Nothing can get my ire up like sports cards. It's a legitimate question why I still carry them. I must be the stubbornist person in history to keep thinking I can make them work for me.
A letter to the newest CARD TRADE (the trade publication) just yanked my chain.
"I have been collecting baseball cards since 1977. I probably have more than 600,000 cards in my collection, and putting together sets, whether that be the base set, the entire set with short prints or inserts sets, is my main focus. Nothing strikes me more than when I go to a store, either locally or through my travels throughout America, when that dealer does not understand the basic concepts of customer service.
"It is sometimes unbelievable how many times I have stopped by a store and they have nothing for sale or nothing to 'touch.' Almost every store in Sacramento or northern California that has gone out of business in the last five years has been a store of this nature.
"I hear laments all the time from dealers about how expensive it is to crack product, but what dealers fail to understand is that they must have something for all customers, not just a few select big spenders."
I'll stop there. He goes on. Complaining about those lousy card shops. But in my ears, it sounds like he's kicking a dead horse that he just abused and rode into the ground.
And he's wrong, on every count. You are going to have to believe me on this, that my years of experience with card collectors counts for something, otherwise I'm going to seem ....well, a tad intemperate. (Who me?) But I can almost guarantee you this THIS is what he's REALLY saying: When he says he puts together sets, what he's saying is, "I bought all my cards online (or somewhere) in box form at a really cheap price, and I'm only a few cards short of a set. The cards I'm missing are worth maybe .5 a piece, and you've never seen me before, but I want you to spend the rest of your day helping me find them. I will put every card under a microscope to see if they're worthy of my magnificent collection, and even then I'll complain the entire time about having to spend .5 for a common."
The dealers who went out of business? They didn't break boxes, because they can't survive selling singles to people who spent most of their money somewhere else. It is in fact expensive to crack product, if inconvenient to him. Why would they lie? Just to frustrate him? They turn down money because they feel like it?
They were right to concentrate on the big spenders: (box buyers). I do too, because they are the only guys still spending money. I sell full boxes. These other dealers were trying the only thing that still works, but it wasn't enough. I treat sports cards as a sideline, so catering the 'big spenders' still works for me.
I don't crack product. Only one or two major stars will sell, and once in a blue moon a guy from California will come in, sneering at your selection, and want a few singles to complete his set. Catering to the 'big spenders' is the only element of the hobby that is still functional. And who's fault is that?
The "nothing to sale or nothing to 'touch.'?" That would be, "nothing to sale or nothing to touch -- that HE wants.
A guy like this walks into my store, and I won't have what he wants, because what he wants is for me to fill his tires, wash his windshield, check his oil, kiss his ass, and thank him for half a gallon of gas.
If you think I'm exaggerating, the last count I heard was that there were less than 1000 card shops left in America. This was few years ago, so the number is probably much smaller. (There once was probably nearly 20 thousand card shops, and I think the hobby could've supported maybe 3 or 4 thousand if it hadn't descended into a suicidal spiral.) I would be willing to bet, that half of the remaining shops are supported by guys who have put their 20 or 30 years in the military or teaching or fire fighting or something and simply want something to do, and the other half have been living on Magic and Pokemon.
I've gotten into this argument many times over the years: most dealers and collectors and distributors and wholesalers blame the proliferation of brands, the high cost, the internet, and even the behavior of the players.
But I think the hobby was poisoned by a bubble that invited the most morally and ethically challenged group of dealers I've ever seen; and who trained the customers to never pay retail. I still get collectors from 10 years ago who seem to think things haven't changed. I tell them to forget everything they know.
The whole hobby self-destructed. I'd be glad to help this guy if he came into my store on a regular basis, was nice, bought stuff from me and so on. The way it used to be....
A letter to the newest CARD TRADE (the trade publication) just yanked my chain.
"I have been collecting baseball cards since 1977. I probably have more than 600,000 cards in my collection, and putting together sets, whether that be the base set, the entire set with short prints or inserts sets, is my main focus. Nothing strikes me more than when I go to a store, either locally or through my travels throughout America, when that dealer does not understand the basic concepts of customer service.
"It is sometimes unbelievable how many times I have stopped by a store and they have nothing for sale or nothing to 'touch.' Almost every store in Sacramento or northern California that has gone out of business in the last five years has been a store of this nature.
"I hear laments all the time from dealers about how expensive it is to crack product, but what dealers fail to understand is that they must have something for all customers, not just a few select big spenders."
I'll stop there. He goes on. Complaining about those lousy card shops. But in my ears, it sounds like he's kicking a dead horse that he just abused and rode into the ground.
And he's wrong, on every count. You are going to have to believe me on this, that my years of experience with card collectors counts for something, otherwise I'm going to seem ....well, a tad intemperate. (Who me?) But I can almost guarantee you this THIS is what he's REALLY saying: When he says he puts together sets, what he's saying is, "I bought all my cards online (or somewhere) in box form at a really cheap price, and I'm only a few cards short of a set. The cards I'm missing are worth maybe .5 a piece, and you've never seen me before, but I want you to spend the rest of your day helping me find them. I will put every card under a microscope to see if they're worthy of my magnificent collection, and even then I'll complain the entire time about having to spend .5 for a common."
The dealers who went out of business? They didn't break boxes, because they can't survive selling singles to people who spent most of their money somewhere else. It is in fact expensive to crack product, if inconvenient to him. Why would they lie? Just to frustrate him? They turn down money because they feel like it?
They were right to concentrate on the big spenders: (box buyers). I do too, because they are the only guys still spending money. I sell full boxes. These other dealers were trying the only thing that still works, but it wasn't enough. I treat sports cards as a sideline, so catering the 'big spenders' still works for me.
I don't crack product. Only one or two major stars will sell, and once in a blue moon a guy from California will come in, sneering at your selection, and want a few singles to complete his set. Catering to the 'big spenders' is the only element of the hobby that is still functional. And who's fault is that?
The "nothing to sale or nothing to 'touch.'?" That would be, "nothing to sale or nothing to touch -- that HE wants.
A guy like this walks into my store, and I won't have what he wants, because what he wants is for me to fill his tires, wash his windshield, check his oil, kiss his ass, and thank him for half a gallon of gas.
If you think I'm exaggerating, the last count I heard was that there were less than 1000 card shops left in America. This was few years ago, so the number is probably much smaller. (There once was probably nearly 20 thousand card shops, and I think the hobby could've supported maybe 3 or 4 thousand if it hadn't descended into a suicidal spiral.) I would be willing to bet, that half of the remaining shops are supported by guys who have put their 20 or 30 years in the military or teaching or fire fighting or something and simply want something to do, and the other half have been living on Magic and Pokemon.
I've gotten into this argument many times over the years: most dealers and collectors and distributors and wholesalers blame the proliferation of brands, the high cost, the internet, and even the behavior of the players.
But I think the hobby was poisoned by a bubble that invited the most morally and ethically challenged group of dealers I've ever seen; and who trained the customers to never pay retail. I still get collectors from 10 years ago who seem to think things haven't changed. I tell them to forget everything they know.
The whole hobby self-destructed. I'd be glad to help this guy if he came into my store on a regular basis, was nice, bought stuff from me and so on. The way it used to be....