Burbank pricing question

For anyone who has ever purchased cards at the actual Burbank Sportscards storefront, are the prices there any cheaper than what they list on eBay and Beckett? If so, I was just curious if would be worthwhile to have sort of a group purchase where several collectors sent shopping lists to someone who could actually go to the store and pick up the cards more cheaply and ship them to the collectors.

No clue but I do know they aren't really able to move much on their prices listed online, so odds are they aren't much cheaper at the store front. I will say that the main guy there is pretty good at communicating with customers and will work with you in some situations. Not sure if that's helpful but I'm guessing their prices are pretty close to the same, with little room to move.

I've never been to the store but from their online sales I've noticed inconsistencies in pricing. If I see a card I like from them on ebay, I'll check their Beckett store and sometimes one price is lower. Maybe a deal can sometimes be found in their shop. Who knows?

- Rodrick

I've heard there's a handling charge for them to go through stock and pull cards at the shop. There's a video on youtube that shows a PC in the store front that has a database/search engine customers can use to find cards.

I asked when I was there and was told that they can't take less than their prices. I did get to pay tax on top of my purchase though. It may seem like a great idea to go to the store, but they make it feel like you're shopping from home anyway.

bear0555 said:

I asked when I was there and was told that they can't take less than their prices. I did get to pay tax on top of my purchase though. It may seem like a great idea to go to the store, but they make it feel like you're shopping from home anyway.

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That doesn't really answer my question, though. I'm not asking about making deals or negotiating, I'm asking: "Are the in-store prices any cheaper than the online prices?" If in-store prices are something like 20% cheaper than their eBay and Beckett prices, even tax and a handling charge might still make it worth a group effort for a bulk order. If the prices are the same, then the idea is just dead and we can all move on to curing cancer or something.

DaClyde said:

That doesn't really answer my question, though. I'm not asking about making deals or negotiating, I'm asking: "Are the in-store prices any cheaper than the online prices?" If in-store prices are something like 20% cheaper than their eBay and Beckett prices, even tax and a handling charge might still make it worth a group effort for a bulk order. If the prices are the same, then the idea is just dead and we can all move on to curing cancer or something.

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No difference in their prices. The in-store database they have set up is the Beckett Marketplace.

nerdherd020 said:

No difference in their prices. The in-store database they have set up is the Beckett Marketplace.

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Ah, thanks. Pity.

DaClyde said:

That doesn't really answer my question, though. I'm not asking about making deals or negotiating, I'm asking: "Are the in-store prices any cheaper than the online prices?" If in-store prices are something like 20% cheaper than their eBay and Beckett prices, even tax and a handling charge might still make it worth a group effort for a bulk order. If the prices are the same, then the idea is just dead and we can all move on to curing cancer or something.

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Sorry, forgot to mention that you are shopping from the beckett website when you're at their store.

Yeah, a trip there is pretty much the most pointless thing I've ever done in LA. They have showcases with a couple boxes of wax in them, no singles on display. Imagine if a card shop was inside a submarine, and at the far end of the submarine, there is one ancient computer with the Beckett marketplace pulled up. It's not the kind of place I felt like hanging out. I don't remember anything being on the walls, it's almost uncomfortable. It's essentially the opposite of what we all want a card shop to be, yet they're the biggest in the world.

Wal-Mart level of inventory + Saks Fifth Avenue level of prices + Chicken Express level of decor = Burbank Sportscards

mudflap02 said:

Yeah, a trip there is pretty much the most pointless thing I've ever done in LA. They have showcases with a couple boxes of wax in them, no singles on display. Imagine if a card shop was inside a submarine, and at the far end of the submarine, there is one ancient computer with the Beckett marketplace pulled up. It's not the kind of place I felt like hanging out. I don't remember anything being on the walls, it's almost uncomfortable. It's essentially the opposite of what we all want a card shop to be, yet they're the biggest in the world.

Wal-Mart level of inventory + Saks Fifth Avenue level of prices + Chicken Express level of decor = Burbank Sportscards

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You get a "like" for that.

They meant the new spot to be uninviting to customers -- they just want to be a web business but maintained that tiny front-end for some reason, either to comply with zoning law, or ... dunno.

Now the OLD location on Magnolia was awesome. There were a couple year where inventory was coming in too fast for them to catalog so they would put everything on one 25c wall of the store, hundreds of 3200ct boxes 25 cents each. I think the idea was that they would take out the high end and this would just be unsorted commons, but I would routinely find great cards in there.

No lyin', over the years I found an 01B Pujols Gold RC, and an 82T Traded Ripken. Quarter a pop. I felt guilty but had (over)spent with them so much with them over the years I felt like this kind of evened it out.

Most interesting thing I ever pulled from those boxes were about 25 2004 Topps Update Blue cards. There were supposed to be the pack issued 1/1s with serial numbers and holograms, but as far as I can tell, very few, if any, were issued in packs. The ones I got from the Burbank box have no serial or holo, so I assume were meant as replacements or something then got backdoored to a collector who sold out to Burbank. I still have all of them, Schilling, Larry Walker, Howie Kendrick RC etc. As far as I know they are the closest thing to the real Blue 1/1s that were supposed to be inserted in 04TT but I don't think made it.

Anyway, sorry for the long tangent. Fun memories. But the new store is just their web business with a desk out front. Not worth visiting unless Rob will give you the tour of their massive warehouse, which is fun to see just for kicks.

Yea sometimes you can get good deals but 99# of there cards are overpriced yet they sell. Go figure

olerud363 said:

I've never been to the store but from their online sales I've noticed inconsistencies in pricing. If I see a card I like from them on ebay, I'll check their Beckett store and sometimes one price is lower. Maybe a deal can sometimes be found in their shop. Who knows?

- Rodrick

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This. If you win with the lower price, he/they will send you the wrong card, then if/when you check them, he'll promise to refund your return postage and send you the "right card" as soon as they receive what you returned. Then Then you have to ask him/them if they received what you returned because even though it shows that it's been delivered, they waited for me to PM and ask if they received it. Then sure enough, he/they gave me a DC number and when I checked, it showed that it was picked up. Then you wait, and you wait, and you wait and after a couple of weeks, no card, no refund for the postage as promised and finally, I checked the DC number and it still shows that it was picked up. I got my money after I file a claim thru Paypal. I have not bought a card from Burbank since. I will quit collecting before I knowingly buy another card from them. This is my experience with them. I hope you all have a better experience with them....

I happen to respectfully disagree, many of Rob's prices are incredibly low for the value of the service provided. If we were doing an event next week and had Marcellus Wiley as a speaker, I would contact Rob and say I need 100 or so cards so everyone in the audience can have one. And I wager, that almost all of those cards would be 25 cents each. That is now actually cheaper then the last time we had Wiley as a speaker. Of course, if you want to sharp shoot, yes that is hard, but if you want a nice collection of cards, if Rob has the stock on them he is in many cases way below Beckett value. Of course, most are base but,,, still. Real life example, there was a Reggie Jackson Goudey SP that booked at $6, I had it marked at $5 and the customer at the show asked me if I could match Burbank's price. In most cases, I would have gladly, but I felt like I was being show roomed and just said no. But in reality, their prices for the most part are very fair and how else can I, or anyone else, get a ton of Alex Cora cards at a cheap price with one-shop stopping. Enough of rant,,, but Burbank is overall very fair to shop at and they do price based on their inventory in some cases

I spend lots of money with these guys for buyback cards.. Where else can you one stop shop 20-100 card lots of any old leaf cards?

It can be a tricky matter when someone tries to justify higher prices based on "service provided".

On one hand, some people willingly pay for the convenience of one-stop shopping at a place with huge selection including hard-to-find cards, where they can apparently find any card in their inventory quickly. Burbank relies on these type of buyers I think.

On the other hand, there are buyers (myself included) who just want to get a good deal and are willing to sacrifice a little convenience to get a lower price. A good example for me is COMC shipping. Three bucks to Canada for unlimited cards is a great deal, so I don't mind waiting 3-4 weeks for my cards to arrive.

- Rodrick

Leaf said:

I spend lots of money with these guys for buyback cards.. Where else can you one stop shop 20-100 card lots of any old leaf cards?

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Not arguing that. They've probably been the single largest contributor to my PC. If I had to guess, maybe a few hundred Belle cards I've needed over the years.

The point was it's pointless to go to their shop because prices are the same and there isn't really an on site atmosphere lol

Anyways, I'm sure they've been a huge asset for you.


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It seems to me that the biggest "beef" that I hear over and over with Burbank is the higher prices they charge for the single inserts/parallels/autos and such that have essentially dried up and otherwise unavailable, yet the pricing is "too high" for the current market for similar items. "Burbank has that Marquis Grissom insert numbered to 5, but they want $267.31 for it! Bah, what a rip!!". I have seen them list older Garvey cards over and over for prices I'd never even consider paying, but thankfully they have never actually had a "rare" card I wanted/needed that I didn't already have or there was another in the market elsewhere. I think I have bought a few ebay singles from them, but they were not rare or high demand, so they were reasonably priced.

My specific complaint with them, which I have moved past now, is that when I simply asked if any of the Garvey cards that they were selling on ebay at the time were numbered with a specific couple of serial numbers that I was seeking and possibly willing to pay their premium prices for, I was bluntly told that they would not even check. They use stock photos and list numbered cards generically (for example - Joe Blow UD Sweet Stain/200) and apparently don't feel it is worth their time to address specific questions about their items. I often wonder if I had asked what the condition was vs what the serial number was, would I get a different answer.

I use to b!tch about their pricing but they're one of the only players in town unless you have patience and time on your hands to wait. I just picked away at $50 at a time for the free shipping and eventually got every Belle card I needed off them. I think they cut me a deal on some of the last cards I got since I did so much business with them and can't really complain.

That's my take I guess.


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