I went to a card show in Atlanta... (I’m old)

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by notfast

The Atlanta show (and Dallas) are both brand new. This was the first Atlanta show done by the promoter and widely promoted on social media…hence the heavy lean toward modern.

Dallas has been around for maybe a year? Once again a huge social media following/backing.

Makes sense to me.

That does make sense…the established shows are a mix of stuff and long-time dealers, the new shows are the Facebook/Twitter crowd.

I went to the Cranston (RI) show a week or so back and while smaller than in the past (not it’s usual weekend) it was far more ungraded than graded and I’d say vintage outweighed modern. And nobody was filming themselves - not a “selfie stick” to be seen.

Maybe that’s the way it should be…the modern crowd would be just as disappointed at a show the vintage crowd would love. Keep the dusty old cardboard and the plastic and foil separate, and everyone is happy!

[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.