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DJI enjoyed my time at the National this year and even stopped Leon for a short chat.
I had a mid-level want list that I hoped to fill and put a small dent in it, but not as big of a dent as I had hoped.
The one thing that I noticed was in fact that even I had the "I could get that cheaper on eBay" mentality. There were certain holes I needed to fill in a specific grade (PSA8) and was disappointed to find that item marked up three times what the seller should have it marked at.
There was one hockey card in specific that was marked up 200% from the SMR (a not so rare $150 card for $450) and I overheard the following dialogue between this seller and a friend of his who walked up to his table.
Seller: This guy had the nerve to complain about my (bleeping) prices. (Bleep) him. If he doesn't want to buy my (bleeping) card, he doesn't have to. It's his (bleeping) right to walk away, but don't tell me my prices are too high!
I guess everyone's exit strategy is eBay. It's not like the good old days when people wanted to get rid of items in the last day so they could pay for their table.
I found three e107 cards. One common POOR at $1000. I took a walk and returned and it was $1100. What can you say? The card hobby is hot! That goes for a small beverage at the show as well. $2.50 on Thursday and $2.75 on Friday. I was able to bring home with me like forty pounds of catalogs and it seems like everyear there are new auction companies popping up and I now know way too much about Heritage. Oh, does American Memorabilia really need to do a catalog/sports magazine where scantilly clad women wear game used uniforms?
Either way, A LOT of nice items...A LOT of pricey items, but mostly it's about the energy of being in the room with a whole bunch of fellow collectors. It's really a shame that the show is basically dead because they really are fun.
Because the autograph world is so full of stress, I talked to one autograph dealer who said:
"You know what? Baseball card collectors just seem to have so much fun collecting compared to autograph collectors."
DJ