A quarter of a century between card shows.

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

SymphonicMetal

Veteran
154
5.00 star(s)
Joined
Feb 7, 2015
Messages
2,481
Location
New York
Well, that is a bit of an understatement It was actually been 26 years between card shows for me since the last one I attended was in Albany NY where I went to get Jim Brown's auto.

The show was in Syracuse, and was a decent sized show. However, there were not a lot of customers. There were a lot of people trying to sell cards but I did not see too many active buyers. I'd say the show was 90% newer material and 10% vintage. From what I noticed the vintage dealers..........and these were a couple of big time guys..... were not all that busy. The newer cards were mostly graded and I'd hear outrageous figures thrown out for some of those card's values. With dollar figures like that, I'd have thought they were talking Mantle and Mays but it was the current crop of suspects.

The constant checking of the cell phone for each card has to be a bit tiring. Luckily, I did not have to deal with that since I was only dealing in raw cards. And it is funny to see the difference between what an 8 is for a modern card (crap) vs what an 8 is for a vintage card (Gold!). I can see where that is a necessity though as my friend bought a PSA 3 1955 Mays and a PSA 3 Mickey Mantle for $500. I would have thought that was a bad buy (I mean they are 3s for cripes sake!!) but the PS 3 Mays has been selling for over what he paid for the pair and in a few reacnt cases WAY over what he paid for the pair.

One thing I notiuced on the newer, graded stuff was what my brother told me which was ""Deal for the card, not the grade". A few of the cards my friend was trading off were turned down because the dealer would notice flaws on a highly graded card when he looked at them under a good light and a magnifying glass. That makles me a little leery of graded cards since I have seen the same thing with graded vintage cards myself.

I will say that the lighting in that place was awful!! The further into the room I went the worse it got. I was really surprised about that. Thankfully, the one dealer I specifically went to the show to see was in the front right near the big windows so lighting was not a factor.

I don't go to card shows because for me it an ineffective way to acquire cards. This one dealer friend of mine owed me a fair amount in cards and we live 3 hours away from each other so this was a most convenient way to finish off a deal we had made last year. THis dealer is super trustworthy and I never hd the slightest worry about not getting caught up. It was quite nice to go into a card show with what amounted to a decent sized gift certificate and I was super happy with what I got.

I will say there are still good deals to be had in vintage cards if you shop around. But because people ae so enamored with the new Optic, Prizim, orange, pink, refractor, X fractor, non factor, numbered to minus 10 of the latest "hot" thing some quality stuff just sits there on dealers tables, People ddon't realize that todays "hot thing" is soon to be yesterday's news.
 
Last edited:
It's pretty much the same thing as the Albany shows. Dealers looking at their phones for eBay comp prices and literally tons of retail boxes. It's like they bought out the stock of every Target and Walmart within a 100 mile radius. It seems that every time someone pulls a nice card,they just HAVE to get it graded. Shouldn't one assume that if you pull a card from a new pack that it should be mint? I don't need a stupid company to tell me the condition of a card when I can make that determination for myself,especially at a show when I can do my own inspection. Definitely buy the card,not the grade (unless the only way to find said card is already in graded form).

Now that Pujols is close to the 700 mark,I'm sure all of his stuff are gonna come out of the woodwork at inflated prices which sucks for me. I love digging through dollar boxes and slowly pick away at my set needs when I can find them. Buying boxes are no longer an option since prices never came down after the pandemic,so I just pick up random singles if the deals are good enough.
 
It's pretty much the same thing as the Albany shows. Dealers looking at their phones for eBay comp prices and literally tons of retail boxes. It's like they bought out the stock of every Target and Walmart within a 100 mile radius. It seems that every time someone pulls a nice card,they just HAVE to get it graded. Shouldn't one assume that if you pull a card from a new pack that it should be mint? I don't need a stupid company to tell me the condition of a card when I can make that determination for myself,especially at a show when I can do my own inspection. Definitely buy the card,not the grade (unless the only way to find said card is already in graded form).

Now that Pujols is close to the 700 mark,I'm sure all of his stuff are gonna come out of the woodwork at inflated prices which sucks for me. I love digging through dollar boxes and slowly pick away at my set needs when I can find them. Buying boxes are no longer an option since prices never came down after the pandemic,so I just pick up random singles if the deals are good enough.
I totally agree with today's technology and the price you pay for new packs that the cards should be mint. And what is the big thrill of having a modern card as a 10? THat means it survived a whole couple of weeks without being mishandled and damaged? And of course everyone who has a new card claims it is a 10 only to find out it isn't so after throwing more money at the card in grading fees.

My favorite modern grading story is someone sent a card to HGA and the autograph part of the card got a 10. THis guy's autograph is literally an 8 turned sideways. What the.....? His signature will never be compared to Bob Gibson's that is for sure.

Funny you mention Pujols. In the year and a half my friend had his card store this past year +, I never heard one person ask about his cards!! I guess 700 HRs is not what they used to be.

That Syracuse show was about half the size of the Albany Polish Community Center shows from the mid 90s. THe show was only 1 day and ran from 10 AM to 3 PM. Most dealers were packed and gone by 2 and I don't think they left early because they had done so well. These guys did not even last 5 whole hours! Guess that was worth it! SMH
 
I totally agree with today's technology and the price you pay for new packs that the cards should be mint. And what is the big thrill of having a modern card as a 10? THat means it survived a whole couple of weeks without being mishandled and damaged? And of course everyone who has a new card claims it is a 10 only to find out it isn't so after throwing more money at the card in grading fees.

My favorite modern grading story is someone sent a card to HGA and the autograph part of the card got a 10. THis guy's autograph is literally an 8 turned sideways. What the.....? His signature will never be compared to Bob Gibson's that is for sure.

Funny you mention Pujols. In the year and a half my friend had his card store this past year +, I never heard one person ask about his cards!! I guess 700 HRs is not what they used to be.

That Syracuse show was about half the size of the Albany Polish Community Center shows from the mid 90s. THe show was only 1 day and ran from 10 AM to 3 PM. Most dealers were packed and gone by 2 and I don't think they left early because they had done so well. These guys did not even last 5 whole hours! Guess that was worth it! SMH
I've attended all but 2 Albany shows since they started back up and nice Pujols cards are hard to come by. Everyone seems pre-occupied with new prospects and such which is something I'll never understand,but that's a different story. I'll take picking up nice cards of greats over prospects any day.

I do have a few PC cards I'd like to get graded. Mainly a few vintage and a 1992 Front Row Jeter auto. I wouldn't mind having my higher end Pujols RCs graded,but I'd be too scared something would happen to them so I'll just leave them raw.

Next Albany show is on the 25th and I'll probably meet up with crazyderik and dig through boxes for bargains and tradebait.
 

Trade night

0
Days
00
Hours
00
Mins
00
Secs
Trade night is on!

Click here to join the fun!

Sponsors

Latest posts and bumps

Top