Show report and Something Fishy!
 

Did a local show on Friday and Saturday at the Independence Mall in the KC area. There was another 20 table show in the area so the traffic was not what it has been in the past but still an average to slightly below average show. No one product stood out, but there were people chasing Topps Chrome football (starting to die), Bowman Chrome Baseball and A&G baseball. Most of my traffic was guys looking to finish sets and player collectors.

Now the fishy story. There was a guy going through the show spending big money (must have spent over $5,000) on vintage baseball. He identified himself as an autograph authenticator for a grading company and even shared his business card with me as well as his Ebay ID.

My concern, though I have no proof, is that he is getting these cards graded internally and then flipping them on Ebay or with other dealers. Again, I have no proof which is the reason that I am not sharing his company, name or Ebay ID but it just did not seem right. May be he was blowing smoke but he spent major cash and seemed like he knew what he was doing.

I stopped doing graded cards awhile ago and this situation just seems to reconfirm my belief about graded cards. :mad:

Next week I'm at the Metro Mall in northern KC, stop by and say hello!

It doesn't seem fishy but going along with the growing trend to find vintage cards that will grade high = major dollars. If he is getting the cards graded where he works then I would chalk that one as one of the perks although he will more than likely get higher grades than the average person. Now's the time to invest in vintage cards, when people will pay more for an unproven players card than what more nice vintage sets go for only to see the price drop to near nothing in a few years if the player doesn't break records or get close to breaking them each year. My wife won't have anything to do with the new shiny cards she just buys lots or collections of vintage cards then stores them in the vault. This is just my personal opinion. :)

I have no problem with the investment part of the vintage cards as I am also buying them for my business. What bothers me is that we both know that this person is going to get undeserved grades which is fraud if you ask me.

I will say again that I don't know this for sure but it is another part of the business that is not legit.