Card store owners not knowing what they have!!

General
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1

Idk if this has happened to anyone else but this has happened to me 3 separate time, go to a card shop and ask to look at their bulk stuff, find AMAZING card among all the garbage, it is unmarked because the owner says they havnt gone through the bulk yet, I tell them I’ll take the card for $2-5 they say “uhhhh I’m gonna check online…OMG THIS CARD IS WORTH $60 ONLINE ILL SELL IT FOR $70”.

I know that was a run-on sentence but seriously! I have had this happen so many times and I don’t think it is fair. I found the card you didn’t mark because you were lazy, you own a card shop know your inventory!

Has anyone else had this happen and how do you stick it to these people and get the card you want ?

Rant over

2

that store owner mightgenuinely think some of the prices they see online are
not realistic. They think the highest price or best match item is what the
card is worth. Online shops dont have overhead so the physical store has to
be a little higher as well. The other guy instead of doing you a favor for
finding him $50 bill jacks up the price.

It’s finding someone dropped money they’d never miss or knew. When you return it
instead of getting a reward they try to accuse of you of taking. You did a solid
and got nothing in return (this is different from just doing the right thing or helping
someone just because).

3

I think it’s a sticky situation.

Like Hisoka said, they do have to pay overhead. Also, not every card store owner has time to sift through thousands of cards a day. They need to focus on purchasing, selling, trading, etc. and still need to profit before the day’s end.

Pokemon prices fluctuate and I think that’s the most fair to check it before you take really good advantage against them…

IDK

4

It’s just frustrating because that is why I go to physical shops to have that chance of finding the “diamond in the rough” but it’s just frustrating when they don’t know anything about what they are selling. And you have to explain to the owner what the card actually is. Maybe I’m being selfish but I feel if it is in your store you should know the price of your items instead of looking everything up on the spot.

Also in these situations the cards were SR Charizard X and Regice gold star. Mixed in with other random holo and none holo rares

5

I definitely understand your position…I would be frustrated too!

Here’s my take on it. A card shop owner should know what they are selling, and if they don’t, you wouldn’t really be obligated to tell them. You could freely take advantage of the shop owner’s lack of knowledge. In an ideal world, all shop owners would have great knowledge of what they sell. However, if they insist on looking up the card and checking its value to charge a fair price, you can’t really be mad at them for doing that. As has been said, they’re just trying to make a profit.

It sucks to find that ‘diamond in the rough’ and then have your hopes and dreams crushed at the cash register. If you’re really looking for something to blame this on, blame the internet for making the prices readily available to owners.

However, if you would really want to cheat these owners, and take advantage of their lack of knowledge…I would buy a bunch of cards at once. Maybe a bunch of holos, new EXs, everything. Make it so that the valuable card(s) don’t stand out. For example, gold stars are nearly indistinguishable from older holos unless you know what a gold star is and how it’s different. Same with the SR Zard and something like an Emolga or Skarmory EX. If you go up to the register with 2 cards, then they’re sure as hell gonna think something’s fishy and look up prices. But if you come up with 15-20 holos and EXs and say you’ll give them $35 for it, then there’s much less incentive to check the eBay price of every card there. And while you’re spending more, it’s kinda a win-win. The card shop sells cards, and you hopefully get some ‘diamonds in the rough’.

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6

After going through multiple shops during my MTG and Yugioh days, I have this opinion formulated.

As a card shop owner, you run a business, and it is your responsibility to run that business and create your own policies. Generally these kinds of card shops have a lot in bulk, and only have so much time to buy, resell, recatalouge, organize, etc. their cards. Often times these shops will have cards that people will change their mind on, so there’s a “return” bin, that they have to sort through daily to try to reorganize them.

If the card is comes from a box where they sell “Commons for 50 cents, uncommons for $1”, and then have a special place for marked rares, they have the liability to sell those cards for their price.

UNLESS

They have a policy where, because card prices fluctuate CONSTANTLY, make rares required to be price checked for their current price prior to purchase.

I think this is fair, and probably the best way for these shop-owners to make functional and smart business choices. How would you feel if you let someone go with a gem of a card because you decided not to check the price? I hear it CONSTANTLY on the forums alone, about how people have basically given cards away. I’ve done it myself.

Most card shops I go to will actually have the cashier AND the price checker. You display the cards you want, separate the commons, uncommons, and rares, and the price checker prices the rares for you.

I find nothing wrong with it. I know it must be frustrating to want to find a card for wicked cheap, but if we’re being honest, we’re taking advantage of people’s ignorance and getting an incredible deal when we do that.

The shop owner in this case, knew that he was ignorant of the price and rectified it. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

If it had been MARKED, then it would have been a different story. But even THEN, if you’re trying to haggle the price, they’re more than in the right to double check that price.

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7

The difference is when you go to cons and the people there know the prices. They literally want to sell EVERYTHING asap.

8

Another thing to keep in mind is do they have someone knowledgeable in those cards working full time?

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9

tough to stay on top of millions of items especially back stock.

10

I really can’t see the big issue here.

Had you led with “that card is worth more than the others here can I buy it for X (where X isn’t severely trying to rip them off) please” you might have had a different response.

You can’t expect people to give you ridiculous deals because they own a lot of stuff…

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11

No real card stores where I live… have to go to Wal-mart, Walgreens, Target! :,(

12

Just grab a bunch of crap cards (10-20) and mix them in, then ask him to ring you up, if he’s lazy enough he’ll just sell them to you without researching.

I like scouring eBay for deals like these, it’s amazing how lazy some people are even when Google is a click away; funniest thing that’s happened to me is that I ordered a foil Ryusei, the Falling Star (Magic the Gathering), a $5 rare foil card, and as some nice sellers do they include some extra cards, be it to protect the card you purchased or as a gift, well, he sent me a foil Mountain and a foil Brainstorm from Mercadian Masques, this card is of Common rarity, non-foil it’s a $1 but foil… well, the card is $200. It was LP/NM to boot.

My theory is that he just looked at non-foil prices and decided it was a junk common.

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14

Now for the flip side.

I stopped by a comic book store I have been going to for 37 years. A customer sold some M:tG cards he found at Goodwill. When sorting the store found some valuable cards, they called the customer and offered him some more money. He declined saying he was happy with his profit. Then they came across a REAL valuable card, the store owner said when it sells they will give the guy $300 more.

15

There you go. Very well done:)
The younger generation can learn something from this.

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