to the dealers - where do you get your stuff?
 

Hi folks - I am a primarily hockey collector leaving in Canada's most easterly province so I am certainly not in direct competition with the dealers here. I am always intrigued where the dealers ("small" and "large" alike) pick up their stuff that they sell at shows.

I assume the bigger dealers buy collections based on contacts from online and other print advertising, what about you smaller dealers ?

Any thoughts/comments would be certainly welcome.

Best,
R Haynes

50% eBay
10% auction house
20% collector friends (mostly net54)
20% strangers (mostly noncollectors) email me (website)

I used to deal in cards and memorabilia, and you could find good bulk deals in the big auction house auctions. I think good deals there are harder to find, but probably still exist. I would also buy items individually when it was a good deal. I was a generalist, which was better for finding deals.

It may sound obvious, but they key is to know what you can sell an item for and buy it when it's less. So my continuous question would be, "What could I sell this for?" Where it came from-- antique store, auction, Kinko's Copies, lemonade stand, bunch of kittens -- was of lesser importance.

I got my T205 Baker from a bunch of kittens. Cost me a ball of yarn, but it's a nice card.

I don't think the answer has really changed much since the beginning of time. The only difference is that eBay is in the mix now in addition to the old ways (ads, friends, strangers, card shows, auctions, etc,...)