Dealing at shows...

[Tony Gordon]

A couple of comments on trading and buying from customers at shows. As a dealer, there is no benefit for me to trade. Trading does not help me cover table fee. I am also constantly purchasing cards and always have deals in the works and need funds. I regularly buy and sell a large amount of cards and don't need trades to turn my inventory. The only time I will trade is when a regular customer wants to trade and there is some cash in the deal.

As for buying, I will never pay you fair market value for your cards because I strictly buy for resale. You shouldn't get offended either because I can't cover my table fee if I'm paying retail prices for cards. If you want more than 25 percent of book, don't bother trying to sell your cards to dealers, it's just not cost effective for dealers to buy your cards.

And for those who say shows are in decline, you a terribly mistaken. There are terrific one day shows all over the Midwest every single weekend.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Tony Gordon

A couple of comments on trading and buying from customers at shows. As a dealer, there is no benefit for me to trade. Trading does not help me cover table fee. I am also constantly purchasing cards and always have deals in the works and need funds. I regularly buy and sell a large amount of cards and don't need trades to turn my inventory. The only time I will trade is when a regular customer wants to trade and there is some cash in the deal.

As for buying, I will never pay you fair market value for your cards because I strictly buy for resale. You shouldn't get offended either because I can't cover my table fee if I'm paying retail prices for cards. If you want more than 25 percent of book, don't bother trying to sell your cards to dealers, it's just not cost effective for dealers to buy your cards.

And for those who say shows are in decline, you a terribly mistaken. There are terrific one day shows all over the Midwest every single weekend.

Show me a "book" price on half the cards I collect and I will show you an incorrect price. I absolutely understand the rest of the statement and agree. When someone says "book" to me, I chuckle. I do understand that is the way modern stuff is done though. I went to a very small local show on Saturday as one of the promoters said a guy was bringing in some T206's and they wanted some help with them. I went over....looked at the nice vg to vg+ cards and gave him very close to market prices on each one. No book .

[barrysloate]

What seems clear is some people love shows, and some people prefer selling via auctions or on the internet. Seems reasonable to me. I'm not a show guy, never was, but I do understand many collectors and dealers really like them.

[sycks22]

I love going to shows as much as the next guy, I'm just saying that there were a ton more in the '90's. It's always fun going there and talking cards. Unless you have a great relationship with a dealer at a show why pay $200 for something that you could find on ebay for $100? The most laughable price ever was a guy who had a '54 Topps Banks in probably g-vg condition, but put it in a gigantic case and marked it $1,500. I asked him sarcasticly if that was his price and he said "I'll do half book, it's a rare card". I laughed. He even had a zip up bag for the card, classic.

[mintacular]

I still value looking at a card in person and will "overpay" for cards like '57s, 71s, etc if I can hold the card in person. I can't tell you how many times I've bought cards (even ones w/very large scans) on eBay or online but when I received it in hand it did not meet my approval. For this reason alone, I think shows/on site card buying will always have some customers (assuming collecting cards survives the test of time)

[brett 75]

Feel lucky that you have shows that you are able to go to at all . The closest shows around for me are at least 2 hours or more away and usually only come once every couple of months if that often. I personally would love to hunt through boxes of vintage cards at a show and be able to have them in hand than to see them on the net. Shows can continue to help the hobby as by the post from the member who gave all the cards to the child , a small thing like that can leave a lasting impression . Don' t give up on doing a show because of one bad weekend , you never know the next one might just surprise you, Brett

[Oklahawg]

Hit my first show in 1977, Rock's Dugout in Wichita, KS, sponsored it. Sales were "slow" by the era's standards (or so I learned) but there were some decent deals on cards coming through the door.

For 3-4 years every show I hit in the midwest had copious amounts of cards walking through the door to be purchased (if you were savvy enough to get around the show promoters who wanted to auction them and take a cut) at deep discounts.

You could offer a fair $$ to the seller and still turn a profit, often the same day. Its been forever since a local "mall" show had anything I cared about. And, not sure how many months since the last one was hosted here in OK.

I remember the day I saw a guy walk in to a show with 1400 uncirculated Red Man Tobacco cards, acquired from his Dad who worked in the packaging plant. You couldn't chase away the dealers with dynamite - some behaving professionally and others not so much. The guy got jittery, wound up at the local shop 2-3 times investigating his hoard.

Now? He's a collector having sold not one of those cards. First met him in 1978 - I was a first contact in the parking lot having retrieved a sandwich from the icechest in the backseat of Dad's car. He wanted $50 and I didn't have that much with me. Just imagine...