Post-traumatic stress disorder. Recently, it's occurred to me that I have a mild case of it. I don't want to trivialize the trauma that solders and emergency workers and survivors of abuse feel. But I have this thing about feeling angry and anxious whenever I think about a certain subject. I mean, it doesn't compare, but the anger I feel is just below the surface.
Sports cards. Fucking sports cards.
The reason it's occurred to me recently is that--of all things--sports cards appear to be making a comeback. So, of course, even though I haven't really sold cards for over 20 years, everyone calls me and asks:
"How much are my cards worth? Are you buying? Who is buying? Do you have (random supplies). Where do I go?"
Over the last 20 years I've learned to play dumb, to say, "Gosh. I don't know. Sorry."
I wished that worked.
Of course, sport card collectors being sport card collectors, they don't accept that. They''ll double down and then double down again, getting angry that I'm not buying, I don't know what they're worth and I don't know where they can go to sell them.
I want to say,"Where have you been the last 20 years? What right do you have to demand anything from me!"
I get seriously angry and upset. Just ask Linda anytime the subject comes up. Hell, just ask my customers. My anger immediately surfaces.
"Why," you ask? "What the fuck, man. It's just sports cards."
A little history.
Sports cards were great at first. I was probably one of the first 3 or 4 shops in Oregon. It immediately took over the store. At the peak, cards were 85% of our sales! (Which was a trap. More on that later.) I've come to understand bubbles since then, but that was my first bubble, and so I took it personally. There was a Golden Age when everyone was happy and appreciative. I wasted the Golden Age by doubling down on purchases every year--never really making much of a profit.
And then it turned. Cards were everywhere, at half the price, and scamsters came out of the woodwork--as they always do where money is concerned.
I started getting complaints, then animosity, then outright attacks. Every day, every hour. I got more and more defensive. Not only was I bleeding red ink, I was getting attacked for doing so.
Remember that 85% of sales? How do I escape?
After one egregious attack; a guy attacking me loudly for selling the price guides at RETAIL!!!! (how dare I...) I put everything in the store at retail. (how DARE I!!!!)
For the next five years, I was constantly attacked and belittled and bitched to, until one day in 1997, a customer whined about me not carrying a certain thing and I blurted, "We're not a card shop anymore."
I still remember the relief I felt upon saying that.
Honestly, my blood pressure rises even thinking about it. Nothing else in my life has that effect. I took the collapse of Beanies Babies and Comics and Magic and Pogs and Pokemon without any ill effects.
But sports cards?
Fuck sports cards.
3 comments:
So I would be delighted to get your take on the current housing market in Central Oregon some time. It seems like we are back to the bubble of 2007, and I recall reading your blog back then about it. You were one of the ones who called it early on.
Or maybe it's not a bubble this time? The supply is what it is, and the demand from out of state buyers is powerful and seemingly unstoppable due to a variety of factors.
It doesn't seem like a bubble to me. There is a certain craziness to bubbles. You know it when you see it. Lots of people coming in the store who just moved here or are "planning" to move here. So the population is growing.
As far as fads are concerned--there seem to be less of them, at least in my business. In the first half of my career, I had sports cards, comics, pogs, beanie babies, pokemon. Since then, nothing has reached those crazy heights.
My guess is that the internet has somehow flattened the curve. More access, more knowledge.
What do you think?
Without looking at historical price data, the explosive growth of house prices does seem to be mirroring what happened in 2005-2007.
Yet I guess with the earlier house price bubble the demand was artificial because much was speculative. It was based on borrowed money that couldn't realistically be paid back.
This time is different because the money to buy a house is real (i.e., someone has cash from a sale in a more expensive market). And, people are indeed moving here to fill up the houses.
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