Need help: Opening a Hobby store

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Ramjak Sports

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Well, I finally have realized a dream of mine. I am opening a very small card/memorablia store in a small town and need some help from other store owners/ members on opening inventory



Here is the help I need. I am well versed in hockey, as I am in the middle of Saskatchewan. So no need for help there. BUT i want to carry some of every sport and some non sport cards as well.



I am not going to be open every day as a matter of fact, but want to have a good selection when I do open. Money is not an issue, but I do have a semi budget to work with

Basically, I need help with what is the better value/selling football,baseball and basketball. I know UFC and have that covered.

Any ideas would be very helpful.

Also, anything that I might not of thought of. I am going to carry lots of autographed stuff, so any leads in that area would be greatly appreciated also.

Thanks for the help, and feel free to pm or email me: [email protected]



Thanks again! I am looking forward to this new avenue of the hobby for myself.
 
I'm in the same boat as you in not knowing anything regarding the other sports in the hobby on a modern card front. So I can't offer any help but I do want to wish you the best in this fun endeavour. From 9 years I wanted to run a shop for the fun of it. Enjoy!
 
Hey congrats on the hobby store. I'm sure you'll have a blast running it. Just don't run into busting too much of your wax sitting on the shelves.

I'd gather a bit of info about the pulse of your town before committing to bringing in boxes and boxes of non-sport and other sports outside of hockey. The worst thing you could do is bring boxes of products nobody wants and have them sit collecting dust while it undercuts your bottom line. Sinking a few hundred or thousand into new wax nobody wants is pretty lame since those boxes could hit the skids and you might have to sell them for less than cost (or do what one of our local guys does...sit on the boxes till the end of time refusing to sell them at the current market price.)

Bring what you're comfortable selling, and develop a working relationship with guys that want more. Since you're living in small town SK, I assume you could take down the numbers of guys that want baseball, football, etc and then special order them boxes for a bit until you see there's enough volume to just bring product in cold knowing they'll come back to the store when you have it.

In the meantime, bring cheaper boxes of some of the older other sport stuff in...Pacific CFL, old UD Golf. Keep a few boxes here and there to let people sample some of the other sports. You could probably get a good stockade of those boxes for only a couple hundred bucks, and if they don't sell through right away, people can peck away at them over time. I used to like rounding off my orders to say, $100 or $200. If I was sitting at $88 and there was a box of like, Pacific CFL for $12, I'd just take it to top off.

I dunno...that's my 2 cents. That's how I'd run a small town store if I had the chance.
 
Sorry I did not see this sooner.

If you or anyone else wants info on opening up a store - give me a shout. I am happy to help and have helped a few on here.

So, first off - Congratulations on your new store.

I would make one suggestion - success is measured in years and friends; not in $$$.

You can (and will) make lots of $$$ right away and then, if you are not careful, the whole thing drys up.

Establish yourself. It does not matter if you are in a small town (we are in a town of 4500) or your hours of operation (we don't open until 4pm-7pm and 10-5 on Saturdays) - what matters is that people feel welcome. They make your store. Don't worry about how much you make or sell - worry about bringing people in. Be fair, make sure your customer's get the hits and the more happy customers you have, the more they will promote your store.

A shiney card in your showcase is making you no money. A shiney card pulled by a customer is free advertising!

And remember, everyone wants to cut the grass when they buy a new lawn-mower. The "new" thrill wears off quickly. Have fun. Provide an environment for your customers to have fun. Fun never wears off.

Lastly - but very important. COMPETITION is your friend. As much as you can't control your competition, if they are decent - it helps you. Just like the internet bringing the hobby to the masses, good stores help all the stores. Case in point - There were 3 stores in this area. We were the bigger of the 3 but only open 35 hours a week and less in the summer. The other 2 were open full time but had some different philosophies that made their businesses suffer. Opening packs is for customers and the one guy had to close up because of that.

Dan and RJ also opened up recently (London) - there are plenty of resources available to you.

So best of luck and if you need anything, give me a shout.

Scott
 
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Goodluck

We had inspiration to open a Sports Card store... unfortunatly, I dont think our dreams will come true, but goodluck!!
 

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