Fanatics Buying Card Shows?

[theshowandme]

The Orlando convention center held massive conventions in October and has plenty of events scheduled in November and December

Fanatics used a lame excuse

[Leon]

I don't think a business is going to buy away the die hard National collectors. I, for one, don't see myself ever going to a show LIKE Fanfest. For those that go, I hope they enjoy it. It's totally opposite of how, and why, I collect. To each their own. But, then again, I barely like any of todays Pro athletes, so I wouldn't even be a potential customer of it.
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[Keith H. Thompson]

at the Javits Center, but they were given free entry passes. My twin granddaughers (age 12) and grandson (age 7) are all unusually experienced baseball fans and collectors. They have been in person to All Star games, World Series games and numerous stadiums where they see players they like and can buy relatively cheap cards. We have a local Fanatics outlet in our home town on Long Island where the management is headed by extremely competent people. Of course, that doesn't mean you can go into the store and shop for anything vintage or worthwhile. But it does provide a source of seeing where our hobby is likely to end up. For example, I bought Poppy a box of "College Players." I think about seventy bucks. I'm wincing, but I'm seeing a kid going through each one, not to see if how valuable it might be, but to read the stats on each one. Gave me hope and discouragement at the same time.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Having unlimited funds to throw at something won't replace expertise.

If they threw their unlimited funds at bringing in people who really knew what they were doing as promoters that would probably make them much more threatening to the status quo.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Having unlimited funds to throw at something won't replace expertise.

If they threw their unlimited funds at bringing in people who really knew what they were doing as promoters that would probably make them much more threatening to the status quo.

I think they may have learned that lesson. Word is they lost a TON of money on the first Fanatics Fest. They probably quickly realized doing that still won't kill the National or other large shows.

[calvindog]

Fanatics is a shallow, soulless, empty husk of a company. My office is ten mins from the Javits Center and I had zero interest in going. It just smelled of hucksterism and shiny modern stuff. As everything else they do does.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Fanatics is a shallow, soulless, empty husk of a company. My office is ten mins from the Javits Center and I had zero interest in going. It just smelled of hucksterism and shiny modern stuff. As everything else they do does.

"We" which means most of the people on this message board are not the Fanatics audience. And as Leon has pointed out, we are a very small but influential part of the hobby but not in the world Fanatics operates in. We operate more in the world of the NSCC or the East Coast National or the Philly shows or the Strongsville show, etc.

We on this board are not the target audience for Fanatics.

Rich

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Fanatics is a shallow, soulless, empty husk of a company. My office is ten mins from the Javits Center and I had zero interest in going. It just smelled of hucksterism and shiny modern stuff. As everything else they do does.

Well put. I could see the ghost of P.T. Barnum darting around from pillar to pillar.

Rich, I am a "legit" reviewer of the show; i was there on a press pass from SCDaily. I just did not happen to have the same opinion as some others. The 'Hobby' is multifaceted. There are many perspectives from which to view things. How much money was made overall is one metric. It is not one I focus on. From my perspective as a collector/dealer/writer of and about vintage cards and memorabilia, the show was a big, expensive nothing-burger. Had I been interested in ultra modern cards and 'experiences' like watching Tom Brady's security team shove its way through the crowd so He could buy a few cards on air from a lucky vendor, the show would have fulfilled my expectations.