Do you sell to dealers at card shows? Do you set up at shows to buy?

jsanz

I go to a few shows and I always see dealers with signs "BUYING" and I always see people walking around selling. Sometimes it seems like dealers are more interested in buying then selling. Do you walk in to card shows to sell to dealers? Do they pay fair prices?

Do you ever set up at card shows mostly to buy? Is it worth it?

QUITCRAB

The first show I did I sold 36 dollars worth of cards and bought 1000.00 dollars worth of cards. The show was a huge success for me. Scott

jsanz

So even though you didn't sell much it was a good show because you bought a lot. That's what I am starting to think. Maybe it's worth setting up to buy and of course sell. I haven't set up at a show since the early 90's. It has been a while.

Mintacular

Most of the times I've tried to sell to a dealer at a national show, they don't even want to know a price. For example, any interest in this NM '75 Baseball Set? Answer: No thanks, I have 5 of those sets already....

Same with mid-grade stars like Clemente, etc. It seems like they are more into buying huge multi-K collections and if they've spent $ prior to show are in a more "sell" mode mindset as they are trying to make their $ back for set-up costs, etc. Just my experiencce

addicted2ebay

Any dealer at a show is a shark. You'll be lucky to get 50% of the value of you sell that way.

49ersGuy

50% would be very lucky.

It is quite profitable to sell nothing and buy a ton for more than a few reasons. They can quickly flip the product and cover their expenses but more importantly to hit PSA gold. If that $1000 you spend on cards lands you say a PSA 9 Robin Yount you can quickly sell it and cover your expenses as well as pocket $1000. Not to mention you'd be sitting on whatever else is left.

Buying/Trading is the most important aspect of having a table at a card show. Generally the cards you see for sale are cards that the deal finds not desirable to keep(not high grade) but great to use as trade bait just in case that person selling wants to trade.

The last couple of shows I have went to the prices were much more than Ebay as well which led me to believe that they were jacking up the price just for trade bait.

kevin80

As a dealer at a few card shows I do buy and trade with customers. Customers usually do not bring around ungraded PSA 10 or 9's for sale or trade, they're are in their collections. I think that is what we all search for "The best stuff" to collect. I set up at a recent show and a customer is sitting and talking with the show promoter. In his bag, he has a 67 Philadelphia FB set and a 57 Topps FB set. He wants or asking 75 % book. So I'm thinking why isn't this guy paying for a table and gas to get there to sell his stuff ? His inventory is better than mine and I'm paying to be here ? For the traders. Knowing that my stuff might garner 50 % book what do I offer you for your stuff. Lets use Derek Jeter rookies. Customer comes up and has several $25 high book Jeter rookies they want to unload. Do I offer him $20 knowing that is what I'm going to mark them for, how about $15. So I can haul them around for the next 6 months for a $ 5 profit. I don't think so. And when I do mark them at $20, "What's the best price you'll take on that Jeter, or will you take $15 for that Jeter". So is there really much profit on your trades......................? I used to set up for to get access to collections. Collections in general are drying up unless you want Pro Set or 1987 to 1991 inventory in all sports. You know the $5 sets that people don't want. Carry about 40 pounds of that stuff around to few shows and see what you can sell that for. Yes, I do buy and trade.............Keep in mind I'm paying rent, and investing money for a possible higher return at a later date. It has to be worth my time, money and gas to transport for that return.

jsanz

Thanks for the feedback and the example with numbers. I'm trying to decide what side of the table I want to be on. All of the input really helps.

I wonder how the bigger dealers are doing it. They have bigger staffs, offices, warehouses, all of that costs money. Are they moving enough total dollars that the small profits start to add up or do they make more profit per item?

mtcards

As someone who owns the "only game in town" as far as an actual card display. I get my fair share of "sellers". Honestly, I have sold about 11k in cards online in the past year and about 3k in cards in the store (It isnt the main business to be sure, in fact its about 2%). I had been considering taking the cards out as I need more space, but that 11k online sales comes from all the stuff I buy simply because people know me as the "guy who sells cards in the trophy shop". So I can definitely see where a small investment to have access to buy would be a decent profit attempt.

That being said, and as was mentioned before, about 99% of sellers nowadays can be put in two categories. Those who have a bunch of carp and dont realize/unwilling to realize it is carp OR those who have good stuff and basically want full ebay sale price. Neither is a potential seller to me.

Then there is the one. The one guy who understands business, understands that "book" price is a joke and understands that people do pay tax, electric, rent/lease, etc. He realizes that you have to make some money to be willing to pay him up front and then do all the work. Like the one who walked into my store earlier this week. Below is a small list of what he had....(Mind you, I am not listing this as a buy/sell ad as some have to be graded and others I am keeping)

1957 Topps Bart Starr PSA4
1958 Topps Jimmy Brown PSA 4
1962 Topps Fran Tarkenton BGS 5.5

Ungraded Rookies of Montana, Payton, B. Griese, Csonka, Bradshaw, Swann, Theismann, Fouts, Franco Harris, Dorsett, Largent, Elway, Marino, Rice, S. Young, Lott, Taylor, E Campbell, Merlin Olsen, Ditka 2nd Year,
Emmitt Smith Score/Fleer, Manning, 89 Score Sanders x2/Aikman x1, Mean Joe Greene, Rosie Greer, Stabler and a couple of 50's and 60's stars of Blanda, Dawson, Tittle, Gifford and a bunch of modern RC's and an OJ Simpson Rc
with four razor sharp corners


Basically, one purchase made the whole month of buying and sifting through boxes of garbage for that one "hit". It wasnt cheap, but the profit is going to be nice and if you set up at a show and can get this one purchase, a $25 table fee for a local show can be as good as $1000 in sales