[Exhibitman]

From my blog post on it:

I am a Fanatics Fest hater. Yup, I said it. I found the whole event depressing and will not get within ten miles of the planned Los Angeles version (I saw a sign advertising it on the top of a Slurpee truck on the show floor). Let’s be clear about this: the fest is NOT a collector’s event. It is really about marketing professional sports and celebrity culture as a tool for separating people from as much money as humanly possible as quickly as humanly possible. The admissions costs alone prove it. A family of four would have been out $160 just walking in the door on Saturday. It also felt like every activity or display at the show ended with a merchandiser ready to insert its blood funnel into the participants to suck out a little more juice. Then there were the enhancements (extras) to the experience. Wanna shake hands with an athlete? Bust out the Benjamins.

Now, if you are impressed by seeing sports icons in a theater, watching other people toss balls in skills competitions, or shaking hands with a celebrity for pay, hey, knock yourself out and open your wallet for the fest. No judgment here; we’re all freaks. But if your hobby is collecting and a show means you try to work on your collection, skip the fest. The acreage of slabbed shiny crap at the show and the smattering of vintage cards in the mix there were mundane, mainstream commodity cards that you can pick up every day of the week on eBay or at auction. Perhaps it is me, but I do not like to waste money buying overpriced cards. I went to the fest with four figures in cash ready to go and I walked out of there with the most significant purchase being the $5.80 I spent on the subway ride to and from the show. The people I really feel sorry for are the vintage dealers who set up at the fest. At a minimum of $3,200 per booth, they really got hosed, especially the vintage guys who could have set up in White Plains for a fraction of the cost and made more. Again, the event was not about the collector.