National: Any Seller's perspectives?

[rand1com]

This was my 14th National as a dealer and it was middle of the road for me.

I mostly deal in autographs and memorabilia and this show for the most part did not present nearly as many customers as it historically does for these items or either they just missed my table. I had a decent location but few vintage/tobacco cards so the table was mostly just walked past.

The last two Nationals I had purchased large collections of 1950's/60's baseball just before the National and did very well.

All of that said, I was still only about a grand short of my expected dollar volume and my number of sales although not extremely high in number averaged almost $500 per sale with the vast majority being 1 item sales.

I did notice some younger collectors looking for vintage cards, autographs, and tickets. One 18 or so year old young man toyed with buying a 1947 World Series Game 1 Robinson Debut ticket in a PSA 4 holder for $3000. He wanted to trade a 1957 WS ticket autographed by Aaron + cash for it but wanted too much trade value for the deal to work for me. Another 14 year old was working on finding autographed Y.A. Tittle items to make a framed display. Other youngsters were excited to look at items that dated to 80-100 years ago.

But I agree with others that the vast majority of teen collectors are looking at the hobby as a money making venture only.