On this week's Shop Talk, I'd like to discuss a topic familiar to a lot of business owners these days: staffing.When I first approached Jason, the owner of Sports Zone, the Pennsylvania hobby shop where I work a little over three years ago, he wasn't certain he could add a full-time employee, but he took a chance.The pay wasn't life changing, but it was good enough to get by … [Read more...]
Hurts So Good: A Jalen Hurts Rookie Card Review, Hottest Auctions
While Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa are the quarterbacks that collectors seemed to focus much of their attention on, the smorgasbord that was the 2020 NFL draft has plenty of other players who still have plenty of time to become stars. Jalen Hurts rookie cards haven't generated nearly as much of an investment or buzz as some of his classmates, but he's … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: Connecting and Reconnecting Through Cards
I had a really great conversation with an old friend this week.Yes this is Shop Talk and yes this does concern the business of running a card shop...to a degree.Fresh out of college, JM and I worked at a big box retailer in State College PA. I won't say the name of the retailer but it's the big blue one that starts with wal and ends with mart.We came in to the company at nearly … [Read more...]
Nick Anderson Q&A: Rookie Cards, Amazing Sneaker Collection and Guarding Jordan
Chicago, Illinois born and raised, Nick Anderson was a standout on the hardwood from a very early age. The shooting guard/small forward was named Illinois Mr. Basketball after leading Simeon Career Academy to the city championship and USA Today national ranking in 1986. The McDonald’s All-American continued to live up to the Mr. Basketball accolade as he starred collegiately … [Read more...]
Ballin’ Out: A LaMelo Ball Rookie Card Review
In an amazing feat of a one in a million type of scenario, all three of Lavar and Tina Ball's sons are playing basketball professionally with two of the three in the NBA and the oldest, LiAngelo, seemingly set to find a home in the league very soon.The eldest the aforementioned LiAngelo has seen his share of off-court issues leading to someone certainty about his long-term … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: Comp Questions and Answers
In this week's installment of Shop Talk, I'm going to talk about a ongoing and ever increasing back and forth with many of the customers that come through our door who are looking to sell their cards to us.The most recent example is one from late this week. An older gentleman who is a repeat customer in our store came in with a stack of cards. Now this particular customer … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: The Future (of Baseball) is Bright
The premise of doing the weekly Shop Talk piece is to allow our readers who aren't at a sports card shop on a daily basis some insight as to what's going on within our four walls. With baseball season at the midway point, it's a good time to share some observations on which players are among the most requested at our shop. If you follow baseball even on a … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: Father’s Day Packs, Stadium Club and Slow Selling…Prizm?
I was out of the shop last week, so I offer my sincerest apologies for ghosting our loyal readers and depriving you all of an update from the shop. I was vacationing at the owner's beach house in the Outer Banks with my family so, needless to say, it was a good week. We had an absolutely wonderful time in North Carolina but its always nice to be home, too.One of the fun … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: You Can’t Please Them All
It's a good thing I was back at full strength this week at the shop. I don't know if I could have handled it otherwise.Although 99.9% of our customers are incredibly personable, passionate, fun-loving collectors, you've always get that one who is, well, not.This week we had quite possibly the worst customer interaction I've seen all of my years of retail and the worst customer … [Read more...]
Shop Talk: Memorial Day Mishap, Contenders Cut, Heavy Metal
I always mention how I like to pull the curtain back and offer insight into the daily operations of our little local card shop but this week is a little bit different.I'll start by pulling back a curtain but it's the curtain to a bed in the emergency room of our local hospital. My daughter had been sick with what we assume was the 24-hour flu at daycare late last week. My wife … [Read more...]