Philly Show this weekend....see you there ?

[byrone]

Originally Posted by tedzan

It appears to me that major BB card shows will eventually go the way as BB card shops of the 1980's & '90s went. Of
course the National will remain....and then, my suggestion to the National promoters would be to make the National a
semi-annual event. A Spring (April) show permanently in Baltimore. And, a Fall event (Sept) that floats between the
West Coast, Chicago and Cleveland.

Just my thoughts.


Hey Dan McKee......I'll give Chantilly some serious consideration.

TED Z

I was at the Baltimore National and thought it was very good.

Was it good enough for dealers to the extent that they might want to make it a permanent host?

[toppcat]

Baltimore is a very covenient city to fly or drive into (train too) and not too expensive by East Coast standards. Given the dearth/death of big regional shows, having two Nationals per year would make a lot of sense IMO and Bawlmer would not be a bad choice for one of them say every other year.

[Jewish-collector]

I was not able to attend this Philly show, but have been going to this show on a regular basis since the mid 1990's and have even attended a few shows back when it was in the old motor lodge in the 1980's.

It's too bad it has gone downhill. Outside of the National, this had been known as the very best show around. The fact that it moved initially to Reading before its new location didn't help. But, I think a more valid reason for the decline is that David Hunt is not really a show promoter.

A show has different purposes for the different types of collectors. Some collectors (like the guys on signingshotline.com) are mainly interested in the in-person autograph signings, so they don't care what dealers are setting up and what they are bringing to sell. There are, of course, the "shiny stuff" collectors, who don't care about the autograph signings nor vintage. The members of Net54 are, obviously, interested in vintage cards & memorabilia, so again it doesn't matter who is signing.

I think Mr. Hunt has decided that the autograph signings are more important, so therefore a lot of the national dealers have stopped setting up because a lot of collectors of vintage cards were not attending. There may be other reasons, but that's a large part for it. If they truly want it like the old days, they would have to put much less emphasis on the autograph signings to try to get the vintage dealers back. Perhaps they could try having a live Hunt auction one evening during that weekend.

Alan

[tinkereversandme]

Or maybe there is simply more interest in Home Shows and Gun Shows? Maybe there is a reason why the Baseball Card Show is dead, but other avenues who have collectible conventions strive. Just a lack of interest.

If you advertise more, maybe I will haveto pay $10 for admission and the dealer tables escalate once more and less dealers. I think people who are 'in the know', are well aware of the show as there are only a handful of show that have survived. People do use shows in different ways, but if you really want to buy stuff, your best bet will always be the Internet.

Plus, things changed since the hey-deys of the show. People really like to win stuff, not buy it outright. We have been trained to embrace the auction.

The dealers that seem to do best (from my observations) at these shows are the sellers that have 3200 count boxes and binders of raw singles and set builders have their checkmarked sheets out.

As far as autographs go, it's a massive joke the prices these shows ask for sports guests. The days of selling out tickets are long gone. I woud pay $50 for Willie Mays, but $300? I quit doing drugs in the early seventies. Late seventies maybe.

Regards,

Larry

[tedzan]

tinkereversandme

Regarding your......
"Plus, things changed since the hey-deys of the show. People really like to win stuff, not buy it outright. We have been trained to embrace the
auction."

This is unfortunately true for BB card shows.

There is no doubt about it, the myriad number of BB related Auctions are making a serious dent into the BB card shows. I guess I do not under-
stand why all these auctions are so popular with collectors, since these auctions operate with 10% bidding increments. Hey guys, only need 7
bids to DOUBLE the OPENING BID. And 14 bids will QUADRUPLE the OPENING BID.

Not for me....unless one of these Auction Houses reduces this ridiculous 10% increment policy, I aint bidding. Not to say, how absurd the "juice"
is on top of these exorbitant bidding numbers. What happened to the age old enjoyable practice of bargaining or bartering over BB cards to get
a reasonable deal at a live show ?

So, the shows will continue to suffer (or fail)......while, the realized prices at a given Auction will continue to be out-of-whack, relative to the
accepted value of a given BB card.

Where does it all end ?

Perhaps in time, the same way the Coin and Stamp markets have deterioated to in recent years.

Also,
Here in Pennsylvania, live shows are flourishing. The Home Shows and the Gun Shows are huge. In fact the five baseball card shows at Valley
Forge these past 1 1/2 years have shared the Convention Center with either one of those shows on all 5 occassions. The lines for those two
shows are unbelievably long. While the lines at this BB card show have been mediocre at best.


T-Rex TED

[Tony Gordon]

I agree that the selection of pre-war at card shows has decreased. I remember 20 years ago seeing large amounts of pre-war at local mall shows. Though, I can't say that card shows are dead or anywhere near death. I attend local shows every weekend and can occasionally find a nice deal on pre-war and I almost always find some nice deals on post-war. I do acknowledge that many shows here in the Midwest and across the country have died. However, I can still find a show within an hour-and-a-half drive from my house with enough vintage dealers and customers to have a good time every single weekend. Sounds to me that Philly-area vintage dealers/collectors need to organize an alternative to the Hunt show.

[Rich Klein]

In the DFW area; we might have 1-2 passable shows a years. And a few 15-20 dealer type shows. But nothing big at all. And I would love to be in an area where I could actually go to a show occassionally

Rich

[peterose4hof]

Wow, that must be nice! In Florida, we have jack squat for shows and forget about finding pre-war stuff.

Originally Posted by Tony Gordon

I agree that the selection of pre-war at card shows has decreased. I remember 20 years ago seeing large amounts of pre-war at local mall shows. Though, I can't say that card shows are dead or anywhere near death. I attend local shows every weekend and can occasionally find a nice deal on pre-war and I almost always find some nice deals on post-war. I do acknowledge that many shows here in the Midwest and across the country have died. However, I can still find a show within an hour-and-a-half drive from my house with enough vintage dealers and customers to have a good time every single weekend. Sounds to me that Philly-area vintage dealers/collectors need to organize an alternative to the Hunt show.