Ohio LCS lost to fire.

I stole this from another site.I figured it might interest some of you.
http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/ ... rts-cards/

Ouch. Best of luck to them as they rebuild.

Unless there is another shop with a very similar name in Medina, this is the guy that talked my mother into buying an 05 Prime Patches Auto (non-numbered) of Vizquel for $50. She was almost 70 years old, and wanted to do something very nice for me for Xmas. Apparently he laid it on thick- it was one of the nicest cards he had ever seen, extremely rare, book value twice that amount, etc.

It still bothers me to this day. Karma's a bitch.

VizquelCollector said:

Unless there is another shop with a very similar name in Medina, this is the guy that talked my mother into buying an 05 Prime Patches Auto (non-numbered) of Vizquel for $50. She was almost 70 years old, and wanted to do something very nice for me for Xmas. Apparently he laid it on thick- it was one of the nicest cards he had ever seen, extremely rare, book value twice that amount, etc.

It still bothers me to this day. Karma's a bitch.

Click to expand...

atrocity aside, it's pretty spectacular your 70 year old mother went into a card shop to get you an omar vizquel auto.

rehmus said:

VizquelCollector said:

Unless there is another shop with a very similar name in Medina, this is the guy that talked my mother into buying an 05 Prime Patches Auto (non-numbered) of Vizquel for $50. She was almost 70 years old, and wanted to do something very nice for me for Xmas. Apparently he laid it on thick- it was one of the nicest cards he had ever seen, extremely rare, book value twice that amount, etc.

It still bothers me to this day. Karma's a bitch.

Click to expand...

atrocity aside, it's pretty spectacular your 70 year old mother went into a card shop to get you an omar vizquel auto.

Click to expand...

Yep, no doubt! A ton of the things in my collection have come from her. She's been keeping an eye out for around 15 years and it's fun for her. She's saved literally hundreds of newspaper articles, and misc things like regional business ads, a life-sized stand-up, line up cards, and many other random items. She also knows someone well in the Indians' front office who has set aside a lot of things for me.

She was so excited to get me this ultra-rare autograph for xmas, and it made me sick to my stomach to hear the story of this guy taking advantage of her. I'm glad that no one was hurt in that fire, but I have zero sympathy for a guy who operates like a stereotypical used car salesman.

Sort of a side-track here, but I recall a story back in the late 90's about a card shop burning down back in Queens, NY in the Auburndale neighborhood. Forgot the name, but it was a shop that I went to once in a blue moon as a kid. Had good prices on an average selection of wax. Heard from friends who went there frequently that they were going to rebuild, but nothing came of it and some time later heard a rumor that the owners were being investigated for insurance fraud. I still wonder what really happened to this day...

My old hometown...if memory serves me correctly that shop was garbage back in the day. There was another shop in town when I was a kid that resealed wax packs. Owner was a younger guy, total white trash.

I told him, one day you will get what is due to you. Sure enough, he went belly up in 1990 as word got around he resealed packs and for some reason a third-party came in to liquidate his inventory and assets.

I remember the look on his face when the third-party accepted my offer of $30 per display case. These were professional grade...glass, lights, 3 shelves and maybe 6 feet long...really nice.

The owner went nuts...screaming how he was being ripped off. I could only smile I was bought up stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Most shop owners are collectors which doesn't translate into being a good business mind.

Q - What do analysts call Best Buy?
A - Amazon's showroom.

The same is true with LCS. You can charge a small mark-up for the convenience of local service or even a small premium for home town players. However, you can't ignore the fact eBay exists and that is the true market price....Beckett pricing is no longer relevant.

One day shop owners will learn this lesson. The one advantage they have is face-to-face interaction with the customer. They can touch, see and speak with a customer....plenty of opportunity to cross sell additional cards. However, most lack the social skills and charisma thereby negating the one advantage they have over online competitors.

muchuckwagon said:

My old hometown...if memory serves me correctly that shop was garbage back in the day. There was another shop in town when I was a kid that resealed wax packs. Owner was a younger guy, total white trash.

I told him, one day you will get what is due to you. Sure enough, he went belly up in 1990 as word got around he resealed packs and for some reason a third-party came in to liquidate his inventory and assets.

I remember the look on his face when the third-party accepted my offer of $30 per display case. These were professional grade...glass, lights, 3 shelves and maybe 6 feet long...really nice.

The owner went nuts...screaming how he was being ripped off. I could only smile I was bought up stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Most shop owners are collectors which doesn't translate into being a good business mind.

Q - What do analysts call Best Buy?
A - Amazon's showroom.

The same is true with LCS. You can charge a small mark-up for the convenience of local service or even a small premium for home town players. However, you can't ignore the fact eBay exists and that is the true market price....Beckett pricing is no longer relevant.

One day shop owners will learn this lesson. The one advantage they have is face-to-face interaction with the customer. They can touch, see and speak with a customer....plenty of opportunity to cross sell additional cards. However, most lack the social skills and charisma thereby negating the one advantage they have over online competitors.

Click to expand...

They have more advantages than this...such as people selling collections or vintage which they have absolutely no idea bout...or people who are to this day ignorant of ebay (and how to use it). Not saying it's a fail-safe money maker...but they do have advantages. There's an ordinary average joe who is not exactly organized in my suburb here, and he does very well for himself because of the two points noted above.

- jkeys