Wondered if everyone saw this news?
What a crazy world we are living in. Such a shame.
3 Likes
Before the pandemic cards for the most part just sat on the shelf. The markup on some of these cards are pretty big.
1 Like
People fighting over trading cards are the very people who shouldn’t have survived child birth… Geez!
6 Likes
I know a few people who are literally making a living off of these cards now. They have courses plotted throughout the day, spouses, family members waiting and assisting. Camping out for distribution times at local Meijers, etc, etc.
I’ve noticed that Walmart hasn’t restocked their card area/comic area in two months now…it’s completely desolate. I wonder if they are doing the same thing but just didn’t make it a point to declare it.
I’ve heard rumors that there are just a few employees of the overall company that handles these stocking duties and they are truly fearful for their own safety. People track them and their routes, have placed trackers on their vehicles, approach them in parking lots, etc, etc.
Crazy world we live in.
3 Likes
One word… GREED! I’m glad I only sell stuff like comics as side hustle and for fun. If you can make a living off it, great for you but don’t resort to becoming a effing criminal cause you can’t get your hands on the stuff. How about you just do it the right way, get a business license and buy them wholesale? Geez, is that too much trouble?
4 Likes
I know very little about the trading card hobby or industry. I’ve always thought companies like TOPPS and others have literally hurt their own business by their design. Not just sports cards, but all cards. They made them so exclusive and hard to find that you can’t buy anything at all.
Back in my day (Lord I’m old), trading cards, wax packs, sports cards, etc where absolutely everywhere…any store had them, and in huge quantities. There were still chase cards, harder to find cards, and such…but if I wanted to buy the new set of Star Wars trading cards, I definitely didn’t have to jump through hoops to get them. I would assume, the companies were selling far more cards back then.
They just seem to have a terrible business model that results in less overall sales and feeds the clowns that are fighting over the items.
2 Likes
Asking people to register for wholesale buying is too much for some of these folks. More work than they want to do. Should we be more worried about nuts out there living off selling cards is the bigger question.
Trading cards had a similar problem to comic books at one point and the trading card market took a dump. They literally went through same problem comics did. They went from 1 or 2 choices per company per year to two dozen per company per year with a dozen more companies joining in and flooding the market with garbage and the card market bubble finally burst and they have had to claw back to some sort of semblance of what they had before with ultra limited chase cards and all that garbage like comics with their incentives and stuff now.
1 Like
Yup, around the same time I was losing interest in comics back in the early 90s I was also losing interest in trading cards. I was mostly a baseball/basketball card collector and even then, I was not liking packs of 15 cards with crappy gum go from 50 cents a pack to 5 or less cards at $2, $3 or $5 a pack. The chase inserts were annoying. I’ll never go back to buying, collecting trading cards… all they did was get bought, looked at once and then shoved in a box to get tucked away into a closet. At least with comics I can read them to get a little entertainment from my purchase.
1 Like
Looks like they will keep Magic cards? haha.
These people fighting will go down in history.
The comic multipacks are now behind the counter. I assume because people kept ripping them open to look for 2nd prints and ratio variants.
4 Likes
Meanwhile, Magic players are sitting back and enjoying their online pre-orders coming in on schedule like clockwork.
1 Like
I noticed the other day at Walgreens that they had trading cards in a locked glass case now - like cigarettes or certain other drugs. Insane.
2 Likes
Easy items to steal for sure… people suck!
Pokemon cards have been insane. Magic is also constantly flying out the door, but that’s not that uncommon considering we aren’t primarily a gaming store and don’t order tons of boxes.
But with Pokemon cards the amount of angry calls or amount of people who come in and yell at the staff in our stores because we’re sold out is a legitimate growing problem. It wasn’t as bad at first because it was mainly regular customers just glad they could find cards somewhere (who actually play), but once flippers found out we also ordered cards it gets worse every release.
I’ve heard from a friend who works at a larger big box store in town that the vendor who restocked their cards quit because a couple of the flippers figured out her name and through the power of social media started sending her really inappropriate messages and then eventually threats to try to get her to give them first chance at buying the new cards put out.
Well…they are addictive…
That is completely insane.
1 Like
Yes they have. My boys have been collecting then for the past 5 years or so. They wanted this rainbow Pikachu from a pack. I remeber paying $4-$5 for a pack of 10 cards. Lately they have been $8-$20 depending on the booster. I let them each get 2 packs at $12 each pack. They didn’t get the rainbow Pickachu. Last I heard that card was $100+.
Back when I used to collect figures I saw some idiot throw a punch at another guy trying to find where the slave Leai was when the TRU opened. That was the big figure of the day (A long, long time ago) If you didn’t get to the store when it opened you didn’t get it. Not the first version anyway. That’s what people wanted in case there was a variant. Anyway, the manager just rolled his eyes and did nothing. No smart phones or social media to show it on back then so he basically said knock it off and went back to his office.
I sold my entire complete set of first edition Pokemon cards back in the late 90s for $50 when the teasing and bullying became too much for me. Now Holo Charizard is worth a car down payment.
1 Like