Summer is winding down, so like many collectors out there, I have had the luxury of a few days and afternoons off over the past couple of weeks - it hit me that taking some time now is preferable to having two weeks off in November, when I'll have daily piles of snow to look forward to.
Being a cardboard addict, I decided to go on a quest to find a great hobby shop to frequent. Being mostly a player and team collector of high-end singles, it is great when people in the know are aware of which cards you're looking for, so networking and making connections is vitally important.
I set out to visit several shops to the north of the GTA, and discovered a very disturbing and dissatisfying trend: those with the authority to make trades and negotiate on prices were not at their shops. Of course there were employees present in their place, but they had little knowledge of what was in the display cases and their prices, being forced to call their employers to find out.
I was shocked when at all three establishments, I was told that I "should have called before coming in". Excuse me? "If you would like to come into our shop to do real business (bargaining, package deals and trades), please call us to make sure that is a possibility." Sounds like a great way to connect with potential new customers.
I am now asking myself why any of the shops that I visited were open at all if their proprietors were not available - while it was nice to walk in to a shop and look at some nice cards, it was disheartening to hear that if I wanted to acquire one of them, I would have to pay an inflated sticker price, no questions asked. To make matters worse, I discovered that in one shop, Beckett pricing was gospel.
Most frustrating of all was the fact that one shop in particular claimed to be in possession of a card I was very interested in, as it was pictured on their homepage. I walked in and asked the clerk where it was, going as far as telling him that I did not want to leave empty handed. A good businessman would have sensed an easy sale, but this one did not have any idea which card I was referring to. When a first-time visitor to a card shop has a better grasp of your inventory than the staff, something isn't right... so again, I was told that the item must not be in the shop, or that it may have been moved. I received no response when I asked why a card no longer in the shop's possession would be in a feature display on their homepage.
I'm sure that some hobby shops are great places for collectors of all ages to go and talk hobby and just hang out... but you'd better call first! I'll stick to EBay.
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