. People would bring him stacks of sheets a relative had "collected" and he'd do a quick look through and some even quicker rough math. 100 sheets of 50, mostly 8 cent... $400 face value he'd tell them to use it as postage, but people couldn't be bothered. So he'd ask what they wanted. Nobody ever did the math, so most stacks like that were around $100 And he would buy anything similar that was under around 200.
The sheets were sold bulk to a convent near his house that needed lots of postage, at usually 20% less than face value.

Something similar happened to Warren Buffett when he was just starting out, right after he left Graham-Newman; him and his partners bought up several thousand dollars of a blue eagle stamp that the post office was about to discontinue, only to belatedly realize they weren�t worth more than face value. They used to stockpile to mail out annual reports. They bought the stamps in the mid 1950s; the stockpile wasn�t exhausted until the early 1970s.

jiw98 · #8 07-13-2021, 12:05 PM

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.

drcy · #9 07-13-2021, 12:30 PM

A simple question to ask is: As opposed to selling online and having the world as your audience, are there enough card collectors in your area to support a card business?

I live in a big neighborhood in a big city. I'm sure there are not enough sports card collectors to support a business. Other-sports? I don't know.

At the least, I would sell online to see how that works. If you're really good at that, then do your homework and think a brick & mortar shop is viable in addition, maybe.

But there's a reason that card shops have gone out of business all over. Will with new card prices on the rise, will things change? (shrugs shoulders)

That someone had romantic dreams and really wants to do it, doesn't make a good business plan.

vintagetoppsguy · #10 07-13-2021, 12:31 PM

Quote:

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 · #11 07-13-2021, 01:48 PM

Would be nice to open a card shop.

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

conor912 · #12 07-13-2021, 03:18 PM

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 · #13 07-13-2021, 03:38 PM

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.

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