How does a new seller get into ANY major card show these days?

[Kutcher55]

Originally Posted by maniac_73

It's pretty much a money loser to display at a show anyways

I was curious about this myself. There's a good local dealer I know who will go unnamed. He has 5 tables every year at the Shriners, costs almost $2K now, plus you gotta haul all that stuff around, stay at a hotel or crash with a friend in the area, cost of travel of course. This guy said he's lucky to break even, and it strikes me that a lot of these folks are in it mostly for the love of the game. Sure, a select group of people are doing well. You need to turn over a good amount of inventory to make it work. Much more $ efficient to run your business over the intranets, that's for dang sure.

I'm also surprised at how a lot of these dealers aren't really up to speed on modern ways of transferring money. Heard a dealer the other day say he didn't accept paypal or venmo. If you're gonna be slinging 5-figure plus cards at these shows you're gonna risk back problems carrying around that many Ben Franklins. It helps to have electronic means, although I can understand how cash is still preferred for obvious reasons. It's definitely old school at these shows when it comes to vintage. It's not just the cards that are vintage. It's the people and the overall scene.