General Forum

At one point there was a kid at the table next to me trying to do a deal for cards that totalled more than $3000. And I'm standing there looking through the box thinking 'that ain't a dollar card, that ain't a dollar card, that ain't a dollar card...'

The kid couldn't have been a day over 11. And not a parent anywhere to be seen watching over what he's doing.

Then again he's probably forgotten more about 'comps' today than I've ever known.

Where I have had great luck is buying older complete sets and inserts from the few dealers who are willing to bring them.  And they almost always sell out because so few are available at shows. Recent purchases include numerous 1970's and 1980's baseball sets, 1980's Star basketball bagged sets, and early/mid 2000's insert cards at great prices.  I think the key is to stay away from modern and graded cards, there are few bargains in those groups.

The show I was at yesterday was fairly small, maybe 40 tables, and was mostly pokemon and such. I spent all my time at 2 dealers tables going through the couple boxes they had of 70's and 80's hockey. Bought close to 300 cards for $150 between the 2 dealers. Only saw one other guy looking for that stuff, and he only wanted one particular year. Both dealers said they would restock the boxes with much the same and be at the next show in a couple weeks. When I told them what else I was looking for they said they would bring what they had for me. We are certainly in the minority, but it's nice to know there are still dealers that will cater to us "dinosaurs" as some have called us.

Went to a show yesterday, and just wanted to say there are few scummier things than listening to a dealer try to 'upsell' kids on junk cards.

'See here, this makes it a corrected error card, so it is really rare and valuable'.

No you scumbag, it's a 1991 Proset junk wax hockey card.Quit trying to make a quick buck by scamming 10 year olds.

Luckily not all dealers are like that.  Here was an exchange at one of my favorite dealers table a few months ago (and why he is one of my favorite dealers).

Customer: How much will you pay for this card?

Dealer: How much are you looking to get?

Customer: I was thinking $30.

Dealer: No, I can’t do that, how about $35?

I experienced both sides as well during a show about a month ago.

There was one dealer who wanted $200 for a 1992 DR Ripken dotvar because it was an error.  I gave him the "evil eye, you should be ashamed of yourself" look and walked away,

But similar to Tscastle, there was another dealer that I negotiated with pleasantly for a 1963 Fleer Yaz.  Ultimately I didn't get it as we couldn't meet in the middle, but a very civil transaction.  I'm sure that's all most of us ask.

Not exclusive to any age/generation, there are many whom started thinking now's the time to shed older cards to turn it into cash to be able to afford the newer cards since the lottery win big dollar card(s) potential exists.

Then there are those whom have played this new trading card lotto and have done nothing but lost(never hitting the big pull) so they recoup or at least try to by "blowing out".

Blowing out of course like everything in life is subject to each individuals philosophies and methods.

Dime box, dollar bin etc...

What ruins much of our good hobby is those whom try to squeeze gold from lemons thinking they are the only ones that own a micro dot variation of a 1990 donruss card and those other influencer youtube types that pump and hype you into believing that their QB card not Brady or Mahomes should fetch 4-5- or 6 figures.

Mission accomplished you convinced others into buying your psa 9.725 Justin Fields for 3K now what Mr Mojo ,HQ , and Burbank?

Dime boxes ROCK!!

Thankfully the kid walked away, went across to another table and picked out 5 jersey or auto cards from that dealer's $2 box. Dealer even threw in 2 for free. 

I'm sure the hard-core investors feel the kid still got junk, but he was happy and at least he paid a fair price.

I told the other dealer that kid had ten bucks to spend and you tried to rip him off for a 5 cent card. Well I have a lot more than 10 bucks in my pocket,  and you're not going to see a penny of it today or at any future shows, so hope it was worth it. He was all 'kid needs to learn about money and value '.

went to a show yesterday about 200 tables, (lots of kids selling pokemon) and only found 2 tables with actual value boxes (.25 cards) as I was going through the dealer said I was first person to even look through them (day2). As i searched kids kept coming up to him to flip cards (mostly older RPAs, autos, graded or relative nobodies, asking 200 each and couldnt help but thinking where the heck they coming up with a 200 asking price but 3 or 4 kids repeated the process, the kids didnt even know who the player was ie Willie Roaf. It seemed like they just wanted to make money with no interest in the cards/sport/players. A kid bought a mystery pack for $5 from the dealer and opened it to find an RPA, and tried to sell it back to the dealer, the dealer said he give him another mystery pack for it. The kid said no and tossed it on the table and left it behind. lol Ive always been happy if I got any type of insert/player. In the end the benefit is that one mans junk is anothers treasure?

I found that card shows aren't the place to sell cards . Most dealers don't even want to look at what you have . They don't mind me looking at what they have . I can buy or sell what I want on-line . I would rather support support the dealers at the shows but it's a 2 way street.