General Forum

Have a few LCS in town but one is the biggest disaster I've ever seen. Can barely walk around with boxes full everywhere with mixed sports, brands, teams, and years. My ocd just wants to volunteer my free time (maybe store credit, ha ha) to come organize his whole shop. The other part of me thinks its fun to flip through trying to find something cool to buy but just wondering what is y'alls take. Would it stop you from coming in or nah?

Given how meticulous dealers used to be about organizing their stock when I was collecting as a kid, chaos like this will walk me right out of a shop.  At the same time you can hear these kinds of dealers complaining how bad business is while making little effort to set up a customer-friendly shop.  I guess they make all their money on selling the latest, unopened product and hits that the rest of the store is an afterthought.

I used to go to a flea market where a girl I knew had a booth that was complete chaos. Eventually I volunteered to organize all her sports cards. After I did, she commented how many cards were now selling. Unfortunately, within a year, her booth was once more chaos. There is another flea market in Kingston, ON where the guy has a lot of cards in monster boxes but no organization. There may be small traesures in them but it is almost impossible to access the boxes as some are used to prop up a table. It would take a day just to even get to a few of the boxes. I am never there for any length of time so I don't even bother going in anymore.

Card Shop or otherwise I hate unorganized stores. I don't go into my local TJ Maxx or Burlington Coat Factory because of this. 

My sentiments exactly, to include antique stores and yard sales. 

I love chaos, nothing better than buying a box and looking thru it for treasures

Shane 

When I first moved to CT 6 years ago I found a LCS not too far away. I was making my way back into the hobby so was fortuitous. At first I likened it to shops I used to frequent before, small older building with shelves packed, displays cases all over and stuff everywhere. After getting to know the owner I volunteered time helping out at the store, getting things organized et all. Helped me catch up on everything I missed and look around for things I'd like to have. I bought a bunch of sets off of him. When he bought a new storefront my son and I actually helped him pack up his entire shop and move it to his new location. I helped him unpack and try to get things organized. He didn't care, he'd toss boxes of cards all over the place, even when I told him there was stuff I was interested in. Other things popped up like misplaced items where I'd be the first text asking where they were (i.e., probing to see if I took them) and of that ilk. I stopped going; I didn't want to be in a position where he'd screw up and I found myself in the firing line. Still see him at shows, i turn around and walk away.

Not sure, maybe it would turn me off maybe not. Growing up there was a used book store/ comic shop like that but the owner and one of his right hand employees knew what was where.

I think part of it is they aren't  really into the hobby but rather business men and a poor one at that. I used to go to a couple comic book stores back when I lived in Everett and one was well organized and the other was hit or miss because the second owner just piled stuff every where and never got it organized. The last I heard the organized one was still going strong and the other faded into history. The funny thing is that the second shop owner was hyper organized when all he did was swap meets and shows.

Ok, now that is completely different.  I would happily drop $20-50 on a 1600-3200 ct box of random, unorganized stuff for the fun of sifting through it.  But I'm not sifting through someone's 5/$1 box of madness.