The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questionsj are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
Today’s Question: QotD: Cardshop tip day, what are your tips where cardshops are involved?
Helpful Considerations: How to be a good seller? How to be a good buyer? How to attend a tournament with good hygiene? Dont sneeze on cards to claim them during pandemics?
Always be polite to the people working at the stores. 99% of the time they are just employees and have no say in any decisions being made at the stores.
Try to use your favorite card shop as often as possible. The one I frequented where I lived gave me some free card sleeves and toploaders just because I was a loyal customer. Make connections!
If you are planning to sell or trade, go in with the mindset of the card shop will look to make a profit, so your return will not be full value, 70-80% in my case.
If you are attending the card shop for a tournament and are worried about personal hygiene, make sure to take a shower beforehand, brush your teeth, and apply deodorant. You may want to throw extra deodorant in your bag so you can reapply later on if you plan to be there awhile.
As someone who’s never owned a LGS,but has been to them hundreds of times and is fairly aware of what works and what doesn’t:
Do not Livestream, if I see a LGS streams I walk out because I know anything halfway decent is gone, and I know they’ll be pricing things for stream buyers not walk in people
Let people see the cards, so many LGS won’t let you look at a card up close
Hook up your regulars, keep them coming back because, as has been said, all of this stuff is cheaper online
Understand that you may not be an expert on every single card variation, I have seen more card store employees and owners who don’t know what they’re doing claim to be tcg experts. You just work at a LGS, you haven’t necessarily earned expert rank
Don’t be a dick, this last one will get you further than any others
Ask for specific types of cards. The inventory you see in the displays is only a small portion of what stores have. Lots of stores keep cards in binders and bulk boxes in addition to whats on display
The main benefit of card shops is the social aspect—making conversation and talking about cards and such. If you aren’t interested in that, there’s not really a reason to shop at one.
It is nice to be able to look at cards before buying them, but many LGS don’t seem to realize that’s their main sell. Or they simply lack the stock that’s worth looking at
There’s literally hundreds of cards I would buy at tcgplayer prices right now if I could simply look at them first. So a LGS that lets me do that is big
I’ve had some luck at LGS but it takes a ton of time
