As for my pickups on Day 1, it was kind of slow going again.
My Astros shirt got a dealer to pull this out. I have tons of Clemens autos since he's a local, but for $40 I just couldn't say no. If nothing else this will go to a charity auction. But considering what he charges, and I got a ball holder out of it, might have been the best deal of the show for me.
As I said before, I collect a little of everything. This one was priced well, got a little more off the asking price and was an easy deal.
Other than this, my day was going slow and I was starting to feel discouraged. I experienced similar issues on Thursday as I had on Wednesday with mid-grade T206s primarily - every dealer seemed to be wanting to set the new highest price for the grade for every Hall of Famer, regardless of pose or back combo. I definitely appreciate these cards have been on the move, some seem white hot even. But not every one is "high end" for the grade, and at some level just about all of them have nice eye appeal in some way.
To address an earlier comment in the thread, I understand sellers can ask whatever they want and I agree some of the dealers are using these as "show off" cards to get people to look. I do that with some of my cards myself. But I can also say that when I asked about these other cards, the prices generally reflected a similar idea - way overpriced and probably looking for a counter. In my opinion, that plan really only works if the range from the average to the asking price is narrow enough to invite a counter. 40-50% over VCP for most non-rare cards isn't close enough and I'm sure there are other like me who just move on. As a dealer myself sometimes, this is an area that is tough to deal with on hot cards. However, for just about all dealers the overwhelming number of cards that are out are NOT hot cards - which is why we end up seeing many of these same cards year after year after year. I could point out a dozen dealers who have much of the same inventory they did in Atlantic City for instance. I don't view that as a good thing as a dealer, but maybe I'm missing something.
Another comment I've heard from dealers is how much they spent to get there and setup. Well, I spent a lot of money to fly up and get a hotel, etc. In my view, the only difference in "cost" is the table cost - we all have costs to be at the show however we're there - dealer or collector - or realistically some version of both for most? That's not to say that I expect the dealers to offer me a "deal" so I can flip cards to pay for my trip. You should try and get the best price you can for yours cards no matter what. What I do expect to find, though, is fair pricing. I don't think I'm telling folks anything they don't already know, but the "internet" basically made everyone a "dealer". It equalized the playing field in some respects in terms of knowledge and access, and that genie can't go back in the bottle now. I'm sure there are still people who do it, but I don't know why anyone would take $250 for a card they can sell on eBay or otherwise for $350, just because a dealer paid a table fee. That model is now broken - forever - and I think the people who get it have adapted and can continue to do well, and those that don't are very likely going to struggle.