How do you keep track of items/tables of interest at shows
 

There are a handful of shows on my radar coming up over the next 6 months or so including of course, my first national! I’ve been trying to figure out a strategy or process for keeping track of items and tables that catch my interest as I do my first walk-through at a show. At the Pittsburgh Spring show last year I found myself losing track of what aisle I had been in, and what specific table I saw a certain card or item at. This can get especially disorienting if an item happened to sell between the time I first spotted it and when I finished my first walk-through, then I spin myself around in circles trying to figure out where it was.

I guess an obvious strategy is to simply use a note pad to make notes. I’ve thought about using my smartphone to take notes electronically. I’ve also entertained the thought of using a tablet to take notes and track my movements in a spreadsheet.

Does anyone have any tips and suggestions? How do you keep track of yourself and items of interest when you’re at medium/larger shows?

Its easy to get lost at the National. Every dealer has a table number and most dealers have it posted, if they don't, just ask them. That strategy has always worked for me.

Agree. Just bring a very small pad of paper and write down table numbers and items. Or you could do it on some mobile device, I guess :). For me though, I just wing it. And, as shown before, here is the one example I have of not remembering or writing a card down. I was at a National 10+ yrs ago. I was fairly new to the hobby. I saw this card and the dealer had something like $225 on it. I didn't buy it. I didn't write anything down. A little while later I was speaking with BCD (another hobbyist and scarcely seen board member) on the phone. He said to buy it. I must have taken hours to find the darn thing again but I did. I got it for $200...and it's still raw.

http://luckeycards.com/pe92dockmanyoung.jpg

I'm old school ... notepad and paper. If its a must-buy, i buy it on the spot. if it seems like a decent deal or something to ponder if i find nothing else, i write it down with a few quick notes. Something like:

"table 123, 1914 CJ Plank VG, $1k, had other CJs, prices are firm"

I've also gotten their business cards and write on those instead of the notepad. After the show, you can check out their site online or email them.

The National has a floor plan along with a list of dealers where you can map the dealer to table # on the floor plan. I usually take that floor plan, enlarge it, and print it out in more manageable "sections". As I go through the show, I'll mark up the floor plan sections, usually putting a big black X through the table that has nothing of interest to me. The others I might put notes on the floor plan, or jot down the table number with a note about what was interesting on the back of that page or on a separate sheet of paper. If you have multiple card sets/types you are looking for, it's good to come up with a system to easily mark directly on the floor plan (if possible).

Please note: I have found this method to work reasonable well for the first (and second) pass, but come Saturday, the value seems to get reduced to emergency toilet paper fodder status. :)