[Leon]

Originally Posted by Tony Gordon

A couple of comments on trading and buying from customers at shows. As a dealer, there is no benefit for me to trade. Trading does not help me cover table fee. I am also constantly purchasing cards and always have deals in the works and need funds. I regularly buy and sell a large amount of cards and don't need trades to turn my inventory. The only time I will trade is when a regular customer wants to trade and there is some cash in the deal.

As for buying, I will never pay you fair market value for your cards because I strictly buy for resale. You shouldn't get offended either because I can't cover my table fee if I'm paying retail prices for cards. If you want more than 25 percent of book, don't bother trying to sell your cards to dealers, it's just not cost effective for dealers to buy your cards.

And for those who say shows are in decline, you a terribly mistaken. There are terrific one day shows all over the Midwest every single weekend.

Show me a "book" price on half the cards I collect and I will show you an incorrect price. I absolutely understand the rest of the statement and agree. When someone says "book" to me, I chuckle. I do understand that is the way modern stuff is done though. I went to a very small local show on Saturday as one of the promoters said a guy was bringing in some T206's and they wanted some help with them. I went over....looked at the nice vg to vg+ cards and gave him very close to market prices on each one. No book .