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Finding Raw at Shows
SDavid
Posts: 1,584 ✭✭
Just wondering about the different techniques people use.
When I first started, I tried to methodically go through everything vintage--commons, stars, etc--until my eyes bled. While I found stuff that I might have otherwise missed, I found that my best finds usually came in runs of nice cards. Plus, that approach just required too much patience, and most likely resulted in high opportunity costs (somebody else finding a Mint '68 Aaron while I'm digging through ex-mt garbage). Now I pretty much just pull a sample of the cards from a given set, and unless I see some strong examples, I don't look any further.
If there are strong cards, then I either cherry pick the best ones or try to negotiate a bulk deal depending on the overall mix. Nice vintage sets are always preferable, but hard to find, especially if you aren't there at set up. The lowest bearing fruit always seems to get grabbed the quickest.
I always start with the fresh faces (if there are any), and then make my way to the reliable dealers who always set up. Then I'll BRIEFLY check out the tables that are always there and always suck. The best deals typically come from the new meat. Also, when dealing with newbies, I don't think I've ever admitted that I was cherry picking cards for psa even when they've been very persistent with the "what are you looking for" questions. I've always been afraid they would either raise their prices or pull their product, but it can be tough to explain what are otherwise completely random purchases.
I've also found that dealers with graded high dollar cards may have very nice raw low to medium dollar cards, but dealers with graded prices for raw just typically have squat. Usually, the stuff priced at an 8 level would grade a 6 and so on down the line. I don't even bother with those guys anymore.
When looking for bumpable cards, if a dealer has a lot of graded cards and the first thirty or so I see are weakly centered, then I figure his game is picking up low end examples off ebay and flipping them for normal prices, and I quit looking.
When I first started, I tried to methodically go through everything vintage--commons, stars, etc--until my eyes bled. While I found stuff that I might have otherwise missed, I found that my best finds usually came in runs of nice cards. Plus, that approach just required too much patience, and most likely resulted in high opportunity costs (somebody else finding a Mint '68 Aaron while I'm digging through ex-mt garbage). Now I pretty much just pull a sample of the cards from a given set, and unless I see some strong examples, I don't look any further.
If there are strong cards, then I either cherry pick the best ones or try to negotiate a bulk deal depending on the overall mix. Nice vintage sets are always preferable, but hard to find, especially if you aren't there at set up. The lowest bearing fruit always seems to get grabbed the quickest.
I always start with the fresh faces (if there are any), and then make my way to the reliable dealers who always set up. Then I'll BRIEFLY check out the tables that are always there and always suck. The best deals typically come from the new meat. Also, when dealing with newbies, I don't think I've ever admitted that I was cherry picking cards for psa even when they've been very persistent with the "what are you looking for" questions. I've always been afraid they would either raise their prices or pull their product, but it can be tough to explain what are otherwise completely random purchases.
I've also found that dealers with graded high dollar cards may have very nice raw low to medium dollar cards, but dealers with graded prices for raw just typically have squat. Usually, the stuff priced at an 8 level would grade a 6 and so on down the line. I don't even bother with those guys anymore.
When looking for bumpable cards, if a dealer has a lot of graded cards and the first thirty or so I see are weakly centered, then I figure his game is picking up low end examples off ebay and flipping them for normal prices, and I quit looking.
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