General Forum

We moved from the Philadelpha PA area to the Houston TX area in 1995. Back in PA, there were maybe 10 card shops within easy driving distance of my home and I could find a small card show almost every weekend. There was much less activity in the Houston area when we moved here. There were 203 shops and the occasional card show. Over the years even that activity has dried up. The last card shop in my area closed in 2005. He told me he didn't feel he coulr compete with on-line sales. Now, it's well over an hours drive to the only card shop I know about in Houston. There's one big cardshow every 6 months or so that generally costs $10 to get into and $10 to park. I don't go often. Target and Walmart are my sources for new cards and I've found that over the years, especially this year, that thy stock less and less, and get cards weeks after they've been released. I'm considering mostly giving up on new product and just chasing holes in my collection from past years on eBay.

The Houston area (Katy's Odyssey Comics and Cards) may be without a card shop out on the west side as the card shop owner, Greg, died tragically on June 19th. He ran a decent shop where I'd buy my vintage Astros commons from him at reasonable rates (not the raised home product gouging that tends to happen at times). He was a down-to-earth guy who will be missed.

A new shop opened up recently in our area a few miles from Odyssey, but they are solely comics and non-sport cards.

There's no way shop owners will be able to survive without online sales. It's simply impossible to keep 20th century retail practices in place and expect to turn a profit.

There is a shop I frequent when visiting New Jersey. I've gone twice to that shop since November and have purchased thousands of commons (in two lots) from him at really reasonable prices. I may visit him this week when I'm up there again. I believe he also does online sales.

To acquire the cards I need I rely primarily on trades and either Sportlots, Beckett Marketplace, Comc, or occasionally Ebay. 

The current change at Sportlots is testing my patience, but I believe in saving money on shipping so I play the game. I've since realized that Comc operates under the same basic premise as Sportlot's boxes, but Comc's additional shipping is built into their prices.

I dont anticipate I'll be visiting other shops around, and won't attend shows because I refuse to pay to enter when I could easily stay at home and use that entry fee to purchase cards I want.

I live in Philadelphia.  I think there are still a few shops within reasonable driving distance.  (One is just over the bridge in New Jersey.)   I'm actually surprised there are any around at this point.  eBay has really taken over.   Even when I go to shows, I feel like I'm looking at all the same stuff available on eBay by the same sellers.   I suppose the stores rely on sales of boxes and maybe supplies.  

I grew up and still live in a rural area. And I mean rural compared to many of you. The town I grew up in was 1400 people. I now live about 20 miles from there in a town of 600. As a kid I could walk down to the drug store and buy packs and that is how I got started. Today I am about an hour and a half away from an actual card shop and the only place I can buy packs is at Wal-Mart with three of those all about equally 20 miles from my house. Kids don't have the option of walking or biking anywhere to pick up a pack of cards.

Hey man, I'm here in Springfield - where in CT is the monthly show? I haven't seen anything about any around here. And yeah, I remember going to shows ALL the time, at the Eastfield Mall, the 'dead mall' up in Amherst, a few down in the Enfield area... back then, we couldn't turn around without tripping over a card shop lol. I miss those days, too. :/ 

I live in a small town in north Alabama.  I am lucky that there are three card shops within driving distance from where (1 hour).  All three stores sell primarily new wax.  One of the stores does a lot of breaks online.  It appears that most of the store profits are coming from the gambling aspect of high end product breaks.  There are still a few people who collect singles and build sets, but it is nowhere near what it was in the mid 90's. I hate to see the hobby devolve into what it is now, but I am glad that I found a place where there are other people who still collect in the traditional sense.  

"Current change at Sportlots"? What is going on there? I haven't been there in months, and now I am currious. I have always thought it was a pretty good site.

Atarian, shot me a PM and I can get your more details on the CT shows. There are 2 in the vicinity I routinely attend. There is also one in Chicopee, but I haven't hd a chance to attend one of those yet. Entry is $1 and I've have a great time drooling over the reasonably priced goods at both. The same vendors sometimes show up at both.

After I got back in to the hobby in 1992 I was spoiled, there were shops every where and I had 3 main LCS for each area I lived during that time. I now live in a small town in Northern Arizona that has 1 card shop listed that is actually an antique store with one glass cabinet of overpriced 1990s singles. My local options are two Walmarts and a Target unless I want to drive 2 hours to Phoenix so all of my purchases are eBay and COMC with the occasional Justcommons (now Cardbarrel) order.

I grew up in Virginia Beach and remember back in the late 70s early 80s there was only one card shop, but all the convience stores sold packs. Then the 90s came around and it seemed that every corner had a card shop on it. Sadly the last time I was home one of the two remaining card shops had a going out of business sale going on. The only one that I know of still remaining in the area is the original one, but they deal mainly in coins.

Now living in the Ann Arbor area I have two card shops around me, one of them has a great owner that I go to quite often. And I know of an EBay dealer that does a local card show about 10 times a year.