Card Shows: Tech as a servant or master?

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

You are also missing the context. Costs of sale on eBay are dramatically different than cost of sales at card shows.

Table fees at the Anaheim show last summer were $600 for an eight-foot table. The host convention hotel room rate for three nights is a total of $597, plus $90 to park, $45 for internet access, and 20% tourist taxes. My $597 stay becomes an $880 stay (rounded). Add to that at least another $50 a day to eat, and my travel cost amounts to $1,030. That's $1,630 just to be there and set up. Say I did a really good job of buying and I make 50% for each card I sell. The first $3,260 in gross sales is my break-even point. But wait, I also have to pay sales taxes, pushing my break-even point to about $3500. That’s the risk I take when I set up. Every sale goes towards covering that nut.

I understand what you are saying, and I'm not suggesting you sell at a loss, but this seems to me to be a corollary to much-derided seller argument that "I have this much into the card." The main difference is that the latter is COGS while the former is SGA.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by carlsonjok

I understand what you are saying, and I'm not suggesting you sell at a loss, but this seems to me to be a corollary to much-derided seller argument that "I have this much into the card." The main difference is that the latter is COGS while the former is SGA.

Not exactly. I am suggesting that a card show and eBay are different experiences and you cannot expect to use one the same way as the other because the seller's finances are different for each. It is simply not realistic to equate one with the other. If you want to pay eBay prices, stay home and buy the card on eBay. If you want shows to exist, you have to acknowledge that the financial calculus is completely different. Putting it in a slightly different context, if you want to eat a hot dog in New York City, you can get one from a cart on the sidewalk at one price or you can go into a deli and pay significantly more. No one at the deli whines that they are paying $14 for a $4 hot dog because eating at a table in a restaurant is not the same as eating while standing in the gutter.

If your sole concern is price, the better choice is to never go to a show. Why pay parking, admission and perhaps travel costs? Just buy it all online. We go because there are other benefits to going, like the chance to look over the cards in person, immediate delivery, etc. Apples and oranges.