We had another local card show this weekend. I think that’s two in just a few weeks time. Pretty good for around here. This was a newer one. That’s not just for me. From what I read a young guy started organizing shows starting around August/September and now it looks like they will be every few months. The turnout seemed great even for a cold day, having to pay to part in Arlington, VA (just $6 but still…), but the bonus was it was free unless you wanted to start a little earlier for $5.
There was a lot of single newer/vintage cards around for sale. That’s not always my thing. I like old packs, old boxes, or digging through old and cheap bulk. I did find a new guy for that though and he seemed really nice. I bought about $50 worth of stuff I could send out, plus some random Mets, so that was nice.
I was able to take my oldest kid too, so that was nice. They bought a couple random Pokemon packs. What was interesting was hearing them talk about the show and their observations of the other attendees, the sellers, etc.. Just going to recap in some bullets, but something to keep in mind, they are about 5’3″…
- “Big, dumb guys” block out kids and smaller people and have no awareness that others might want to share space to see cards.
- Some people spend too long trying to convince others to make deals and negotiate when they should recognize there’s no middle ground.
- The best sellers are up front and have concise answers when asked questions (i.e., when asked about price, because things aren’t marked, they get, “well, uh, maybe…” v. “i’m asking for X”)
- Sellers should mark more stuff and display more of what they are asking for for things. When things get busy at a table then you don’t have to wait to ask – and mark things with how negotiable you might be with it (NN – non-negotiable or something like that). In general, don’t hide behind forcing people to ask – it comes off like you would make a different deal with one person over another.
I feel like a lot of that is negative, but I think what I would add is that they had a good time. I think the negative bent is because the difference between the good and then bad is pretty easy to see. And I think it’s always easier to remember negative things that happen instead of positive (I know this just from a customer service perspective from my job).
But anyway, it was a big show, it was a free show, and I think overall it was a good show. If you are in Northern Virginia, follow @fire.sportscards on Instagram for more. Now that I know what to expect I’ll try to help get the word out about the next one – not that I think it is needed because it was very well attended.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and has a great week!
The Review
Here’s what happened on the blog last week:
- Monday: Bill Zepp
- Tuesday: Jaime Cocanower, Dan Schayes
- Wednesday: Frank Duffy
- Thursday: Andy Brickley
- Friday: Tim Goad
- Saturday: Alonzo Highsmith
- Sunday: Kevin Dineen
I brought the #twofortuesday back last week. I happened to have two Milwaukee teams on the list and that meant I could make a Cream City theme. If you aren’t aware, I found out Milwaukee was referred to as Cream City because of the color of a lot of their buildings.
The Preview
Here’s what I have coming up for this week:
- Monday: Get you Gruber hands off…
- Tuesday: Berry compote…
- Tuesday: Leius your hands on me…
- Wednesday: Regan gun…
- Thursday: Not flat Stanley…
- Friday: With Zeile…
- Saturday: Dal the phone…
- Sunday: Don’t be so Kurt with me…
Oh my, two #twofortuesday theme week in a row! What is going on! We are staying up north and moving from Wisconsin to Minnesota. Some teams from the Twin Cities will be appearing.
Other Notes
This was another pretty OK week. I did have a couple failures though. I totalled 17 returns but I did have two failures among them. Still, 15 successes is not bad at all.
Of the interesting things among those that I usually look at… the two failures were football related from Daryl Johnston and Roger Vick. I think Vick was a bit of a flyer and I couldn’t get that back out. But for Johnston I had seen other recent returns. I did find another address for him and got that one back out already. As for stragglers there was only one. Luis Alicea returned one back after exactly a year (365 days – although this year was a leap year I think so…). Other than that there were only two others that were over 100 days old and I look at 200 days for a straggler. There were no paid returns or returns from team addresses to note.
The Recent TTM Success page will be updated next weekend.
Have a great week!