Do all Play it Again shops suck as bad as mine

[dsjunior1388 81]

That was kinda my point, I was addressing the person who started the topic. People normally don't look at things from the store's perspective, just from their own.

Just watch any episode of Pawn Stars.

[Half 2]

Just watch any episode of Pawn Stars.

Great show. On topic at least your PIAS has hockey equipment. The ones out this way carry Snowboards/skis, some baseball, and treadmills. With Dicks and Big 5 on every corner, not saying any better, not sure how they manage to stay in business.

[jsykes 35]

That was kinda my point, I was addressing the person who started the topic. People normally don't look at things from the store's perspective, just from their own.

Actually, if you guys read some of my posts, you would realize I do FULLY understand this kind of business as I've even worked in used sporting goods and managed stores that dealt with them. However, I would NEVER have offered so little on a product as I took in the store that day. I've worked in used bicycles, skis, snowboards, and rollerblades.

I realize the store needs to make money and there is plenty of money to be had in good used products. In this case, new these skates are worth $550+. On the used market, a product in near new condition can usually fetch about 2/3 the new value. So I'd price these at $350 (slightly less than 2/3) and would be able to even come down in price a bit should the need arise. We would give the seller at least 1/2 to 2/3 of what we'd sell them for. In this case that would be about $200. That would have been a perfectly reasonable offer and leave $100-$150 to be made by the shop, perfectly reasonable and very close to what a shop would make on a brand new pair considering the low markups on high end product like this.

I understand the business pretty well from the past. Maybe it doesnt fly so much in hockey gear as it did in bikes and skis. Again, I've seen people post how much money they got for used gear at PiA, so thought I'd try it and was surprised that it was so low and lower than my experience has been dealing in used gear. Maybe times have changed.

[TBLfan 25]

How long will that have to sit there? It's not a hockey stick where a lot of people use the same flex and pattern, it's a skate. A skate that has to match someone's foot size, shape and skate preference AND budget. The longer it will likely sit, the longer the money is tied up in the item and the more it costs the business... so the value to the store goes down.

Put it this way, if you knew you could buy something, put it on a shelf and sell it the same day for 10% profit(not counting overhead), would you?

Now if you could buy something and put it on your shelf... let it sit for 8 months, having to dust it, mark down the price, have multiple people try it on and toss it to the side BUT in the end you make 15% profit, would you?

[Captain Sane 2]

I used to work at a PIAS and I felt like the owner tried to give somewhat fair offers to people, but a lot of people would feel like they were being lowballed.

The ones around where I'm at now, though, strictly use the 15 or 20% model, and so offers are completely ridiculous at times. I got offers of $15 for a pair of CCM 992s that had been worn like 15 times. I sold them on ebay and got a lot more of my money back, but the price I got was around what PIAS would have sold them for.

[txhockey 0]

The one near me has a pretty decent hockey selection of mid to low end new stuff, and not the greatest used stuff, but it is cheap, and sometimes you can find some gems, but their sticks are definitely way way overpriced. Yeah it is a lowball relative to selling it to someone else on craigslist, but that takes time and effort. I take store credit on old equipment I don't want sometimes, and pickup some new (used) gear. The complainers forget that PIAS often has inventory that sits on the rack for a long long long time, and they also have to pay staff, keep the lights on, and in the end hope to make a profit. There is no way you can be shelling out top dollar for equipment if you want to survive. And on those high dollar skates, the truth is PIAS does not want those skates unless they can get them for an absolute steal, because it will take them a while to sell those skates most likely, because it is a very specific buyer who is willing to spend hundreds of dollars on skates that are used...they don't want a lot of money tied up in something like that. Most people who buy stuff at PIAS are looking for stuff CHEAP,I guy who is going to spend $400 on used skates is going to go spend $600 and buy them new.

[shotty 7]

do you think LHS would lowball with suppliers if they could? damn right. do you think they LIKE paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for each pair of skates in their stockroom?

in retail, the manufacturer's have the power (well,a few) because they have what the retailer wants: hot product. in the world of used equipment the retailer has the upper hand because they have what you want: easy money.

if you want to act as the retailer, holding out for the bigger payday, you've got to walk the walk and deal with the "sales" aspect of trying to flip gear.

that said, I love the art of the sale, and also like to maximize income potential so I've never used a consignment service.

[jsykes 35]

How long will that have to sit there? It's not a hockey stick where a lot of people use the same flex and pattern, it's a skate. A skate that has to match someone's foot size, shape and skate preference AND budget. The longer it will likely sit, the longer the money is tied up in the item and the more it costs the business... so the value to the store goes down.

Not a good analogy as a normal LHS selling new gear has the same issue. They have tens of thousands of dollars of skates in the store to sell one. We have to have a specific skate in all sizes and widths just to make sure we have your one size you want to buy. Its all the same.

An LHS normally would work on probably about a 30-35% margin or so on a top end skate. That $550 skate probably costs the store close to $400 or more.

In the world of used goods its very similar, you're buying a product and reselling it. Margins can be larger as its harder to sell used gear than new, but they dont have to be astronomical.

In my case, what they offered and what they'll sell for equates to a 300% markup. Ask anyone that owns a store if they have ANYTHING in their store that is marked up 300%.

I simply thought and felt that was a little out of line.

Again, I'll say it and in the world of hockey gear, maybe I'm wrong in that assumption. I'll bow out of this conversation and assume that is the case.

[the_sock 1]

The general rule for PIAS is:

Cash - you will get around 15 to 25% of the "resale" value

Trade - you will get around 50% of the "resale" value

Consignment - you will get around 50% of the "resale" value in cash when item sells.

Of course, they will low ball you. Badly. All the time. It's only a good value when you continually trade in equipment yearly, such as a family for hockey equipment or if you stumble upon a great deal (not very often).

Exerpeince: I was a manager at a location for 3 years and worked total of 6.

Knowing what I know...I will never step foot in one again. The odor destroyed my sense of smell as well.

[SCUBASTEVE 0]

we have on down the road from our rink an it absolutly sucks!!!! i bought a s19 there back when they first came out, used it for litterally 1 week which was 2 skating sessions, an did not like it, went to sell it back to them, they were going to offer me 20.00 bucks for it, i laughed my ass off, i just started cracking up, the kid didnt know what to do, everything there is over priced and crap, i had them do a profile on a new pair of blaades i had gotten, an the dumbass did one at 11' forward an the other had a 9' defensive radius, an not to mention the blade was overheated, the whole blade was blue from it, which in result makes the material softer. heat is bad,. pias sucks

thansk god for the internet...

[GoWings85 0]

we have on down the road from our rink an it absolutly sucks!!!! i bought a s19 there back when they first came out, used it for litterally 1 week which was 2 skating sessions, an did not like it, went to sell it back to them, they were going to offer me 20.00 bucks for it, i laughed my ass off, i just started cracking up, the kid didnt know what to do, everything there is over priced and crap, i had them do a profile on a new pair of blaades i had gotten, an the dumbass did one at 11' forward an the other had a 9' defensive radius, an not to mention the blade was overheated, the whole blade was blue from it, which in result makes the material softer. heat is bad,. pias sucks

thansk god for the internet...

Why would you take your skates to PIAS for radius work? I guess all of them are different, but I wouldn't even get my skates sharpened there...

Edit: I didn't wanna sound like an asshole. I personally would never let a PIAS touch my skates, that's all.

[RichardsIsTheMan 0]

Yes they do. They never give me any money for my equipment. I bought Rbk 8k pants a while back and wore them once. I took them to Play it again thinking I would get a good amount of money for the pants. Sure enough, they used the fact that they were blue as an excuse to give me 10 bucks. The pants are well over $100!

[ice365 0]

The one in NW Calgary, AB is closing down after only two years. It was up for sale but looks like no one bought and are now have a blowout sale on everything in the store.

[maxamillion 3]

The one by me in Mount Laurel NJ got a lot better since the last time I was there, but still isn't that great. They expanded the section though, and it looks as though they really put some time into it.

[Nakket 0]

My PIAS is pretty much like all others in the trade in aspect. Of course you are going to get lowballed. That's the name of their business.

As for hockey equipment, I found that mine went a little something like this

Skates: Large amount of used skates, although most were youth sizes. Had Reeboks up to the 7k? And Vapor x40

Protective: Lots of low level new gear, some mid level gloves, helmets. Not a lot of good used equipment aside from pants and shoulder pads.

Sticks: I thought for a PIAS in not a large hockey town they had a good selection. Had Vapor x40's, x20s, one x60, easton s17s, and a lot of lower end sticks. Tons of wooden sticks, and a lot of used (and very thoroughly at that) sticks/shafts.

It may not be much, but compared to ALL of the department sports stores it had a better selection of everything for any age.

[the_game 452]

In my opinion a trip to PIAS for the most part is a crapshoot if they don't normally stock quality new product. If they don't stock new gear, you're at the mercy of what they have in for 'used' gear and what type of condition its in. Selling, trading, you're gear there? Not worth it, as a former PIAS employee I know not to try and get a deal on selling or trading gear.

Recently I've been 2 for 2 on stopping in at PIAS. My first trip yielded a pro return Sergei Zubov wood blade from his time on the Penguins and a brand new orginal Jofa 381 cage, 10 bucks for the cage, 10 for the blade, twenty bucks well spend. A second stop into another PIAS got me another new cage, this time a Jofa bubble in perfect condition for $15. Again, just the luck of the draw. I don't rely on PIAS to buy my gear, but I do stop in from time to time to see if there are deals like these.

[bostonjuniorblackhawks 1]

Yes they do. They never give me any money for my equipment. I bought Rbk 8k pants a while back and wore them once. I took them to Play it again thinking I would get a good amount of money for the pants. Sure enough, they used the fact that they were blue as an excuse to give me 10 bucks. The pants are well over $100!

If you wanted to get some of the money that you spent on the pants back, sell on the internet. It's not a place for people to recoup a decent chunck of change back on an item that they realized wasn't a good buy. I'm not sure why people would expect anything else besides getting lowballed.

[RichardsIsTheMan 0]

If you wanted to get some of the money that you spent on the pants back, sell on the internet. It's not a place for people to recoup a decent chunck of change back on an item that they realized wasn't a good buy. I'm not sure why people would expect anything else besides getting lowballed.

Yeah you're right, that's what I've learned after going to Play it Again a few times.

[robat 0]

The PIAS by me went under a couple years back.

[Chadd 916]

The PIAS by me went under a couple years back.

eBay and craigslist are killing them

[kuazzi 0]

I don't know why you sound so bent out of shape on your posts Jsykes... You asked them to make you an offer. You have the right to say no and leave. You have the right to try and negotiate. They have the right to accept or counter, as well. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. You can leave whenever you want.