[Exhibitman]

The VIP evening was very lively; as full as a typical Saturday used to be at a good local show. The promoter told me that with the size of the crowds he was concerned about being limited by the fire marshal; he said that a few days ago his nightmare was that no one would show up.

98% of the show is post-2000 cards. Everyone has those big gun cases with the custom foam dividers. There was even a dealer set up to sell them. Lots of bashed knees and shins.

Lots of basketball, which surprises me. I still think of it as a backwater but it is really big with the kids these days.

Speaking of kids, I had a really nice interaction with some kids who were everything you want from the next generation of collectors: smart, sharp, polite. One of them pulled a 1947 Bond Bread Pafko and was just thrilled to pick it up for five bucks. Another wanted two pretty expensive (for kids) cards, a Bird and a Jeter, but didn't have the money. He looked at me very seriously and said "I am going to put back the Bird, sir." I then let him negotiate me down to his price. Left my table smiling ear to ear. Perfect.

I had by far the largest vintage card selection in the room, and by "vintage" I mean anything issued before 2000. Some of the vintage collectors were so desperate to buy something that they ended up impulse-buying stuff they were not familiar with, just because it was older than a high school kid. There were some pretty funny comments. One Millennial got so excited to see 1990s cards that he said excitedly "wow, you have the old stuff! They don't make them like this anymore!" That a George Brett is a golden oldie makes me feel like one too. One guy cleaned me out of EX 2000 baseball, another guy cleaned out my 1991 Kayo and 2011 Ringside boxing. I sold only one 'good' vintage baseball card, a Jackie Robinson Exhibit.

The newbs are eager to learn about old cards, though. I was identifying cards from all sports for customers all day long. I even sold a giant stack of VCBC and Old Cardboard magazines. I'm not joking: Bill Cornell saw the guy buy the whole stack from me.

The place was a zoo on Saturday; 1991 Anaheim National caliber crowds. I got there at 9:30 for set-up (didn't realize the VIP admit was then; horrible schedule communications from the promoter) and the line was already around the corner of the building and parking was getting full. The fire marshal was directing admission starting pretty early in the day and there were admission waiting lines nearly all day long (even as late as 2:00). My daughter had to argue her way back inside despite having a dealer pass and our lunch with her.

What did not move are the expensive cards. Tons of interest in the very rare ones I had but no takers.

Had some good walk-ins. I picked up a stack of Exhibits for resale incl. Mantle, Aaron and Musial, and a lot of Brooklyn and LA Dodgers photos ranging from 1949 into the early 1960s. There is a really fun 1956 World Series piece, a nice shot of Ebbetts Field, and a team photo in the Coliseum that has to be a '58 because it has Don Newcombe. Plus some nice action photos. i will scan and post some eventually.

The demography of the show was absolutely fascinating. There are large contingents of Latino and Asian collectors as well as more Black collectors than ever before. Also about 5% women collectors (not just boyfriend tag-alongs, though there were some of them too). I would say the show was majority-minority (to steal a phrase) As a result, basketball and soccer were much bigger areas of interest with the modern crowd. Basketball especially. I also got a lot of boxing interest due to the ethnic fighters, the Mexicans especially. People went nuts all day over some expensive Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez cards I had; no actual sales but lots of oohs and aahs. A lot of interest in non-sports. Must've been asked 20 times for Star Wars and Disney, and several times for Pokemon. None of which i have. No interest in Star Trek, though, which I had. Actually, that's not true. No one asked for them but I did sell two sets of early Skybox TOS commons that I found lying around my office.

One thing I find new in this era is the way people take pictures of cards in showcases. Must've happened 30-40 times this week. Always with permission, so not an obnoxious thing at all. I finally asked one guy why and he said that he likes to use the images as reference tools. Another guy said he likes to make videos for his social media of all the things he saw. He said my Canelo Alvarez signed RC would be the last image for his video. I also met one of Canelo's former sparring partners.

I got a lot of requests for vintage basketball. Had I brought out my basketball collection I am certain I would have done very well because the offerings in the room older than 2000 were infrequent and the cards were grotesquely overpriced. I'm talking 3x-4x market. Very heavy Lakers Nation presence; I was asked repeatedly for Chamberlain, Jabbar and Globetrotters cards. I put out my 1986 Merchante Magic Johnson card and had lots of lookie-loos but no buyers.

Vintage soccer was all but MIA. I collect Pele cards so I was looking. The only vintage soccer I saw in the room was a 1962 Pele from Germany ticketed at 4x market. The German soccer dealers next to me didn't have anything pre-2000, even though Germany has one of the best post-war histories of soccer cards, including some great Pele cards.

Thing is, modern is a gateway to vintage, as has always been the case. I saw a pair of guys happy as can be over a 1954 Aaron and a 1958 Jim Brown they'd picked up. They tried to do the bro-hug (hand shake and shoulder bump) but they were so fat that they bounced off each other like sumo wrestlers in an epic awkward fail.

Did I mention fat? I used to think that I had to travel to the midwest to see fat like that but damn, have we all gotten fat. Half the aisle congestion was giant fat-asses with massive guts waddling awkwardly around each other.

One thing with the shiny stuff is apparent when you watch it closely: it is a lot of circular movement. The money is changing hands between dealers and wanna-be dealers, and there is lots of trading of one pile of shiny stuff for another. Little actual collecting. More penny stock trading.

It was exhausting working a show again but I had so much fun.