There is no longer a market for collectables...

...there are individual collectibles that sell in the market.


My store has slowly transitioned away from being a "collector's" store with collector pricing, to a store that sells everything for the original retail price. (Exceptions would be singles -- comics, cards, that have to recoup their cost of opening, or cover the cost of storing and displaying -- but even here, it's rare that anything is priced very high.)

"Collecting is what happens after the product leaves the store," is what I've been telling people.

It's my belief that the internet has flattened the prices for most collectibles.

Imagine if you will, 20 years ago, someone had been searching for a long time for a particular toy, and he finds it in a 'collector's' store. He would've known that he might never again see that toy, and would've paid a premium for it.

Now? He can go online, and there will be more than one person selling that item -- and because there is more than one, there will be some pricing competition.

I think, in fact, there is no longer a "Market" for most collectibles I used to carry: toys, cards, comics, books, games, whatever. There are individual items that people are looking for, but usually it's only the hardest to get, and the most rare, and probably the highest priced.

There just aren't enough of those to go around.

If, for instance, the only sportscards that will sell are Mickey Mantle cards, in fine or mint condition -- well, only a few stores are going to have the wherewithall to carry those.

A "Market" implies a broader range of material selling: high price, low price, medium price. Rare, Uncommon and Common. There is a synergy to the process -- selling old cards (comics, books, toys, etc.) helps sell new cards helps sell supplies helps sell price guides, etc. etc.

Unfortunately, if you take away too many parts -- like selling boxes and packs of cards cheaply at Walmart -- then the singles market no longer functions, either.


I have to tell you, I'm totally O.K. with all this. I really want to sell product for the original reason anyone ever bought anything -- because they enjoy it. They read the comics, they collect the cards, they play with the toys -- because that pleasure will always be there.

In fact, selling a toy that will never be opened is --- anti-toy. Selling a comic that will be slabbed in a "Graded" sleeve -- is anti-comic/anti-reading.

And I'm happy to no longer have to justify, to explain, why my prices might be different than what it originally was. There is a liberation in being able to say to folk: "We charge retail. The Suggested Retail Price." Most customers instinctively know what I'm saying and they either accept it or they don't; but it doesn't require anymore explanation than that.

Like I said, this doesn't have to keep people from collecting: after they leave the store. I'm just no longer part of that world.