West Coast Card Show, August 21-24 in Anaheim

[Matthew80]

Is anyone planning on going to the West Coast Card Show and have any interest in meeting for dinner on Friday or Saturday night (or for a breakfast or coffee on Fri or Sat morning)? I haven't gone to this show before, but it looks worthwhile from a few videos I've seen.

Just interested in meeting some other friendly collectors while I'm there.

[Fred]

Any reviews on previous "West Coast" shows at this venue? How much vintage is at these shows? Is there much in the way of 19th century material?

[bleeckerstreetcards]

I will be setting up Matthew! See you there.

[Rich Klein]

As of right now, this show is the closest to a NSCC the hobby has west of the Mississippi.

Rob and his team do a great job with this show so I'd just encourage anyone to go to see what it's like. I will not make a guarantee you will find what you want.

Rich

[oldschool73]

I've been twice and I'd say 15% vintage...max. Some noteworth vintage dealers. However, too much pokemon and shiny stuff IMO. I wish it was a different mix....

[Exhibitman]

I've set up at a few of the shows. Very well run but the mix of materials is perhaps 10% vintage and of that at least 75% is run of the mill stuff (T206 and Goudey, Topps and Bowman). Rare cards are not there, nor will you see much regional or offbeat stuff. What you do find is going to be mostly slabbed and as expensive as eBay or auctions. It's worth going if you like to go to shows (I do) but temper your expectations. The last one I went to I ended up with one card for my PC, a 1976 Topps Ed Too Tall Jones RC (football, in case you don't know the name).

[Chris-Counts]

I went to a big show in Anaheim a couple years ago — I presume this show is the latest version of it — and I wouldn't go again. It took at least two hours to get in, and I live just 10 minutes away. It was almost nothing but shiny modern junk and overpriced slabbed vintage. I walked past hundreds of tables and only stopped at three, spending money only at the very last table, which belonged to Adam, who made the previous post. Thanks Adam! You saved me that day.

[Matthew80]

Thanks for the input, all. It sounds like it's going to be a one-and-done experience for me, but I'm going in hopeful.

Luke, thanks in advance for what I trust will be one of the booths making this a worthwhile show for me I'll bring a wad of cash with the hope of coming out with something I'm excited to have.

[Jewish-collector]

All of these shows have changed since the Covid boom. There is very little, if any vintage cards for sale. Most of the sellers are selling the shiny stuff and recently a lot more Pokémon.

[sacentaur]

I’ll be there. I know of several local vintage dealers that will be in attendance, but the show won’t have the rarer inventory that one of the better East Coast conventions normally have.

As noted above, Rob (Burbank SportsCards) and his staff are working hard to have vintage cards available. For example, they just got in around 100 T206 cards and had them PSA graded (I bought twenty of them already).

Fingers crossed…

[Exhibitman]

Happy to have saved the day, Chris! I wanted to set up but I am simply not in a place physically (yet) where I can handle the work. I broke both feet last summer in a pair of unrelated incidents and I am just back to walking around again without a cane. Setting up and working even a commuter show still would be too much for me. I may head down there for at least a day just to walk the show. After all, as our friend Vintageball says: "Your worst day at a card show is better than your best day at work."

[gonefishin]

I attended the last WCCS in Feb when it was in Ontario next to the airport. The show seemed to draw quite a crowd. Parking was tough, etc., but business for the vendors seemed to be ok.

The last time I attended a show in Anaheim was the National's back in 2000. I spent the day with my daughter and Father-in-Law walking the floor and had a great time.

I don't think I will be attending this year because of the horrible traffic on the 91 coming from north San Diego County. However, if things change, I would like to meet up with members for coffee, lunch, etc.

[sacentaur]

Just back from the first full day at the WCCS and I’m happy to say there was a lot of vintage at the venue. In fact, I was a bit overwhelmed by some of the very high end material on display (which included “best of” cards that I had ever seen before).

Unfortunately I did not expect such an event and so previously made family plans this weekend, otherwise I would 100% go back.

I’m primarily a tobacco card collector and there were about a dozen vendors that had some great selections of cards (there were other vintage tables too, of course). It pays to ask the dealers if they have more tobacco cards on hand even if they only are showing just a couple of them at their table; once the big briefcase comes out, some truly amazing cards were seen.

While prices were generally high (as expected), some deals could be had. I bought tobacco from 6 different sellers and was quite pleased with all my purchases.

Some vendors just price to the moon which makes me wonder if they want to sell any cards at all. I don’t bother with them, especially when pressed for time. One dealer had fifteen - yes 15 - Ty Cobb tobacco cards!

There were vintage dealers from New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Florida, etc. And thankfully the room was basically split between Sports cards and Pokémon cards. The promoters of this convention did a fantastic job, they deserve kudos.

If you’re free this weekend and are in the area, this show is well-worth checking out.

[Svabinsky78]

I went today.....The show was massive....my daughter and I only got through about 2/3 of it (we only had about 4 hours).

There was still lots of Pokemon, lots of shiny modern stuff, however, there was quite a bit of vintage, including a decent amount of prewar, oddball, etc. I picked up a W560 Foxx and a ML Die-Cuts Lefty Gomez.

I was disappointed with the past few card shows in the LA area, as those were very very Pokemon heavy, and I was, sort of, expecting the same, but I was happily surprised at how much vintage there was at the show.

As for prices, for the vintage pieces I picked up, I thought that they were pretty reasonable.

Definitely worth attending if you are in the area.