A couple days ago the mailman brought me the anti-CheckoutmyCommonsLots Marketplace. I got this...
...the most recent catalog from Larry Fritsch Cards. It you want to buy cards at highly inflated prices and do it by mailing in an order form and check (and wait 15 days while the check clears), then this is the place for you!
It ain't for me.
At one time it would have been. The back of the Sporting News and Baseball Digest had ads from several mail-order card companies. Fritsch was among them and is about the only one still in business.
How that happened is beyond me. The prices charged are crazy high. There are plenty of items available, but I'm sure you can find just about anything in the catalog on Ebay and at a price significantly lower.
But somehow they keep churning out the catalogs and ringing up the sales. And I suppose that if people are willing to pay the high Fritsch prices, then Fritsch has every right to charge whatever they want.
This is page 22 from the catalog and it has the prices of Topps baseball sets available for the years 1973 through 2014. Those year match pretty closely to the years that I check set prices on Ebay for each month. So I though it would be interesting to compare the Fritsch price with the my most recent Ebay 12 month average price.
Year
|
Ebay 12 Mo. Avg.
|
Fritsch Price
|
1973
|
$393.22
|
$1,150.00
|
1974
|
$219.30
|
$459.95
|
1975
|
$335.53
|
$595.00
|
1976
|
$163.55
|
$285.00
|
1977
|
$139.77
|
$310.00
|
1978
|
$102.43
|
$385.00
|
1979
|
$94.16
|
$199.95
|
1980
|
$72.31
|
$145.00
|
1981
|
$27.71
|
$110.00
|
1982
|
$36.78
|
$140.00
|
1983
|
$34.57
|
$79.95
|
1984
|
$19.09
|
$49.95
|
1985
|
$20.54
|
$89.95
|
1986
|
$13.57
|
$27.95
|
1987
|
$9.17
|
$23.95
|
1988
|
$9.35
|
$18.95
|
1989
|
$8.51
|
$17.95
|
1990
|
$9.42
|
$24.95
|
1991
|
$8.72
|
$25.95
|
1992
|
$11.60
|
$28.95
|
1993
|
$18.33
|
$80.00
|
1994
|
$20.57
|
$170.00
|
1995
|
$31.53
|
$165.00
|
1996
|
$19.27
|
$150.00
|
1997
|
$38.24
|
$210.00
|
1998
|
$33.61
|
$150.00
|
1999
|
$22.43
|
$99.50
|
2000
|
$19.71
|
$83.50
|
2001
|
$36.31
|
$93.50
|
2002
|
$33.58
|
$92.50
|
2003
|
$36.24
|
$91.50
|
2004
|
$26.32
|
$90.50
|
2005
|
$27.00
|
$89.50
|
2006
|
$25.60
|
$88.50
|
2007
|
$19.58
|
$83.50
|
2008
|
$28.22
|
$82.50
|
2009
|
$31.48
|
$81.50
|
2010
|
$21.90
|
$76.50
|
2011
|
$24.24
|
$73.50
|
2012
|
$25.96
|
$72.00
|
2013
|
$35.58
|
$69.50
|
2014
|
$40.32
|
$69.50
|
TOTAL
|
$2,345.31
|
$6,430.90
|
So there you have it. If you want to pay nearly triple the price, skip Ebay and go to Fritsch.
I'm not trying to be a jerk with this. Again, a company has the right to sell whatever they want at any price they choose. And apparently with the prices they set, the company still makes sales.
I suppose the this is more an indictment of the knucklehead shoppers out there. I'm too cheap to blindly buy from one store. I look around for deals. I looked at the Fritsch catalog and decided that I could find a better price elsewhere (actually--anywhere!).
Do Fritsch customers not look elsewhere?
I didn't know Fritsch was still around. I remember them carrying a large selection of oddball sets, including some they produced themselves - if that's still the case, it could be one reason to continue shopping there.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know it's 2014, but there are still people who do not use computers and/or do not shop online. Fritsch is pretty much their only option at this stage, I'd think.
I never understood how a dinosaur like Fritsch survived this internet age either. I think it might be the combination of their vintage pack and 3 grade singles sales, but yeah I get a kick leafing through the catalog and laughing at what they charge. It kind of reminded me of one of the card shops in town here was helping a friend sell off his old inventory from a long closed card shop, the previous owner was not in good health and I think the old shop closed sometime in the mid nineties from the look of the stock, but the original price tags were still all over the stuff and it was laughable how much some of that stuff went for back then. Maybe Fritsch is still riding the 90's card craze.
ReplyDeleteAnd to be fare you can order from the catalog online now too.
I remember Fritsch from the back cover of Baseball Cards magazine. I also remember thinking they were overpriced even compared to the price guide back in 1987. Although it was incredibly cool seeing all of those cards available in one place in a pre-Internet world.
ReplyDeleteI actually bought some cards from Larry, who I believe passed away some years ago, back in the day. I think one thing was a set of 1974 Washington NL cards.
ReplyDeleteLarry died in 2007. On the cover of the catalog there is a black circle with an LF and 1936-2007. His son runs the company now.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I read, they have hoarded a large amount of unopened vintage material but they won't sell you any of it at their catalog prices.
ReplyDeleteI still get the catalog. Back in the day I ordered from them several times, but even back then they seemed overpriced.
ReplyDeleteIt's still cool to look through and there are a couple of items I've had my eye on that are pretty cheap and not available elsewhere. Also as someone said already, they're online, too.