Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 10 -- John McKinnon had a dream of turning what he loved to do -- trade and collect sports cards -- into a business. He just needed the right partner.
He found one at a table of Fur Rendezvous pins set up next to McKinnon's sports card table at an Anchorage trade show. Phil Robertson had the business sense and dedication McKinnon was looking for, he said.
The pair opened what would eventually be testosterone-edged Excalibur Sports five years ago, their attempt to make a 'total sports experience' for fans of the four major sports -- football, baseball, hockey and basketball.
Excalibur started out small, selling baseball, football and other sports cards, McKinnon said. The shop also carried comic books, Anchorage Fur Rendezvous pins, a few coins and other collectibles.
The card shop metamorphosed into a sports shop selling hats, jerseys, coats, trash cans, clocks, checkbook covers and a variety of other logo paraphernalia. The pair now own Excalibur Sports in the Northway Mall and sold the name to McKinnon's brother for a second location in South Anchorage.
'We just got stuff, there's really no other word for it,' Robertson said.
The two men recently discussed the ups and downs of being entrepreneurs.
McKinnon's state retirement money helped start the business while Robertson kept working his other job. The two opened a small shop on Abbott Road, then followed with another 700-square-foot shop in the Northway Mall six months later.
The first Northway Mall location was in a remote part of the mall and, although sales during the first Christmas season were good, they realized that more foot traffic was necessary, Robertson said.
The company moved to a higher-profile location in the mall and nearly doubled the store's size.
As for the Abbott Road store, the partners closed it after struggling for a couple of years to make it profitable, McKinnon said. They realized the store was doomed without heavy advertising to establish it in the marketplace, and they couldn't afford that, he said.
Excalibur failed as a destination store. That meant the partners needed to place their store in a mall, in a high-traffic area, to boost its sales. They rely mostly on word-of-mouth for advertising, although they recently tried some radio ads, particularly on an all-sports station, which was relatively inexpensive. They tried one TV ad that McKinnon considered pretty successful.
Beyond this, they've done giveaway promotions at bars during Monday Night Football broadcasts, they said.
McKinnon and Robertson said they take little out of the business in compensation to maximize cash flow.
That has meant living frugally at best, McKinnon said. As if to emphasize the point, behind the counter sits a small refrigerator with lunch makings: bologna, cheese slices, bread and some mayonnaise.
'I feel like I'm still living in poverty,' he said.
The extra cash flow has let the company add merchandise lines -- to include minor-league baseball and stock-car racing items. It also tripled its space -- to 4,000 square feet -- in the mall.
Army Spc. Ken Jarvis, a recent customer, likes the stock-car lines, which he said are tough to find in Alaska. But the selection is pretty limited, he said.
Jarvis said he had seen similar stores on the East Coast, but nothing like this in Anchorage.
The earlier Excalibur cards and collectibles store would see about 19 lookers for every buyer, McKinnon said.
Expanding the products offered made a difference. When a competing card shop closed, Excalibur bought the inventory, which included pennants and a few baseball caps, McKinnon said. Only items bearing logos of the less-desirable teams were left, but the partners took notice when people asked for pennants or hats of the marquee teams, he said.
Soon pennants and hats were displacing the cards. As people asked for different items or different teams, the store would add those items to the order list, Robinson said.
Excalibur now carries everything from card tables and clocks to napkins and barbecue sauces.
'It would be hard for a person to leave here without something in the back of their mind saying `I need to go back there,' ' said John Roth, who was browsing with his wife and daughter.
Cards were phased out completely last year, McKinnon said.
Catalog and Internet sales are a threat, McKinnon said. They try to differentiate Excalibur as a place customers can see the items, touch them and not wait for shipping. But they have to keep prices within range of the catalog and Internet competition, he said.
EXCALIBUR SPORTS
Co-owners: Phil Robertson and John McKinnon
Ages: 31 and 48, respectively
Education: Both men are high school graduates
Business philosophy: Listen to your customers and go the extra mile with them and they remember and will return.
Recent business move: Moved and tripled the size of its Northway Mall store on April 5, the first day of baseball season.
(c) 1999, Anchorage Daily News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
