Shuffling that should be a delay of game warning...

you are required to be able to shuffle your deck in your hands unassisted so unless you have bigger hands than shaq that is not tournament legal anyway

Shop does all the major sports yes.

I have a psa 4 mantle 52 topps and a psa 8.5 1909 american carmel wagner.

We just do paper no digitial at all. Though I draft or sealed everyday during down time on mtgo.

TCG mid.

F Wotc, marry Topps, Kill Upperdeck (they have simmons locked up and jordan sucks)

Honestly given that there are 1000s of breakers now it doesnt really "hurt" me to make 10% on my money just by ordering extra stuff. That said I do no hockey in shop or breaks etc so ordering up 5k of hockey a month and getting 5500 just for making the transaction always makes sense. I see what you mean that im supporting the competition in a way but I am focused on my local sales not a breaker in California etc.

How did you get the word out about your store when you first opened?

Do you get new customers by word of mouth or other means?

What do you think is the ideal location for a B&M hobby store these days - what other places should it be near and what should be the average income of the folks in the surrounding neighborhood?

Seriously, should I just burn my complete '88 donruss still-in-the-plastic-packs baseball set? If there's any chance I might get 100 bucks when I retire in 30 years, I might still hold on to it.

You'd know your business better than me, but I think it probably hurts you more than you expect.

That breaker in California is selling to the same customers you are, and especially he is selling to the regs of the sports collectible industry who could by themselves represent a large part of your profit.

Making it so he can sell 1% equity in a high end collectibles box for $55 to 100 different people watching around the world makes it pretty unlikely the few of his watchers that are in your area are going to come in and spend that $55 with you.

Granted, you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't (ie, if you don't, there's someone out there who will collect that $500 for doing some paperwork). The alternative is trying to gobble up as much of this pie as you can and become a major wholesaler to box breakers.

What do you think of Rudy at Alpha Investments?

Are his takes on the economics of CCGs realistic or no?

OP, are the card grading companies crooks? If I send a mint card for grading, will they keep it and send back one that is just a little bit worse?

Also, with wax packs, did business' open the up and reseal the pack for resale?

Better style of cards, 70's or early to mid 80's?

Lots of card shop owners used to open wax packs and take the good cards then reseal them. 100% for sure. When inserts became a thing they often knew exactly which packs had the inserts and scored those too.

Right and now the new thing is buying cases because there are case hits, so instead of pack searching, you just open up boxes until you get the case hit and then sell everything else. Plus there was a company a few years ago that was very predictable in which box had the case hit making it extremely easy for dealers to find it. I only buy cases if I'm in the mood to open something, or just buy the insert I want.

Say you got a football signed by Bell, Brown, and Ben of the Steelers - how do you gauge the value now and 10 years from now?

Its hilarious, because my brother, who is the least sport oriented American male there is, had the 88 Donruss set. And NOTHING else.

Is there a decent documentary out there on the 80's and 90's card industry? I saw this on imdb, which popped up a few months ago and I guess is in production. Jose Canseco being listed in the cast isn't promising.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6360394/

I've always thought the card grading companies were crooks. In that they grade their own cards the highest and others not as high.

I have Tim Duncan Topps Chrome Rookie and Kobe Bryant Topps Finest Rookie (both in EXCELLENT condition). Should I look to sell them when they're inducted into the HOF, or just say **** it and hold onto them long term?

The book Mint Condition is a great read about the card industry from the 80's on. Highly recommend.

Worth about $150 now, will be worth about $150 in 10 years.

Don't count out Ben going O.J.

I think I might pick it up. Man, I loved baseball cards in the 80's.

My local guy back when I was a kid would shuffle the packs in the box because he wanted the kids to pull them. He actually broke up a complete set for like 10 cards to fill mine.

I was a big collector too but sold all of it quite awhile ago, part of me misses the better stuff I had but the rest of me doesn't wanna move it ever again so it's for the best.

Haha I have a vague recollection of walking through a KMart and seeing dozens of loose packs of 90 Leaf baseball in an island display. If I had to handicap it, I would put the number of Thomas RCs in that pile at zero.

Very nostalgic thread. Lots of memories working with my dad printing out checklists every season on a dot matrix printer, getting binders organized and trying to pull complete sets from packs.

Quite the feeling to be a 12 year old and getting a WHOLE BOX of packs and feeling like you'd never be able to open them all.

Also, gum stained cards were a great life lesson - even if you got what you wanted, it still might not be perfect.

TV ads, radio, billboards, and lots of paid facebook advertising to acquire customers. Then word of mouth mostly.

Be near places people have to go such as grocery store...mom sends jr down with 20 bucks or dad comes down to bust some boxes while mom shops.. boom.

Ideally not broke people they dont buy as much as well off people that said I am in midwest and avg household in my city is like 54k...