Rationing of 2010 bowman at the card shop?!?? Card ****?

[Adamsince1981]

This is a pretty weird business scenario.

Upset 1 and please many OR dissapoint some and sell to 1...only not at all clear cut. Sounds like to me that the boxes need to be off the shelf.

Most of our regulars pre-ordered so this was never a problem...also we stocked a ton of the best product.

Was this a smaller shop?

 

[bdal23]

My local shop is putting out two cases for$65 a box. The limit is two per customer. Seems fair to me. If you want more than two its $80 a box.

 

[Adamsince1981]

My local shop is putting out two cases for$65 a box. The limit is two per customer. Seems fair to me. If you want more than two its $80 a box.

That seems like a much worse idea....buy in bulk and pay more per???

 

[i43770]

With a hot product like this, that is selling really well and will be more costly to replace. I look at it like a Black Friday sale in retail. You may see that they have 100 MP3 players that will cost them more when they buy more, but they are still only going to let you buy 1 or 2.

Scenario #1:

Shop has 9 on the shelf and says you can only have 3. You buy 3, open them and go on your merry way. Or you don't buy 3 and go somewhere else to look for some.

Scenario #2:

Shop owner has 3 on shelf, but 6 more in the back. You buy 3 boxes, open them and go on your merry way. But while you are opening, someone else comes in and wants some. Sees you opening boxes, and none are left on the shelf, and leaves to go somewhere else. Or asks, owner goes to the back and grabs some, but you get mad because they had more available, but didn't offer them to you or let you know.

So anyway you look at it, the shop owner has the possibility of losing sales by limiting sales or having some hidden so not everyone sees them. If he feels that he needs to limit how many people get, so more of his customers can get one, deal with it. He knows how he wants his business to run.

 

[Topnotchsy]

My local shop is putting out two cases for$65 a box. The limit is two per customer. Seems fair to me. If you want more than two its $80 a box.

That seems like a much worse idea....buy in bulk and pay more per???

When the demand is this high, buying bulk does not really benefit the seller, so the logic for providing a bulk discount falls away. I actually like this idea a lot. Buyer sees the store is spreading the wealth on the cheaper price, but is willing to provide as much product as you want for the current price. (IMO a seller would be well within his right to sell for $80 straight off the bat if the prices have changed.)

 

[jubei777]

Calm down man. This is the street release date and he probably just got the product in. If you were in his shoes, you would need to take care of your regulars. Would you like it if you were a regular and someone came in and bought out all the inventory? At least you got a few boxes at a good price....

 

[brouthercard]

This is a pretty weird business scenario.

Upset 1 and please many OR dissapoint some and sell to 1...only not at all clear cut. Sounds like to me that the boxes need to be off the shelf.

Most of our regulars pre-ordered so this was never a problem...also we stocked a ton of the best product.

Was this a smaller shop?

This was a smaller shop that got in one hobby and one jumbo case.

He knew his replacement cost was for what he had the boxes for sale at.

So he upsets one of his "whales" for the benefit of his other "regulars" that buy maybe one or two boxes of all the new products that comes out?

I guess in this situation, he decided it was better to piss off one guy who purchases more than all his other customers combined, and will make his other 3 or 4 customers happy with the rest of the six boxes. So what happens to the 5th customer who is shut out- he's still pissed anyways, cause his cost for another box will be $100.

The shop owner really can't win in this situation unless he hides his boxes, and tells the later customers, sorry, i'm sold out, but i can replace it for you at a higher cost.

For a hot product, sometimes you need to make it first come first serve, especially if you have more regulars than boxes available.

 

[jubei777]

This is a pretty weird business scenario.

Upset 1 and please many OR dissapoint some and sell to 1...only not at all clear cut. Sounds like to me that the boxes need to be off the shelf.

Most of our regulars pre-ordered so this was never a problem...also we stocked a ton of the best product.

Was this a smaller shop?

This was a smaller shop that got in one hobby and one jumbo case.

He knew his replacement cost was for what he had the boxes for sale at.

So he upsets one of his "whales" for the benefit of his other "regulars" that buy maybe one or two boxes of all the new products that comes out?

I guess in this situation, he decided it was better to piss off one guy who purchases more than all his other customers combined, and will make his other 3 or 4 customers happy with the rest of the six boxes. So what happens to the 5th customer who is shut out- he's still pissed anyways, cause his cost for another box will be $100.

The shop owner really can't win in this situation unless he hides his boxes, and tells the later customers, sorry, i'm sold out, but i can replace it for you at a higher cost.

For a hot product, sometimes you need to make it first come first serve, especially if you have more regulars than boxes available.

i have to disagree with you here. if you're running a LCS, you have your regulars and they are generally dependable for a certain amount of inventory that comes in. when you think about it, he probably made an estimate based on the feedback of his regulars as far as how much inventory he would need. keep in mind that if this week didn't have Timeless Treasures and Prestige, he could have ordered more to keep his regulars in product.

personally, i'm not a believer in sell out potentially all of your product to the first guy who's willing to pay for it off the street. you'll kill your regular clientele and there's never a guarantee that any of the one time buyers will ever come back.

 

[Sportsnutcards]

I am doing the same thuing as your shop. I have boxes at $75 with a limit of 2 per customer. Once all of my regulars get their fill, the rest will be sold to anyone who wants them. This product will probably sell through in a couple of days and than i will restock just for packs. The wholesale to restock for box sales is too high right now and will probably not get to a point low enough to make a restock worthwhile.

 

[justinmandawg]

Any shop buying 1 and 1 of this set when topps is the only show in town deserves to be closed.

in wichita there is a shop that has jumbos priced (notice i didn't say selling) at 144 / box.

 

[Dpanthers14]

Any shop buying 1 and 1 of this set when topps is the only show in town deserves to be closed.

in wichita there is a shop that has jumbos priced (notice i didn't say selling) at 144 / box.

OUCH! Ya his boxes are usually kinda high compared to the other shop that went out.

 

[rymflaherty]

Any shop buying 1 and 1 of this set when topps is the only show in town deserves to be closed.

in wichita there is a shop that has jumbos priced (notice i didn't say selling) at 144 / box.

OUCH! Ya his boxes are usually kinda high compared to the other shop that went out.

I thought they were $144 or so on Blowout this morning and they are not even up anymore.....so crazy as it seems that probably wasn't totally off base.

I got you all beat though with LCS ineptitude.....I called a local shop yesterday to see if prices were worth heading down for and he said that he wasn't carrying the product. ::facepalm::
I really hope "not carrying" meant pre-sold it all....but since they dont really sell online and dont usually let you put down a reserve he really may have not bought any.

 

[011873]

The way Im doing it in my store is that the regulars get Hobby for $69 and others get it for $75, that is, until I sell out of the ones I pre ordered (which will be very very shortly).

I also sold CASES of Jumbos to my regulars for $109 a box and the ones I have left over will be about 135 per.

 

[schmidtfan20]

A good shop knows what their good customers collect and open. The shop owner should of made a count of how
many their good customers wanted and then put what was left for the masses. The card shop owner dropped
the ball on this, those boxes shouldn't of even made it to the sales floor. I can't stand dealers who are
reluctant to sell boxes because they just noticed that they are going for more elsewhere. Know what you have
and then price them accordingly, but don't go waste my time with games.

I buy alot at my local shop, I expect this kind of service, that is what keeps me going back.

Kevin

 

[notjomommasclint]

dude at least you got a price! i am still waiting for my local shop (sportscenter cards and collectibles in omaha) to give me a price per jumbo case... i asked him multiple times! the first time via email on march 5th! i had planned on buying as many as 3 cases but the price spike hit before i could get a locked price from him. so needless to say he can keep his cards and i will keep my money out of his store!

 

[1988RedSox]

The quick solution to any store merchandise ****, is to send your girlfriend, mother, sister, brother, father, or roommate into the store and buy them with cash that you have given them. Done it many times.

 

[ChasHawk]

Have never heard of this before, and personally would not go back to the shop again except to let them know they lost a customer.

As others have already said, if you only ordered 2 cases of this product, you don't deserve to own a shop.

 

[t3dudek]

if he had ppl asking weeks in advance if he was gonna have these in on such an such a date he should of known that they where good sellers an had more then 9 boxes. I say the shop owner is a terrible business man an should learn how to purchase enough product for his store.

 

[cgilmo]

I don't think i've ever been limited to how much I can purchase at a shop. The dealer had nine boxes hobby boxes left for $80, and I tell him I'll take the rest. He then tells me I can only have 3.

I can't remember a product where the dealer had the opportunity to sell all his boxes to a customer on the spot at HIS price, but not want to sell them all.

His excuses- I gotta save some for other customers. His next excuse- I'm selling it to you for cheaper than my replacement cost.

Is Bowman being price manipulated this badly by the distributors?

Another guy told me he would have to sell his hobby boxes for $100 for the next batch and jumbos for $150 if he reordered them today.

crazy.

you assume distributors still have 2010 bowman

that might be assuming too much

 

[leatherman]

I don't think i've ever been limited to how much I can purchase at a shop. The dealer had nine boxes hobby boxes left for $80, and I tell him I'll take the rest. He then tells me I can only have 3.

I can't remember a product where the dealer had the opportunity to sell all his boxes to a customer on the spot at HIS price, but not want to sell them all.

His excuses- I gotta save some for other customers. His next excuse- I'm selling it to you for cheaper than my replacement cost.

Is Bowman being price manipulated this badly by the distributors?

Another guy told me he would have to sell his hobby boxes for $100 for the next batch and jumbos for $150 if he reordered them today.

crazy.

you assume distributors still have 2010 bowman

that might be assuming too much

Bingo.

Let me explain how distributing works for Topps.

Distributor XYZ gathers information from their customers to determine how many cases of 2010 Bowman that they would like. As one of XYZ's customers, I tell them I want 12 cases. XYZ then places an order with Topps for 2010 Bowman. Let's say they order 120 cases. Topps then gives a soft confirmation of a certain amount. For a hot product like this, they might get 60 cases on the soft confirmation. After Topps adds up how many cases they have allotted from all their distributors, and determine how many more they have left. Then, they notify XYZ that they have 30 more cases available, if they want them. XYZ says they do, and Topps gives them a hard confirmation of 90 cases.

Since XYZ got 75% of their original request (90 of 120) from Topps, I get 75% (or 9 cases of the 12) as well.

And that's it. There isn't any more. Topps doesn't hold any back for a second shipment. If I want anymore, I have to buy them on the secondary market, whose price is no longer set by Topps.

So when your LCS is telling you that they are selling you them cheaper than his replacement cost, he is telling you the truth. This is why Panini is eliminating online retailers like Blowout from their distribution, and focusing more on the card shops and distributors who get their cards in the card shops. Then, you won't see these huge price increases on new releases that you see today, because the cards that are available to buy are purchased by the card shops at the same prices they bought pre-release.

David