Observations on the current state of the hobby from a show this weekend

[JoshMN]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

I would really welcome a crash - I don’t need increasing prices to enjoy the hobby.

In fact, I would enjoy it even more if prices tanked big time.

So you agree with Puddle Monkey? Wasn’t that his original point? The tongue-in-cheek posting has gone on for so long I’ve lost track of what people are actually saying.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by JoshMN

So you agree with Puddle Monkey? Wasn’t that his original point? The tongue-in-cheek posting has gone on for so long I’ve lost track of what people are actually saying.

I’m not sure what his original point is anymore, all I know is that if I could buy everything at half the price that I see at shows with dealers falling over their feet trying to sell things to me, I would be capable of doubling my collection in size and quality with the same amount of money.

Sounds like a win to me.

[solt0131]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

I’m not sure what his original point is anymore, all I know is that if I could buy everything at half the price that I see at shows with dealers falling over their feet trying to sell things to me, I would be capable of doubling my collection in size and quality with the same amount of money.

Sounds like a win to me.

Yeah and I'd like to buy gas at 1.99 gallon and eggs for .99 a dozen, etc etc.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by premium1981

Ignore the ignorant. He has been saying the same thing for a year. Tell us we are falling down the hill as everyone is actively marching up the hill. Sure, at some point we will turn and go back down, but not now. Of all the wrong predictions made on this forum, his has been about as wrong as any could be.

The repackers are the biggest reason why prices of singles are continuing to stay elevated -- they are providing a lot liquidity to the market. No one else is pushing that bolder up the hill -- the pandemic boom is long over and the stupid, easy money is long gone.

As long as singles can continue to be repacked into gambling products, the singles market will stay strong. But if that segment of the industry starts to drop off -- perhaps because of oversaturation of repacks and heavy competition between repackers -- you'll start to see prices drop.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by solt0131

Yeah and I'd like to buy gas at 1.99 gallon and eggs for .99 a dozen, etc etc.

It would be great if the oil and egg market crashed too!

[f2tornado]

Went to two card shows in Minneapolis area on Saturday and a big one in Sioux Falls on Sunday. No shortage of people at any of them. It seemed like football was moving best. I had to really dig for most of the baseball. I bought a lot of bargain box stuff but mainly from a couple dealers at each event. It was fun and fairly rewarding overall.

The negatives:

So many boxes with no prices on them = walk on by. No time to waste when I'm hitting two shows in the same day followed by a big one and a long drive the next day.

Also, not a fan of the multi-colored stickers designating specific prices when they are all mixed up. It slows down looking. Worse when the stickers are on the back. At least organize them by price to start with. Makes it easier for the buyers plus the sticker is still on there should some get put in the wrong spot.

Next, lots of dollar boxes filled with stuff I wouldn't pay a quarter for. I just cannot envision much of that stuff selling. Wasted table space. I like digging but I stop fairly quickly when I cannot even find something I'd at least be on the fence purchasing for the price.

Lastly, only a handful of dealers had stuff sorted by player or team. I had a hell of a time finding cards of specific players. Dealers that did tended to get some of my money.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

The repackers are the biggest reason why prices of singles are continuing to stay elevated -- they are providing a lot liquidity to the market. No one else is pushing that bolder up the hill -- the pandemic boom is long over and the stupid, easy money is long gone.

As long as singles can continue to be repacked into gambling products, the singles market will stay strong. But if that segment of the industry starts to drop off -- perhaps because of oversaturation of repacks and heavy competition between repackers -- you'll start to see prices drop.

That is pretty much how all markets work. Something or someone makes the market strong. You can't argue both ends. Of course if you remove any strong leader in any market prices will drop. That's called supply and demand. The problem on these boards, is that some people just don't like who sits on the demand side. But thats the beauty of it. It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Demand is demand and there is nothing pointing towards any of the hobby demand going away any time soon.

I can also make a similar statement about Nvidia. They are only hot right now because AI has an insatiable thirst for their GPU's. But if that segment of the industry starts to drop off, you'll start to see prices drop.

See how ridiculous that sounds? Yes, there is demand, but if that demand goes away there will be less demand.

PS. I want to add a quick note that not only is demand for repacks not going to go away, its about to get stronger when Fanatics gets theirs going.

[tyrith]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

The repackers are the biggest reason why prices of singles are continuing to stay elevated -- they are providing a lot liquidity to the market. No one else is pushing that bolder up the hill -- the pandemic boom is long over and the stupid, easy money is long gone.

As long as singles can continue to be repacked into gambling products, the singles market will stay strong. But if that segment of the industry starts to drop off -- perhaps because of oversaturation of repacks and heavy competition between repackers -- you'll start to see prices drop.

More than anything it'll be because the supply of end buyers starts weakening. There have to be a core of buyers that are spending big money on repacks - it's probably a lot of people that used to be more into wax breaks when that was at peak - and there's going to be a good chunk of them that run out of money at some point. If those people aren't replaced by new entrants into that space, then the market will have to start to reverse because the repacks won't be able to be sold at current prices. The market isn't going to start a correction until then.

[hermanotarjeta]

Don’t forget about money laundering as a factor keeping singles prices high!

[byronscott4ever]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

Went to two card shows in Minneapolis area on Saturday and a big one in Sioux Falls on Sunday. No shortage of people at any of them. It seemed like football was moving best. I had to really dig for most of the baseball. I bought a lot of bargain box stuff but mainly from a couple dealers at each event. It was fun and fairly rewarding overall.

The negatives:

So many boxes with no prices on them = walk on by. No time to waste when I'm hitting two shows in the same day followed by a big one and a long drive the next day.

Also, not a fan of the multi-colored stickers designating specific prices when they are all mixed up. It slows down looking. Worse when the stickers are on the back. At least organize them by price to start with. Makes it easier for the buyers plus the sticker is still on there should some get put in the wrong spot.

Next, lots of dollar boxes filled with stuff I wouldn't pay a quarter for. I just cannot envision much of that stuff selling. Wasted table space. I like digging but I stop fairly quickly when I cannot even find something I'd at least be on the fence purchasing for the price.

Lastly, only a handful of dealers had stuff sorted by player or team. I had a hell of a time finding cards of specific players. Dealers that did tended to get some of my money.

Which MN shows did you hit? How would you rank the 3?

[kipgen]

Went to the Houston card show this last weekend, had fun, I'd say it was about 60/40 sports pokemon in favor of sports

Definitely busy, bustling crowd

Not as much Bowman as I would've liked to see but I found some stuff tucked away eventually

Lots of football, some basketball, some baseball

One thing I feel like I'd appreciate more at shows is a dedicated box for cards $25-100, the real gems I found were in a binder that a guy had which was essentially that

Next, lots of dollar boxes filled with stuff I wouldn't pay a quarter for. I just cannot envision much of that stuff selling. Wasted table space. I like digging but I stop fairly quickly when I cannot even find something I'd at least be on the fence purchasing for the price.

I also felt this way. A lot of the dollar box stuff was just crap (to me, of course maybe somebody wants something out of there but it's hard to imagine who). I get that dealers are just trying to move stuff but being more selective could go a long way.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by byronscott4ever

Which MN shows did you hit? How would you rank the 3?

Bloomington and Andover (Minneapolis area) on Saturday and Sioux Falls, SD on Sunday.

The semi-annual Sioux Falls was by far the best of the trio even though I spent more at Bloomington. It had around 250 tables in a nice carpeted facility with decent concessions and tables to sit at. Lighting could be a tad better but good enough. I'd rate Bloomington second only because one dealer's bargain bins made my day. It seems there's always one dealer there where I load up and usually a different one every time. Light no problem there. Andover had more tables than Bloomington but I didn't find a ton, partly the result of me getting there at 2 and the show closing at 3. Oddly, I think I spent more at each of those shows than I did at the 400 table monster in St. Paul earlier this year. The big one is back in a couple weeks. Maybe I can try again.

[solt0131]

Anyone going to or setting up at any shows this weekend?

[Bowman1951]

Originally Posted by hammerva

Isn't there supposed to be some other East Coast National in the New England areA next year that has been advertised as more tables than the National. Maybe that was just speculation

I don't think they ever said they will be bigger than the National because Burbank had 1200 last weekend, but they should be the biggest on the east coast outside of the National being there some years with 1000 tables.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...setts-in-2026/

[auctionjmm]

Started listing some baseball today that has been in show inventory. This is about that time where I prefer to at least put it out there on eBay instead of carrying it all through another winter of shows. I'm surprised at how many cards are now higher than my sticker, and some significantly higher. It's all low-end (under $20) stuff, but still, the price increase since mid-summer is very noticeable.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

Started listing some baseball today that has been in show inventory. This is about that time where I prefer to at least put it out there on eBay instead of carrying it all through another winter of shows. I'm surprised at how many cards are now higher than my sticker, and some significantly higher. It's all low-end (under $20) stuff, but still, the price increase since mid-summer is very noticeable.

I had a conversation a few different times this summer with my wife about how much of a head scratcher it was that there really wasn't a summer slow down like normal. We almost always have down prices across the summer and it just didn't happen at all. In fact, the opposite happened for almost everything that I had my hands on. It was pretty cool, and very unexpected.

[solt0131]

What kind of effect if any do you think the new rule of going back to the 200/$20,000 for a 1099 will have?

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by solt0131

What kind of effect if any do you think the new rule of going back to the 200/$20,000 for a 1099 will have?

It changes nothing IMO.

[blackvodka]

I had a table set up at a show in Oshkosh around three weeks ago and I sold most of the cards I had at the table. It was busy all day and there was some nice stuff at the show.

Sent from my motorola razr 2024 using Tapatalk

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I had a conversation a few different times this summer with my wife about how much of a head scratcher it was that there really wasn't a summer slow down like normal. We almost always have down prices across the summer and it just didn't happen at all. In fact, the opposite happened for almost everything that I had my hands on. It was pretty cool, and very unexpected.

Repackers -- they are providing a lot of liquidity to the singles market right now. Arena Club, Courtyard.io, Fanatics (apparently Brian Grey is a big buyer of theirs), etc are all buying repack inventory. The market is getting more and more competitive.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

Repackers -- they are providing a lot of liquidity to the singles market right now. Arena Club, Courtyard.io, Fanatics (apparently Brian Grey is a big buyer of theirs), etc are all buying repack inventory. The market is getting more and more competitive.

Absolutely. Its created an great way for people to turn over inventory and to keep things from getting stale. Just wait till Fanatics version goes live. I think it gets even crazier. There won't be enough singles on the market, they will all be vacuumed up.

[Stifle]

Originally Posted by panamamyers

You forgot the one about everyone having a smallish Pelican brief case that they tote around with them.

Went to the Shipshewana show roughly a month ago with my lady. It was the first card show she has ever attended. She was asking why everyone had those and I had to tell her. She asked why I didn’t and that I should, NO.

A few shows coming up, May attend one of them.

[NYBBFAN]

Originally Posted by Stifle

Went to the Shipshewana show roughly a month ago with my lady. It was the first card show she has ever attended. She was asking why everyone had those and I had to tell her. She asked why I didn’t and that I should, NO.

A few shows coming up, May attend one of them.

I had a similar encounter with a lady at last year’s National. Her teenage son was there; he was new to the hobby. She said that "everyone who is serious about collecting seems to have one of these carrying cases". I just laughed and told her that I’m good with the cardboard box in my backpack.

[ewokpelts]

Are people falling for the repack scam again?

[solt0131]

One of the best shows of the year is next weekend, the September Philly Show.