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

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

From what I hear Pokemon is done people moving on to One Piece now

I had to google that but they do look kinda cool.

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by hammerva

One dealer had a ton of what I was looking for but the idiot was charging $5 for base and regular insert cards because hey they are in a one touch magnetic holder . If you are doing that dealers you are an idiot.

They are idiots if those cards don’t sell, but geniuses if they do.

[jmarascojr]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

From what I hear Pokemon is done people moving on to One Piece now

Chasing Cardboard had a video a couple weeks ago where a guy was selling pretty much his entire collection to move it all into One Piece.

The host had no idea what it was...

[clocsta2323]

Originally Posted by jmarascojr

Chasing Cardboard had a video a couple weeks ago where a guy was selling pretty much his entire collection to move it all into One Piece.

The host had no idea what it was...

if you getting into one piece now you are way too late

[BoSoxFan1999]

Originally Posted by clocsta2323

if you getting into one piece now you are way too late

I don't know what One piece is nor do I care to find out...

[boxbuster7]

Originally Posted by BoSoxFan1999

I don't know what One piece is nor do I care to find out...

Its that monkey d luffy guy - I do not have one bit of interest in it either

[bub838]

Originally Posted by clocsta2323

if you getting into one piece now you are way too late

Yeah, should be moving into Riftbound.

[bigdog2003]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

From what I hear Pokemon is done people moving on to One Piece now

There were a few guys set up at the show Saturday with their retail Pokemon products marked up well over market. I walked right past them. Other people had stuff under market if you ripped at their booth, or just over market if you didn't. The LCS that helped put the show on had booster boxes under market as a limit 1 for a show special, I picked one of those up.

I can see some of the hype moving on from Pokemon. One Piece seems to be the logical place for it to go. I'd be fine with Pokemon prices coming back to normal for a while. It might give me a chance to finish all the WOTC sets.

[hermanotarjeta]

No shows near the holidays.

[notfast]

One piece boxes that were $3k a month ago are approaching $5k now.

Pokemon stuff is definitely slowing down obviously still very strong.

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by bub838

Yeah, should be moving into Riftbound.

[theshowandme]

[Giuls21]

Originally Posted by solt0131

I thought I might give a few observations on the current state of the hobby from what I see at the big Pittsburgh show this weekend. Seems like this has been a hot topic recently on the board, so I figure I'll give you guys an opinion on what I see this weekend:

Friday (yesterday) - dealer set up was at 8 am and I got there around 9:30 and got set up with just value boxes because I felt this is what would move here and I was right as cards moved very well for me. In walking around I looked at basically every dealer's setup and will again this morning too and noticed one thing - current pricing is EVERYTHING!!!

Here are my takes:

--Guys pricing modern stuff over comps. (higher end stuff)
--Vintage seemed to be the hottest stuff.
--Cheap graded cards were a big hit from a few dealers I saw ($10 range)
--Mid range stuff seemed to be priced from a month ago.
--Good attendance for a Friday with buyers generally looking for a good value.
--Lots of dealers talking about higher costs and inflation concerns, etc.

I'll be there all day today and give a breakdown as well.

Lots of ultra modern from people looking to flip. Even in Dallas, really hard to find decent vintage or 1993 finest refractors (non existent).

[dodgerfanjohn]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

No shows near the holidays.

Theres a fairly large show here in the Los Angeles area on the weekend after Christmas for the first time I can ever remember. Its less sportscards and more other stuff, but still....

[beauspencer]

Big 250-table show in Madison, WI this Saturday. I'll be doing a lot of buying. Merry Christmas!

[Philthy]

All of my local shows have turned into 50% sports and 50% pokemon. I vend a handful of times each year and have started periodically picking up pokemon myself. Its nostalgic as I loved the gameboy games as a child and pokemon is fun to rip. I've shifted almost exclusively to singles for baseball and very rarely open any sealed baseball product now.

Recently there was a larger show (100+ tables) in the area at an indoor pickleball facility. It was a solid variety but continued the theme of being about half pokemon and half sports. I was at a vendor's table who had a blue auto of a bowman chrome prospect I've been trying to pick up. He had it stickered for $250 and the only sales of the card in the last 90 days were $145 and $152. I attend shows regulary and I always just ignore cards that are this far over comps, but I was heading out the door and had spent no money. I told the dealer that I as interested in this card and I would pay full comps but the only two sales I saw were significatnly lower. He takes a minute to comp the card then says "I must have been looking at something else. $150?" We were able to get the deal done.

Not sure if this was a Christmas miracle or I should start taking the time to negotiate when vendors are so far off comps. I had bad experiences prior and thats why I typically ignore those situations (unless its an incredibly rare card).

[PuddleMonkey]

There was a show in Portland today, single day show. Spent my time at the dog shelter instead. Twin Oaks shows used to be 95% sports cards but with this being their home page I'm guessing that's not what it is now.

[PuddleMonkey]

Anyone been to a Front Row show before? Guess they have one here in late February, 440 tables but the description makes me think it'll have a couple dozen tables of sports cards and the rest a mixed bag of crap I don't want to drive to Portland for.



"A SHOW FOR COLLECTORS of sports cards (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, racing, boxing, UFC), trading card games (Pokemon, Magic The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Lorcana), comic books (Marvel, DC Comics, indie), Star Wars, original artwork, action figures, Funko, toys, video games, movie posters, sports memorabilia, autographs and other collectibles.

CARD & COMIC GRADING & AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICATION

Beckett, CBCS, CGC and JSA will be at the show to accept your grading and authentication submissions for cards, comic books, autographs and more. JSA will be doing on-site autograph authentication."

[Showtime430]

The last show i was at was 70% pokemon where tables were not segregated between the two banquet rooms. Could not move due to the sheer amount of people clogging the aisle chatting/trading amongst themselves.

Couldn't even look at the sports cards tables as those were mostly blocked as well with the pokemon crowd doing side deals amongst themselves as well.

The promoters facebook page had more than enough complaints from the dealers and patrons alike who voiced frustrations with the layout. The promoter finally commented that he would consider segregating the tables between sports cards and gaming at future events.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Anyone been to a Front Row show before? Guess they have one here in late February, 440 tables but the description makes me think it'll have a couple dozen tables of sports cards and the rest a mixed bag of crap I don't want to drive to Portland for.



"A SHOW FOR COLLECTORS of sports cards (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, racing, boxing, UFC), trading card games (Pokemon, Magic The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Lorcana), comic books (Marvel, DC Comics, indie), Star Wars, original artwork, action figures, Funko, toys, video games, movie posters, sports memorabilia, autographs and other collectibles.

CARD & COMIC GRADING & AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICATION

Beckett, CBCS, CGC and JSA will be at the show to accept your grading and authentication submissions for cards, comic books, autographs and more. JSA will be doing on-site autograph authentication."

The one in Pasadena was about 50/50 sports/poke.

There were multiple dealers there I hadn’t seen on other show circuits and found some harder to find items so may be worth the trip.

[Twalk1975]

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Anyone been to a Front Row show before? Guess they have one here in late February, 440 tables but the description makes me think it'll have a couple dozen tables of sports cards and the rest a mixed bag of crap I don't want to drive to Portland for.



"A SHOW FOR COLLECTORS of sports cards (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, racing, boxing, UFC), trading card games (Pokemon, Magic The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Lorcana), comic books (Marvel, DC Comics, indie), Star Wars, original artwork, action figures, Funko, toys, video games, movie posters, sports memorabilia, autographs and other collectibles.

CARD & COMIC GRADING & AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICATION

Beckett, CBCS, CGC and JSA will be at the show to accept your grading and authentication submissions for cards, comic books, autographs and more. JSA will be doing on-site autograph authentication."

I went to one in Phoenix last December, and it wasn't really my thing. Not enough sports card dealers. I'm fairly close to where they hold the Front Show at here, but if there is a smaller, mainly sports card show on the same day on the other side of town, im going to that one.

[Cracktoast]

Saw a story on the local news last night about a card shop that was broken into on Christmas Eve and the thieves stole over $100,000 in Pokemon cards. I remember the days when they wanted Mantles and Ty Cobbs now they want Charlizards and Pikachu's. That in of itself tells you where the market mentality is now days.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

Saw a story on the local news last night about a card shop that was broken into on Christmas Eve and the thieves stole over $100,000 in Pokemon cards. I remember the days when they wanted Mantles and Ty Cobbs now they want Charlizards and Pikachu's. That in of itself tells you where the market mentality is now days.

Sounds like a good time to be buying baseball!

[Twalk1975]

Probably still room for growth. Maybe by the end of 2026, we can move ahead of bone collecting and gain some ground on fountain pens.



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[Twalk1975]

The AZ state card show is significantly expanding. Moving from the convention center to Chase Field. Will be interesting if they can bring in more out of state dealers, particularly from the east. Feel like we mostly get dealers from CA, TX, and Vegas.



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