Store owner happy to answer questions

[Madison]

Thanks for the great response PonyExpress ! I've always enjoyed Leaf's products, so that will most likely be the route I go.

Thanks again!

[Arlo]

Interesting rumor.

I agree that seeing rookie cards from the actual year a player entered the majors (instead of the current 'well, this guy might reach the bigs in 3-4 years...' issues) would be a good thing, but I'm not sure how good this is overall for rookie collectors. At least with Bowman, you've had key rookie cards that were regular base cards as opposed to, say, basketball, where regular RCs sometimes seem to be little more than afterthoughts compared with those SPx autographed jersey issues numbered to 0.4...

Anyway, we'll see. There's probably no perfect answer to the RC question any more.

[eftda]

PonyExpress, if you don't mind me asking, where does your store buy their boxes of cards?

[Madison]

PonyExpress, if you don't mind me asking, where does your store buy their boxes of cards?

Most stores buy boxes by the case from the card companies themselves. Not sure how big Pony's store is, but it sounds big enough to do it that way.

[The Thrill]

Have another one who takes her place in one of our chairs and proceeds to knit for an hour while the kid searches through cards. Again, we go out of our way to make them feel comfortable and unintimidated.

Funny story (kinda related): My dad would sit and read a magazine while I was at card shows. I'd spend hours (almost open to close) searching for deals. After a year or so he starts to get a little interested (either that or bored of reading a magazine) and he ends up amasing a collection of 65,000+ cards in a short two or three years. That's triple my collection. Now that I'm out of the house it just sits in his closet, but it was good quality time together at the time.

[Lofunzo]

That was ALWAYS an issue for me. I'd have 5 rookie cards but none were "The Rookie Card"

I agree. That or that I didn't have the right card with the little gold emblem.

Nice thread, pony.

[PonyExpress]

Sorry for the late reply on where we buy our boxes.

We purchase direct from the manufacturers, as well as from a couple of distributers, which allows us better flexibility with some of the hotter issues, that perhaps become allocated. One pitfall some stores find themselves into is the fact that they tend to "cherry pick" if they deal with distributers, which over the course of time, puts themselves in the position of getting allocated with some of the hotter issues. This leads to overpaying for some of the annually hotter issues such as SP and SPX from secondary markets, which could lead to non-competitive prices in their stores. For our wholesale accounts, if you purchase 3 boxes of Fleer Tradition, 3 boxes of Topps Opening Day, etc., you're going to get 3 boxes of SPX. For those that continue to pass up on the less than stellar boxes, well, their allowance for the hotter issues will be limited as well. I'm sure our distributers do likewise with us, so we buy most everything, be it good or bad.

We prefer a slight profit margin, break even, or even slight loss on some of the "dogs" we purchase, if in fact, because of these purchases, it allows us more boxes of the more in demand, high end, type boxes. Basic economics really.

Funny thing really, but we get at least one "no one has asked for product "A", so I'm going to pass" when we solicit store owners with new product. Keep that in mind when you walk into your local card store and are unable to find a pack or box of your favorite issue of cards. And they wonder why their customers are going to EBay???

[ensanimal]

a quick question for you? my parents are currently in the process of moving into a smaller place, and the collection that my brother, father and i had, will be taking up too much room. i will be holding on to some for now, with my brother and father some also, but we were looking into seeing about selling some.

a lot of it is full boxed sets, mostly from the early 80's to the mid 90's. we were wondering what the best way to go about doing it is? is it best to try and sell the set as the full box, or, maybe see which cards specifically might be worth anything, and sell them individually?

also, these days do most card stores, lets say like yours, do they buy from customers as well? would it be best to try and find card shows? ebay?


any and all help is appreciated.

[Pablo975]

Ensanimal - I'd think that selling the whole lot at once would be easiest since cards from that era were massively overproduced. There just aren't alot of BIG money cards in those sets.

If you're willing to do the work of busting out the money cards, shopping them around, listing on ebay, etc, I'd say go for it...but wait for Ponys advice.

Pony, I remember when I was a kid, we went to a dusty old card/pawn shop this old guy ran. We'd play a game with him. We'd each bust a pack against him. Same product, same box, we both got to "shuffle" the box. Whoever had the highest valued cards (that months Beckett HI) got to keep all the cards. If you lost, you had to buy your pack and lose your cards. If he lost, you kept the cards free. He only played occasionally though.

In 1989, playing with 1989 UD he thought he had me when he pulled a Jr Rookie and a few other stars......till my pack revealed not one, not two, but THREE Jr. Rookies, which were like $10 a pop at the time. God bless the 89 UD sorting errors!

Do stores still do these things? Always seemed like a fun hook to add to a customers experience. Course, I'm sure that qualifies as gambling, but it was fun nonetheless.

[PonyExpress]

Ah, Pack Poker!!!! My favorite game. Yes it is still done. In our store we have one customer who'll stop at the local Dunkin Donuts, grab us a cup of coffee, and then proceed to say "What ONE pack are we going to play?" Which of course, $200 later, and wrappers galore all over the place, we've pretty much passed a good chunk of time away. Its all in fun, a great way for the collector to obtain cards, and a great way for the card store owner to obtain current singles for use.

As for the previous post before this, somehow I missed it in my email, so apoligies for the non post. I'll continue to answer questions as they come about, and maybe have a great story to boot!

Now back to the previous posted question. Yes, local stores still buy cards, though from that era mentioned, it is indeed difficult. Your best bet is to actually set up at a local flea market, and for about $15, and an 8 hour day, you can find yourself with a lot more $ in hand than if you were to sell to most dealers. And who knows, you might actually enjoy the day, find yourself with a nice tidy profit, and decide that this is your lot in life....to sell cards!!!! Its my story at least!