I decided to go to a card shop I've never been to. I was sort of impressed, but as is typical (at least in my experience) the prices were really, really high. I wanted to browse single cards, but since they catalog their cards and put them online, they don't allow people to browse through the (hundreds?) of singles boxes.
Hmmm. Ok, so I couldn't do that. I wandered around, looking at sports memorabilia, hobby boxes, etc. Nothing really caught my attention. Then the worker there made eye contact and asked what I was looking for. I told him that I was mainly looking for inserts of the players I collected. He said "Oh, well we keep inserts in a separate area, I can get those for you easily-. Who do you want to see?" While I was appreciative, I wish he would've told me this when I asked to browse the single boxes. It would've saved a lot of time.
Anyway, I asked for Roy Halladay and about five minutes later someone comes out with a stack of unpriced Halladay inserts, of which there weren't many good ones. A few older cards here and there made an appearance and caught my eye. I was nervous about what they were going to charge for the cards, since I noticed the "50% off packs!" display and saw some baseball packs priced like this:
I picked out a 1999 Sports Illustrated Ones to Watch insert (paid $3 for it), a 1999 Bowman's Scout's Choice insert (paid $2 for it), a 2006 Upper Deck green insert /499 (paid $1.10 for it), and a 2007 Moments and Milestones black card /29 (paid $1.60 for it).
How did they get those prices? He busted out a Beckett and priced them according to the Beckett going rate. Sigh.
In the end I might have spent a few extra bucks than I normally would have, but I was glad to buy from a small business at least. I am pretty sure I was the only sports card collector in the store at the time, as there were tons of kids looking through those gaming card things that I have no knowledge of. I got the impression that this store was more into that genre than sports card collecting, even though that's what they tout themselves as.
Will I go back to this store? Maybe. I do like supporting local shops but this one just didn't have the selection I was looking for.
Are any of your local card shops overpriced? I get the feeling that this is a common occurrence.
Oh yeah, there is a shop near Spankee and myself that I think is way overpriced. To the point that I feel any price I felt like offering would be an insult to them. I actually bought some pages from them and the owner acted like I was trying to rip him off when I pointed out that he was not giving me correct change, after charging me like 50 cents a page for card pages!!
ReplyDeleteI have one local shop where I live. It's way overpriced. And that's just one of its problems.
ReplyDeleteGood for you avoiding the Black Friday brainwashing.
The only LCS (that's really local to me) is WAY overpriced. I honestly don't know how he stays open. I buy a few supplies there from time to time and I'll always buy at least one pack of something, but he's not staying open on my dime. He must have some big customers that I never see in there. Of course I go about once every two months so it's not like I'm there all the time. He used to have pack wars that I went to from time to time, but that was back in 98-99.
ReplyDeleteYeah I would love to support my LCS, but the prices are just a tad to much at the one. Fortunately The guy that runs the good one frequently comes out to shows and always has bargains for stuff he is trying get rid of.
ReplyDeleteValley Forge Card Show returns this wkend. Look for a related posting over at Phungo later in the week.