Hobby Musings: Hobby stores gearing up for busy weekend – The upcoming weekend is a big one for the hobby as Black Friday offers a lot of enticing sales for collectors.
This year will have a different feel because of the coronavirus pandemic. With precautions in place though, stores across the country will be welcoming in customers. I had the chance to catch up with Legends Sports & Games’ Lou Brown, Score More Sports’ Mike Stang and Triple Play Sports Cards’ Dennis Worden. Based in Michigan, North Carolina and South Dakota respectively, the three shared their plans for this weekend.
KS: What Black Friday plans and/or promotions do you have for your store this year?
LB: We have some giveaways that we are doing, plus a sale scheduled for the weekend.
MS: With Panini canceling their promo this year, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our store on Black Friday.
DW: Triple Play will be running our Black Friday sale very similar to the past years. We give free promo packs away with purchases. Since Panini isn’t doing the promo this year, we will also be using some Topps and Upper Deck, along with previous year Panini promo packs, to do this promotion. A person can buy anything in our store to receive the free packs based on the overall amount purchased. It is not just tied to items we want to get rid of. We will be running the promotion all week, starting Monday at 10 a.m. and ending Saturday at 6 p.m. Most of my customers have come to expect this promotion, and this year more than any other year, I feel this is very important to do this promotion. We have had a great year, and with all the high prices, I really want to thank and reward our guests and continue to do my best to give them a good experience in our store and a distraction to all the bad around us. To help kids out a little more, we are lowering the amount kids 12 and under need to spend to get a free pack. We plan on giving away around 1500 packs this week.
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KS: Panini won’t be having their Black Friday promo packs this year. A staple of the hobby on Black Friday, what affect, if any, do you think this will have on the day for you?
LB: We were hit and miss on Black Friday packs. We always had some and used them for promotional purposes in the shop, but never hyped them. We would use them to promote the Panini line and drive some extra sales. Because it was not a big part of our promotions, I do not believe us not having them will have a significant negative effect on us this year.
MS: We are redirecting our efforts and store promotions to Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday).
DW: While I understand Panini’s reasoning for not having this year’s promotion, and it will not affect us too negatively this year, it will have a huge effect on next year’s promotion. I usually spend $30-$50K on this promotion to get all the packs needed to give away. I always hope to have 1000-plus packs left over to jump start the next year’s promotion as we usually run the promotion for a week, not just on Father’s Day and Black Friday. I will have to figure out something for 2021, as my cupboard will be bare after this year’s Black Friday week-long promotion.
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
Hobby Musings: Hobby stores gearing up for busy weekend
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