**Owning your own Card Shop Info**

[darthb]

I am very close to finishing my business plan to open my own baseball card shop. I was wondering if there was ANYONE else here that owns their own shop and or even a Ebay Shop??? (I plan on doing both).

I would be looking for ANY info, including:

1. Show room set up and space.
2. Stock room set up and space.
3. Finding the Wholesalers. (real wholesalers, who only except tax id numbers)
4. Really any other point !!!!

[Sun]

A couple private owners I personally knew had very little success opening their own card shop. Think twice before spending all of your money on this. Ebay is a much safer approach in my opinion. But Good Luck, either way. :)

[flyingdutchdude]

Card shops are disappearing (same with card shows), and will soon be completely extinct! Many have disappeared over the last 10-15 years for good reason. Because you can make more $$ without them. Example ....Many of the older NY area (vintage card) shop owners have sold their store, moved to Florida and now can sit on the beach with a laptop and sell more product (through eBay or a website). They now have lower overhead (no rent, no utilities, no or less employees, less advertising, etc.) and now sell to the whole world, 24 hours a day, instead of the usual 50 miles radius and 9-5 M-F of the card shop. Internet has killed the card shop.

Another thing to look at ...... new cards (1970-Now) are extremely plentiful. Value is based on supply and demand, so if you have new stuff, it will be tough to clear a profit as supply outweighs demand on much of it (especially 1985-Now).

Best bet is to go old (vintage) as in 1887-1941. They will never lose the supply and demand game.

[darthb]

all very good points, and i did know that I had to sell on Ebay and online web site to be sucessful. I do have to ask though, it is verrry dificult to get the whole-salers to sell to a online store owner (even with the proper tax # and such).

Has anyone had an oportunity to buy from a real wholesaler ?

[redsoxfan1291]

I hope I can help a little with this... I work at a baseball card store and pretty much know the inner workings of the whole deal.

The shop I work at is in Portland Maine and the only one left in the city. There used to be 4-6 shops back in the early 1990s when the hobby was on fire, especially with the introduction of inserts. eBay has killed all the shops but the one I work at since then, along with much less children being interested in the hobby, and with sports like basketball and hockey (up to this year) selling at an extremely low rate. Topps showed how desperate they were for basketball items to sell this year when they included celebrities like Jay-Z and Carmen Electra in the sets.

The one thing that is hot right now, and will always sell as long as your price is not any higher then $5-$10 (per box) above SRP are wax boxes. If you find a good wholesaler, invest mostly in baseball and football boxes as they are the most dependable sellers. Always "max out" on your orders for Bowman and Bowman DP, always sell year after year. DACARDWORLD.com is a great place to buy wax for cheap but I wouldn't use them as a wholesaler. The shop I work for uses a company out of Boston for wholesaling, although I don't know the name.

Some of this may be common knowledge but I'll write it anyways.

DO NOT BUY mid 1980s-mid 1990s cards for pretty much any sport, except for if they're highend rookies (MJ, Bonds but not much anymore, Shaq, etc.). There are so many people that try to sell the shops that kind of stuff and it never moves.

If you are going to start a cardshop, you have to be extremely well informed for it and you won't be able to get all tips from this forum. I really hope you've considered what you'll buy and all that stuff very seriously. Cardshops with little stock die out very quickly now.

The shop I work for does NOT sell on eBay or via the internet. The only selling we do is through two eBay dealers (me, and another employee) who list cards that come in from purchases that would go better on eBay then in the shop. For example, if you live in Maine then cards of Tony Gwynn do not sell because people have very little interest in him. In contrast, Gwynn has a huge fan base so stuff sells fairly well on eBay.

I could spend my whole night writing about cardshops, but PM me if you have any questions or anything... hope this writing is fairly literate, just wrote what came to mind.

Good luck.

Simon

[darthb]

I hope I can help a little with this... I work at a baseball card store and pretty much know the inner workings of the whole deal.

The shop I work at is in Portland Maine and the only one left in the city. There used to be 4-6 shops back in the early 1990s when the hobby was on fire, especially with the introduction of inserts. eBay has killed all the shops but the one I work at since then, along with much less children being interested in the hobby, and with sports like basketball and hockey (up to this year) selling at an extremely low rate. Topps showed how desperate they were for basketball items to sell this year when they included celebrities like Jay-Z and Carmen Electra in the sets.

The one thing that is hot right now, and will always sell as long as your price is not any higher then $5-$10 (per box) above SRP are wax boxes. If you find a good wholesaler, invest mostly in baseball and football boxes as they are the most dependable sellers. Always "max out" on your orders for Bowman and Bowman DP, always sell year after year. DACARDWORLD.com is a great place to buy wax for cheap but I wouldn't use them as a wholesaler. The shop I work for uses a company out of Boston for wholesaling, although I don't know the name.

Some of this may be common knowledge but I'll write it anyways.

DO NOT BUY mid 1980s-mid 1990s cards for pretty much any sport, except for if they're highend rookies (MJ, Bonds but not much anymore, Shaq, etc.). There are so many people that try to sell the shops that kind of stuff and it never moves.

If you are going to start a cardshop, you have to be extremely well informed for it and you won't be able to get all tips from this forum. I really hope you've considered what you'll buy and all that stuff very seriously. Cardshops with little stock die out very quickly now.

The shop I work for does NOT sell on eBay or via the internet. The only selling we do is through two eBay dealers (me, and another employee) who list cards that come in from purchases that would go better on eBay then in the shop. For example, if you live in Maine then cards of Tony Gwynn do not sell because people have very little interest in him. In contrast, Gwynn has a huge fan base so stuff sells fairly well on eBay.

I could spend my whole night writing about cardshops, but PM me if you have any questions or anything... hope this writing is fairly literate, just wrote what came to mind.

Good luck.

Simon

Needless to say, will be pming u... and lookin for u at yahoo