Introducing The National's New Management Team
 

I am about halfway through the interview. It is worth a listen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCjPy1d-No0

FYI:

The day or so before this web interview ran, I posted a link so everyone could see the show

Rich

My apologies. This morning, a friend of mine sent me the link. Before posting, I ran a search, but I did not see a specific thread. I was not trying to one-up you.

Link to Rich's thread: https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=339053

No apologies needed. But we tend to be on top of things here on Net 54 :p

Thanks for posting the link. I found the comments interesting...Anyone who was at all critical or skeptical of the 3 new dudes upset the host. No differing opinions permitted these days.

That is very true! When, I read my friends post, I did say to myself, "This had to have been posted to Net54" and I did search for a thread. I just could not remember seeing the thread. Once I found the thread, I remembered having seen your thread earlier this month.

The 3 new guys, Joe, Brian and Jim, are very qualified to run the show and I am excited, from what I've heard so far.
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I can only hope they bring the biggest card show in the nation to the 21st century. Don't cater to 15 old school dealers that have "tenure", the days of Mr Mint at the front entrance are over. Cater to the guy who brings 5k-100K plus to spend on cards. If you've ever been to an art auction you know what I mean.
Bad logistics, bad bathrooms, bad food, bad air conditioning, bad venue, untrained staff? None of that is acceptable today, it's shameful that people are eating off the floor.

Too many people? Double the price of admission, incentivize the dealers that bring product to sell, plenty of ways to do that. Dump the museum display dealers and the tire kicking public, you don't need them.

Fer gawds sake, categorize the floor like auction houses do, no modern guy wants to wade through pre war, no pre war guy wants to look at 56 Jackies to get to a Plows Candy or Texas Tommy.

Im not a fan of fanatics but I'm curious to see their first show and their solutions to these problems.

The biggest problem with this type of thinking is the now "famous" quote that Fanatics wants to 10X the hobby. If this is the type of show Fanatics does, then they may 10X the $$$$ but not the people. I think if you really want to grow the hobby, which is an important part of Fanatics contract going forward then you have to have events which appeal to all pocketbook sizes, not just the men/women with thousands of dollars to burn.

Kyle Robertson and his DCS team are doing just fine with their shows which appeal to both the people with $$$ to burn and collectors with a few $$ to spend. Their latest airport show drew over 1K people for 2 days and there was a mix of cards from a quarter to thousands of dollars. Works just fine.

And as for the venue used for the NSCC, yes there are issues but much as you wish this was not true, the tables are sold each year on a priority basis and as such, the dealers, who are making a significant financial effort to be there. (it's a minimum of 3K for the week unless you live close enough to drive home each night) have a right to keep their tables as long as they pay for them each year. It is not our responsibility for deciding what they can and can not bring with them to any show.

Pulling up a map of the floor on your phone, with different areas clearly deliniated. Very 2005.

This new National committee will need to figure out what they actually want the show to be going forward (ie more fan experience, more corporate or less, more dealers, trade nights, seminars, live auctions, etc,...). Of course, most on this forum will probably want just dealers selling vintage baseball cards & memorabilia.

I've seen this suggestion a lot. Frankly, there are far fewer people looking at vintage. If you put all the shiny stuff in one area - you wouldn't be able to move with the masses of people. Mixing vintage guys in with the shiny people makes the mass even out some.

I'm not sure segregating by product type is a good idea as a lot of dealers have a mix and many people collect both vintage and modern. An app where each dealer can list some specialty areas would help. But for Rosemont some corporate stuff could move upstairs I would think. Maybe even the graders and authenticators could be put up there exclusively, although I doubt there's really a full solution to any of the space issues.

Chairs in the DRS main food concession area again would be nice; I recall numerous tables and chairs there in 2019 and earlier. Agree the bathrooms at the Stevens Center are a disgusting, problematic mess.

Opening more hotel rooms with Conf. Housing rates would be great too but I'm not sure the hotels would play along. But it was a problem last year and again this year where the dealers basically ate up all the associated rates, at least in the immediate vicinity, before the collectors could even take a crack.

The National as a Fan Experience is interesting but not sure it would draw but a small fraction of something like Comic-Con. I will never understand the people that advocate for that type of approach for the National. I feel the show would die in short order. We don’t have people dressing up and cosplaying as Shohei Ohtani because he is their favorite ballplayer!🤣

Just completely different niches.

The Corporate part of the National has gotten so big but other than standing in line to get free packs from Topps/Fanatics for buying their product at the show what exactly was happening over there for most of the show? Nothing.

I hope the show doesn’t turn into something where the average dealer gets priced out and only the larger outfits get the decent floor space.

For whatever it's worth, here's my preference....

For reasonable-sized shows (I'm from the Northeast), like the Philly Show or the ones up at Westchester, etc - mix and match. These are manageable venues to walk, get your steps in and see all that's there to be offered while zeroing in on the stuff you're looking for.

As for the National, it's so damn large! For me, and I suspect many others, carving out certain areas for Vintage, modern, memorabilia, vendors, breaks, mix, etc. would be a real help for those who just don't want to spend 2-3 days walking the entire floor.

I'd actually consider going to a show in Chicago. why? Because I could fly in, see and purchase the stuff I wanted in 1 day, stay overnight and fly out. I know, a bit selfish but if you want to grow the hobby, you need to cater to the masses.

It would be interesting to know how many people would like the areas categorized....I'm sure the new crew is putting serious thought into this subject.

As a collector I would love segregated areas of vintage, new and corporate. From a marketing standpoint I am not sure it makes sense though.

Admittedly I got turned around more than a few times at the National this year. It seemed way bigger than 2019, when I had last gone.

And my Ty "Corn" Cobb card.

https://luckeycards.com/w575cobb2.jpg




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Leon it WAS much bigger. The main room was slightly bigger (the tables one could use to eat at were all removed and I think slightly more of the main room was used

The biggest difference was the show "ended" where the Tri-Star Autographs began in 2019. This year what Tri-Star used as their prep room was moved upstairs and the signing area was changed to be even deeper in the adjacent area

And yes where the show previously ended had a whole bunch of new tables, new corporates and new etc. So it was bigger by IIRC a 50 percent multiplier and Leon is absolutely correct in his supposition more space was used

Thanks for the reply Rich, as a promoter and someone who is close to the event I value your opinion. The point of my post, although it did get a little ranty last night, was to highlight the opportunity that the new group has to improve things, or not, I guess if it is working just fine why try to make changes. The new group sounds smart and capable, with their hearts in the right place, it really comes down to what kind of event do you want people to experience.

I produced events for 25 years and found the three most important things are Product, (in my case live music, in your case, sportscards) Vendor experience, and Customer experience. Each of those may take priority over the others at different times during the event but none are more important than the other and each must complement the other for a successful event IMO.

While my events were usually 1/10 of the National, about 10,000 people, I would experience some of the same challenges. I'd have people lined up 5 hours before the show and they'd get edgy. My solution was to hire entertainers and food vendors to walk the line and make people comfortable. Not suggesting that for the National but it worked for me. The other thing that I made sure of was the toilets were always clean and stocked with TP. I hired extra help to do that but as they say "you're only as good as your customers worst memory of your event".

I'm sure the new Team will identify what needs to be done to improve their event moving forward, as you know, promotion is just a series of problems that need solving.

Totally agree. I wish they would go to a lottery system for dealers, level out the playing field. Just because you attended past shows as a dealer doesn't mean you have to moving forward.

I would so much love to see this. Tired of the same dealers with the same merchandise. The biggest reason I no longer attend. Even if it was held in the uber-precious Chicago venue year after year, I'd still manage to show up on occasion if the lottery system was in place. Variety gets everyone's attention.

The last two posts are spot on it would be refreshing and nice to see different cards then the same thing year after year. Getting a new blood of vintage dealers with a good mix of the old would be extremely healthy:-)

I'm ignorant on how many dealers apply for a booth each year that doesn't get one but should be at least a partial rotation every year. If the demand is there from new dealers then should be 10-20 percent new dealers rotated in every year. Also try a different location beside the usual 3 locations ONE year and see how it goes (West Coast, Atlanta, Dallas, Vegas, ect)

As obvious as it is to state this, the only thing I would add to my last post is that if a lottery system was to be enacted, it would have to make sure to incorporate healthy percentages of both vintage and modern dealers in an effort to not have this table space monopolized by modern.

You guys realize that the odds of “new dealers” added with a lottery being vintage and not ultra modern is almost 0%, right!?!

Why do you feel that to be the case? I would venture that such an idea would appeal to people who may not be regular, full-time dealers but have a lot of vintage stockpiled and would jump at the chance to set up. Am I wrong?

There have been past instances of guys who were primarily collectors looking to divest who somehow wrangled a spot at the show. They had endless amounts of traffic and made bank with the stuff they had been hoarding for years! A lot of unique memorabilia that hadn't seen the light of day in ages. How absolutely refreshing it was, and dealing with them was very, very pleasant, as they were coming to the situation from the perspective of being knowledgeable collectors, not dealers. While this wouldn't constitute the majority of "lottery" spaces, to be certain, just imagine if each National ended up with even a couple such guys. We'd be in heaven.

Have you been to many other shows across the country?

Most shows and dealers at present focus on ultramodern, especially the “new” dealers. Why would you think new dealers applying to set up at the National would be different than what are seen regional shows?

See my edited comment above.

FYI:

The Dallas Card Show team asks those vendors on their wait lists to send photos of their set up at a show or say what they would bring. Not a guarantee but I would think the NSCC can set up something similar.

Rich

That would be a good start then.