CSA Shows The Chantilly Show July 15-17th. Net54 Members FREE admission 300 tables!

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

where are you guys I have a bargain bin full of t205's at $20 apiece 5 for $75 and it si sitting there ignored!!! Table 609!

[ValKehl]

Scott, I was at the Show for 5 hours this afternoon, and I intended to stop by your table (and Bob Lamb's) to say hello. However, as far as I could tell, there are no markings anywhere to enable a show attendee to locate specific table numbers. I asked both the ticket office attendee and the ticket taker at the entrance how to find your table, and both individuals had no clue. I also asked if there was a floor layout showing where dealers were located, and was told "no." At this point, I gave up. But, now that you mention it, I do recall stopping at a table that had the bargain bin of T205s - I actually picked up a few for a closer look, but then passed on them as I am not a T205 collector. Hope you have a good show.
Val

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

damn, sorry I "missed" you. the map is on CSA's website if you go to exhibitor information. I'll say something about making them available to the public. Joe you listening???

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

well, bin just got emptied, but stop by and say hi anyway, still lots of good stuff, just not $15 t205's!

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

took us a while but my next door neighbor and I realized that we were each n54 members. (mzljapan) he just bought 31 P2 pins from me! good day, stop by and say hi! Go thought the doors, go all the way to the right and we're near the beginning of the aisle on the left.

[VoodooChild]

I was there this morning. I was able to find and meet Scott. Nice guy. He gave me 10% off a T207 Oakes for being a Net54 member. I also added a couple T206's and a D322 for my Pirates collection.

I had money to spend on Prewar cards, and since I drove 2 hrs. to get there, I was leaving with something. There were a couple of dealers who didn't seem to want to give me the time of day but had stuff I was interested in. So, they probably lost a couple sales. I gave my business to the ones that said hello, asked what I collected, searched through their inventory, and showed me what they had.

It was my first show in almost 30 years. There wasn't a ton of Prewar, but overall, it wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. I'll probably go to another in the future.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

damn, sorry I "missed" you. the map is on CSA's website if you go to exhibitor information. I'll say something about making them available to the public. Joe you listening???

Chantilly used to have a stack of floor maps at the door. Not anymore. Also would love it if the tables had their table number on it so when dealers tell you what table they are at, you could actually find it!

jeff

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Last hour deal, 20% off for Net 54 members.

[Huck]

I hit the show today (Sunday). I arrived just after noon. The parking lot was crowded so I was expecting a madhouse inside, but that was not the case. Very calm and no lines. I was there to add Frank Thomas to a HOF piece. The space is configured differently, and there was plenty of room. Saw the same dealers with the same material. There was even a Corvette parked on the show floor. Memorabilia wise, nothing really piqued my interest. I spoke with few dealers and most said the show was okay. Frank Thomas was very cordial and seemed to be having a good time.

The show is well run. The new autograph chute is an improvement over the mass of people huddled around a small entrance. Folks still tend to congregate there the thinking being they will miss the guest. PA system was great, with plenty of number updates and last calls and photo op information for each guest. The added signage for autograph numbers is a good idea, but ideally the board needs to be well above eye level.

Odd thing of the day, a collector had a nice rather large framed Deion Sanders Atlanta Falcon jersey and photos etc.. I saw the guy lugging this thing around for most of the time I was there. When I was in line for Frank Thomas, I glanced and saw Deion about to sign the guys piece. The guy had Deion sign the thin plexiglass that covered the piece not the jersey itself. Deion hesitated and signed the plexiglass. I don't see that signature lasting long on that material and at $100 a pop for Deion's signature......ouch.

[basesareempty]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Scott, I was at the Show for 5 hours this afternoon, and I intended to stop by your table (and Bob Lamb's) to say hello. However, as far as I could tell, there are no markings anywhere to enable a show attendee to locate specific table numbers. I asked both the ticket office attendee and the ticket taker at the entrance how to find your table, and both individuals had no clue. I also asked if there was a floor layout showing where dealers were located, and was told "no." At this point, I gave up. But, now that you mention it, I do recall stopping at a table that had the bargain bin of T205s - I actually picked up a few for a closer look, but then passed on them as I am not a T205 collector. Hope you have a good show.
Val

Val- Not sure if you were able to find me. We were in the front row across from the autograph ticket line. We mainly do autographed items so I placed my showcase at the front of my booth so they could be seen by passers by. Most card collectors probably didn't even come down the first row thinking it was all autograph stuff. Sports Card Heroes out of Laurel, Maryland were set up next to us and had a showcase with a nice run of 50-60's football sets as well as some strip cards that were SGC graded. We did well selling some 33 Goudeys, T206's, a couple T210's, some 52 Topps as well as some other odds and ends. I was happy with the sales from our case as that is not our focus at this show. It all helps pay the bills.
Hopefully the fine folks at CSA can have a list of dealers and their booth locations available at the next show. We are doing our part to promote the show and get people out to the show, the least they can do is give customers a means to find us when they arrive.

[NC-Vintage]

Thank You for all of the support of the CSA show and for all of the feedback. I'll try to answer everything in one post.

I became involved with the show in January 2016 so this was my 2nd show with active involvement. There have been and will continue to be changes made to cater to the vintage card community, as that is my passion, I hope to continue to grow the show in many ways to make it even better than it already is.

Dealer Maps will be made available for all shows in the future, I will also work on trying to get each table marked if at all possible. But with a layout map and dealer list that should solve the problem.

Our website did crash on Friday, we did get it fixed, although it took roughly 6 hours.That may be the reason why Scott and Bob were not listed on the
dealer page. When it crashes sometimes the data gets scrambled and or lost.
We will be re designing our website in the near future to help improve
many aspects of things.

We did call door prizes for the Dealer Dollars although they were not
done on the hour as planned. I'm not sure why you did not hear a prize
called on Sunday between noon and 3pm but we called two names in that
time frame both at the same time.

Our free buffet breakfast for the dealers at Hooters, is something we have done for a few years. We did tell all the dealers upon check in and made an announcement on Saturday at 4:45 to remind the dealers. Some dealers
that packed up early may not have heard it.

True our table count was lower than it was in April, we anticipated that happening being that the National is on the East Coast this year, and is only 2 1/2 weeks after our show. In all fairness, I only look at numbers that are year over year, April 2015 vs April 2016, July 2015 vs. July 2016. It would not make sense for me to compare April 2016 to July 2016 from an analysis standpoint.

I can assure you our show is not at all on the decline, in fact it's just the opposite, we have been growing in numbers of tables per show when comparing year over year as has our attendance.With that being said
the floor space at show show is 30,000 square feet larger than it was
in 2015 and prior. That is why there may appear to be fewer tables
from a visual standpoint, our July show last year had 264 tables we were
above that this year although I do not have an exact number at this time,
but I believe it to be in the 285-290 range. In April of 2016 we had
over 300 tables.

I understand the $5 admission charge for Friday may have been a surprise to some we did post that change months ago, we also had 2 free autograph guests for paid admissions on Friday, we did still maintain 6 hours of free show time which was what it was when Friday was free from 2pm to 8pm It was just changed to the last 2 hours each day being free.

I will make a change for next show,it will still be FREE to get in for all Net 54 members , and you will be able to go to the will call line which will should be much shorter so you can get in to the show faster. We also had all 3 ticket windows open, so if it took a long time to get in, I guess that means there were a lot of people there, so that can't be bad !

I already have contracts for our October 14-16th show from vintage card dealers that are either new, missed our July show or have not been to the show in quite a few years.

Dan Mckee will be back in his regular spot next to Dave Schrader Bagger's Auctions.

Kevin Bronson, PA
Brian Dec, bdecsports.com,Florida
Bob Krawetz,The9thinning.net, St. Paul MN
Dave Czuba, Dave's Sports Collectibles, Duncansville,PA

Again, thank you for the support of the show and all of the feedback. Stop by and see me at The National I'll be set up under my company East Coast Sports Marketing booth 1704 right next to PWCC. I will have dealer contracts
for our October 14-16th CSA Chantilly show available.


Joe Drelich

www.csashows.com

www.start-collecting.com

[ValKehl]

Joe, thanks for all this insightful info and for your intentions and efforts to grow the Chantilly Show - I wish you much success. FYI, I was especially disappointed by Dan Mckee's absence, as I had noted his name on the online dealer list - glad to learn Dan will be there in October, as well as the several new vintage card dealers you named.
Val

[Jewish-collector]

Thx for the insight. I think one of the issues that I've noticed over the last 10 or so years (regardless of when Marco ran it or the new owners) is that many of the larger dealers that do the major shows around the country (like Mike Mosier from Indiana, Levi 707, a dealer that had the whole back row of cards in binders, etc,...) that used to do this show on a regular basis are no longer doing it. A lot of recent dealers who have taken their places have a much smaller inventory than those larger dealers mentioned.

[basesareempty]

Originally Posted by Jewish-collector

Thx for the insight. I think one of the issues that I've noticed over the last 10 or so years (regardless of when Marco ran it or the new owners) is that many of the larger dealers that do the major shows around the country (like Mike Mosier from Indiana, Levi 707, a dealer that had the whole back row of cards in binders, etc,...) that used to do this show on a regular basis are no longer doing it. A lot of recent dealers who have taken their places have a much smaller inventory than those larger dealers mentioned.

Like Joe has mentioned it is his goal to grow the card/memorabilia side of the show. In years past when the guys such as Levi 707 were doing the show, the vendors were more heavily geared toward the autograph side of things. This probably did not equate to enough sales for these larger dealers to put CSA on their schedules. Maybe its time to reach out to some of these larger dealers and see if they would be willing to give CSA another try?