By carrying so many product lines, I've begun to realize that different types of personalities gravitate toward different types of businesses. This a huge generalization, and there are many exceptions, but I have found that:

Game Store owners tend to be the most analytical of owners, but not quite as verbal as comics store owners, and they tend to be more social.

Comic Store owners can be analytical, and are very creative in their use of words and pictures.

Book Store owners tend to stick to themselves. They are probably analytical and verbal, but we'll never know because they'll never tell.

Sports card Store owners are mostly wheeler-dealers, who have zero analytical ability and couldn't tell you if they did.

I've mostly stayed away from commenting on sports cards, because it is the one thing that can still get me riled. What got me thinking today was an announcement from Upper Deck that they will only sell to legitimate wholesalers who sell to legitimate brick and mortor storefronts.

Silly me, I thought that's how they always did it.....

15 years after the collapse of sports cards in my store, I can finally admit to myself that it was a fad, and was going to die no matter what. But, the actions of the wholesalers and retailers and manufacturers certainly pushed it down faster. Too many brands, too high prices. But there were alot of systemic problems that could actually have been solved if;

1.) the industry insiders had been willing to admit there was a problem.

2.) they were willling to do something about it.

The story of sports cards is that they eventually start coming to the right conclusions (about 10 years after I figured them out). But their solutions are always a too little, too late. I'm convinced this is because no one in the sports card business ever sat down and tried to figure out what was happening.

Because it was pretty obvious. I won't go into all of them.

There was an article in the Bulletin the other day that said "grumpy workers could be an asset to the businesses."

I can't tell you how many times the sports card retailers insisted that every thing would be O.K. if a few sour grapes would quit complaining. I'm certain most of those retailers are gone. They were, quite frankly, lemmings. And entire industry of people who couldn't think for themselves.
It was all about sell, sell, sell. They'll sell to you, by god, even if they have to give you money.

I challenge you to find a single site on the internet that deals with sports cards (go ahead, there are 62 million of them on google) that has a single coherent thoughtful appraisal of their business. So it isn't surprising that sports cards are a dead industry, that has only been kept alive through the artificial infusions of games (pokemon, yu gi oh, and magic) and because a there always seems to be another nostolgia addled adult who thinks he's going to recreate his childhood, and thank goodness he has his 30 yr pension from the government....