First Show in 10 years today

mtcards

Went to my first show in nearly 10 years today....Small 30 table show in Nashville at Lighthouse Christian School.

Fairly well attended, but BGS had reps there to take submissions which brought in a lot of the crowd. LOTS of vintage and LOTS of modern jersey/auto cards, not much in between. If you wanted 89UD Griffeys, 85 Topps McGwires and other early 80's rookies, there were slim pickings. Very little wax or boxes of any type, just one dealer which had cases of newer items and overpriced at that.

Biggest pet peeve of the show, is that showcase after showcase of the vintage (And modern as well) had no prices on the cards. I understand if you dont want to put price stickers on cards that may go up or down every week, but honestly, a 1960 Topps Mantle doesnt change that much on a daily basis, put a price on it. I dont want to stand and wait for 5 minutes to ask how much a card is, only to find out that you are wanting mint price for an EX card. Of the few that had prices, they ranged from fairly high to fairly ridiculous. Just some examples...$60 for an ungraded Marino rookie, $120 for a PSA 7 Montana RC, Greg Maddux Donruss RC $10 and so on. Vintage examples included 1960 Topps Mantle (Would grade 5-6) $400 FIRM.

Was nice to see a lot of people active in collecting, was disappointed that so many people still used "Book" to determine value of the cards. Ended up buying about a dozen of the 1953 Topps Look and See in EX condtion for $3 each

Overall a pretty good show, looked like money was changing hands fairly well for those items people were willing to negotiate on. Considering the prices others were asking for the cards, it looks like a show that would be profitable for selling decent cards at ebay prices as long as the prices were well advertised in the cases

lahmejoon

I share your sentiment on not displaying prices. At the last show I went to, there was a dealer who had some singles in a bin box from a set I'm building, but no prices. When asked about a price, the response was "pull out what you need and I'll make you a deal - I don't want to have to put them back in there." I decided to just move on. I didn't want to waste the time to go through them, being that I had no idea whether or not his ask price was going to be reasonable or in the stratosphere.

bounce

i appreciate where you're coming from, but honestly posting a price on every card is a bit of a tough ask in my opinion

what they should be able to do, however, is quote you a price without looking things up, or if they are looking it up it's to quote you a price in the range of recent sales

at least that's how i handle it

sounds like you had a lot of dealers that weren't really interested in selling that stuff, but they keep trotting it out because they think it makes the rest of their case of cards look better

jfkheat

<< <i>i appreciate where you're coming from, but honestly posting a price on every card is a bit of a tough ask in my opinion >>



Sorry but I have to disagree with you here. If a dealer feels like it is too much trouble to price their cards I am not going to spend my time asking for prices.
James

Zixx

<< <i>

<< <i>i appreciate where you're coming from, but honestly posting a price on every card is a bit of a tough ask in my opinion >>



Sorry but I have to disagree with you here. If a dealer feels like it is too much trouble to price their cards I am not going to spend my time asking for prices.
James >>




Then you don't really want them )

Stone193

I haven't been to a local show in many many years.

My experience over a decade ago seems to be the same as yours Danny.

I don't have the patience to negotiate with dealers that don't just show prices. And, I have to say, "overpricing" seems to be SOP at many shows IMO.

Thanx for sharing.

bounce

<< <i>Then you don't really want them ) >>



Agreed - and I'm guessing you aren't able to buy much at most shows if you stick to the "not interested if I don't see a price" logic

I price MOST of my autograph items, because they don't tend to move around that much

I only price SOME of my cards, especially the commons and semistars

cardsfan73

We have a local monthly show here and for the most part the dealers are pretty good about pricing stuff. I just started going to shows again about 4 years ago and found pretty quickly the dealers that didn't price their cards usually started off with a stupid high asking price when I would inquire and would usually require a lengthy amount of haggling to get the card to a somewhat reasonable price range.

On the other hand I found that the dealers who did have their products priced for the most part were already asking a reasonable price and were still willing to negotiate in some instances. Generally if a card is marked at a price I think is fair I won't really try to haggle to much unless I am purchasing a large quantity from the dealer.

I don't feel like wasting my time at a show with a dealer who could not take the time to present his merchandise to me in a way that makes it easy for me to shop. If you don't care to take the time to price your items and then on top of that you want to waste my time with an insane asking price when I do inquire, no thanks. I'll move on and not waste my time.

One of my favorite dealers who sets up at the local show (and many other shows across the country) always takes the time to price all of his cards clearly and sets up his displays in a very customer friendly way. You never see the same unpriced (or overly high priced) cards sitting at his table every show because he takes the time to price everything before each show. On top of that there is always a little wiggle room on the price for his customers. On top of that he has a great selection of pre-war, vintage and even some modern late 80s stuff. Needless to say when I go a show and see that he is set up I make a bee-line for his table and never walk away disappointed.

I figured out quickly I just don't have the time to waste on dealers who can't take the time to price a card clearly.


*edit to add that I have no trouble purchasing at card shows when I choose to skip over dealers who don't price their stuff. On the other hand I notice they seem to have trouble selling much.

curch

Shows in my area seem to be a jone. I decided to go to my first show in five years a few weeks back nit was a mall show. I've been to it before and it was decent. How times have changed. The show had 10 tables and only 3 dealers were there. It was 11 am Friday morning. I will just stick to online. I drove an hour one way for nothing.

bounce

well, from a dealer perspective - i don't like pricing certain things because i know EVERYONE is going to haggle it down anyway, so what's the point?

i generally do put a price on my graded commons by year. i price some of the high end stuff, some not. most of the mid level items i don't price - they change too frequently or have a wider range, i find it easier to just do an eBay search right in front of someone and come up with a price somewhere in the middle unless there's a good reason to be on the high end.

it's easy to act like the dealers are the only ones playing the games, but so do the customers. it's just part of the deal - for whatever reason most people like to dicker and negotiate, makes them feel better about it I guess, don't know. it's not how i do things, and i like most usually won't even ask unless it's something i'm really interested in.

i think by not pricing all my cards, i probably do lose out on a few potential sales. but for people who ask, i generally get repeat customers and often multiple sales because i treat them right if they're buying more than just 1 or 2 things. it's really the relationship, not the price stickers.

and on the buy side, if you offer prices that are at least in line with recent sales, not the lowest price you can find, you've got a much better chance of me working with you.

but if you start out offering the lowest price you can find, i tune you right out and my willingness to negotiate goes down to about 1%.

i realize there are people who don't like that, and to them i say this - Fine, pay the money and put your cards out for sale and THEN tell me I'm wrong.

ldferg

I was at this same show. Decent crowd for this area. I share similar sentiments as mtcards. One of the dealers had his cards priced on the back, when you asked for a price he took it out of the case, had his buddy look up the last sold price on eBay, then told his new price. Seems like an odd way to do things. I passed on the 71 Bradshaw PSA 8 since he could not decide on a price (the last recent sale was a PSA 5 he said).

I did pick up a handful of 75 minis for $1. . And saw a nice 60 Topps football set.

mtcards

I definitely can understand not pricing every single card, especially when you start talking about the bargain bins, but there were several showcases filled with vintage that had no prices on them...Im talking about $100+ cards..for that I can see pricing them. Sometimes, at least in the old days, I can remember going to a show, not really searching for anything, but would buy a card sometimes because I happened to walk by and saw a price that seemed like a great deal. Today, I circled the tables a few times and nothing jumped out, so I only bought the few things I was on the lookout for.

-ldferg...have you gone to this show before? I know they have it every month, but was wondering about the crowd on days that BGS isnt there. Is this about average or a little less. Seems to me that there is a big gap in what is available and surprisingly, saw so little in the way of Manning rookies, which I would think would sell pretty well in the Nashville area.

ldferg

This is my first time attending. Two of my friends setup there regularly. They said today was the largest crowd they have had that they could recall. I spoke to a couple of other dealers. They agreed the crowd was much larger. This shows occurs twice/month and I do plan to attend the end of March show. I've got my eyes on that 60 set.

Agree that very little Manning material was there. Lots of modern material and supplies. I'm still shaking my head on the Bradshaw. I looked up some ended auctions and there were some recent one showing in that grade, so I'm unsure what they were using for sold items.

marty

When I set up at shows, I have over 20,000 cards. Every card is priced. I bring 5 card houses, that is 60 boxes of sleeved and priced Topps and Bowman commons. The stars are stacked by year and all have prices on the front. All of my slabs are sleeved and the price sticker is on the front. I found out years ago that buyers want to know the prices without having to ask. It is a whole lot easier on me also when determining the total price of a group of cards. Unless all the cards in a box are the same price and the box labeled, I do not see the advantage of not having them priced.

ysuindy

Generally speaking, I don't even bother asking if none of the prices are listed. I just keep walking.

I get no enjoyment at all out of haggling. None.

I've found if I buy several cards most dealers will give me a round down break. But I don't get upset if they don't.

jfkheat

Bounce, instead of looking at this from your side of the table, look at it from the customer side. If you are a buyer at a show with quite a few dealers you want to be able to check out all of the tables as quickly as possible. Having to ask for prices and hope that the dealer can quote them without having to look up each card takes time. Although it may not be the case, a lot of buyers assume that dealers without prices are going to be overpriced so they just move on. In my opinion, it should be about making it as easy as possible for the customer.
James

dennis07

"Then you don't really want them ) "

I'm not a marketing genius but isn't it the sellers job to make the buyer want to buy. One of the biggest complaints about card show sellers has always been
not pricing their product. It's a known fact that not pricing drives many prospective buyer away. IMO many sellers at card shows don't want the business of
real collectors. They want the fish that will pay "book". I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that-- if that is their strategy more power to them.

SidePocket

If you're just looking for cards you like at a decent price, not a certain card or cards in particular, you certainly aren't going to stand there and ask a dealer the price on 10 or 12 cards in his case when he's got to look each one up on eBay, so I don't even bother with dealers who don't put prices on their cards. It's like when you go shopping for sunglasses or wallets or anything that's locked in a display case and you have to stand there and say "let's try the ones on the bottom shelf, 3rd from the left" over and over again.

seebelow

if any card should have a sticker price tag on it, it should be a mantle. i get not pricing commons.

most of the times if feel they're not priced so that the dealer can have a chance to size me up and throw out a price on what i might be willing or able to pay. which is ok i guess. thats their right. but now that i think about it, the only other comparable "profession" that first occurs to me are used cars salesmen.

byronscott4ever

I think this is another reason people like bargain boxes--they know the prices.

lahmejoon

So, in my example above, the cards I was interested in were 1970 baseball commons that were nicely lined up in penny sleeves. Other dealers at this show had similar boxes with commons from various years in the 1970's and had general prices on each section, so at least I knew that they wanted $x per card. As a buyer, I feel it's the dealer's job to build the expectation. If the dealer can't tell me that they want $x per low series 1970 topps commons, then I don't know what to expect.

The show before this one, I had a dealer working under the same premise - not displaying the prices. After going through his stuff for the next twenty minutes and picking out some cards I needed, he went to the Beckett and started pricing them. After coming up with the price (which was over, but we're only talking about $30 for a few cards) I felt awkward because here I invested this time at the table with the dealer - how do I let him know that I flat out wasn't interested without pissing him off? I ended up buying the cards and immediately felt angry, more at myself for not just saying no because I didn't want to make the dealer angry. So, I made it a point not to put myself in that position again. Haggling with price is not a strong suit of mine either.

cardbender

If sellers don't price their cards, I'm walking to another table.

I don't have the time to waste waiting for a dealer to look up each card in a Beckett, or in a SMR, or even go online.

Sellers should be prepared to sell when the show begins.