Card show thoughts and impressions (7/9/2010)

I attended the card show in Chantilly, VA yesterday and came away empty-handed. There were two cards, however, that as a type collector caught my eye. One was a general baking matty in an SGC poor slab. The front was nice with minimal corner-creasing and 10 percent paperloss on the back--a nice combination of tough back with great image/player front. The dealer had 1800 and would take 1600 for it. Seemed high--I moved on. A dealer from Oklahoma had a few type cards from his collection with all prices firm. One was an emil batch clements bros baking (?) in good/raw condition with paper loss along the bottom of the reverse (about 1/4 in, obscuring very little if any text). He wanted 1500 for it. Seemed like an okay price, but maybe a tad high in this economy. I suspected both dealers felt they would have better chances of selling them at the National.

One general impression I got was of dealers being much more appreciative (than in the past) of simply taking the time to show cards to you even if you didn't buy anything. One dealer had a bunch of t206 with super-nice eye appeal that he had too much into (bought prior to the downturn), that I kept coming back to. He was more than willing to indulge my indecisiveness, each time effusively thanking me for looking.

My friend did walk away with what I felt was a good deal on a nagursky chicle card. It had excellent appearance with a spot here and there and paid 2200. He was very happy to have scored "the wagner of football cards", and I kidded that his purchase may have amounted to fifty percent of the show's total sales.

I had a feeling walking out of the show empty-handed that this experience will be re-played at the National in Baltimore next month, with the exception that there I'll be shelling out 25 dollars to park and 20 to get in (yesterday's show was free). I shouldn't complain though, Baltimore's not that far and I'm splitting the parking fee with my friend (who's driving!).

Interesting post...I'd imagine you're right about how the national will be. A few years ago anything tough or deirable was selling for multiples off its book value...now values on many scarce types have dropped 30-50%...and no one wants to take a loss.

I have a bunch of cards I overpaid for in the past few years...I guess my only saving grace is that I'm a collector...and that most if not all of these cards will stay in my collection for a long long time...and hopefully values will someday return!

With the decline in ebay...and the seemingly overpriced cards available at the shows...the hobby seems to be somewhat returning to its state in pre-ebay days...when it was tougher to find good cards...at fair prices. We've almost gone full circle!

pete

ullmandds wrote: We've almost gone full circle!

pete

agreed, well said!

The National should be extremely interesting from a pricing standpoint. I can't wait to hear, "I've got a whole lot more than that into it" in regard to nearly every card I ask about. You are right, no one wants to take a loss, dealer or collector. It will be interesting to see how the big show pans out saleswise. My days of overpaying are over, I'll wait it out or do without.