I have done 34 nationals and have seen the good and the bad, well not very bad except for both earlier nationals in A.C. So I kind of expected this A. C. to be similar. In fact this was probably my best national in 10 to 15 years.
If you pick up many new acquisitions, and don't bring the same display every year, you are bound to do well if you are different than everyone else. If you load your display with 1950s and 1960s cards, you will not do well unless you already have a defined client base that buys from you every year.
For example, a potential customer saw that I had the best graded Cuban, Japanese and Caribbean cards. He asked if I had any Valenzuelan cards, and I responded that I had a 1962 Spahn in grade 7, 8, 9 or 10. He said that was impossible and wanted to see the card. It was in grade 7, and is the highest grade being a 1 of 2. He wanted to do some research on it, and left to contact me this week. I am not counting the days, because I let my stock sell itself; if he decides against it, such is life.
My point is that if you don't visit every table, you will never know what you are missing. Five of the cards that have already been posted as pickups were from me. I am not one of the big guys who pick up large finds, but I tend to focus on special items that are in demand or no one has ever seen it, including me.
Stop by next year as I am the 8th booth straight in the door.
But I will report that I have spoken to many other dealers who responded that they were down in sales from 20% to 50% or more. Maybe I was just lucky but before the show opened to the public, I was already up almost 200% from last year, so this was a great show for me.
Steve Sabow
Dynamictwo@aol.com