Back In A New York Mood

This week finds me in NYC to cover the East Coast National and the FanaticsFest as a roving reporter for Sports Collectors Daily.  Since I will be doing a column for SCD about the shows, I thought I would offer an amuse bouche of a column today with random thoughts about random stuff.  Look for the show reports next week. 

I didn’t go to the National but from what I heard, the crowds at the National were unprecedented.  I love the growth and the enthusiasm for the Hobby.  That is just great.  Unfortunately, it sounds like Cleveland simply cannot handle the show in its jacked-up form.  I’m sorry about that, believe it or not, because I actually like Cleveland despite all of the shit, I fling at it (great Central and Eastern European food, for example, which is what I grew up on), but there has got to be a critical mass of infrastructure around a venue.  You can’t ask collectors to commute in and then have such a poorly planned facility that they abandon their ride shares in the road and hike in like war refugees, wait in Disneyland-level lines to park and get in, and have to wait in yet more massive lines to eat or even to pee.  That is a planning fail.  And fix the fucking electronic infrastructure.  WIFI and cellular were spotty to non-existent, despite the much-publicized upgrades.  I heard of dealers unable to take e-payments because they couldn’t get a connection.  Unacceptable. 

Despite the WIFI travails, several of my friends who were set up at the show reported fantastic sales.  I hear tell that people were really stepping up and paying for the old stuff.  Lots of YOLO spending, I suspect.  If I’d spent 10+ hours and thousands to hit the show, damn right I’d not hassle over a few bucks on a card I found. 

I also heard a lot of reports of vest pocket dealers setting up shop all over the place, from hotel lobbies to tailgates.  Some of them even had the nerve to set up shop in the dining areas right next to the paying dealers.  And we are talking adults with cases of slabs not kids.  The show rules forbade it but it was not enforced. That has to be stopped and stopped hard: station security over there and throw out the miscreants, loudly and publicly.  The trade nights are bad enough already at siphoning off walk-ins from dealers (a subject of a prior screed of mine that caught me some shit from some readers, BTW) because they aren’t age-gated or otherwise policed, but direct competition with the dealers right on the show floor is insulting.  That said, if the promoters cannot or will not expand the card show element to accommodate all the dealers on the wait list, some enterprising promoter is going to set up a parasitic show, perhaps in the evening, adjacent to the main show, where dealers can set up for a modest fee and collectors can get in for free. Lots of conference rooms on hotel row in Chicago would be ripe for it.  Ain’t gonna be me, but someone will get the idea and make a few bucks.  

One thing that shocked me, and perhaps it is my naivete, is how little free swag there was for VIPs.  Lots of redemption packs, sure, but you gotta buy current product at the show to get ‘em.  Umm, no.  It wasn’t that long ago that the VIP swag bag at the National was the bomb, filled with a variety of desirable special cards, not BOGO offers to redeem and trash like Gary Vee vanity slabs.  I bought a VIP ticket, which I did not use when I decided to go to NYC instead.  My friend AJ took my ticket and valiantly braved the crowds at some redemption booths only to be told that he had to buy something to get a redemption pack.  That sucks.  Howzabout going back to doing something nice for everyone, manufacturers?  I have all sorts of interesting cards I got without having to purchase something else at prior Nationals in the VIP bags, but I guess that was before the hobby morphed into the hyper-capitalist monster it has become. 

Switching gears entirely, I have gotten active in some segments of nonsport collecting over the last year or two, primarily because I love beautiful cards and vintage pop culture, but also because they are so friggin’ cheap compared to sports.  Or were.  Prices are rising and the NS chat boards are buzzing with investment discussions.  Lots of opportunity there for astute buyers.  My $0.02 is that the vintage NS cards most likely to perform well are of subjects that have embedded themselves into the pop culture zeitgeist, like Star Wars, James Bond, Beatles, or early Marvel.  Prewar NS will chug along too.  Most cards are not going to go anywhere, though; it is truly a case of collecting because you love it.  Or there will be select cards that go up in sets that are of little interest otherwise.  One intriguing play is in trade cards.  There is no real guidance out there for collectors and prices tend to be all over the place, which is a happy hunting ground for those with some understanding of the market. 

One more rather intriguing investment play is global.  Collecting is burgeoning across Europe and Asia and transactions are becoming easier.  A decent mid-term play might be to try and anticipate what American issues have appeal to that audience.  The NBA has real traction as does baseball in some parts of Asia.

Finally, a comment on whatnot.  It has garnered a reputation for shill bidding and offensive hosts.  I have seen some of these idiots get sloppy drunk on live streams and have heard how others spew their ignorant, bigoted views of the world instead of selling cards.  Come on, guys, do better. No one gives a crap about your issues or your geting your drink on, just do the job.