Season Ticket

I've been thinking about this for a while. How do sports memorabilia stores like Sports Gallery or Lefty's stay in business? When I was younger, my cousin and I would go to this store called Season Ticket almost every day during the summer. We spent so much money there on packs of cards, individual cards, etc, but it ended up closing down like almost every other card store. There used to be one across the street from the bowling alley, and there was one in the mall when it first opened. I think it was called Todd's or something.

I recently went to a Robb Nen/Kirk Rueter signing at Sports Gallery and was looking around the store. Prices are absolutely outrageous. I saw a Rich Aurilia signed baseball for sale for $139. I just checked eBay and an auction for a Rich Aurilia ball ended without a bid on the $9.99 opening price. If a ball doesn't sell for $9.99 on eBay, how is it going to sell for $139 at Sports Gallery? Factoring in employee wages and rent, along with uncompetitive prices, how do these places stay in business?




Wouldn't it make more sense to not have a physical store, but an eBay store instead? You don't have to pay rent and employees, you will sell more items, and you have a bigger market to sell to. Sports Gallery, for example, is limited to Bay Area customers; eBay auctions reach people nationally.

I've also been wondering how much money these stores make off of autograph signings. The Nen/Rueter signing cost $29.95 and 100 tickets were sold for a total of $3,000. If you add in another $1,000 (which is probably generous) for 8x10s, bats, etc that were sold, that's only $4,000. You would have to figure almost all of that $4,000 is split between Nen and Rueter because even at $2,000 each, it probably isn't even worth their time. If I were to guess, the money that these stores make off autograph signings is from exposure and getting their name out there, as well as people making impulsive buys while waiting in line. Signings are to just get people in the door.

Here is the image of the Giants project that I started with Rueter and Nen. It's a 20x30. I'll get a picture of the autographed picture up later.