Observations from the Card Show Front Lines - UPDATED!!!
Some quick observations from my local show, which I went to yesterday afternoon, and then again today well after noon, closer to "pack-up and closing" time. Apologies in advance for not having the Jolly font / attribute / sentence structure wisdom. (Let alone his wit)!
For the record, this was the Winston-Salem, NC Fairgrounds "Toy, Hobby, Sports Card, Hot Wheels, & Comic Book Mega Show!" 350+ VENDOR TABLES. (I can assure you by the time I showed up at roughly 2 pm today, there were nowhere near 300 vendors still in the building).
Advertising / Marketing: Eeeh. Until about 12 noon yesterday, I didn't even realize this show was happening - about 15 minutes away from my house. Why it didn't somehow show up in my Facebook feed weeks earlier makes no sense to me. I happened to search "Winston-Salem Card Show" on Google to learn that this one (it's put on twice a year) was starting in about an hour.
Setup: Pretty nice, actually. The space used is the old WS Fairgrounds Education Building, which is air conditioned and though not new - I would guess is at least as big as the space used for the Strongsville show - videos from which kept me busy all last week.
Dealers and Available Vintage: Eeeh. At least a full half / 50% of the floor space was taken up by those hawking toys, comic books, or very shiny sports and / or Pokemon cards. There were at least a decent # of vintage dealers there yesterday; unfortunately I quickly learned that most were playing the "museum curation" game based on their prices. Raw 60's Mantle base cards (there were plenty of them) with $400 and up price tags when I can see the creases that break the surface before I ask to see the card? Yeah, no thanks. I did however find the few, in this case 3 different dealers for the whole show - who had their vintage priced reasonably, and I was able to make deals with them.
Story: So, the guy with the overpriced Mantles - he did have a huge setup and multiple tables that were mostly vintage stars, so I spent a good deal of time at his table yesterday just looking and checking prices to see if there was anything worth even asking to see up close. Short answer - no there wasn't.
So, I'm standing there when the guy says to another customer / showgoer - loudly and obviously for my benefit....something, something, "Yeah, like customers on your side of the glass who just stand in front of my cases all day pricing cards on their phones so they can attempt to squeeze me..." I'm not quoting here, but that was the jist. I slowly turned, walked away - and did not speak with that gentleman again. Funny enough that guy was not back for day 2, either that or he had already left by the time I got there today - admittedly late. My guess is that he pulled out, the laborious effort of curating his museum showcases not netting many sales, and frustrating him.
In all honesty - am I in the wrong here? Do the rest of you not whip out your phone to look at VCP during shows? No sir sorry, I'm not paying $500 for a '63 Mantle raw in G condition. That's not a deal. You mean to tell me Mr. Dealer when you buy vintage, cards or collections - you just pay sticker for whatever the consignor or seller wants, or do you do a modicum of research on pricing and what you "can" pay that is reasonable?
Sorry, but I am not letting the conveniences of the 21st century go by the wayside in terms of whatever this guy thinks is polite / impolite / indifferent, or whatever. The days of sometimes walking around with the rolled-up Beckett under your arm are long gone, but usually with the online tools I have it doesn't take me long at all - maybe 5 minutes and 2-3 lookups - to know whether your stuff is basically reasonably priced with some room to move, or whether or not you are one of the aforementioned museum curators. I didn't ask to see cards and then holdup the show and the dealer's attention / other customers to price them. Mostly I just stood off to the side for a few minutes, not bothering anyone - looking stuff up.
Anywho, despite what might feel like a negative review, I did find the good guys and made some deals. Feel free to checkout my pickups over in the postwar April pickups thread - thanks.
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Postwar stars & HOF'ers. Cubs of all eras. Currently working on 1956, '63 and '72 Topps complete sets.
Last edited by jchcollins; 04-27-2024 at 05:03 PM.
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04-27-2024, 03:48 PM
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