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Originally Posted by Scottish Punk
Wouldn't the two big advantages of shows is that you are buying while being able to see the cards in hand. Your selling via cash, so no transaction fees. Also more "flexible" tax reporting, ahem.
I think many dealers are collectors at their root and not business people. How many dealers have taken any business classes? The importance of making your money on the buy side, turning over inventory, cash flow, etc. Making $20 profit on multiple cards is better than waiting for that $50 profit on one card.
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This is a classic misconception from both dealers and buyers. My transaction/selling fees for a show are the cost of a show. Cash is great, I guess, but there are still fees for being there that need to be taken into account. That is the biggest reason why I think shows are a drain on the hoby.
Yes many dealers have no business sense, which is why they think there are no costs involved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogueriver
Maybe I am the only one here, but I dont go to shows to see all the national leaders in the industry. I go to the local shows to see the small dealers who dont have shops or small shops from within the state. Big dealers are great and I visit them too. If you go back to the 1990s and 2000's most large dealers did not attend many shows except the big ones. Shows were mostly your small mom and pop people and mainly people who didnt have shops. Now it almost seems like every show is the same 50 dealers. But you are right most sellers are online now. Yet I like to go to shows and see the smaller dealers. Just my opinion.
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What is the barrier of entry online for dealers? Its basically laziness if they dont have any presence. There is no cost to getting an ebay account or joining forums/facebook/IG/TikTok, etc.... The market is a lot different so there is no real benefit.
I would guess people aren't going to shows to see certain dealers. The biggest draw for a straight dealer is to be able to buy inventory at a discount at a show, but when the same dealers go show after show after show they are making it harder on themselves (and more expensive).
If they stayed home and saved $120,000 (2 shows per month at $5k all in per show which is probably low) they could hire multiple people or spend more on inventory. You said you see the same 50 dealers so lets say 35 of those dealers are traveling thats $4,200,000 out of the hobby. That's not a TON of money for the overall size of the hobby but Im betting a lot of those dealers could get a lot more inventory and move a lot more if they weren't going to every show.