White Plains, NY show this weekend...my observance..

yankeeno7

So, after 20 years, I finally made it to another White Plains show. Im only about a 2 hour drive away. So, I got Minoso's autograph for the price of admission. Could have gotten Charlie Hough's as well but the lines were way too long. I have plenty what I need from Hough anyway.

So, walking around the show, I checked out all the tables. Probably 8 or 9 times I saw an item I wanted to inquire about. Serious inquiry too. I was buying. I was in a good mood and very patient today. But patience didnt matter at this show. I was shocked that dealers were much too busying blabbing with each other and seemed not to care that someone was interested in their cards. A couple dealers completely ignored that anyone was even at their table with their nose stuck in a computer or texting on their phone. I swear that place must be a thief's paradise.

But yeah, I just walked away from tables that many times. I really didnt enjoy going to this show. Not sure I will again at least for a long time. I enjoy the small show in Albany, NY much better.

End of rant.

MiniDuff

I'm on LI and the White Plains shows are the biggest around, with very few small ones anymore. My experiences have been terrible there as well. I bring a lot of money and I come home with money, not cards.

metrotheme

I went today, got Hough and Minoso. They were both really nice by the way.

There were some deals to be had at the tables, but I shop for relatively inexpensive stuff.

I saw some really nice items there that had potential if I had a large space and some deep pockets.

A majority of the items there were literally junk and hard sells anywhere. One guy had photos and magazines just piled on a table in no order.

Others had binders of cards that were priced was too close to Beckett, or items that look like they have been carrying to the same shows for 10/15 years plus.

I think the guys that did the best were those that had unopened modern product. I saw a steady stream of kids there buying boxes. Also the ones selling 10 cent cards, etc. Those tables always had action.

yankeeno7

Yeah, I didnt see a whole lot of money exchanging hands. I thought there were some nice raw vintage there. I managed to buy an exhibit Minosa for him to sign and I also bought a bunch of signed Topps Fan Favorites from Main Line Autographs. It was tough even to get his attention with no one at his table but he had stuff I filled holes with. Once he saw I was a serious buyer he did pay more attention to me.

I think the highlight was Nathan Hot Dogs though.

ThoseBackPages

Sorry to hear you had a bad time.

heritage

I really don't understand dealers that pay good money to set up and sell cards and then BS all day and sell little because they do nothing but talk and text.
I guess some have more money than they need and don't need to make sales. They pull that with me I don't go back to them.

Guru

I hate to hear that you had such a bad time at the show.

I hate when I set up at a show and get placed next to a chatty person. I've been fortunate the last few times to avoid that situation and get placed next to someone who is there the same reason I am. We can have a good conversations between customers, but when they are in front of my table I'm focused on them.

As a seller there are a couple of things that bother me...

1. The seller trying to buy all my dime boxes asking me continually every hour how much I would sell all my dime boxes to him.
2. Customers who set their crap on my table while searching at the next table.
3. Other sellers who sit at my dime boxes or my table, ignore their table all day, just to find one card and ask me to sell it to them for a nickel.
4. Buyers who come to my table and waste my time by asking, "What's your price?" And then when I respond they tell me they can get it cheaper on Ebay. Even when I price things competitive with Ebay. I spend sometimes hours researching prices to be fair. And in the past have asked people to leave my table who continue to give me the Ebay bs.

As a buyer, it bothers me...

1. When I approach a table and get ignored.
2. The sellers table presentation is sloppy.
3. The seller is a slob and doesn't care...even will sit there an eat a sandwich while I'm trying to engage them.
4. When a seller just sits there talking to someone else when I'm asking questions.

I think part of my frustration is that I've done sales for a long time as well as marketing and I get annoyed by lack of proper presentation and lack of enthusiasm for their product. I'm pretty sure no one but me cares about these things. So I'll own that I might be uptight about it and just need to let it go. However, my time and money is worth something to me and I typically don't waste it on slobs or people who don't care.

MiniDuff

As a former corporate marketing executive and later CEO, you are both uptight and correct. The problem is that you are using your career experience as context, which doesn't work here. Marketing/Sales people in the corporate world are some of the most personable people out there. They are also professionals. Marketing/sales conferences were always by far the most fun, while also coming away with the most contacts of any I went to.

The problem with shows as I see it are several fold:

1. Baseball card dealers are, as a whole, NOT people people. Comparing them to professionals at a trade show just doesn't. I don't mean to say they aren't good people, far from it.

2. eBay truly is the ruin of in person card shows. It has created a wide breach in both dealer and buyer. I have seen it again and again at shows and brought it up here several times. Many dealers think, or know, they can do better on ebay than the person in front of them is willing to pay. By the same token, most buyers think they can and will do better on the same card on ebay. As a result, a great many deals don't get done.

Buyers have the realize there SHOULD be a premium for seeing a card in person, slabbed or not and walking home with it then and there.

Sellers need to realize there should be a discount for selling a card right there, for cash, no shipping, SNAD or other hassle to be had.

Some dealers get this, just as some are completely professional, but many don't.

natetrook

Great analysis on the card show market...
You can make the point on almost any consumable.

Why should I buy at Office Max, Circuit City, etc....when I can buy it for less on e-bay.
As a seller, it really has taken a bite from the brick and mortar stores,
that I don't have to sell at 30% of book. I can try to find a buyer at 80-90%.

I love E-bay, However, there should be some fun in putting heroes of the game signing autographs,
and many who love the hobby, all in one room.

PaulMaul

I love attending shows, and I keep giving this one a chance...but the quality dealers just don't show up. 90% of the dealers who set up have the same mid-grade junk my closet is already full of. There just isn't much quality in the room, tough I usually manage to come away with something.

jay0791

I wasn't aware there are any show left in Albany.

I live just south of albany and used to go to them many many moons ago.

Have not seen a card show advertized in a long time.

Gemyanks10

I too live in the Albany area...delmar and didn't know about any shows in the area anymore. Granted i was out of the hobby for years and just came back in a couple years ago. I remember going to the old polish
Community center bi-weekly shows back
In the 90's as well as other mall shows in the same time period. I would love to attend a show and meet some people in albany. Does anyone know where it is?

Jimmy

TheMick6

There are few things in the hobby that I enjoy more than a day or two at a good (not many) card show. There is something about that feeling I get when I walk into the place, it makes me feel like I'm 13 again and its right in the middle of the card boom! This feeling is greatest at the National, I've been to two and I thought I wouldnt have the same reaction the second time I went, was I wrong! I felt like I could find anything I wanted there and pretty much did.

That being said there are a few things about the show experience I wish didnt exist. Most of the negative that has been written here I find to be true in any and all shows I've been to. My pet peeve is the dealer's that seem to have NO knowledge of the sport, or sports history in relation to the card and memorabilia they are selling. Maybe I am being to critical, just because I am a sports nut and a baseball junkie doesnt mean they need to be but when I lay down four figures for a 54 Aaron I kinda like a little baseball talk along with the sale. I cant count how many times I've been at a dealer's table and tried talking a little baseball (while I was talking about buying a card) only to have that dealer pretty much cut me off and just try to get the sale. I had this experience with an older dealer at the last show I attended in Richmond VA, He was trying to buy a card from the guy set up next to him. As I was dealing with his son he shoves a card at me (a PSA 6 52 Bill Dickey) and ask's what do you think of that? I say, Yankee Immortal, one of the best catchers ever and a 52 High number to boot, nice card. He said WHAT, I dont care about that are the corners good enough for a 6? I just left.

yankeeno7

Albany show is monthly at the Best Western on Wolf Road. They moved it from Latham. Here is a link and you can see the dates...
Text

MiniDuff

Jaw dropping that is the only show listed for NY state. It was obviously a different time, but once there were shows every weekend on LI, usually both days.

jay0791

hey Jimmy
we must be neighbors........

I used to go to the Community center on wash ave all the time many years ago.
They even had a few special vintage shows

I stopped going as it seemed that most of the deales had the same ole ungraded slop
every week. Will have to check it out again.

Gemyanks10

Yankeeno7 thanks a lot for the info i look forward to checking it out at some point work permitting. And jay i hear ya. Once in awhile i remember they did have some good stars show up for autographs. Jim brown being one of the last ones i remember. It definitely seems that shows are dead up here as compared to other parts of the country. I look forward to meeting some of you guys at some point.


Jimmy

ToppsFan

Was there any vintage unopened at the show?

DCanfield

<< <i>And jay i hear ya. Once in awhile i remember they did have some good stars show up for autographs. Jim brown being one of the last ones i remember. >>





Those were great days!

Dboneesq

Doug .... from what Jon has told me i would bet that you have a LOT of similar items.

DCanfield

<< <i>Doug .... from what Jon has told me i would bet that you have a LOT of similar items. >>



I do have quite a few! Four months before Jim Brown we had John Wetteland's set-up man. Some kid named Mariano Rivera.

For those of you who aren't from the Albany, NY area those ECC shows (Ed's Card Club) were really something. Held at the Polish Community Center, Ed Keetz would have a show just about every two weeks with 110 tables and crowds and crowds of attendees. We often brought in one , sometimes two autograph guests. Ed had a list of dealers just waiting for a table spot to open up! My how everything has changed!

Gemyanks10

That is absolutely amazing. This brings back a ton of memories for me. I was just a kid back then. Don't know if any of you remember him but there was a dealer from queensbury that used to set up near the stage. His name was jackie gleason lol just like the honeymooners. He used to have some of the nicest high grade raw i've ever seen. I can remember buying a lot of 1961 topps baseball from him. I wish i still had those cards. I remember too that grading was
Just starting to come around and that he didn't believe in it. I got word he passed away a few years ago. I wonder what ever happened to his amazing collection. That jim brown show i wAs at and one of the last i remember. Man thats great that you've still kept all that stuff i wish i did. It's priceless. Better times in our area for sure and i also miss the albany colonie yankees. Me and my grandfather used to have a blast going to the games. I still have managed to keep an albany colonie yankees team set sealed after all these years. I have it in my closet somewhere i believe its from 90 or 91

Jimmy

jay0791

Yes I remember the old Ed shows. I wasn't into auto's back then. To bad wish I was...so many great guests were there.

Met quite a few of them. Those show would bring in National big dealers.

I remember a jackie Gleason from queensbury. Sold me a trimmed 69 reggie rookie. He said it was measured by a 'special guage.'

So IMO he would be a crook and a lier. The times were enjoyable. There also was quite a few other shows. I remember a schenectady show in the winter.

Was a blizzard out and hardly nobody came. a few of us spent 2 hours talking with Johnny Podres who was signing for free. What a nice guy and got a very nice personalized auto.

yankeeno7

Any of you know Jim Amorelli, Greg LaBarre, or Dave Drown from Plattsburgh area? Jim used to go and help Ed with all the shows and pick up the autograph guests at the airport. I met a lot of players through Jim back in the day. Greg and Dave were there often as well, sometimes setting up at shows. They were the reason Mantle was sick that time on a flight home due to being out drinking the night before LOL

I frequently went to the Albany shows. Loved them. I remember Jeter signing there and scoffed at getting his autograph cuz I could have cared less about minor leaguers. I think it was Bernie Williams there signing at the same time.

Gemyanks10

Wow thats terrible! A "special gauge" huh? Man thats probably why he hated TPG's lmao. Even though they were in their infancy im sure he knew what they were about. Maybe it's a good thing i did get rid of those 61's to buy my first car when i was 16 lol. That's awesome to about the schnectady show. I think i remember rotterdam square mall doing a show there. I definitely missed or was too young to appreciate what this area brought to the table back then. I would have loved to meet all of those guys and got their autographs. Thats a great mantle story too he was a big drinker even up untl then huh? Did people expect bernie to accomplish bigger things in his career than ge did? I mean he was very good and talented but i thought i remember people calling him future hall of famer first ballot etc...

Jimmy

yankeeno7

At that time, Im not sure what they expected from Bernie other than being the future of Yankees centerfield. There wasnt even a whole lot of Jeter hype. Ed got minor leaguers as the warm ups to the bigger names. I remember Mantle, Ford, Dimaggio, Mays, and Rose being there often. It was fairly well organized. Instead of letting people be in long long lines standing there, they went by blocks of ticket numbers. It kept collectors on the floor which was a good thing.

I even set up a couple times and scored some nice vintage that people walked in with. I especially remember a stack from one guy that consisted of 53 Bowman Colors, 53 Topps, and 55 Topps. I also remember looking at a complete Diamond Stars set that the guy wanted 400.00 for LOL Levi Bleam was always there with a crowd around his table. I was fortunate enough to be set up next to him one show and it brought me a ton of business because so many were around his tables that many just looked at my stuff while waiting to get to him. I remember his album pages of HOFers in the 60s. Need a 65 Rose? Here are 5 pages to choose the one you like! Also, that show, he brought a ton of 61s that he just cracked from a vending case. You could have cut your arm off with them.