Collectibles market is hit hard

BY DAVID J. NEAL

An aura of disintegration and decay hangs over BC Sports Collectibles' Aventura Mall store. A case that once held autographed bats from stars such as Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols now has its emptiness sliced by a single black bat. A wall once covered in sports card boxes and pennants now holds a few shelves of open boxes.

As they have for weeks, customer vultures sail in to pick over 40-percent-off merchandise as the national chain's Miami store winds down to its closing at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the most consistent foot traffic at some of South Florida's other sports card and memorabilia stores are sellers -- as in one-time buyers who need cash.

UNDESIRABLES

Bases Loaded's Kevin Palczynski said he has people coming in daily with things to sell, but much of it is from the mid-1980s through early 1990s. That's The Overproduction Era, when card companies capitalized on rising sports card interest by cranking out many more cards than could be sold. These days, you could buy 24-pack boxes of cards from that era for the cash on you right now. Only the first season of cards of megastars such as Dan Marino or Michael Jordan, called their ''rookie cards,'' even if that first card season was their second or third season, have retained resale value.

''People aren't bringing in the really cherished stuff -- the [Mickey] Mantle rookies, that kind of stuff,'' Palczynski said. ``Those people are sitting pat.''

Meanwhile, those still buying dole out their shekels more conservatively. Palczynski said inconsistent walk-in volume has him relying even more on his regular customers, who still buy but change their patterns -- once a month instead of once a week or dropping $50 a visit instead of $100.

Rodriguez has seen the store's autograph signings with athletes, usually retired baseball players, slow, as well as the card customer volume.

''I don't see as many kids anymore because parents just don't have that extra money to give the kids money for a pack of cards,'' Rodriguez said. ``The people who come here for just a couple of packs, they're not doing the shopping as much. The people who are getting the boxes and looking for their special hits inside the boxes, they're the ones still spending some of their money.''

This is the brick-and-mortar sports memorabilia store in the latest era of austerity. Such stores flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. Now, between the Internet, South Florida real estate and the economy overall, like many other businesses, it's a buyers' market. It's just that there are fewer buyers and, now, some of the transaction roles have been switched. And Darwinism accelerates.

''Now, most of the small stores went out of business,'' Hollywood Collectibles' Rich Altman said. ``They can't compete with guys like me who have been around that have an inventory from doing this for 20 years.''

Chris Rodriguez, manager for Fort Lauderdale's Bud's Sports Cards and Collectibles said: ``It's a shame. I think the more businesses we have around, the better it is for everyone, including us. Competition creates more customers, believe it or not, because everybody's shopping around.''

They are still shopping for the best price. It's just about what they will get for collectibles instead of what they will give.

''It's been the last six months,'' Altman said. 'They need money. Some of them are forthright -- they don't have the mortgage payment or they don't have gas money. It's one end of the spectrum to another. Some people are like, `I'm not in any kind of hurry, but here's some stuff.' We're getting a lot of consignment on some high-ticket items.''