Two and a half months ago I stopped at a 7-Eleven half way between my house and the home of my ex wife and was surprised to find the retail hotness that was 2018-19 Panini Prizm.
I had picked up my kids for their days with me and we stopped there for milk. I managed to fight off the urge to buy any packs — at the time the packs were $2.99 each and Blasters were $19.99 — so it wasn’t a tough decision.
I hadn’t returned to that particular store since that day. But on Easter Sunday I again found myself in a similar situation as I needed milk whilst taking kids to/from their moms house. I decided to stop at 7-Eleven as my brain began wondering if the Prizm packs ever sold; and if they had not had the store discounted them?
Well, by now you know the answer.
They sold some of the stock that was there in February, which I documented in a post. (Here)
But there were three blasters, seven sealed retail boxes and some 20 loose packs sitting around. After confirming the price — 99 cents for each retail pack and $9.99 for the blasters, we were off to the races.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
After the clerks settled their confusion as to how to ring up the sealed boxes and stopped asking why I wanted all the Prizm, the transaction was done — they had their money and I scored a great price on a product that remains in demand from basketball fans.
Now before you go stopping at every 7-Eleven looking for the same deal, I am fairly certain this was an anomaly. The store manager told me that her son used to collect — “he was always buying cards looking for a Michael Jordan…”– and explained that these had been sitting here for months.
And as you may know, each 7-Eleven is franchised so there exists some opportunity to sell some site-specific merchandise. That’s why some stores carry knock-off hats and other kitsch items and others don’t.
I brought the Prism packs home, occasionally ripping into a pack at each red light. And when I pulled into my parking garage I decided to open a few more of the loose packs — that’s when Luka (/42) appeared, like the prize of an Easter Egg Hunt.
My son and I had bought a fair amount of Prizm blasters — he has really taken to basketball, almost the way I had baseball when I was his age. And to date we had not pulled a basic Luka Doncic Prizm, let alone any sort of color. So when the Pink Pulsar Prizm Luka showed from behind a common, I was completely taken aback.
I had thoughts of reselling the retail boxes and basically accepting the double profit before even contemplating what to do with the Pink Luka. But I decided we should just open it all — besides, my boy was still working on the Prizm set, the cost was relatively cheap and I figured we’d never had this opportunity again.
Luka was clearly the prize here, but there was more good stuff to be had. We picked off a pair of Luka base Prizms; a Trae Young auto, a Young silver Prizm, and more. I did laugh at the 150 Panini Points though — that was a first for me.
I could never own a card shop
Posted in Commentary with tags baseball, baseball cards, business, conscience., hobby, small business, sports cards on April 14, 2019 by Cardboard IconsWhen I was a little kid, I had the luxury of living directly across the street from a card shop. I could peer out the window of my first-floor apartment and see the moment the shop owner flipped over the “We’re Open” sign. But who am I kidding? My friends and I –we all lived in the same building — often beat the owner there. We were often the first customers, and sometimes the last when we would return in the evening after a day of collecting bottles and cans for more cards.
I had dreams of owning a shop. In fact, I once created little business cards and slipped them under the door of my friend’s apartments. It was silly, but remember, I was 8 and fresh into this hobby. I held this dream through middle school as I had no obvious desire to do anything else.
As I grew older, this dream of course began to fade. And now as an adult — even with the ever-changing landscape of our hobby — I realize the dream was best left as it was — an imperfect heaven that appeased my immature brain.
I give a lot of credit to card shop owners who have had the ability to make a living to support themselves and/or their families in this niche hobby. It’s not like there is this endless pot of gold to which you can continue to return; there are no overtime opportunities to bridge the financial gap during tough times. Card shop owners cease to make money the moment they shut their doors at night, or on a random Tuesday or Thursday as some stores might do.
While the financials might not make sense in my head, the reason I couldn’t own a shop is because of my conscience.
Because when the mother and boy walk in seeking baseball cards, I’d almost rather give the kid some cards to get him started instead of trying a hard sale on some lower-end wax.
Because it would pain me to see a guy spend 90 minutes digging through the quarter boxes and not give him a heads up that someone else spent that same amount of time the day before pulling every card up with upside — the same purpose this newer customer were there.
And because I could not standby and watch a teenager spend his lunch money on packs from a box on the counter which you may already know is void of the single guarantee hit advertised on the box, knowledge you’ve acquired because one of your whale customers decided to open and buy pack by pack from that box until that hit was gone.
It seems to me that it takes a certain amount of selective memory, and a certain shrewdness to make ends meet. And I’m not piling on shop owners, because I understand how difficult these decisions could be at times. I’m merely saying that I know that with my personality it would make it difficult to be a shop owner … and that’s not even addressing how tough it might be to draw the line between collector and retailer.
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