Bluto: "What? Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is!" Usually I use this space to share What's Hot in my card shop or shops overall. This time I'd like to share a slightly different report and also apologize for not contributing as much as I should have recently. I've been a bit distracted and I hope this sheds some light as to why … [Read more...] about What’s Hot, Merging Edition
Hobby Shop Talk
Shop Talk: PSA Return; 2020 Contenders Football Left Behind; What’s Hot–and Not
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– Throw this into the "we should have done this ten years ago" file but we were excited to receive our first PSA return from our newly established dealer account. Yes, it is hard to believe that we didn't have a dealer account for the past few years but that was not my call … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: PSA Return; 2020 Contenders Football Left Behind; What’s Hot–and Not
Shop Talk: Redemption Ridiculousness, Big In-Store Spenders, Prizm Football Drops
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– One of the things that caught my eye this week didn't happen in our shop but it has heavy hobby-wide implications and has for quite some time now. I'm talking about the hobby wide car wreck that is the redemption process. One story on social media caught my eye. … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: Redemption Ridiculousness, Big In-Store Spenders, Prizm Football Drops
Shop Talk: End of the Line for the Big Collection, Sudden Walmart Baseball Card Sales, Thin Margins
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– This week, we saw what would be the last of the customer with the incredibly large sports card collection for sale. Long gone are the four and five row boxes. Now in recent trips, we've been seeing the small shoe boxes, the 100, 200 count boxes full of random, dusty … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: End of the Line for the Big Collection, Sudden Walmart Baseball Card Sales, Thin Margins
Shop Talk: New Arrivals; Lost and Found; Vintage Time Capsule Walk-In
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– It was a sports card heavy week at the shop, which as you know by now, is my favorite kind of week. We got a ton of restocks, new releases, and all kinds of cards to fill our shelves. We recently did box breaks on 2022 Bowman Inception Baseball (gorgeous product), 2022 … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: New Arrivals; Lost and Found; Vintage Time Capsule Walk-In
Shop Talk: Taking Ownership, Communication is Key, Piles of Product
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania store where he works. —– The shop's owner was in the Carolinas again last week as he continues the process of remodeling a recently purchased retail spot for a future Sports Zone location. I haven't really gone too deep into this aspect of hobby shop management in past pieces, but when the owner … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: Taking Ownership, Communication is Key, Piles of Product
Shop Talk: 50K Feedback, More Meat, Mac McClung, Local Card Show Fun
This week, our eBay account surged past the 50,000 positive feedback mark. Unfortunately, no balloons fell from the ceiling, no one walked through the door with a big check cut for us and no band played. I just happened to notice earlier in the week when I was shipping out our weekly mountain of packages. I know there are others in the collectible space … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: 50K Feedback, More Meat, Mac McClung, Local Card Show Fun
Shop Talk: More Buying, New Arrivals… and Soupies
The gentleman who I spoke about in previous Shop Talk installments was in again this week with boxes... and boxes... and boxes of cards he was hoping to sell to us. Like I've said many times before, I always enjoy going through anything that customers bring in but, to be completely honest, this gentleman is pushing the limits of what's fun and when it becomes work. I have it … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: More Buying, New Arrivals… and Soupies
Shop Talk: Southern Expansion, Super Bowl Week, National Signing Day
The owner of our shop escaped a bitterly cold stretch here in Central Pennsylvania recently as he made his way back down to the Outer Banks for another week at the beach full of wheeling and dealing beachfront properties. In recent trips down south, he's expanded to buying more properties and, most recently, buying what will be a future home of another Sports Zone Toys & … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: Southern Expansion, Super Bowl Week, National Signing Day
Shop Talk: Low End Sales, Sweet Stickers, Buying Collections, College Commitment
Tony Reid chronicles the happenings inside Sports Zone, the Central Pennsylvania shop where he works. —– It's always fun when customers bring in their collections or single cards for us to buy. This week we had a gentleman who finally came in and sealed the deal. For the better part of a year, he'd stop in and mention to me that he had a pretty large collection, insinuating … [Read more...] about Shop Talk: Low End Sales, Sweet Stickers, Buying Collections, College Commitment