Are anyone else's card shops extremely overpriced?

[tonsofcommons]

I only have one guy locally that sells cards and he has no wax newer than 2000.

He refuses to take a loss on ANYTHING!

Therefore, I went in to see what he wanted for all of his old school (90s) and I just have to shake my head.

$50 for 1998 Fleer
$90 for 1999 Flair Baseball

I just wish he would think about turnover and liquidate.

 

[LaneyB]

there is only one near me, and the old guy has is stuff way over priced

WAY over priced, he's crazy.

 

[pac_rat_76]

Nearest one is half an hour away and not only are wax prices high, but singles & supplies as well. Pretty much not worth going.

 

[yankees23657]

I have not been to the one near me in a couple of months for this reason. His new stuff is set at about market, but they never seem to go down any, so it is hard to find a good deal in there. I have recently gone to picking up singles/memorabilia on the internet and it has gone much better

 

[darocker80]

72 for 08 bowman draft and or chrome
125 sp authentic

 

[KC37]

I only have one guy locally that sells cards and he has no wax newer than 2000.

He refuses to take a loss on ANYTHING!

Therefore, I went in to see what he wanted for all of his old school (90s) and I just have to shake my head.

$50 for 1998 Fleer
$90 for 1999 Flair Baseball

I just wish he would think about turnover and liquidate.

My local shop isn't too bad, but there's one 15 minutes away that's much more reasonable.
There's a comic store also about 20 minutes away that's like the above post - real high prices, and has boxes of product from 01 and 02 at full SRP - UD Golf for $79, for example. I'd go in there and drop some serious money if they ever knocked those boxes to market value, but they're content to collect dust.

 

[ChasHawk]

I have 2 shops within 15 min of me.

Closest one is an old semi-retired guy who couldn't care less about collecting anymore, and all of his prices are high. Not as high as the $$ in the OP, but still too high never the less.

Second shop a few minutes further away is amazing!! Guy that owns it has a regular business that is his primary income, and opened the shop just because he is a HUGE collector and wanted to open a shop for the purpose of hanging out with fellow collectors. I can sit there for 3-4 hours BSing and watching him and other people bust and he doesn't care if I spend a dime.

it is kinda annoying, but it's tough for them to make money if they don't mark up their stuff...especially wax

+1 - and heres why

Every shop is going to be higher than eBay and shows for very specific reasons, and in a recent conversation the shop owner explained to me exactly why.

1. Building rent, electricity, gas, phone - Just these 4 things can cost upwards of $2,000 / month. Most eBay sellers don't have this overhead.

2. Cost of product. This was the most eye opening conversation about this hobby ever! My local store owner is a UD Diamond dealer, Topps HTA, Donruss Preferred, blah, blah, blah. When any of the Big 3 come out with a new release, he can only buy the Direct Config cases. What does that mean? Example - Playoff Prime Cuts IV. Master Config = 15 boxes. Direct Config = 5 boxes. He can only buy the 5 box cases from DLP. The Master cases ONLY go to distributors, and then he has to buy from them. The Mfgrs have it set up this way to keep their distibutors in business. He can actually get better prices from DA & Blowout than he can buying directly from the Mfgr!!

He refuses to take a loss on ANYTHING

3. Cost vs Loss. Small local shop can't afford to take a loss on wax. Even my guy that I like still has a couple boxes of 2007 Ultra SE marked at $60 because he paid $55 to get them from UD 2 years ago. DA & Blowout can do this because they move HUGE volumes of wax. So if they take a bath on 08 BC, they can make up for it when when a product like Prime Cuts goes from $155 to $210 overnight. Local shops cannot move this kind of volume and make up for losses like the big guys who sell 100's of boxes a day. My guy sells cards on eBay every day, sees what wax is going for, and knows there's nothing he can do about it. He hasn't turned a decent profit since October, bc it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE.

4. Loyalty. All that being said, if you are loyal to a good shop and get to know the owner, it can have it's perks. My guy pulled a couple of Dawson jsy cards from Cuts a couple weeks ago. He knew that he could throw em on eBay and get $6-7 apeice. Instead, he GAVE them to me even though I only spent about $20 in the shop that day. And, the $20 I spent was on some packs of 08 BC & BDP&P that he sold me for $2 a pack! I know this is minor as well, but any "hits" I get while opening product in the shop, he gives me a new sleeve & toploader to take them home in.

Overall, if I'm gonna buy a case or 1/2 case, I'm gonna go to DA. Hell, my guy has a premier account with DA and will order for me so I get his discount!

But, if I'm just looking for 1 or 2 boxes of a new product, I'm gonna go to the shop 10 times out of 10 because I know his mark-up is only $5-10 more than eBay + s&h, and I can either open them right there at the tables he provides, or take them home right away. No ordering, then PayPaling, then waiting, then driving to UPS cause I wasn't home to sign, etc.

As long as you know it's only a few $$ more, support your local hobby. There aren't many left.

Just my .02

 

[jbone17]

Oh yeah. Mr. D's on Rt.18 in East Brunswick. The dude sells 1999 Derek Jeter UD Choice cards for like $5.00. He sells newer wax, but his prices are absolutely absurd. I once worked for this guy for 3 weeks and he is the most moronic person I have ever met. He is kinda rude to his customers, but I haven't been there since I quit. NJ collectors, never, ever, go here.

 

[brouthercard]

One of the shops in town just recently shut down, and now there's only one left.

I guess you can only get so far selling 2007 bowman draft boxes for $110, and 2008 bowman chrome for $79.

 

[richezOne]

One of the shops in town just recently shut down, and now there's only one left.

I guess you can only get so far selling 2007 bowman draft boxes for $110, and 2008 bowman chrome for $79.

Gerry!

wassup dude?! finally made your way on here... whats good with you these days?

Rich

 

[darocker80]

One of the shops in town just recently shut down, and now there's only one left.

I guess you can only get so far selling 2007 bowman draft boxes for $110, and 2008 bowman chrome for $79.

hmm are you the one with the longoria red reflector auto?

 

[J.O.]

my shop is very good. usually charges what it costs on ebay with shipping, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. he uses that dealernet thing to see where current prices are and adjusts. he also throws in some sleeves/toploaders on boxes.

 

[Huffamaniac]

Yes and that is why I no longer go. I am on 5 weeks, which is a record for me. Where I work there is one within 5 minutes walking

It is so tempting.

 

[JVC]

Yes and that is why I no longer go. I am on 5 weeks, which is a record for me. Where I work there is one within 5 minutes walking

It is so tempting.

Bay State Coin?

 

[xcantgobackx]

shop be me on long island has really good prices about $5 more then show prices not bad at all

where are you?

LI is huge lol

Yeah, where is that? My girl lives on Long Island and if I'm there and I get the itch, the only place I know of is Cardboard Memories. That place is WAY over priced and I won't go there anymore.

 

[numba1yankeefan]

shop be me on long island has really good prices about $5 more then show prices not bad at all

where are you?

LI is huge lol

Yeah, where is that? My girl lives on Long Island and if I'm there and I get the itch, the only place I know of is Cardboard Memories. That place is WAY over priced and I won't go there anymore.

that place sucks! lol

only been there a few times, but that was before I even really got into collecting cards. Went to get some autographed baseballs authenticated because they were apparently "PSA Approved"....gave them a few balls to authenticate, a few days later I get back my Phil Hughes auto baseball with a COA that says freakin Phil Humber on it :evil: . How the hell to do authenticate something if you dont even know who the auto is of!

idiots!

 

[mickeys4life]

I only have one guy locally that sells cards and he has no wax newer than 2000.

He refuses to take a loss on ANYTHING!

Therefore, I went in to see what he wanted for all of his old school (90s) and I just have to shake my head.

$50 for 1998 Fleer
$90 for 1999 Flair Baseball

I just wish he would think about turnover and liquidate.

My local shop isn't too bad, but there's one 15 minutes away that's much more reasonable.
There's a comic store also about 20 minutes away that's like the above post - real high prices, and has boxes of product from 01 and 02 at full SRP - UD Golf for $79, for example. I'd go in there and drop some serious money if they ever knocked those boxes to market value, but they're content to collect dust.

I work part time at a comic/card shop for store credit. Since he mainly makes his money on comics he has to order through a middleman...he doesnt sell enough to buy by the case through Topps, UD etc. So he pays more per box which he has to pass on to the consumer. The packs are priced higher than buying the whole box because he rarely ever sells out of a box and needs to do this to at least break even. The upside is he never raises prices to reflect the market...if he is selling a pack at $10 each, that due to demand sells for $15-$20 everywhere else, he still sells at $10...if the packs never sell he takes the loss to move the inventory and sells uber cheap. I got 16 packs of 05 Threads for $16 once and pulled a babe Ruth G/U #/20...

 

[brouthercard]

One of the shops in town just recently shut down, and now there's only one left.

I guess you can only get so far selling 2007 bowman draft boxes for $110, and 2008 bowman chrome for $79.

hmm are you the one with the longoria red reflector auto?

Hi, I'm just a newbie, but I did dig into my shoebox and was wondering if you were talking about this?:

I've been out of baseball cards for two years, has this guy done anything yet? Which minor league team is he on now? Someone told me he may be good some day, so I put it away in the garage. It's a bit warped from the heat, but still in mint condition. I hear a lot of people are grading cards these days, do you think it would do good?

Sometimes I don't like these rookie card sets, you need to sit on them forever, maybe i should just put it away for another five years and see what happens.

These red reflectors sure are pretty, though, aren't they?

Anyone seen his superreflector yet?

 

[ChasHawk]

Sometimes I don't like these rookie card sets, you need to sit on them forever, maybe i should just put it away for another five years and see what happens.

These red reflectors sure are pretty, though, aren't they?

Plz tell me you are a stand-up comedian

If not, I'll give you $20 dlvd for it right now :lol: :lol:

 

[mickeys4life]

Sometimes I don't like these rookie card sets, you need to sit on them forever, maybe i should just put it away for another five years and see what happens.

These red reflectors sure are pretty, though, aren't they?

Plz tell me you are a stand-up comedian

If not, I'll give you $20 dlvd for it right now :lol: :lol:

:mrgreen: