The IceBox is moving - so tell (and show) us your favourite features of a hobby store!

[DougLaurieSports]

The IceBox Cards & Collectibles will be moving in a couple of months (exact date set yet, but looks like late March), but we're not going far - just to the other end of the mall. We're expanding from 2,300 sq. ft. to a whopping 3,800 sq. ft., and that gives us much more room to add some features.

We know we will be adding permanent break or sorting tables to seat 12 collectors, and we will be revamping our supply area to make it easier to find what you need. But we know there are other things we haven't considered, so we're asking you to tell us what YOU would like to see in a new card and collectibles store!

Leave us a suggestion here, and if it's a feature of your favourite shop and they don't mind, send us a picture! We'll post all of them together at the end of the thread and we will also select one lucky participant to receive an autographed 8x10 of Montreal Canadiens legend and HHOFer Henri Richard!

(The photo shown below is just one of the shots we have - we will give you your choice)



Thanks for your help and good luck!

 

[geschrocks33]

When Dave and Adams opened their superstore here recently they put in a mini arcade - I'm not suggesting put a ton of effort into an arcade, but a bubble hockey game would be cool. Who doesn't like a nice game of bubble hockey?

 

[neilnijjar]

little outside of the box - and might be hard to implement and monitor

but maybe a computer/laptop area to be able to search forums, eBay, COMC, online want/need lists.....if you have a tech person maybe they can make a way to limit it to only those sites then you dont have to worry about issues that may arise otherwise

 

[Nick2317]

An area with tables for trade nights and-or magic etc games?

 

[MNwild10]

My local has a bid board (I'm sure many do). A whole wall of cards put up by customers weekly that other customers bid on auction style with a secret # that identifies you. You pay the shop owner at the end, and the seller gets the funds added to their store credit. A great way to get rid of cards you may not sell on ebay due to shipping fees, and get credit to bust more open.

 

[DougLaurieSports]

An area with tables for trade nights and-or magic etc games?

We are definitely going to do this, and hopefully get our Breaking Club (Breaking 2: Electric Breakaloo?) going again. We used to have 8-12 guys who would come in, throw $50-100 each in a pot, then do a draft for team and break live in the store. Love to see that again.

Love to do Magic (and other games), but because we are in a mall, we have to have everyone out by 9 p.m., which means no Friday Night Magic and no room for tournaments. Plus, we have two excellent gaming stores in town already.

little outside of the box - and might be hard to implement and monitor

but maybe a computer/laptop area to be able to search forums, eBay, COMC, online want/need lists.....if you have a tech person maybe they can make a way to limit it to only those sites then you dont have to worry about issues that may arise otherwise

Excellent! We have been talking about doing this for a while, and at one point COMC was supposed to come talk to us about being a dropoff store for our area. We would have to work on limiting access to just pertinent sites, but very glad you brought this up!

When Dave and Adams opened their superstore here recently they put in a mini arcade - I'm not suggesting put a ton of effort into an arcade, but a bubble hockey game would be cool. Who doesn't like a nice game of bubble hockey?

I personally would vote for a pinball machine, but bubble hockey would be cool! If we have room when we finish the design, I'll check that out!

 

[neilnijjar]

Excellent! We have been talking about doing this for a while, and at one point COMC was supposed to come talk to us about being a dropoff store for our area. We would have to work on limiting access to just pertinent sites, but very glad you brought this up!

my LCS (OT CARDS) is a COMC drop off point and it is wonderful little addition for me - only thing better is if they could be a pick up point as well.

Couple other things that i think are a bit more "in the box"

TV to watch sports/games - maybe a couple couches/chairs
if you are a group breaker - a group breaking room
maybe a pop/vending machine/mini fridge for refreshments
a BUY/SELL/TRADE board where members can post wantlists/tradelists - might be hard to implement without being a clutter-**** of stuff pinned to a board

 

[GoalieFan89]

I have been to the current store and enjoyed my time at the store. I saw that you guys had a lot of low end hockey sitting in boxes. I like the idea of setting up tables and if you had the cards more accessible it would make for easier sales and help you guys get rid of the lower end stuff that can be hard to move. With the decrease of the Canadian dollar I know I need a place to buy low end/base to fill sets and I am sure a lot of others as well.

I like the idea of a bubble hockey game!

One challenge I find in any bigger hobby store is that not everything has prices and it helps to have items priced out. This is not always realistic so maybe saying all base is 50% of book value would help. When I stopped by the store I felt bad because I had to ask for pricing on some items.

Some other ideas:

regular trade nights (I think you already do this)
TV in the store...doesn't have to be attached to cable it could play sports DVDS or have information about the store such as promotions.

 

[chadsexington]

A "Social Media Sale" table area that works as such:

Every week, you have a specific product that's on sale in some form (maybe $5-10 off regular price.) The only stipulation to the sale is that the purchaser must buy the product and break it on video in your designated area with the understanding that the video is posted to Youtube on behalf of your store.

It's very quick, easy and free social media publicity for your store, an easy way to move different products and when the area isn't in use, it can just be a trade/snack table or whatever.

 

[gomaz]

Have lots of singles on display. And arrange them nicely. To me, nothing beats a card shop that has lots of singles to peruse.

 

[geschrocks33]

A "Social Media Sale" table area that works as such:

Every week, you have a specific product that's on sale in some form (maybe $5-10 off regular price.) The only stipulation to the sale is that the purchaser must buy the product and break it on video in your designated area with the understanding that the video is posted to Youtube on behalf of your store.

It's very quick, easy and free social media publicity for your store, an easy way to move different products and when the area isn't in use, it can just be a trade/snack table or whatever.

Have lots of singles on display. And arrange them nicely. To me, nothing beats a card shop that has lots of singles to peruse.

Yes and yes. Good ideas :beer:

 

[chadsexington]

Have lots of singles on display. And arrange them nicely. To me, nothing beats a card shop that has lots of singles to peruse.

I like this but echo Jeremy's sentiment. Please arrange them relevantly to either the sport, set, era (modern vs. vintage) and/or spotlight on the local team. I hate walking into a store where cards are all over a display case and make no sense whatsoever. Every time I drop into Derek's (OT Sports) store, I'm always thankful that he takes the time to arrange things so well. He'll have all the Vancouver stuff organized together and then goes by sport/set etc. His showcases don't trigger my hobby OCD ever lol

 

[pwag31]

my LCS (OT CARDS) is a COMC drop off point and it is wonderful little addition for me - only thing better is if they could be a pick up point as well.

Couple other things that i think are a bit more "in the box"

TV to watch sports/games - maybe a couple couches/chairs
if you are a group breaker - a group breaking room
maybe a pop/vending machine/mini fridge for refreshments
a BUY/SELL/TRADE board where members can post wantlists/tradelists - might be hard to implement without being a clutter-**** of stuff pinned to a board

That was going to be my suggestion. Maybe a board to post what set you are looking for with an address to email to get the wantlist. That way the board would not get to cluttered with large lists.

 

[creasecollector]

A "Social Media Sale" table area that works as such:

Every week, you have a specific product that's on sale in some form (maybe $5-10 off regular price.) The only stipulation to the sale is that the purchaser must buy the product and break it on video in your designated area with the understanding that the video is posted to Youtube on behalf of your store.

It's very quick, easy and free social media publicity for your store, an easy way to move different products and when the area isn't in use, it can just be a trade/snack table or whatever.

Love this idea!

 

[geschrocks33]

That was going to be my suggestion. Maybe a board to post what set you are looking for with an address to email to get the wantlist. That way the board would not get to cluttered with large lists.

What if you maybe incorporated this into the computer idea?

Instead of having a board where hard copies are posted, perhaps (depending on the storage abilities of the computer) you could have customers email their wantlists in an Excel Spreadsheet (just how I have mine so that's my example) and you could have a folder on the computer with electronic copies of wantlists, and that persons contact info included in their spreadsheet. So customers could browse forums/various wantlists while in the store to see if they could help others.

 

[mully]

just letting you know wayne,be careful how cozy you make it,a friend tried the couch thing,big screen,games area(checkers and chess) only to find out he had too many freeloaders hanging around all day.....never spending money,just taking up space like a social gathering........
not to say any of these ideas are bad,just letting you know you might want to post a sign (no freeloading) or clarify to your customers,that your not just a cozy hang out place

 

[DougLaurieSports]

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far! I'll try to reply to each one.

My local has a bid board (I'm sure many do). A whole wall of cards put up by customers weekly that other customers bid on auction style with a secret # that identifies you. You pay the shop owner at the end, and the seller gets the funds added to their store credit. A great way to get rid of cards you may not sell on ebay due to shipping fees, and get credit to bust more open.

I used to do this a long time ago in the 90s in my first shop. Might be time to resurrect it! How many cards does your shop put up per week? Can you shoot me a picture of their system? Does anyone else's shop do this?

my LCS (OT CARDS) is a COMC drop off point and it is wonderful little addition for me - only thing better is if they could be a pick up point as well.

Couple other things that i think are a bit more "in the box"

TV to watch sports/games - maybe a couple couches/chairs
if you are a group breaker - a group breaking room
maybe a pop/vending machine/mini fridge for refreshments
a BUY/SELL/TRADE board where members can post wantlists/tradelists - might be hard to implement without being a clutter-**** of stuff pinned to a board

I'm going to get in touch with COMC. I like the idea of it, and it just brings more people in the store.
We will be adding a TV with cable so we can have games on. Also, see answer below about previous incarnation of TV, etc.
I am not a group breaker, although we will hopefully be bringing back our in-store group breaks.
We are in a mall, so we are not allowed to sell food, as we have a convenience store just down the hall.
See above.

I have been to the current store and enjoyed my time at the store. I saw that you guys had a lot of low end hockey sitting in boxes. I like the idea of setting up tables and if you had the cards more accessible it would make for easier sales and help you guys get rid of the lower end stuff that can be hard to move. With the decrease of the Canadian dollar I know I need a place to buy low end/base to fill sets and I am sure a lot of others as well.

I like the idea of a bubble hockey game!

One challenge I find in any bigger hobby store is that not everything has prices and it helps to have items priced out. This is not always realistic so maybe saying all base is 50% of book value would help. When I stopped by the store I felt bad because I had to ask for pricing on some items.

Some other ideas:

regular trade nights (I think you already do this)
TV in the store...doesn't have to be attached to cable it could play sports DVDS or have information about the store such as promotions.

We will be doing exactly this. I'm not sure how long it's been since you've been in, but we now have our "Set Killer's Corner" that we take to the Expo as a feature in the store. All the cards are marked with coloured stickers and a pricing key.
We will also be adding more space for base and lower-end singles, and there will be dedicated tables where collectors can just pop a box off the shelf and go nuts! And don't ever worry about ask for pricing - just be afraid you'll get me talking and I won't shut up!

 

[DougLaurieSports]

A "Social Media Sale" table area that works as such:

Every week, you have a specific product that's on sale in some form (maybe $5-10 off regular price.) The only stipulation to the sale is that the purchaser must buy the product and break it on video in your designated area with the understanding that the video is posted to Youtube on behalf of your store.

It's very quick, easy and free social media publicity for your store, an easy way to move different products and when the area isn't in use, it can just be a trade/snack table or whatever.

What an excellent idea! I'm not much for the tech stuff, but I can't imagine having a web cam set up would be a big deal, especially if we can tie it to the desktop we'll have for searching our inventory.

Have lots of singles on display. And arrange them nicely. To me, nothing beats a card shop that has lots of singles to peruse.

This is interesting. Part of the challenge for us is we spend a great deal of our time servicing the other parts of our business -- framing, jersey customization, charity auctions, online sales, etc. We have tried having more singles out in the front cases, but I think because we are in a mall, what that led to was people asking to see everything with no intention of buying.

Aside from some vintage stuff and current Young Guns, etc., all of our mid-to-high end stuff is filed in the back offices by set and year. People don't have ready access to it aside from searching eBay before they come in, and hopefully having a desktop PC in the store will make that easier.

just letting you know wayne,be careful how cozy you make it,a friend tried the couch thing,big screen,games area(checkers and chess) only to find out he had too many freeloaders hanging around all day.....never spending money,just taking up space like a social gathering........
not to say any of these ideas are bad,just letting you know you might want to post a sign (no freeloading) or clarify to your customers,that your not just a cozy hang out place

Hee hee - when were first in this location a number of years ago, we had The Brick Collector's Corner. One of our customers was the manager of a local Brick and he did tradeout with us for a big-screen TV, a nice big coffee table and a leather sofa with recliners on both ends. It was snazzy and eye-catching ... and it also brought people in to just sit on the couch and watch TV with no interest in anything in our store. In at least one instance, a guy came in because his wife was grocery shopping and fell asleep!

We won't be going that route again simply because we have better uses for the space. We will have a TV or two, I think, and we will have dedicated areas for breaking and looking through singles boxes.

 

[jdg573]

Beer fridge

 

[BrownBullhead]

How about WiFi? Some ISPs will setup a hot spot at no cost to the business (other than your hydro costs to run the hardware I guess) that allows customers to surf the web on their own mobile devices. Saves you having to worry about the Security and liability end of things by installing and configuring a PC for people to use.

That was going to be my suggestion. Maybe a board to post what set you are looking for with an address to email to get the wantlist. That way the board would not get to cluttered with large lists.

Another +1 for the white board idea.

I'm sure that in my city of 700,000 people, someone's got some that I need, but no practical way to get it in their face. There are tons of local collectors who you will ask them and they've never heard of forums, they don't use eBay, they don't do social media. But I know these cards are out there just no practical way to hook up with these collectors.

Beer fridge

Liquor licencing roadblocks may prevent that.

When I used to be heavy into aquariums, a local retail shop had fridges and freezers for frozen fish foods and medicines that had to be kept cold. He also kept Pepsi and other goodies on hand. It was so nice to drink a pop while looking at the fish that I was about to buy.