Hobby Quick Hits Ep.82 Protecting Your LCS

<span;>11:42 PM
<span;>Time for sports card. Landscape. And enjoy the hobby. We all love. Here's your host. John Newman.

<span;>Alright, welcome to another edition of hobby quick hits. You know, I've said before, many of these episodes really are born from someone else asking me to either explain something or to answer a question. And this one is going to fall under that category. Someone asked me recently, you know, if you did a shop today with all the bad stuff going on, burglaries robberies.

<span;>You know, how would it be different for you from when you did your store from 92 to 97? And it's a great question. And unfortunately, we're seeing a lot more robberies. I'm going to get more into those details. It's like never before now, robberies and burglaries have been around for since medieval times, but there just seemed to be now an everyday occurrence in the card world in the Hobby World and it's unfortunate. But you know, I'm going to talk about something.

<span;>You know that if you have an LCS now that you maybe can do, maybe you're doing some of these things. We're going to talk about talk about some things I would do if I had a store today. But before we really go deep into this episode, let's hear from our great friends and Mojo brake, who sponsor the show. Hey, folks. Wanted to tell you about the best place to get some of your Shield sports car, wax products, great services. Election. And some of the lowest prices on the web, Mojo brake shop.com is that place whether it's a box or a whole case? They're your guys and they ship around the world right to your door. The Mojo brake name is one of the most trusted in the hobby. From sports cars. To Pokemon. Their selection can't be beat. They offer daily deals and pre-orders. Who won first place at this year's cops, rip party. No, the other than Mojo brake there.

<span;>This is already great. But here's a way to save even more money. Use the code quick hits. That's q u IC. Ke H iits for 10% of anything on Mojo brake shop.com. We also have a full service carpet shop in Santa Clara, California. So if you're in the area, stop by there were open, seven days a week. So check them out at Mojo brake. Shop.com. Again. Like I said, robbery, sir. Are in burglaries are nothing new to the Hobby game. We've even in my store day. When I got out of my store, sold out to my partner in the Year 1997 and about four months after I sold out to him that's stored at we were Partners in. I was no longer a partner, but about four months after I left, it was broken into and money was stolen at, but

<span;>No cards. And again, this is, you know, 1997. I think the hobbies and a little difference. But now, but they stole money. They smash glass and that was his cue. My partner, whose name is Angelo. That was his cute to kind of do what I did and just kind of start doing shows and, and eBay and that sort of thing. So that was unfortunately, the end of the store for both of us. Us. I got out for Is prior and then that happened and he took that as a cue or sign that maybe that you know, time for him to just do online sales and eBay and that sort of thing. So we did and I remember when that happened obviously had nothing to do with it. But I remember the local police calling me up and question me, you know, a couple questions over the phone and then they wanted to stop by and ask me some more questions. Ian's. I was happy to oblige and nothing to hide wasn't involved in it but being a former partner, you know, there's always that angle they want to just know cross all your t's and Dot your I's. I wasn't worried about it knowing that I didn't do nothing. So answered any questions they asked, they didn't ask a ton and they eventually actually caught the person who did it and he actually said,

<span;>Just wanted the money, then take any cards. And I guess he was a drug addict and was using my stolen that money. He was stealing was to keep his habit going. So and time, they're no different, you know, people Rob and steal for, for all sorts of reasons. But sometimes that's really at the Forefront. And, you know, we've seen, you know, every day now, you read The Hobby news, whatever site. It you'd like to to get it from an you know, we're seeing a real robbers being reported every day. You know show alumnus Jimmy Mahan with his Kentucky Road Show card shop. He was recently robbed a couple weeks ago for the third time. The third time we've seen an armed robbery, a few weeks ago and out. Tuna.

<span;>Pennsylvania, where man came in brandishing, a weapon had the two people in the store going to bathroom locked him in there and and took cars and merchandise and cash and was caught. But and there was bullets in the chamber of that weapon. And you know, we're seeing multiple, robberies, Canada, had some card LCS robberies. My store here, not my store, but there are only carts there we have in the Syracuse area. It's called Southpaw Collectibles. Been there, a long time. And in fact, the stores been around. When I had my store in the 90s. That was they were they were in existence then will, they were robbed three times in the last five months, every other month by three people. They eventually caught the People by having a Stakeout surveillance. They were going

<span;>Other month. So they just had an officer in an unmarked vehicle, sit, you know, kind of hidden in the back part of the lot and they came back a third time. They so they that store has been robbed three times in five months and it's scary. So when that person asked me that question, you know, they said I'm asking you this what would you do differently? Not card wise. Not how you buy products or or set up the store? Well, how would You do to protect yourself and what's in the store differently than what you did, when you had a store in the 90s and it's a great question and it's current and it's topical. Right? And made me think, what would I do? And I have toyed with the idea of maybe owning a store again. Probably not going to happen. I've said and I'm not going to go off on a tangent by said it would only really happen. Probably if I opened a store in Cooperstown.

<span;>New York, kind of a high tourist, Baseball City, obviously, Cooper's town with the Hall of fame's, a huge Baseball City rents that necessary cheap, but it would be a great town to own a card store. And not too far from where I live about an hour 15 hour and 20 minutes depending on how fast I want to go. So, not super far. And I've always kind of joked about maybe buying a house. Storefront with a resident living. Of all revered residents above it and kind of, you know, commute here and there back and forth between the store. Maybe get my son involved, more of a pipe dream and wishful thinking, but you can have fun thinking about that and it made me think about, you know, if I did do that, what would I do to protect, you know, the store and what's inside it, what's in those showcases, right? And it's a great. It's a great question. So I'm going to answer. It but you know, let's tackle one question here. Why are we seeing these rash of burglaries more so than ever before in the answer? I think, you know, the answer without me saying it here on the show, you know, these are more of a, a liquid commodity asset. Another words, their cards are, is very close to cash, as you can get, you know, waxes is used.

<span;>Really untraceable wax boxes wax packs, raw cards or cards that are not graded. Don't have a serial number and that sort of thing, not all of them. But my majority of them may be untraceable. Less. It's a super-rare card. That's obvious when it's reported stolen and someone tries to sell it right away. And yes that does happen. Occasionally. We've seen robberies. Burglaries, right? Happened at the national, as a showcase is open. It's a very busy things are going on left and right and someone else sneak something out of that case, right. I many times a perpetrator is caught but there has been card stolen at the last few National where they didn't catch the person and that just the national book, other shows as well. We saw a person caught at the Dallas and you know anywhere someone can steal.

<span;>Something and make money. It's going to happen, hate to say it. But that's that's the world we live in and that's the way it is. And that's probably not going to change and that again leads in this question. It's not a people are going to steal something when they can make money or profit off of it. So how do we as LCS owners car owners? Combat that. And I'm going to talk about some of those things. And I'm going to come at it just from the store aspect here. Folks, not from at home with a safe or safety deposit. That let's just talk about, you know, NLCS over. I'm going to put myself in this place. You know? Question was posed to me. Yo, you open a new store today. What would you do different security wise than what you did in nineteen?

<span;>No, 97. The, you know, the last year you had the storm and number one is, I mean, there's all sorts of, you know, you gotta remember. I'm in New York City kid. So I'm used to businesses and stores where those roll down metal. Basically, garage doors can close can cover the front door, cover the windows, right? That's a real extreme option. Right? But it is an option, right? You can also get steel bars. Put over your windows, you know, they do have now shatterproof glass. Now, that's not foolproof. Can still be really hammered out with a sledgehammer and we'll takes a lot more work. It's more time consuming and bodies the authorities more time to get there before the perpetrator can get inside the LCS, but that helps the they have now coverings. I saw and what did a little research?

<span;>There's some coverage you can add to the windows that have a similar effect, and make the class, sorta unbreakable, or shatterproof. And who knows. What's next, right? He got your old standby, security systems, right? That alarm trips. Right notifies, the authorities, that something's a mess. We have camera systems, right? I have those in my house and outside my house. I make

<span;>11:55 PM
<span;>For businesses to we've seen a lot of these robberies and burglaries we've seen we've seen the still photo shots, right of the perpetrated at sometimes used to apprehend those people. Someone recognized abs and does the right thing in terms of men, right? So we got cameras different types of window. Coverings great steel bars, right, you know, alarm systems. All sorts of things, but if I was doing a store now and as much work, as it would be in a pain in the, you know, what to do every day. I would, I would get one of them, you know, I saw a few of them at the national this year in Chicago, these big industrial safes. Let me just these mass of

<span;>Heavy-duty saves, you know, very big taller than you know about six and a half feet tall. Pretty deep pretty thick steel walls. That some of these places. I don't know if they ran into them. I don't know how they got there. But just massive safe. They were it was curious to see it the show, but I got to say, I don't know what those things cost, but I think I would invest In one of those and I've had one of those in my store. You say, what, you know, what, what would you put in at number one? At the end of any business day. I put a matter of fact, any unopened sealed wax. I'd probably put one on the shelf and any back stock in in the safe. All righty, and then what I probably do at the end of every business day is put the rest of the, you know, especially the high And wax right in the safe. I'd also go through the showcases and pull any serious, very expensive, or cards that I was concerned about and put them in the safe as well. So I'm going to say, wow. It's almost like doing a show every day. You got to come to come to the LCS. Come here, your work, open the safe, and then put everything back out again. Yeah. Yeah, I love to argue with you, but that's what you have to do.

<span;>That's tough. You know less you get some safe crackers, or some wood, some high-end explosives, right? Which is most likely not going to happen. In this case. I Don't Want to Say Never, Never Say Never, but someone's probably gonna break in the store. Worst case scenario, which you hope doesn't ever happen breaking the store and only kind of take what they can smash and grab quit, right? Then these folks that are doing this want to be in and out of that store fast, and I'm going to be going Going over to this big industrial safe and trying to Safe crack it, or blowing it up again? Never Say, Never, but they're looking to get in and get out. And so anything I put in this massive monster of a safe, would probably most likely be fine. Right? It's going to be tons of, you know, weigh tons. And no one can like, you know, throwing in the tree and I'll smash your truck through a door.

<span;>I guess you could but it'll be such a weight. You're not going to be able to put it in the back of a truck and drive away. And so anything you can put in the safe at the Gob and the business is going to be most likely, you know, steel proof If you will, especially after closing. Now, someone comes in during storage hours, operating hours brandishing, a weapon and says, hey, give me the This, give me that, give me the money, open the safe. You know, your life is not worth any of the cards or wax you have, you know, so that, that, that's where that safe wouldn't come into play. But I'm talking about after hours, right? Definitely have insurance. And, you know, when we think about a church were just thinking about the cards or the merchandise, we have, but insurance to, on everything in the store, you know, when it has Windows.

<span;>Get broken in or smashed and cracked and bust it out. Glass is not cheap. Right? And so, you know, insurance will cover some of that depends, you know, dependent on your deductible. But as well as the cards and wax and, and shop around for insurance and read the fine print to make sure it covers. What it need. You needed to cover. Someone said, well, why not John? It's settled.

<span;>Locking it in the safe every and Business day just to reset it out the next day. It's still there and you're not there. Why not get a case and bring it home every night and bring it back to work every night. That is a terrible idea. I've heard people say that, you know, couple people, it's a terrible idea because your people, you know, a lot of times these robberies happened. These people are not dumb people all the time and no scoped out of place or seeing how business goes right. And You're leaving every day with a briefcase full of very expensive cards that you're taken to and fro your LCS. Someone might scope that out, just say man. What an easy, Mark, you know, when John leaves the store. I know that briefcase is gonna be filled with all those four or five figure cards. I just got to get that case from right whether it's, you know, yeah, you get killed or, you know, knocked out or just

<span;>Gun 228 that chin. Hey, give me the case. I won't I won't hurt you. You know, that's just an easy and you had all those nice cards in one carrying case for that thief. And so to me, that's definitely not an absent option. And then if you're bringing them home, now your place of residence become can become a Target to and that's a whole other show. We're not even going to go there an ish.

<span;>Go ahead for sewed of happy quick. And so those are some things I would do. I would definitely get one of them industrial safes. And yes, it would be some work. Every, every end of night or early in the morning, when I first opened, but I'm going to lock stuff up in that thing every day, you know, some of those other options to protect your doors and windows, right? I've seen some of these stores now, Opting for these like steel doors. You know, how crazy is that? We got almost kind of make it like our stores like a Brinks truck, right, you know, would you know, bulletproof glass and shatterproof glass and tinted glass and films and Coatings. That's the new thing to some of these films and Coatings that you can add on to your existing glass, to make them a little bit more independent.

<span;>And it's just crazy. We're talking about that. But that's where we are. Now. Cards are a commodity two cards are almost the same as money, if not, even better. And, you know, that's just things. I think about if I was ever to do restore again, what would, what would I do? And, and I talked about, you know, and, you know, depending on what city you're in, you know, those those kind of garrotte. No, rolling doors that kind of come down and block everything off. Have a lock in. Those are not foolproof either, but they do work, you know. Yeah, it doesn't look great. Right? But it's who cares about the Optics? You're closed. I weren't I worry about the Optics, when you're open, right, you know, yet you unlock the unlocked. He's rolling kind of metal. Pull down things and you unlock in your roll them up and you're open for business. So,

<span;>It's about protecting what you've worked hard to do. And that's the one thing I want to kind of do in closing here. You know, someone say, well man, these stores are making hand over fist, you know, don't be fine and maybe they will be fine. Maybe they have insurance. Maybe that the loss isn't complete. Right? What do you gain? You have deductibles. But these are folks that worked hard to build their brand, their business in Criminals are Boston in and stealing it lets it's as simple as that. No one deserves that, I don't care how much money someone's making or not making in the industry. It doesn't justify your hard work, being taken advantage of and that's what these are and we're in in different times in the hobby with this stuff or you know, it's not that it's never happened before.

<span;>War, but it's just happened in that different levels. We've never seen before, and I think we're going to see a lot of Innovations in the next few years. Even, even with show cases that you see on the show, you know, many of them do laughs. My the ones I use lock, sometimes I keep them like, sometimes I live them. Online depends, who's kind of whatever mood, I'm in, as simple as that, but I think we're going to see new even Technologies. At shows to, to prevent I'm just going on. I saw a few setups at the national where they had cameras on their tables, like video cams. Just recording, just all the business going down, that way of Something Turned Up, Missing, or something was off. They can review the footage. That was really head-scratching to me. Not not, not that I'm super surprised. But just that's where we're at that. We're video in our Days at the show and I'm not talking about the velox walking around the show. These are cameras either behind set up on the stand to just keep track of everything or even from a side angle. And yeah, that's that's where we're at. It's sort of sad, but it's sort of where, you know, par for the course. And so those are just some things I would do and I if I ever open the store began and I don't think it's a

<span;>It's a certain area. We're seeing these, these burglaries occur in big cities, Las Vegas, and we're seeing them in smaller towns out. Tuna here, in Syracuse, it actually the storm talking about that got robbed here. Three times, Southpaw is in a city called Cicero New York, which is about 15 minutes from where I'm recording this right now. And it's north of the, it's north of Syracuse. It's so small, you know, so Small little town, bustling town, you know, heavy traffic area, but the small town. So it doesn't matter where you are. Probably the more, you know, desolate area, quieter area, you're in it. You probably a bigger Target, less, you know, car traffic vehicle traffic to notice anything sort of out of out of the norm and maybe recognize a car or person or activity. So I

<span;>Think you're safe. I don't think it matters where you live anymore, where your store is anymore. I think cards are viewed as an asset class of these criminals are seeing on mainstream media, you know, these cards and going for millions that option. You got to remember my many, not everybody, but a lot of the people committing these crimes, don't know. Cars like maybe me or you do they just see news reports that these things.

<span;>12:07 AM
<span;>Just, Everything is possibly worth that, right? And again, some of these crimes are committed by people who know what they're looking for, and go in there with an intent and a purpose and that too. I do, you know, it's two sides to that coin, but in some of these cases, people, you know, that are committing. These crimes are just they know that these cards are very valuable based on news reports and what they're seeing, you know, on the airwaves. And it's sad. So, if you have a store, you know, I feel for you, you know, protect yourself as much as possible. So we don't have to keep hearing these stories. It is not your fault as well. I mean, these are people who are committing criminal activities plant. That's where the blame lies. You know, I heard someone else that's social media say well if they're your store gets robbed.

<span;>It's your fault. You didn't have the proper things in place. And that's, that's a cop-out answer and it's baloney quite frankly, as another word. I wanted to say, but I want to keep it clean for the kids, but it's baloney. People were breaking in coming in. I come. That is just criminal activity, plain and simple, cut and dry. That's where the blame is the store owner. You know, I don't care if the store owner leave.

<span;>Is door unlocked or forgets, the lock it at the end of the day, someone comes in there. When they know they're not supposed to be there and then take something that ain't that ain't there that doesn't belong to him. I mean that's it's cut dry. It's not the store. Oh, I'm tired of hearing the two things. I hear sometimes with these stores and I'm not a lot, most people have common sense. But the two things I have seen on social media. Well, these guys are making millions of dollars. They can absorb that or It kind of comes with the territory and then the other one, well is their fault for not having the proper things in place to prevent that from happening. Now, baloney. He's smarter than that. If you're one of those folks that are saying, stuff like that, so, you know, bad criminals, do bad things. These are criminals doing bad things. And that's that's where the buck stops and I don't want to hear that stuff. So, I hope if you have store owner.

<span;>In closing. I hope this doesn't happen. You hoped maybe get an idea from a suggestion. I talked about on this program and, you know, hope people do the right thing and don't do this stuff. But, you know, that's more wishful thinking than anything else. So L. See Isis and everyone else. Be safe. Be good. And we'll see you next week on hobby, quick heads. Alright, thank you for listening to another episode of hobby quick. It's want to give out our social media, starting with our website, which is www.hyken.com. Our nation podcast.com Facebook. You can follow us at www.theapostalgroup.com forward, slash fourth Carnation podcast forward slash Twitter. We are at sports card Nat T1, so it's sports car.

<span;>Nati one Instagram at sports coordination podcast, or you can email the show hobby quick hits at gmail.com. Again. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. </span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;>