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Originally Posted by Exhibitman
I am on my way home now after four days. Great trip as usual.
I did not see ridiculous prices but I wasn't looking for the hottest prewar sers on high grade slabs either. I bought over 200 cards for my collection. I dug and dug on messy tables, sifted through hundreds of commons looking for the right cards, and worked over every buck negotiating prices. That's how you gotta work the show--relentlessly. And be flexible. I got some great prewar photos of the cubs training on Catalina and a ton of postwar Topps cards. Even got a nice Morrell Koufax and a Koufax rookie. All those were on my list but I could not count on them. They were targets of opportunity. If you approach the show looking for one narrow thing you will probably leave disappointed, especially if you are after a hot set.
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Floating around the show looking at the overpriced eye candy of those with the biggest booths seemed to be what a lot of people were doing. The deals were in the smaller booths where you could strike up a conversation, build a common understanding about an item, and then negotiate a fair price. I got more deals at this Natty than the past two combined. Sometimes I had to walk away and come back the next day to get prices to fall. In general I didn't feel like if I passed up something it would be gone later so I did this consistently as a negotiating tactic.
Also stumbled into a few items that the dealer did not really seem to know what it was and/or it's true rarity. I guess that's the benefit of looking for things that are less mainstream.
jeff