Please note that the following are my personal preceptions and opinions only. They do no reflect the thoughts of opinions of SCP or any of SCPs sponsors.
Granted I had not been to a major (non-mall) card show in YEARS. This was also the first one I attended as a middle aged adult with discretionary income. I did find a few PC cards so i enjoyed myself and do not consider the day a complete loss, but in my opinion, the show itself was kind af a dud.
There were easily 50 tables TOO MANY for the venue. I get wanting to have a full venue and provide lots of variety for patrons. However right next to a very professional dealer set up with lots of organized and well displayed inventory was a teenager with his two dozen cards in penny sleeves spread out on a 8 foot table. Seriously they could have limited and restriceted the number of vendors.
The sheer number of patrons was overwhelming. We FAR exceeded the posted building capacity for fire safety. The parking was actually pretty good as the venue was part of a huge complex, but seriously sell tickets. This will thin out some people. I have attended some crowded events before but there was ALWAYS someone bumping into you and literally touching shoulders while looking at a table. You really could not stop at a table either. The whole flow of foot traffic kept you moving Trying to flip through a dealer's bulk box? Forget about it.
There was sooooooo much football product. I actually expected this some as the season starts this week. It wasnt not even 70-30 football to non-football though. it was like 95%-5%
Pokemon is NOT for kids OR a game any more. Of the 6 vendors that had Pokemon product the cheapest single I saw was $50 and I only counted one person less and 25 years old at any of them, my son. He was actually considering buying some singles of his favorite characters from different iterations of the video games he grew up with.
The hobby in general is NOT for kids anymore. Granted there was a pretty cool "scavenger hunt" going on where kids could get a stamp from participating vendors and turning the completed card for some packs and a prize wheel spin. However long gone are the days of kids busting open packs with allowence money. Most of the vendors were out of MY price range. There a lot of kids in attendance, but this was a show for and catered to grown ups.
If you are not dealing with and talking about graded cards, go home. A few vendors did have "raw" product, but seriously, the message being sent loud and clear was "no graded cards? get out."
All the the patrons were very well mannered with each other. Everyone was saying excuse me, pardon me, my bad, after you etc. We all got it. Way too many people for a buildikng with no AC and we tried to make the best of a poorly executed situation. However some patron to dealer conversations and (my preception) dealer to patron interactions were pretty rough. Everyone thought that their cards were the best. Sellers (patrons and dealers) were armed with multiple comps that proved their cards were worth $XXXX and the buyers were just as armed with comps that proved the cards were worth $XX. Neither would budge and the other was a crook and more than a few times words and tempers got almost as hot as the air temp.
Many dealers had signs that read "always buying," "paying $$$ for XXX players." "sell and trade your cards here!" Unless you had the 1/1 auto superfractor of the top player on their buy list and were willing to excpet pennies on the dollar for it, no dealer was buying and laughed at if you expressed an intresting in trading.
At card shows at least, trading is dead. Even patron to patron, trading is dead, end of discussion. No one collects and trades anymore. This is no longer a trading card market. It is an investment card market.
There are still people out there who think they will retire off all of the "junk wax era" cards they are hoarding. No, I am sorry, but no one will buy your 1987 Topps Will Clark, 1988 Donruss Mark Grace RC or 1990 Score David Justice RC cards for $5 each. Those guys are not in the Hall of Fame and with only a very little shopping around you can buy the entire respective card set for $5 each.
Probably the biggest complaint from me, as I spent most of my adult working life in customer service, was the attitudes and demenor of the vendors towards the patrons. Easily 20% of the dealers were on their phone the whole time and never looked up to even acknowledge patrons, let alone actually talk to them. There were several who appeared to not have showered in over a week, looked very unkempt, were eating food OVER their product and looked like they really did not even what to be there. Seriously, have some pride in yourself and your business if you expect to have any business. A LOT of dealers were flat out rude, condesending, jerks to patrons. Unless you were willing to sell your PSA 5 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson to them for $50 or buy their card at 10X over the closest comp because "I know this card will go up" they did not want to be bothered by you and told you as much. I counted on one hand the number of dealers who said "thank you", "thanks for your business" or I appreciate you for taking the time to look."
Like stated at the begining, I did find a few PC cards and checked off a big (for me) Henderson parallel from my long time want list. This was truly one of thse "it's the journey, not the destination" things though. Taking a day trip with my young adult son was truly worth it. We talked, laughed, listened to baseball and both ended up with some cards that we will truly collect and enjoy. The card show was what it was. For me and my son though, today was truly what this hobby should be about, collecting memories.
Granted I had not been to a major (non-mall) card show in YEARS. This was also the first one I attended as a middle aged adult with discretionary income. I did find a few PC cards so i enjoyed myself and do not consider the day a complete loss, but in my opinion, the show itself was kind af a dud.
There were easily 50 tables TOO MANY for the venue. I get wanting to have a full venue and provide lots of variety for patrons. However right next to a very professional dealer set up with lots of organized and well displayed inventory was a teenager with his two dozen cards in penny sleeves spread out on a 8 foot table. Seriously they could have limited and restriceted the number of vendors.
The sheer number of patrons was overwhelming. We FAR exceeded the posted building capacity for fire safety. The parking was actually pretty good as the venue was part of a huge complex, but seriously sell tickets. This will thin out some people. I have attended some crowded events before but there was ALWAYS someone bumping into you and literally touching shoulders while looking at a table. You really could not stop at a table either. The whole flow of foot traffic kept you moving Trying to flip through a dealer's bulk box? Forget about it.
There was sooooooo much football product. I actually expected this some as the season starts this week. It wasnt not even 70-30 football to non-football though. it was like 95%-5%
Pokemon is NOT for kids OR a game any more. Of the 6 vendors that had Pokemon product the cheapest single I saw was $50 and I only counted one person less and 25 years old at any of them, my son. He was actually considering buying some singles of his favorite characters from different iterations of the video games he grew up with.
The hobby in general is NOT for kids anymore. Granted there was a pretty cool "scavenger hunt" going on where kids could get a stamp from participating vendors and turning the completed card for some packs and a prize wheel spin. However long gone are the days of kids busting open packs with allowence money. Most of the vendors were out of MY price range. There a lot of kids in attendance, but this was a show for and catered to grown ups.
If you are not dealing with and talking about graded cards, go home. A few vendors did have "raw" product, but seriously, the message being sent loud and clear was "no graded cards? get out."
All the the patrons were very well mannered with each other. Everyone was saying excuse me, pardon me, my bad, after you etc. We all got it. Way too many people for a buildikng with no AC and we tried to make the best of a poorly executed situation. However some patron to dealer conversations and (my preception) dealer to patron interactions were pretty rough. Everyone thought that their cards were the best. Sellers (patrons and dealers) were armed with multiple comps that proved their cards were worth $XXXX and the buyers were just as armed with comps that proved the cards were worth $XX. Neither would budge and the other was a crook and more than a few times words and tempers got almost as hot as the air temp.
Many dealers had signs that read "always buying," "paying $$$ for XXX players." "sell and trade your cards here!" Unless you had the 1/1 auto superfractor of the top player on their buy list and were willing to excpet pennies on the dollar for it, no dealer was buying and laughed at if you expressed an intresting in trading.
At card shows at least, trading is dead. Even patron to patron, trading is dead, end of discussion. No one collects and trades anymore. This is no longer a trading card market. It is an investment card market.
There are still people out there who think they will retire off all of the "junk wax era" cards they are hoarding. No, I am sorry, but no one will buy your 1987 Topps Will Clark, 1988 Donruss Mark Grace RC or 1990 Score David Justice RC cards for $5 each. Those guys are not in the Hall of Fame and with only a very little shopping around you can buy the entire respective card set for $5 each.
Probably the biggest complaint from me, as I spent most of my adult working life in customer service, was the attitudes and demenor of the vendors towards the patrons. Easily 20% of the dealers were on their phone the whole time and never looked up to even acknowledge patrons, let alone actually talk to them. There were several who appeared to not have showered in over a week, looked very unkempt, were eating food OVER their product and looked like they really did not even what to be there. Seriously, have some pride in yourself and your business if you expect to have any business. A LOT of dealers were flat out rude, condesending, jerks to patrons. Unless you were willing to sell your PSA 5 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson to them for $50 or buy their card at 10X over the closest comp because "I know this card will go up" they did not want to be bothered by you and told you as much. I counted on one hand the number of dealers who said "thank you", "thanks for your business" or I appreciate you for taking the time to look."
Like stated at the begining, I did find a few PC cards and checked off a big (for me) Henderson parallel from my long time want list. This was truly one of thse "it's the journey, not the destination" things though. Taking a day trip with my young adult son was truly worth it. We talked, laughed, listened to baseball and both ended up with some cards that we will truly collect and enjoy. The card show was what it was. For me and my son though, today was truly what this hobby should be about, collecting memories.
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