Observations from the Card Show Front Lines - UPDATED!!!

[Joeybats]

My most recent experience just this past Friday (in a nice bulleted format):

1 - I am not ageist as I have two kids 27 and 31, but if I see another 20 something dealer thinking they are the king of the sports card world I will vomit uncontrollably.
2 - 12 year old kids walking around with their hard plastic PSA slab filled cases tells me the hobby I have loved is going to hell.
3 - I will never be able to collect new cards. As I age, the gold inserts look like the yellow inserts, the red like pink, and the fireworks ones like the shooting stars. Give me a 1971 Reggie Jackson because there's only one of them unless you count the variety of chipping on the black edges.
4 - It's impossible to buy cards at most shows because of the reason above (I avoid new cards) and the "I would need a second mortgage" to purchase most of anything I see on the tables.
5 - Always fun to get yelled at by a dealer because I purchased cards from another customer at the show. Short story, a gentleman approached a dealer to sell some assorted early 70s baseball cards he was carrying in a plain cardboard box (important to note not a hard plastic case nor even an 800 count box). The dealer said he was holding cash for the time being due to the holidays - all very understandable. As the gentleman was leaving the table I asked if it would be possible for me to buy the cards, he said fine and we agreed on a price. The dealer that he originally approached was perfectly fine with the transaction. I move down a couple tables and a "shark" dealer seeing me carrying a plain cardboard box (which meant to him I was hard up on cash and needed to sell the cards to him) asked if I was selling. I explained that I just purchased the cards from another customer and was happy with my purchase and was not selling. He then loudly berated me for purchasing cards at the show as the dealers "paid a ton of money" to set up there and they should be the ones getting to buy cards from customers not another commoner. I tried to explain that I did not interfere with the the deal that the customer attempted to make with the first dealer but seized the opportunity when he passed on it. He contined to scold me until I finally had enough. I pulled the '73 Ryan out of the box and said something like "nice card isn't it" (one of many in the plain cardboard box). This just infuriated him more and he decided to try to beat me down further. I finally said, "I'm sorry you feel that way (I really wasn't) and then proceeded to tell him that the 1972-73 Marcel Dionne card he was proudly displaying as a rookie card, in fact, was a second year card. He, of course, doubted me as I snarkly told him that the rookie card was in the 1971-72 set (demeaningly mentioning that it was the set with the ovals and that Marcel was displayed in a head and shoulders shot not the full body shot he presented as the rookie card). His response was, "no you're wrong and I'll prove it by asking Siri while your standing here". Needless to say, that was my game, set, match discussion with this lunkhead of a dealer as he slunk back in his chair fully disappointed that I was correct.
6 - Sadly I only purchased one card from a dealer at the show. A nicely centered Fred McGriff 1986 Donruss for $2. Oh, a few of the dealers with the new shiny stuff had some in their cases but after my episode above, I did not have the heart to tell them that those 1987 versions of the Fred McGriff "rookie" is not that at all. Besides, if I counted, I would say that less than 5% of the cards at the show were vintage. And I'll even stretch vintage to the early 80s (even though I don't count them that way).
7 - Conclusion - the hobby is shifting to a place where a lot of people will be "hurt" financially with the explosion of new product and parallels, numbered cards, "rare" cosmic/flashers/rainbow 1 of 1 specials. I'd rather have a 1972-73 Bobby Orr than a 1 of 1 of some guy that likely will either be in jail or working in Walmart in 5 years.
PS - Is it just me or are those Panini/Donruss unlicensed baseball cards the worst things ever?

End rant...thanks

[savedfrommyspokes]

My most recent card show learning experience occurred this past weekend. Do not start at the table's of the vintage card sellers. This show I started at the tables of the shiny stuff sellers. Most all of these guys had some small amount of vintage....about half of them were blowing out their vintage stuff at a quarter to 50 cents on the dollar as vintage is not their specialty and they didn't want to spend additional time pricing it. I went through these boxes during the latter part of setup...snapped up all of the deals I could before most others had time to get through the boxes.

By the time I finished with the modern sellers who blow out their vintage stuff and made it to the actual vintage sellers, the vintage guys' prices seemed really inflated. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway, as by the time I reached the vintage guys, I was out of money.

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by Joeybats

My most recent experience just this past Friday (in a nice bulleted format):

1 - I am not ageist as I have two kids 27 and 31, but if I see another 20 something dealer thinking they are the king of the sports card world I will vomit uncontrollably.
2 - 12 year old kids walking around with their hard plastic PSA slab filled cases tells me the hobby I have loved is going to hell.
3 - I will never be able to collect new cards. As I age, the gold inserts look like the yellow inserts, the red like pink, and the fireworks ones like the shooting stars. Give me a 1971 Reggie Jackson because there's only one of them unless you count the variety of chipping on the black edges.
4 - It's impossible to buy cards at most shows because of the reason above (I avoid new cards) and the "I would need a second mortgage" to purchase most of anything I see on the tables.
5 - Always fun to get yelled at by a dealer because I purchased cards from another customer at the show. Short story, a gentleman approached a dealer to sell some assorted early 70s baseball cards he was carrying in a plain cardboard box (important to note not a hard plastic case nor even an 800 count box). The dealer said he was holding cash for the time being due to the holidays - all very understandable. As the gentleman was leaving the table I asked if it would be possible for me to buy the cards, he said fine and we agreed on a price. The dealer that he originally approached was perfectly fine with the transaction. I move down a couple tables and a "shark" dealer seeing me carrying a plain cardboard box (which meant to him I was hard up on cash and needed to sell the cards to him) asked if I was selling. I explained that I just purchased the cards from another customer and was happy with my purchase and was not selling. He then loudly berated me for purchasing cards at the show as the dealers "paid a ton of money" to set up there and they should be the ones getting to buy cards from customers not another commoner. I tried to explain that I did not interfere with the the deal that the customer attempted to make with the first dealer but seized the opportunity when he passed on it. He contined to scold me until I finally had enough. I pulled the '73 Ryan out of the box and said something like "nice card isn't it" (one of many in the plain cardboard box). This just infuriated him more and he decided to try to beat me down further. I finally said, "I'm sorry you feel that way (I really wasn't) and then proceeded to tell him that the 1972-73 Marcel Dionne card he was proudly displaying as a rookie card, in fact, was a second year card. He, of course, doubted me as I snarkly told him that the rookie card was in the 1971-72 set (demeaningly mentioning that it was the set with the ovals and that Marcel was displayed in a head and shoulders shot not the full body shot he presented as the rookie card). His response was, "no you're wrong and I'll prove it by asking Siri while your standing here". Needless to say, that was my game, set, match discussion with this lunkhead of a dealer as he slunk back in his chair fully disappointed that I was correct.
6 - Sadly I only purchased one card from a dealer at the show. A nicely centered Fred McGriff 1986 Donruss for $2. Oh, a few of the dealers with the new shiny stuff had some in their cases but after my episode above, I did not have the heart to tell them that those 1987 versions of the Fred McGriff "rookie" is not that at all. Besides, if I counted, I would say that less than 5% of the cards at the show were vintage. And I'll even stretch vintage to the early 80s (even though I don't count them that way).
7 - Conclusion - the hobby is shifting to a place where a lot of people will be "hurt" financially with the explosion of new product and parallels, numbered cards, "rare" cosmic/flashers/rainbow 1 of 1 specials. I'd rather have a 1972-73 Bobby Orr than a 1 of 1 of some guy that likely will either be in jail or working in Walmart in 5 years.
PS - Is it just me or are those Panini/Donruss unlicensed baseball cards the worst things ever?

End rant...thanks

Preach!