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Hi! We've got a new Podcast series here on QS called Insider Stories. Each week, I'll be interviewing a QS Insider to talk about how they trade and what's going on with Magic Finance.
This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kyle Lopez of Aether Games. A year ago, Aether Games didn't exist; today, it's a powerhouse of an online card shop. If you've ever wondered what it takes to run a shop - or how much work it takes - you don't want to miss this interview.
Here's this week's show (right click to save)
This week, we hit on:
-Whether you can run a store as a weekend gig
-If stores are right to cancel orders when a card spikes
-What card Kyle regretted selling
and plenty more!
You can find Kyle here:
@itsyourboyLOPE
You can ask questions and post comments here or tweet to me – @quietspec is where you’ll get ahold of me!
(also, my apologies that this sounds like we recorded in an aquarium. I've got a good mic but my audio processing skills are, shall we say... rapidly improving as I learn more)
I was really happy with this. Can’t wait for more! Would like to hear from becvar, QED2, etc
I’m going to record with Becvar in person this weekend, in fact : )
I am so happy you guys decided to do these insider stories. The insight into how to start a store up and how Kyle conducts his business is fantastic! One question that would be nice to know is if as a business their shipping rates are heavily discounted and by how much, I know as an individual seller one of the largest set backs (aside from having to sort everything on my own) is having to pay shipping prices on orders between 5 and 10 dollars. Keep them coming I have to say I am excited to hear about what QED2 does.
Cheers,
Byron
I hate to break it to you but our shipping prices are not discounted at all, and we have to pay an additional $20/mo just to be able to print our shipping labels en masse with a service called Endicia. TCG Direct has helped a bit with this and we ship in a plain white envelope anything under $10 but we still have to use $0.70 stamps because toploaders are un-machinable.
Thanks for the replies and response. This was a lot of fun and hopefully this helps me give back to the community that got me my start.