Using Trade At Card Shows

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I think part of the disconnect is that the leverage dealers have over buyers in today's market is quite a bit different than it was back in the 80s, 90s, and even the 2000s. Back then, if you wanted to sell your cards, you either had to find a friend to sell it to or take it to your local card shop/show and take whatever you could get for it. They had a lot of leverage over you. They knew they could resell it for X, so they gave you some significantly lower percentage of its value in order to turn a profit. It's a business after all. But in today's market, collectors no longer need dealers or card shops to buy their cards. The only thing a dealer offers them today by buying their card is the convenience of not having to deal with eBay or a consignment company. We don't "need" a dealer to buy our cards nowadays, so that leverage is lost. But most of the dealers I've encountered don't acknowledge this. It's like they still think they have power over the market/buyers because they've somehow "earned" it with their decades of experience. I find most (not all) card shop owners that I've encountered to be extremely arrogant.

The only leverage they have now, in the case of a trade, comes from them having a particular card that you want, not from them being in the position of being a dealer. Sure, some people are desperate enough to acquire a particular card that they're willing to take a loss on their trade in value to get it, but it's not because the person on the other end of the transaction is a dealer, but rather because they have what the other person wants. I think most trades at shows nowadays probably occurs between collectors away from the tables. Trade night is a big deal at the larger shows.

This reminds me of my last couple Nationals. I was buying a card from a dealer and asked if he was interested in taking partial trade. He just said flat out no. When I got home I listed the card on BST and it sold within a few hours for more than what I would have taken from him since he was a dealer.

In another case I had a card that a dealer wanted and he had something I was interested in, but he decided to low ball me on my card so I just walked away and sold it on eBay for a fair price.

I set up at shows for 30 years. I don't understand the attitudes of many dealers as pointed out above. I would never turn down a trade before seeing what the collector had. Doing trade or cash trade deals offers the dealer an opportunity for more profit. You make a profit off the card you are trading away and then you make a profit off the new card you receive.

In the Cobb vs Jackson trade, both are easily sellable cards. The Cobb is more desirable, but no dealer should turn down the Jackson at the appropriate price. As a dealer are you in business to make money or are you just a collector disguised as a dealer looking to have the best display?