Start up cost of opening a card shop

[Qwikflipz]

So I am in position to obtain my Business Degree. I live in a highly populated area of Metro Detroit. A stretch of road called Hall RD or M-59. There isn't a card shop in this area. I would love to open a card shop. But the question is, how much would I need to start up, and than to run per month? I am confident my ideas will work, just do not know the cost. Thanks in advance for all help.

[ranks58]

i really wouldnt have much of an idea, but a good person to ask would be steen101984...as im sure you know he just opened up a card shop a month or 2 ago...its canadian, but itd at least give you an idea
good luck with whatever you do!

[jyosi]

Your biggest monthly expense is going to be rent. Your biggest asset purchases are going to be inventory and furniture (display cases). Those costs should be easy enough to figure out. I'd be most concerned about the the cost to set up the legal entity (corporation, llc, sole prop., etc.) and if you need to hire a lawyer to help you with that and how much Detroit/MI charges to file for each of those. And don't overlook taxes. Since you will be selling out of a store in Detroit, I am sure the city is going to want their share of your sales so you will need to register to collect sales tax and fill out monthly sales tax forms along with sending them a payment.

[lostones]

You should find out why there are no cards shops in your area. Is there even a large enough market for it? Hobby stores are dying... all the ones that are around had to start carrying comics, action figures, sports memorabilia, trading card games, magic cards, etc. The industry as a whole is dying. The amount of new people [customers] entering the hobby is decreasing. Are kids collecting sports cards... or are they playing PS3 and surfing the net? Hobby box wise, a local store cannot compete with prices from huge online retailers like dacardworld. Singles wise, you wouldn't have the selection of ebay, checkoutmycards or even sports card forums. Why would people want to come in and check out your store? Without a lot of customers and money, inventory turnover will be super long. No one wants to keep coming into a store that has the same old cards. You could probably make more money buying and selling singles full time from your own home. I'm not trying to be negative, but realistic. Starting and running your own business is hard... especially when your idea is a card store.

[shooten]

Im not sure but i would would try to buy peoples collections out and sell at your shop and sell online some aswell and if you dont start buying collections my football is fs pm if you want goodluck

[gladdyontherise]

I work at a LCS/sport store in the same area..well kinda, its on 14 mile and haggerty, but once i get out of colleged i plan to either take over that store or start my own, so i've asked, and it seems the start up costs would be somewhere in the area of $25,000-$50,000. Now if your gonna do strickly cards and not jerseys/shirts and all of that i'd imagine the startup costs would be more like $10,000-$25,000..You want to make sure that you have money to cover rent and stuff in the begining because the first year or two, you usually don't turn a profit..

[windmortal]

You'll probably need to supplement your walk-in business with online sales ...

[jyosi]

Good luck getting online sales anywhere except on ebay. It is nearly impossible to drive traffic to a website. I would not suggest starting your own website until you have built up a ton of ebay feedback and are selling lots of items each day out of an ebay store.

[Qwikflipz]

I work at a LCS/sport store in the same area..well kinda, its on 14 mile and haggerty, but once i get out of colleged i plan to either take over that store or start my own, so i've asked, and it seems the start up costs would be somewhere in the area of $25,000-$50,000. Now if your gonna do strickly cards and not jerseys/shirts and all of that i'd imagine the startup costs would be more like $10,000-$25,000..You want to make sure that you have money to cover rent and stuff in the begining because the first year or two, you usually don't turn a profit..

I would do strictly cards. I'd have trade nights, group breaks, etc, etc. How much would you imagine rent and stuff to be? And how come turning a profit will be that hard?

[Qwikflipz]

You'll probably need to supplement your walk-in business with online sales ...

I don't think so, plus no way I can compete with blowout, DACW, etc. I'd have some of the cheapest prices for a LCS, but not online.