Rate Your Local Card Shop!

[nyyfan]

I saw this on another site and seem like we could do it here. Rate each questionon a scale of 1-10 and post comments after you are done if you would like!

Store name:
Customer service 1-10:
Singles prices 1-10:
Pack prices 1-10:
Box prices 1-10:
Overall product selection 1-10:
Store setup/tidyness 1-10:
Location 1-10:
City:
Freebies (Y/N):
How would you improve it?:

[redsoxocd]

Store name: J.J. Teapart Sports Cards
Customer service 1-10: 8
Singles prices 1-10: 7
Pack prices 1-10: 7
Box prices 1-10: 8
Overall product selection 1-10: 8
Store setup/tidyness 1-10: 7 (its just a little cramped)
Location 1-10: 10
City: Boston, MA...right downtown on Bromfield street
Freebies (Y/N): Y
How would you improve it?: I dont really know how I would improve it. The owner is great, and he can sometimes be a parent in controlling how much money I spend in his store each time, but that tells me that he not only looking to make money.

Store name: Bay State Coin Shop (or something like that)..its the oldest card shop in boston
Customer service 1-10: 10
Singles prices 1-10: 7
Pack prices 1-10: 7
Box prices 1-10: 6
Overall product selection 1-10: 10
Store setup/tidyness 1-10: 9
Location 1-10: 10
City: Boston, MA also downtown on bromfield street, just a few stores away from the other shop
Freebies (Y/N): N
How would you improve it?: I really like this store, and the owners are wicked nice to me. They've become sort of like a distant 2nd family. I dont think that I would do anything to improve this store either.

These are my two favorite shops in Boston. The both have wicked nice owners and they almost always have what I am looking for and then when they dont have, they somehow get it. I really LOVE these stores

[nyyfan]

Store name: All-American Sports Cards
Customer service 1-10: 10
Singles prices 1-10: 10
Pack prices 1-10: 9
Box prices 1-10: 9
Overall product selection 1-10: 10 (Right now there is very little baseball but I guesse since the season is over)
Store setup/tidyness 1-10:10
Location 1-10: 9
City: Clarksvillle, IN
Freebies (Y/N): Yup. Tulowitski RC's to regualr customers.
How would you improve it?: I wouldn't!

I might rate this high but it's a very nice store and there is nothing else around to compare to.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Local? Card shop?

I can count the local cards shops between where I live and where my family lives a few hours away on both hands. None are really worth going to, for cards, at least. The ones that were are gone.

[J.P]

Anybody knows of a card shop in Miami?

[raiderjohn]

Store name: Alameda Sports Cards and Comics
Customer service 1-10: 10
Singles prices 1-10: 7
Pack prices 1-10: 8
Box prices 1-10: 8
Overall product selection 1-10: 9
Store setup/tidyness 1-10: 7, bit crowded but great variety of product
Location 1-10: 7, city business district, busy.
City: Alameda, CA
Freebies (Y/N): Y
How would you improve it?: It's perfect

Been going there since the mid 80's, same service. From Frank Thomas to Jason Kidd, very helpful in getting product.

[orangeandblack55]

Store name: The Strike Zone in Novato, Calif.
Customer service 1-10: 10
Singles prices 1-10: 7
Pack prices 1-10: 8
Box prices 1-10: 10
Overall product selection 1-10: 10
Store setup/tidyness 1-10: Great store organization, ask for it and he can direct you right to it. Owner is a nice fellow.
Location 1-10: Downtown of a very quite small city.
City: Novato, Calif. CA
Freebies (Y/N): Not sure, haven't asked for any, but he seems nice enough.
How would you improve it?: Move it into San Francisco

I started going here a couple years ago. Nice collection of stuff, but its hard to get out there during the week. He's always at shows and what not on weekends so his brother takes over. If he's there and you strike up good repoire and have solid business with him he brings his big box prices down. Really nice guy.

[BoofBonser26]

I wish there were still a local card shop in my tiny town...we had one until about 5 years ago. It actually wasn't very good (the owner chain-smoked in his shop), but the owner was very friendly and constantly gave out free cards.

[80s baseball]

Card collecting's not fun anymore.
I feel bad for kids.
Most kids hate all cards that aren't graded, even if they're visually perfect to an average collector.

For that, I rate all card stores as poor for taking the fun out of the hobby.

Another bad part of grading cards.
From what I hear, BCS is the best company for grading although most people would have to mail their cards to have them graded.
What are the odds of mailing a grade 10 card & getting it back?
I wouldn't trust them.

I'm leaving all my kid cards ungraded, they're fine as they are, I wouldn't sell them anyway.

Do you guys still have cards of players that never turned out?
I still have Wally Joyner & Gregg Jefferies rookies.
Funny thing is that whenever I see them I still have that initial reaction thinking they'll still be worth something some day! They're still in hard cases from the day I got them! pretty funny.

As for card shops in my area.
They're all gone, went out of business. 2 of them are now used video game stores.
The one that's left is a Comics & Cards owned by a retiree.
*Customer Service is excellent b/c the guy respects baseball card history and he's running the store for fun and as a hobby, not as a business. He doesn't need an income anymore, he's just having fun. A lot of my friends just go there to BS. They all joke around about old card designs (like the famous '87 Topps wood border).
*He will find cards for you if you ask him & he'll buy & price them out based a price you give him. He even managed to find my friend a Jose Canseco card from an '87 Kmart set, I thought it would've been impossible
*He's also extremely fair, more than fair actually, with kids that ask for trades

[Captain Cold Nose]

Anybody knows of a card shop in Miami?

Miami, no. There's a real good one in Ft. Lauderdale, called Bud's. There is a good one in Hollywood, as well. Both have a lot of auto signings.