Hobby Boxes In Retail Stores?

[mikesilvia]

Good article by gmoney168 here.

[Edwards2Evans]

Great read! That would be like a dream come true if Target and Wal-Mart had hobby.

[pwaldo]

That really makes no sense.

If retail places started selling hobby stuff then there would be no hobby packs or boxes as they would then replace retail. Plus retail stores just sell single packs or blasters and rarely if ever sell whole boxes something that you buy at hobby stores. Nobody is going to walk into Target and pay $100 for a box of cards. That's why they sell a $19.99 blaster because it is easier to stomach for the majority of buyers.

Plus in theory it would work but all the Wal Marts in my area stopped selling cards years ago because so many people were stealing them and Target has people who search and in some cases just open the packs take the cards they want and leave opened packs all around. So if they had $200 boxes of Topps Sterling lying around you don't think something bad would happen to them when a $1.99 pack of Topps is played with?

[dirtydistance]

I don't think this would work. The large retailers would drive the small independent dealers out of business and we wouldn't have card shops, just the big department stores to buy cards at.

I never buy retail or blasters anymore. Just go online and order a box or 2 from one of the many online dealers, even Enigma's Cards by the Box or Dave and Adams, and you get them in a few days. Most retail for me is like throwing my money in the trash anyway and probably for most of you with a few rare exceptions..

[jhowell]

Great article. Man I miss the days of card shops, now they're just obsolete. 8 years ago my town had 3, now they are all out of business and its ebay or bust when it comes to buying cards.

[gmoney168]

So if they had $200 boxes of Topps Sterling lying around you don't think something bad would happen to them when a $1.99 pack of Topps is played with?

They would be smart enough to put them behind a protective screen, kind of like they do with the video games...

[debtriddin]

hi

maybe let these stores sell hobby in towns that have no shops.i think hobby shops will suffer and many will bite the dust.

cheers mike

[timfsu2k]

Good idea, but no way any retailer starts selling hobby products. They are not interested in seeing a $100 box of sportscards sit for months before someone buys them. They want the casual buyer who doesn't mind spending $20 on a box of cards. Not a big loss if they don't hit anything. Also, they would have to choose between selling the $20 box or the $100 box, since the space allotted to sports cards has dwindled significantly in the last few years they would not stock both price points.

Also, like someone else pointed out, that would be the final blow for the remaining card shops.

[themanishere]

They are not interested in seeing a $100 box of sportscards sit for months before someone buys them.

Right on. Retailers want products on and off the shelves, they want their stock to sell fast and with regularity.

However, I would not mind seeing cheaper hobby boxes around. I think the cheaper hobby boxes would have a decent chance of cycling through the stores. It wouldn't be much of a jump for too many collectors (I would think) from a $20 blaster to the cheaper hobby boxes around $50 or so.

[cometmike]

Shopko has Hobby Boxes