Using Trade At Card Shows

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

I am reminded of the Caddyshack line,
"Lighten up, Francis". Sheesh.

Looks like I picked the wrong time to check net54 Trent King

That's from Stripes, not Caddyshack.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by jayshum

That's from Stripes, not Caddyshack.

I thought it was from Airplane.

[Rich Klein]

I tend to take Tony's side on this argument because as a person who does time at both sides of the table I understand the issues. I pointed out my friend, with one booth and moderate expenses who spent 3K on his NSCC booth. Give him a 2nd booth and one person to help and it's 5K. You got to make up that 5K in some way and trading unless it's way in the dealer's profit is not going to help him with that.

I will tell you that about 95 percent of time I get offered cards there is not a chance in heck that I would ever be able to re-sell those cards at any sort of a profit. Granted I get offered newer cards at time since my table does feature both old and new but still,, the dollar figures asked for by most people just astound me. I usually tell people to remove 2 zeros from their price point and then we might talk about the real values.

What I would do sometimes is offer to purchase cards and then tell the person walking around you now have the option to either buy the card (s) from me or from other people in the room. In a sense you turned your cards into trade but just not directly

N.B. Now this is the rare example of a situation working out. A couple of Kyle's fine DFW shows ago (the smaller one he runs) I took a card in trade because the price point was OK and it seemed like a cool card to have in my showcase. That specific card, and I knew not a darned thing about it, was the 1st card to sell at the latest Allen show and for what I was asking.

Shocked me how quickly it moved and yes, to answer some questions, it was a modern card and while no specific comp was available the general comp worked out. So one can bend and can look but about 95 percent of the time I know better than to expect much of anything.

I will also re make the point that a show with a lower price point for the dealers might make them more accessible for trading. I know when I ran my shows pre-Covid two tables at my one-day shows cost all of $75. Well, I can assure you that with a $75 expenditure, dealers might be much more willing to take trades than for a 3-5K expenditure.

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi Rich- I don't believe we have ever spoken on net54, good to meet you.
Your story about accepting a card in trade at a show, then turning it around
later at auction, is exactly what I'm talking about. Dealers who say "no" out
of hand will never experience that, and- I keep pointing this out- also lose
a potential customer who may have bought something else from them apart
from trade. A couple dealers have essentially stated they judge a trade offer,
and the collector, without any knowledge of that person or their cards. As a
buyer, I can only say that the opposite holds true. The buyer/trader/customer
also judges you- and there are LOTS of other sellers he can engage.

Trent King

[Rich Klein]

Trent:

Yes about 10 percent of the time I accept some trade, usually with some cash for the cards involved and those do tend to work out.

But that is also because I have a pretty good idea of what I have in inventory and what might sell so I do focus on that. But Tony's point is for him it's about 95-99 percent of the time it's not worth it for him and I get that totally.

As I also pointed out, from a vendor perspective, when I was doing my monthly 1-day shows and 2 tables were $75 a dealer might look more favorably at trades than spending $3-5K for a NSCC booth or two.

Rich