Report from Toronto Sports Card Expo

eyebone

Just got back from the semi-annual Toronto Sports Card Expo and thought some might like a quick recap.

Pleased to say, first of all, that I met fellow board member Boopotts at the show. We spoke for about half an hour over a beer and he is a first rate Guy.

Saw Greg Fisher of Cameo Cards for a minute as well. Always look for Greg if he is at a show; the guy has a wide selection of nice vintage cards.

I was there both Friday and again today and the crowds seemed quite strong both days. Spoke with a handful of dealers I know and they generally agreed that the crowds were up slightly from shows in the past year or two.

Spoke with these same dealers and they said sales did not show a corresponding increase though. The general consensus was that many people were just out kickin' tires or getting the autographs; they had a nice list of guys including both Bobby and Brett Hull. Lets see....Lanny McDonald, Yvan Cournoyer, Harry Howell, Al Arbour......hmmm, there were other guys....can't remember but I am sure they were good players who keep their lawn tidy and don't eat too many TV dinners.

Not alot of graded cards, at least in comparison to most other major shows I have been at or heard about. Maybe this is a good thing? Saw virtually no SGC cards for whatever that is worth.

Many mid-grade cards had full book price on them. This is a refrain I have heard from others on here who have offered their post-show analysis at various times; well, Canadian dealers are no different.

I understand there was a bit of a commotion on Saturday. Seems some dealer was selling fake autos and they turfed him out: 8x10 Yzermans for $25, 16x20 Williams, Mantle and some other legend for $150, and so on. Either a very ballsy guy or a very foolish one given the expertise in the hall (including Lucky Sports Management the official distributor of Stevie Y autographs).

That is all that pops into mind at the moment.

Eyebone

mercurynut

Thanks for the report!

Boopotts

I see that Dave's sense of humility kept him from mentioning that he also managed to pick up a drop dead gorgeous raw Bench RC (looked like a lock 9 to the naked eye, with a potential for even bigger and better things. If wssports had this card he'd already be spending the thousands) along with a very solid '73 Schmidt which will look very comfortable in a PSA 8 holder. I said it then but I'll say it again, those were two very nice finds.

To add to the OP-- the show was, as always, a lot of fun, although the slow encroachment of shiny stuff has begun to limit the number of booths that I have any interest in. And of course there was tons of VG-EX stuff being priced a full book, which is something you just have to get used to if you like going to shows. I did score about 50 PSA 8 quality 1974 OPC commons, along with 2 OPC sticker sets from the '80's and a handful of '70 and '69 OPC commons in gradable condition, so overall the trip was worth my time. And yes, the sausage guy was there again- and he appeared to be doing a brisk trade.

The bigger problem with the show, as Dave and I observed, was the number of dealers who obviously weren't there to do any serious buying or selling. Once you figure in the table fee, travel, a motel room, and so on you're into this thing for $1000 easy, yet I'd say at least 1/3 of the dealers had maybe two showcases of off-grade '60's hockey HOFers and a binder or two of commons, and that was it. There was no way these guys were going to clear 1K for the weekend, much less make a profit, so why do they bother? One of life's mysteries, I suppose. At least there were a few dealers there (like Len from Platinum Promotions, Greg from Cameo, and so on) who were there to move stuff.

A couple other casual observations.

1) At every show I go to I look for the biggest rip-off I can find, and make note of it. At this show the winner, hands down, was the BGS 7.5 1987 Donruss David Cone RC which was priced at $20. The runner up was the clown from Martin Sports Cards who had tons of sheet cut OPC HOFers from the early 80's in BGS 10 holders which he wanted in excess of $500 each for (this same guy also had a binder of sweet 1974 OPCs, and I was this close to just buying the whole thing when I realized every one of them was sheet cut. And yes, Chaz, we know where you stand on the sheet cut debate, so no need to toss your 2 cents into the ring again).

2) You cannot find a deal of any kind from a dealer whose native language is French. I don't know why this is, but every dealer from Quebec had just stupid prices on their merchandise. Go figure.

3) If you collect vintage basketball exclusively then this is not a show for you. I saw one binder of 1981 Topps, and that was it.


In sum, it was a really good show and I'm looking forward to attending again next year. And Dave, be sure to PM me before the National so we can make plans to hook up!

eyebone

Boo:

This is most unfortunate.....Canada's premier hockey card show (making it the best anywhere), and only you and I appear to be showing even the slightest bit of interest.

Will let you know what sort of grades those cards get. Who knows when my next submission will be, but I will be happy with the grades you suggested. I have been disappointed with a couple of other Bench's recently, so I will not get my hopes up even though this one does look the part of a real blazer.

Look forward to speaking with you (and others) in Cleveland.

Eyebone

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

That overpriced Cone card !! When I used to go to shows I looked for the same thing. funny

jerster

Good report. Unfortunately, I missed this one.

What I really want to know is if the sausage guy was there...or how about anyone selling leather belts?

Jerry

puckhd27

I've been to this show a few times. Picked up an 11 X 14 of the 61 Chicago Blackhawks Championship team. Boy is it sweet. I enjoyed my Trips to Toronto , but also found the French Canadien Dealers to be rude. Maybe not all of them , but the ones I talked to were. I over heard a few once talking about the American buyers, all they wanted was the American currency. I also noticed in the mid 90's that all 80's OPC hockey was 50% off, then the following year it was all full book. And the graded stuff was crazy prices. Did either of you guys go to the Hall of Fame or pick up a Hot Dog from the street vendors? Them are some good dogs.


Pete

puckhd27

One other thing, my friend and I went to our first Arena league football game a few years back in between show days. Picked up 50 yd seats from some scalper that was selling them cheaper than the box office for like $17 Canadien, I think it came to $12 American. Well my friend and I both caught T-Shirts that were thrown into the crowd. What a great day.

Pete

Yzerman19C

<< <i>Good report. Unfortunately, I missed this one.

What I really want to know is if the sausage guy was there...or how about anyone selling leather belts?

Jerry >>



The Sausage guy was there , i didnt see any leather belts but i did see someone selling sunglasses

JrMacdaddy

Picked up about 20 1968 OPC's. Some cool game used jersies. 1977 Dave Keon WHA jersey, Meigray had a bunch of cool gamers.

Headed down to the Westin on Saturday and saw Roy, Goulet, Pat Quinn, Lanny McDonald, Harry Neale and Tiger Williams. I got Goulet and Williams to leave voicemails for one of my buddies that couldn't make it up. Lets just say Tiger didn't leave a kind message for my friend.

I also saw a bunch of BGS/BVG cards at a certain dealer's table that were all 9.5. Not sure how he got all those good grades. He must have one heck of an eye.

GraphingAddict

<< <i>Just got back from the semi-annual Toronto Sports Card Expo and thought some might like a quick recap.

Pleased to say, first of all, that I met fellow board member Boopotts at the show. We spoke for about half an hour over a beer and he is a first rate Guy.

Saw Greg Fisher of Cameo Cards for a minute as well. Always look for Greg if he is at a show; the guy has a wide selection of nice vintage cards.

I was there both Friday and again today and the crowds seemed quite strong both days. Spoke with a handful of dealers I know and they generally agreed that the crowds were up slightly from shows in the past year or two.

Spoke with these same dealers and they said sales did not show a corresponding increase though. The general consensus was that many people were just out kickin' tires or getting the autographs; they had a nice list of guys including both Bobby and Brett Hull. Lets see....Lanny McDonald, Yvan Cournoyer, Harry Howell, Al Arbour......hmmm, there were other guys....can't remember but I am sure they were good players who keep their lawn tidy and don't eat too many TV dinners.

Not alot of graded cards, at least in comparison to most other major shows I have been at or heard about. Maybe this is a good thing? Saw virtually no SGC cards for whatever that is worth.

Many mid-grade cards had full book price on them. This is a refrain I have heard from others on here who have offered their post-show analysis at various times; well, Canadian dealers are no different.

I understand there was a bit of a commotion on Saturday. Seems some dealer was selling fake autos and they turfed him out: 8x10 Yzermans for $25, 16x20 Williams, Mantle and some other legend for $150, and so on. Either a very ballsy guy or a very foolish one given the expertise in the hall (including Lucky Sports Management the official distributor of Stevie Y autographs).

That is all that pops into mind at the moment.

Eyebone >>



Hey All, I was a dealer at this show and it was slow....basically, broke even. I guess no one was interested in high end autographs. I was able to sell my DiMaggio baseball, but other than that, no real big sales.

In terms of the guy selling fakes, I was one of the people that complained and got him kicked out. I got a lot of complaints from customers because this guy was selling a photo signed by Williams, Mantle and Dimaggio for $325......they would ask me why I was selling all three for $400 each....I think because this guy was selling fakes for so cheap it affected all autograph dealers.