Life long dream coming true?

[bouwob]

If you have any carppentry skills might I recommend roll out shelves for the commons area. that way you can get as much stuff on the floor as possible. Also make sure your organize, If I am a set collector I do not want to go through 100, 5000 count boxes looking for a specific set I am interested. You may not have to order by card number, but set and year should be in order so that they are easy to find.

Also I have been telling chris this forever to no avail.

Start organizing player lots. It will make little to no money to begin with, but over 5 years you will start to amass huge player collections. for low end stuff, use a penny sleeve and a colored sticker for pricing. Many of the people who break boxes in your store will likely leave the base there, so if you take the time to sort out semi stars, stars, superstars and local teams you will make decent money. Assume you did $.50 for griffey, pujols, ryan, etc. $.25 for stars, $.10 for semi stars over time you should make some decent money. Especially if you are making a lot of these boxes from wax people leave at the store and you would normally throw away. It will take a lot of time, but in 5 years you will be happy that you did. Also if you do a pull out type shelving unit, you will be able to sell a large majority of cards with very little space. It will also give you a place to put the $5 to $10 cards that are not worthy of being in display cases and still be very well organized.

 

[predatorkj]

I agree with Bouwob on the player lots. I know every time I hit up a new shop, I like to look through them for Bagwell's, Stackhouse's, and just in general to see what they have for other players. And they will eventually make you money. Also, having stuff sorted by brand and year is a great idea for the base as well. Somebody like me might come in and clean up to complete sets.

The comic thing you pretty much told me about but if you do decide to do any new stuff, ask your customers what they want(use the diamond catalog to order or find another guy to order through and just piggyback). But having a large selection will hurt you without people who loyally come pick it up. I've seen people lose their ass because they carried all the new titles and had nobody to come buy them. Also, offer them an incentive. I've had things done for me like free boards and sleeves thrown in for each new comic I buy(one sleeve and board per comic bought), 20% off each new comic bought, half price variant covers depending on the volume I bought( I'd buy 20 new titles and get half off on a variant cover of my choosing), Buy 10 and the next two are free...etc.

Now, not all of these are necessarily good for you. You'd have to decide what you can do and what your customers would enjoy more. But doing any of these things will keep them coming back. But if you tell them full price, no discount, and not even a sleeve and board...you wouldn't be offering them much of a reason to buy from you. Back when I was collecting comics, as many titles as I purchased a month, one of these tidbits not being there would actually cause me to stop doing business with that particular store. As much as I used to read and pick up, I was going with the best deal I could get.

 

[mancini79]

Congrats! Good thinking on having such a large furnace. Now when people bring in their late 80's and early 90's cards for appraisals, just have them place it in the furnace.

 

[Casebusters]

If you have any carppentry skills might I recommend roll out shelves for the commons area. that way you can get as much stuff on the floor as possible. Also make sure your organize, If I am a set collector I do not want to go through 100, 5000 count boxes looking for a specific set I am interested. You may not have to order by card number, but set and year should be in order so that they are easy to find.

Also I have been telling chris this forever to no avail.

Start organizing player lots. It will make little to no money to begin with, but over 5 years you will start to amass huge player collections. for low end stuff, use a penny sleeve and a colored sticker for pricing. Many of the people who break boxes in your store will likely leave the base there, so if you take the time to sort out semi stars, stars, superstars and local teams you will make decent money. Assume you did $.50 for griffey, pujols, ryan, etc. $.25 for stars, $.10 for semi stars over time you should make some decent money. Especially if you are making a lot of these boxes from wax people leave at the store and you would normally throw away. It will take a lot of time, but in 5 years you will be happy that you did. Also if you do a pull out type shelving unit, you will be able to sell a large majority of cards with very little space. It will also give you a place to put the $5 to $10 cards that are not worthy of being in display cases and still be very well organized.

I have a question about this...

Would you do this to all your cards? sort them into player lots?

When I did shows, I had boxes of cards that were all mixed (one sport per box).
I would pull out the commons and sort them into teams boxes.
They had the low-end inserts, HOF, rookies, Stars, etc.
More people would go through my mixed boxes than through the players boxes at the other dealers table because it seemed like if you sorted them by player, then they wouldn't feel like they got a good deal, hoping they find something you missed. I would sell thousands of cards at 25¢ each. (I used to have eight 8 ft tables full of 5000 ct boxes, at a show I did in Ft Laud)
This is great for buyers who want to buy good players and alot of them. But not so great for the buyer wanting that 1 card..
But that's when you ask the specific buyers for their lists and help them find their card(s)

 

[tonsofcommons]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

 

[Casebusters]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

 

[mjbuchanan80]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I checked out your site and I have to ask...people are seriously buying common 2011 Topps singles for 40 cents per? I was thinking 15-20 cents max.

 

[markakis8]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I checked out your site and I have to ask...people are seriously buying common 2011 Topps singles for 40 cents per? I was thinking 15-20 cents max.

You seriously just said that a 20 cent difference?

 

[mjbuchanan80]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I checked out your site and I have to ask...people are seriously buying common 2011 Topps singles for 40 cents per? I was thinking 15-20 cents max.

You seriously just said that a 20 cent difference?

What are you talking about?

Guess I need to clarify my statement better...didn't think I'd need to. Casebusters has a website where he sells 2011 base cards (commons) for 40 cents a piece. When you consider sites like Sportlots sellers are going 18 cents and Justcommons is going 12-30 cents I think at 40 cents he wouldn't be moving them very well. I was just curious if he really had buyers paying that price.

hope that helps.

 

[Casebusters]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I checked out your site and I have to ask...people are seriously buying common 2011 Topps singles for 40 cents per? I was thinking 15-20 cents max.

yes there are, Matter of fact,
I sold almost 700 cards out of 3 Diamond Giveaway sets at 50¢ a card minimum in 3 days
I also have discount for repeat customers, 10% off, 25% off (on non-memorabilia cards)
Its not always about the cheapest cards but the service one gives to their customers... Been selling like this since 1999 and I sold cards starting at 35¢ back then...
and thats only busting 1 case of each baseball that I open

 

[mjbuchanan80]

Hey everyone.

First of all, thanks for everyone that is commenting this thread.

Right now, it's not in the cards. I am going to get some bills paid off and give it another shot.

I'm going to continue to do what I do now... buy and sell wherever I can.

You can continue to comment if you would like, it keeps the fire burning.

I hear ya! Every time I hear someone wanting to open a store or opening up a store,
It keeps the drive alive for me!

Good Luck and hope it comes true for you when you are ready!!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I checked out your site and I have to ask...people are seriously buying common 2011 Topps singles for 40 cents per? I was thinking 15-20 cents max.

yes there are, Matter of fact,
I sold almost 700 cards out of 3 Diamond Giveaway sets at 50¢ a card minimum in 3 days
I also have discount for repeat customers, 10% off, 25% off (on non-memorabilia cards)
Its not always about the cheapest cards but the service one gives to their customers... Been selling like this since 1999 and I sold cards starting at 35¢ back then...
and thats only busting 1 case of each baseball that I open

Thanks for the reply. My brother and I are seriously looking to get into the business of moving commons, inserts, and parallels (non of the low #'ed, expensive stuff). The discounts you give to a loyal customer base makes perfect sense though. And I understand why your pries are what they are. You bust cases yourself and sell off the contents right?...Got to make your money back + profit.

When I think of a business model like justcommons, that involves purchasing bulk lots from rippers and flippers who just want to make a couple cents per card. Think we will stick to that route and make money by high volumes.