[JollyElm]

A couple of months ago there was a show out here at a fairgrounds (inside). While the whole state was shuttered up, there was some technicality involved that allowed a large gathering to take place. We sped over there, and like what everyone else is talking about, it was almost entirely made up of new, shiny stuff. That was a frickin' shock, and there were only two (adjoining) tables of vintage tucked away in the corner (which doesn't make sense, because the layout was an oval, but I digress). That's it. Everything else was modern. It was really disappointing at the time, but in hindsight I starting seeing the glass as half full. Since this was a modern show, 'nobody' cared about the vintage stuff at all, and everyone just passed by those tables without a second thought. Those sellers were forlorn. One of them deserved to be, as he's at every show with his Dean's-esque pricing model, but the other guy was someone new from Arizona. The lack of traffic allowed me to really go through his stuff methodically and shoot the breeze for a long period of time, without the worry of other people beating me to great cards by digging at the same time. There just wasn't any competition, and I used that to my advantage when negotiating prices on a bunch of ungraded stuff. In the end, I got a nice deal on a Lou Brock RC, a 1966 Pete Rose, and a bunch of sharp cornered 1966 high numbers, including a Choo Choo (OC) and Grant Jackson RC. He also had a bunch of ungraded 1952 high numbers, but he wouldn't budge on the prices, around $200 a pop IIRC. The simple fact is, if this was a 'normal' vintage-centric show, someone would've bought up these cards the moment they set their eyes upon them. So, overall it sucked, but I did walk away with a handful of sweet cards at a great price.

I guess my point is, at an overabundance-of-modern-cards-show, sometimes great opportunities will still present themselves.