[phreakyq]

spending some time here seeing everybodys breaks, it seems a lot of people are finding decent products at there LCS and Retail stores 2 years later!

i only know of two LCS' in my area, one of them is 95% of the current year and the other one has some older stuff, but only loose packs. Retail i never see anything from last year except at the beginning of the year.

LCS' i can understand, but i wish i had more of a variety there. but Retail, what gives? my only assumption is that i live in a major city (STL) and its countys are highly populated compared to some of the other people on here.

anyone else noticed any trends/patterns to this?

[aprirr]

The LCS I frequented as a kid closed down many years ago and, since my daughter started getting into it, our only options are retail and online. We live in a relatively small city(35,000) and I've noticed very little product flow through the card section of the local Walmart (until we get there, anyway). We bought the last 2011 Topps Update half-priced blasters 2 weeks ago, only to go back last week and find 4 new ones on the shelf. Again, the downside is with no LCS, all Hobby product and basic card supplies have to be online buys which makes everything more expensive with the shipping costs. We haven't hit any autos from any blasters yet, but we have done ok with other inserts(Hope Diamond Mantle SP out of our most recent 2011 Update blaster pickups)

[YuriTheFury]

I actually found a pretty good LCS around where I live now. They have 2012 packs(not sure if they sell boxes) but they also have a little stand that has older packs, going back to 2008(at a discounted price)...pretty neat.

[chevy man 22]

There used to be a little privately owned convenience store up the street from me when I was a kid and they sold wax pack of the current year but he also had wax packs all the way back to the early 80's as well but they just sat and collected dust because he wanted premium prices for them. I think for a pack of '82 Topps he wanted something like $8-$12 a pack. Obviously nobody is going to pay that know there was a good chance they had been gone through and resealed which was really easy with the wax paper back in the day.

The Walmart here stinks as far as getting new stuff in and I've never seen any boxes marked down there ever. Target has a larger selection but it usually looks like a tornado hit it so you can tell it's the dealer/collector spot where everybody goes. Now and again they'll have discounted old blasters but even they don't get that stuff very often.

There is supposedly some type of LCS in my area but I've never really tried to hunt it down. It's a used book store that apparently carries trading cards as well but I'm not sure to what extent as far as if it's just a couple boxes of current year stuff or if they sell supplies and singles as well. But being the only game in town I'm sure their prices are way out of what I'm willing to pay. Other than that everything in on the northside of town.

[Blury1]

Here in Arlington texas there is a great lcs they got everything from new to old and I know of atleast four more shops with in thirty min usually if I buy at Walmart it's just because I'm there

[ktcardshop]

The Walmart here stinks as far as getting new stuff in and I've never seen any boxes marked down there ever. Target has a larger selection but it usually looks like a tornado hit it so you can tell it's the dealer/collector spot where everybody goes. Now and again they'll have discounted old blasters but even they don't get that stuff very often.

Walmart sports cards are a leased department operated by a outside company. This is why there is a vast difference from store to store in their inventory.
Walmart has many leased departments. Bread, Pepsi, Coke, to name a few. You see employees of each of these in the store stocking their shelves.

Ray

[Blury1]

Walmart sports cards are a leased department operated by a outside company. This is why there is a vast difference from store to store in their inventory.
Walmart has many leased departments. Bread, Pepsi, Coke, to name a few. You see employees of each of these in the store stocking their shelves.

Ray

I believe that out of the three walmart a close to me one has twice the stuff as the other two put together

[nyyankeesfan28]

I go to a nice LCS in San Diego. They have all current year products and most from the year before and it gets less and less back to about 2002. The Target has some current year and a little of the year before then the repacked products from Excell.

[dpatera]

Again, the downside is with no LCS, all Hobby product and basic card supplies have to be online buys which makes everything more expensive with the shipping costs.

I think you're romanticizing LCSes a bit there. A large part of the reason there are fewer and fewer LCS around is that they are not able to complete with the online stores as far as price (including shipping). With my LCS, supplies are similar prices, but new releases always cost more than what you would find them online (including shipping). It's not because he is some LCS charging high prices, he's just charging what he needs to, to keep the doors open.

I try to buy from my LCS whenever I can, even paying some higher prices, because I like having him there. But, with a few exceptions, I don't go there expecting to find a better deal than I would find from an internet store. Of course, I also can't walk in to an internet store and talk about the big game last night.

[Blury1]

I think you're romanticizing LCSes a bit there. A large part of the reason there are fewer and fewer LCS around is that they are not able to complete with the online stores as far as price (including shipping). With my LCS, supplies are similar prices, but new releases always cost more than what you would find them online (including shipping). It's not because he is some LCS charging high prices, he's just charging what he needs to, to keep the doors open.

I try to buy from my LCS whenever I can, even paying some higher prices, because I like having him there. But, with a few exceptions, I don't go there expecting to find a better deal than I would find from an internet store. Of course, I also can't walk in to an internet store and talk about the big game last night.

True that gotta love the interaction with actual people that's why I always try to buy some thing from my lcs