It was a big, expensive card release week at the shop. The much anticipated 2022 Panini National Treasures Football product went live mid-week. We received one sealed case and sold it online as such in a matter of minutes.
Later in the week, we got our allotment of 2022 Optic Football hobby boxes. 
We only received six boxes, one of which we opened for packs. You take what you can get in the current market and recent football issues are still selling well, despite prices that remain far ahead of what they used to be.
In an unfortunate pattern we’ve been seeing of late is people sending us direct messages on eBay and our other online platforms asking for our “rock bottom price.” I understand the concept of bargaining but the vast majority of our listings are literally the lowest on eBay and on some of our smaller items we make a few bucks, break even or even lose money in rare instances. If you are asking for our lowest price and you’re not seeing anyone priced below us, you are definitely seeing our lowest price. There is only so much we can do.
With The National right around on the corner, we’ve seen some in store sales spike in terms of items to be signed at the show including mini helmets, full size balls and things of that nature as collectors from the area make plans to attend. It’s great to hear their plans to head to the show but one interaction wasn’t quite so positive. As we kept going down this massive and impressive autograph list for The National, he continued to make derogatory comments about previous meetings and/or his personal feelings for each of the former athletes. He even went as far to say that one of the NBA legends that was appearing he had met before and talked trash to this player in person, asking if he could palm a ball or if his arthritis kicked in. Huh? This guy was just way over the top.
I know athletes get a bad reputation when they mistreat fans or come off a certain way in the media or in public. Well, I can tell you after talking with countless athletes that goes both ways. Sometimes fans get a well deserved bad reputation in athletes’ minds for being inconsiderate, overbearing, greedy and just downright rude, as I imagine our customer to be in those moments.
I’m not talking about doing stuff in good fun and good taste. Players sometimes enjoy light hearted trash talk or kidding around about certain things. I’m talking flat out disrespect for no apparent reason.
At some point you almost wanted to ask someone like that why even bother meeting these athletes in person. Why spend time getting an autograph if you have no respect for the athlete? It should, by in large, be a happy experience. If it’s that awful maybe you are in the wrong hobby.
On the positive side, it was a personally fulfilling week. I took half of a day off and drove my son Tyson to Bloomsburg University for a football recruiting visit. Head coach and College Football Hall of Famer Frank Sheptock met with us in his office for a good bit of time and we then toured the entire campus with DB and Special Teams coach Eugene Jones.
It was a fantastic visit and as we drove away I asked Tyson to rank the four schools he’s visited so far and he put Bloom number one on his shortlist. Being the dad of a college football recruit is quite a kick.
Thanks for checking in I’ll be sure to be in touch often next week from The National.
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