Dealing at shows...

[David W]

I went to a local show in a motel conference room in Fort Wayne Indiana last month (first show I'd been to that wasn't the National in several years). There were probably 12-15 people set up.

My observations:

1 - 2-3 guys still had boxes and boxes of 87 to 95 crap. It was priced at 10 cents or 25 cents, but I had no desier to sift through thousands of 89 Donruss or 91 Topps hoping to find something I might want.

2 - One guy had several thousand 50's to 60's cards but nothing priced. It was annoying to pull a card out, and wait while he dug through a Beckett guide to tell me it was $1 or $3. If he had priced it before hand, I've have probably bought $50 worth of cards. As it was I spent $5 on 2 cards.

3 - I did spend close to $100 at a tabel sorting through well organized boxes of 50's to 70's cards that were all priced, and bought about 20 cards for $60 or so. He also had decent pre war and graded cards in his display case, all priced.

4 - I like to buy some modern cards of Cardinals or Bears, but no one had it at this show.

5 - One guys display case was full of beat up 70's baseball and football at NM prices. I never saw him sell one thing the 2 hours I was there.

In summary, I'd say organize it, price it low, and don't bring thousands of worthless cards and you can be successful.