2019 Chicago National: Best attendance since 1991 in Anaheim

[tschock]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I wasn't around for those either. I would think that once every 4 or 5 years they could find a suitable venue in the LA area or Vegas. Anaheim would be awesome for me personally and I would guess there are 15 million people within 100 miles and maybe 25m in 250 or so miles. I could be off on those but there should be plenty for a good show.

Why would they want to? Number of people does not equate to attendance, and attendance does not equate to dollars spent.

Let me ask this to those saying the west coast would be a great place for a show (specifically CA). If it is such a hotbed, where are all the LOCAL or REGIONAL shows? I would wager there are a number of reasons for it (expense, interest, location, et al), but I think people need to really think about WHY that is to garner any insight as to why CA specifically doesn't happen.

[rjackson44]

Will in a.c i can swim there. From my beach house,,,

[Tony Gordon]

I was there all five days and it seemed well attended to me. I was very busy at my booth the whole time, even on Sunday. Also, it is well documented that the National sticks with the current three locations because they are able to book years in advance and do not have to deal with extra union fees. Venues in other cities will not allow them to book two, three years in advance and many have expensive union fees and rules that would cause dealer fees to skyrocket.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Chicago doesn't have union fees? That's a big change from when I used to be involved with events there.

[Exhibitman]

At the National this year I spent a good deal of time at the tables at the far side and back of the hall where the newer dealers are relegated by the priority system. They mostly have modern cards and lower cost cards. One of them told me that the dealers in that end of the room call the front of the room where the old guard vintage card dealers are "The Dead Zone" because they have comparatively low traffic and always look so depressed and miserable. I have to agree. At times you could fire a shotgun down some of the rows at the front of the hall and barely hit anyone, but I had to go toe to toe to get into some of the booths at the back. Not a problem: modern collecting has always been the gateway to vintage. When the newbies get tired of picking up Mike Trout cards because he's the next Mantle, they will start looking at Mantle cards, and so on down to the earliest cards.

[Promethius88]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

At the National this year I spent a good deal of time at the tables at the far side and back of the hall where the newer dealers are relegated by the priority system. They mostly have modern cards and lower cost cards. One of them told me that the dealers in that end of the room call the front of the room where the old guard vintage card dealers are "The Dead Zone" because they have comparatively low traffic and always look so depressed and miserable. I have to agree. At times you could fire a shotgun down some of the rows at the front of the hall and barely hit anyone, but I had to go toe to toe to get into some of the booths at the back. Not a problem: modern collecting has always been the gateway to vintage. When the newbies get tired of picking up Mike Trout cards because he's the next Mantle, they will start looking at Mantle cards, and so on down to the earliest cards.

I was there Thursday thru early Saturday afternoon and I had a completely opposite experience. I found the rows in the front very busy at the times I was there. Had to wait a lot of the time to ask to look at something. Took much longer to get thru the rows going to the corporate rows in the middle than it did to go thru those back rows. Admittedly, I wasn't looking for newer stuff and may have been able to pass by more tables back there but I didn't find the rows any more crowded than in the front.
Overall it seemed that there was a lot of traffic and that dealers were busy actually selling.

[tschock]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Chicago doesn't have union fees? That's a big change from when I used to be involved with events there.

Scott,

I'm not sure it was the union fees per se. I vaguely remember Mike Berkus saying a few years back at one of the Net54 dinners that the dealers wanted to have the ability to load/unload their own items and not be 'forced' to turn over that responsibility to a third party (ie union worker). So there still may be 'fees' paid. Again, from memory so I could be wrong. Other site considerations included enough contiguous floor space, able to reserve years in advance AND the the first week (or partial week) in August, et al.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by tschock

Scott,

I'm not sure it was the union fees per se. I vaguely remember Mike Berkus saying a few years back at one of the Net54 dinners that the dealers wanted to have the ability to load/unload their own items and not be 'forced' to turn over that responsibility to a third party (ie union worker). So there still may be 'fees' paid. Again, from memory so I could be wrong. Other site considerations included enough contiguous floor space, able to reserve years in advance AND the the first week (or partial week) in August, et al.

That's exactly what I was referring to.

[RiceBondsMntna2Young]

Originally Posted by tschock

Why would they want to? Number of people does not equate to attendance, and attendance does not equate to dollars spent.

Let me ask this to those saying the west coast would be a great place for a show (specifically CA). If it is such a hotbed, where are all the LOCAL or REGIONAL shows? I would wager there are a number of reasons for it (expense, interest, location, et al), but I think people need to really think about WHY that is to garner any insight as to why CA specifically doesn't happen.

The Anaheim area has a decent warehouse sized show set up twice a week every single week of every year, with a mixture of comics and cards.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by tschock

Why would they want to? Number of people does not equate to attendance, and attendance does not equate to dollars spent.

Let me ask this to those saying the west coast would be a great place for a show (specifically CA). If it is such a hotbed, where are all the LOCAL or REGIONAL shows? I would wager there are a number of reasons for it (expense, interest, location, et al), but I think people need to really think about WHY that is to garner any insight as to why CA specifically doesn't happen.

There are a few out here. I think someone else was referring to the Frank and Sons show, which runs twice a week. Long Beach has a decent sized show every 3 months or so that is more coins than cards, but still plenty of tables. And I've seen a net54 member promoting another LA area show, although I've never attended that one.

I would guess plenty of midwest and east coast collectors would be willing to travel out west once every few years for a show. And a lot of us out here that don't feel like going to Cleveland or Atlantic City would attend.