By Fran Daniel, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jul. 16--Last week, Vernell Ingram traded in a seven-foot basketball goal to help pay for exercise equipment she wanted at Play It Again Sports in Winston-Salem.
'I paid $85,' she said, referring to the price for the used Tony Little's Gazelle Freestyle she'd just bought at the store.
'I actually had thought about buying something brand new, but a friend of mine said, 'Go to Play It Again Sports,'' Ingram said. 'He buys his equipment from here.'
Used sporting goods account for about half of the store's merchandise, said Phil Raiford, who owns the retailer with his wife, Kelly. The other half is new sports equipment.
Raiford has been a Play It Again Sports franchisee since 1993, when he gave up a 10-year career as a teaching pro for tennis clubs in Greensboro.
'You don't want to be 60 years old and be on the court teaching lessons,' Raiford said. 'I didn't want to look back 10 years later and say, 'Gosh, I wish I'd gotten out.''
As a Play It Again Sports franchisee, Raiford buys, sells and trades used and new sports gear and equipment for youth and adults. He also accepts merchandise on consignment.
'There's not many stores like this,' Raiford said of his 2,700-square-foot operation at Summit Station shopping center on Jonestown Road. 'No one else in town has used sports equipment.'
Since Raiford has the only Play It Again Sports store in the Triad, his business attracts customers from as far afield as Greensboro, High Point and Lexington.
His store is one of 470 Play It Again Sports in the United States and Canada.
Raiford declined to disclose sales, but said that business has been steady in recent years.
Still, he said, people seem to be more conservative with their money, even for used equipment, than they were during the sluggish economy the year he opened his business.
'If they have the money, they're going to save it,' he said.
Play It Again Sports is a franchised-store brand operated by Winmark Corp., a Minneapolis, Minn., company which develops, franchises and operates stores that buy, sell, trade and consign used and new merchandise. Winmark's other retail stores are Once Upon a Child, Music Go Round and Plato's Closet. Once Upon A Child and Plato's Closet have one store each in Winston-Salem.
Merchandise sold at Play It Again Sports stores vary because they are all locally owned and operated businesses. For example, Raiford's store focuses on golf and fitness merchandise. His customers bring in a lot of brand name used golf clubs, such as Ping and Callaway.
'Golfers love to try out a club and trade it in, so that's what I get,' he said.
'It's unlike any other sport. They'll (golfers) spend $200 on a driver and then in two months they might not like it and they'll trade it in toward another club that I have. A lot of our golfers are regulars.'
When it comes to fitness equipment, the store tends to carry more new items.
'Fitness is probably two-thirds new and one-third used (equipment),' Raiford said. 'I can't get enough, good, used fitness (equipment) because fitness is trendy.
For example, the Gazelle, which Ingram purchased, is a hot item at the moment.
'I can't get enough of them,' Raiford said.
The store has treadmills, free weights and benches, elliptical machines and exercise bikes.
In addition, the store sells baseball, softball and tennis goods; discs for Frisbee golf, a growing sport; and bicycles. In the winter, it sells more ski equipment.
Play It Again Sports' merchandise has to be something that will sell.
'We turn down probably half the stuff that people bring in,' Raiford said. 'It may be out of date or broken or is just something that people aren't looking for.'
Used equipment helps with sales during a sluggish economy when people watch their spending, but it can also be unpredictable. That's why Raiford plans to increase his new merchandise, which he orders.
'You have to have the new,' he said. 'Otherwise, for some reason, there could be two weeks where people just don't bring stuff in. Then I might have a bunch of stuff tomorrow.'
Raiford said that knowledgeable employees help distinguish his store from his competitors.
He said that he and Greg Wilmoth, the store's manager, learn as much as they can about the equipment they sell and listen to their customers.
'I've learned what the customers want,' Raiford said. 'I can help guide them.'
For example, if people come into the store looking for fitness equipment to lose weight, he tries to understand what type of equipment they would stick with over time.
'You listen to what their goal is, help them find what they need and help them get the best deal they can get,' he said.
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(c) 2003, Winston-Salem Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
