Show Review: The Los Angeles Card Show

AKA Gonzo Goes To Inglewood

This week, a special review of the Los Angeles Card Show. Unlike the usual review, I am not on a press pass and not censored. Call it a Gonzo stream of consciousness review; in fact, I dictated it as I was there, edited later. Gotta love smart phones.

The show was billed as a 250 table spectacular held in the home of the LA Clippers basketball team, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. I saw no publicity for this show. I happened to stumble across a public relations piece for the show in Sports Collectors Daily. Other local collectors had no idea there was a show. Ticket prices were reasonable. Including service charge, my VIP pass cost all of $17 and change and came with free parking.

As I had never heard of this show or the sponsors before, I had no idea what to expect. I do recall from shows at the Hollywood Park Casino, which used to be across the street, over twenty years ago that getting into and out of Inglewood on a Saturday is a major pain in the ass. The freeway access is the infamous 405 traffic jam and then you have to snake across Century Boulevard. Century is a major thoroughfare which serves the airport, is perpetually under construction, and often requires tremendous time to negotiate towards the arenas and facilities located in Inglewood if there are events there.

That said, I was excited to attend a show in a new sports facility that I’d never been to before. I think part of the future of card shows is going to be cooperation with local sports teams to utilize their idle arenas and facilities. They have the amenities, the crowd control, the space. I know show promoters are doing this in other cities like Indianapolis. It really could be a symbiotic situation. And let’s face it, for the fan boys in us all, it is just plain cool as heck to be at a show in a major league sports facility.

According to my Chevrolet Bolt navigation system, the trip to Inglewood would take me approximately half an hour at 7:00 a.m. Why so early? Well, the trend of late is for shows to be mobbed. If you don’t have the early admission and you aren’t in line early, you may be outside for hours. Since I paid for a VIP early admit at 9 o’clock, I did not want to throw away my opportunity to get into the place and find anything that might be there before the other people come in at 10. For that reason, I set out early in the morning and got there quickly.

They actually have a really good parking facility at the stadium and things flow dynamically to get in. Bonus points for that.

The scene when I arrived at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood shortly before 8 o’clock was shocking. Most of the garage was filled and hundreds of people were in line. It became curioser when I realied that they were all lugging carts and dollies filled with stuff. It was the vendor line. Yup, the line for vendors to enter the facility stretched hundreds of people deep through the garage.

One thing that has become a pain in the ass at all shows for vendors, unless the management of the show intervenes early and actively, is it the venues force everyone to go through same security checks as the punters. The Intuit Dome has full airport security, and they were sending all of the vendors through it. A single metal detector and a single baggage checkpoint with an x-ray machine. Unbelievably enough, the vendors were forced to unload their carts and then open and unpack virtually every box in their entire supply stack, and run most of them through the x-ray machine. It slowed check-in to a snail’s pace.

I had considered signing up as a vendor for this event, but I decided I wanted to see it as an attendee first before I did so, precisely because I was afraid of nonsense like this. You may recall it in Ontario at the Burbank Show where I set up in 2024, the facility insisted on putting all the vendors through metal detectors at 9 o’clock on the first day of the show. At least until the show promoters came out and intervened and said we need to get these people in so we can get the show started on time. There did not appear to be anyone there from the show doing the same thing for these poor vendors, many of whom were carrying dozens and dozens of boxes and giant stacks of display material. It is truly amateur hour.

I later checked with a vendor inside who said that they were not allowed access on Friday to set up but were able to get there around 7:00 in the morning. He got to the facility when it opened and was practically first in line. Otherwise, he said, he would’ve been waiting in line for hours to get in and set up.

The vendor line was so bad that I could hardly imagine anyone getting into the space and setting up before the 9 o’clock open for VIPs.

Speaking of which, I had been worried about the depth of the VIP line which is why I got here so early. That too is a trend at shows: VIP means earlier in line, not necessarily earlier into the show. The line in Pasadena for the show there typically stretches down and around the block a good ways by 9:30 in the morning for 10 o’clock at VIP open. I figured with a 9 o’clock VIP open, I better get here and be in line around eight if I wanted to get in there at all before the general admission people start flowing in as well.

I was in fact, surprised to find that the VIP line at that time in the morning was perhaps 20 people deep at most. However, there was no organization to it whatsoever. There was no signage. We were actually standing in front of the media sign in space in the parking garage. We were were right next to the vendor line. As I watched the vendors laboriously unpack everything they had so carefully assembled in their vehicles before getting in line, this situation appeared to be a cluster fuck of epic proportions.

I have to remark, the crack security set up at these places always makes me crack up. To add insult to injury for the vendors, the supercilious turds in the security set up were prohibiting things like scissors. I don’t know if these folks have ever dealt with a card show before, but scissors and tape are integral to the whole process of setting up. As I have remarked in the past, give a security lunkhead a little bit of power over people and watch the nightmare that results. There were five people running the checkpoint in any given time. One person checking carts. One person running the x-ray machine. One person running the metal detector. At least one person playing with her phone. And another one standing around picking her butt. This may be socially impolite to say, but someone should tell the security folks that the occasional salad might benefit them. Call me crazy, but I don’t think an unarmed obese woman is capable of doing anything from a security standpoint. In other words, the security is bullshit feel good nonsense. If a real gangster decided that he wanted to do something here, he would simply roll up on security, waste all of them, and do what he wanted. I saw no police and I see no armed security.

At least the parking was good. Since I roll handicap because of my broken foot, I was able to park within 20 feet of the entry area. That said, I must roll across a bridge over the street in order to get to the actual facility. It’ll be a long day on my feet that that’s for sure.

My other observation based on the vendors slowly making their way through the entry line is that the vendors skew young and mostly non-white. I love the diversity. I am seeing at card shows now. If this industry is to sustain itself, it cannot be a white middle-aged sausage fest. Given the packages I am seeing on their carts, my assumption is that most vendors are selling ultra modern and shiny crap with a good deal of Pokémon and similar material that is routinely found on eBay for less cost and less hassle. That doesn’t bode well for my finding anything worth buying at this show. It is certainly a diverse crowd in terms of collecting interests. Many women, again a great thing for our industry. The comic book people stick out like turds in a punch bowl, with cosplay and garish dress. It will be interesting to see what the crowd itself is after in this place.

At 8:35 the vendor line is still hundreds of feet long. There is simply no way that these people are going to be set up on time for the open at 10 o’clock, let alone the VIP open at nine. I am doing this in real time because I’m going to make some predictions about how things are going to unfold. There has been no direction whatsoever from the staff as to where any of us are supposed to go. The line for early entry and VIP is undifferentiated. It stretches now down to the end of the garage and starts running down the side. There also appears to be a line across the street in front of the arena. Do we go there? Do we stay here? No one seems to know. My first prediction at 8:35 this morning is that at sometime very close to the admission time, someone is going to yell that there are additional VIP entrances open elsewhere and it’s going to touch off a massive run of people dashing to the other entrances. I also assume based on the fact that they have differentiated nothing here at that point they’re going to say this line is for the swag bag recipient VIP admits and there’s another line elsewhere for us, mere peasant actual early admits. We will see.

8:36:Finally, finally, finally, they assigned one additional person to help unpack the carts and check them before they go through the metal detector. The fat useless security woman checking her phone also seems to have left. Her replacement is working hard to organize everything and actually get the line moving. The vendor line still stretches, perhaps 50 people deep down the side of the facility. As I said none of these vendors are gonna be set up anywhere near on time. If I’d been a vendor at this thing, I would be pissed as hell.

9:08. Amazingly the vendors are actually finished checking in and now they can begin with the VIPs. The line for VIP check-in is probably 500 people deep at this point around the perimeter of the garage. I am fortunate to be in the first 10 or so, people to get in.

Here’s a bit of an odd thing: at the head of the line, we are required to take out our backpacks or bags, and put them on a conveyor belt through an x-ray machine, but allowed to hold our phones while we pass through the metal detectors. Strangest thing of all, they do not check our tickets other than to verify they say early admission on them. The heck is that all about?

9:12: I find out. Once we go through the metal detector and x-ray machine, we walk down the parking garage across the sky bridge and downstairs towards the into it dome itself where we get into…another line? Yup another line. This line merges the people who got in through the plaza with the people like me came in through the garage for actual check-in. Fortunately, that line is short, and we are inside by 9:30. Overall, eating only half an hour of the VIP time for which I paid extra is not so bad considering this is the first time for this venue. If they do it again, I hope they get their shit together.

The arena is just beautiful. I’d love to see a game here. The food places are all closed, but the choices look really good. The bathroom is clean and nice. Hell, it’s better than the shitter at my office.

I take a quick walk around the facility. It has an unusual configuration. The walkway surrounding the actual court is set up with about half of the vendors rimming the perimeter. One room off the walkway, which is apparently used for special events, has been set up with about the other half of the vendors. The vendor mix is 99% modern probably half of that is Pokémon at least. We in the vintage silo just have no idea of how big and dynamic modern and gaming is. Lots of money flowing for shiny stuff I just don’t like. About the only shiny I buy are a few cheap F1 cards for the team I like, Aston Martin.

I do find a few tables with old cards relatively speaking, and I pick up a few items for some sets I’m assembling for resale. That’s about it. I did notice that almost every price is spot on with eBay; frictionless information on those prices. The main benefit for buying at a show like this, of course, is that the vendors are willing to knock money off for cash. I follow the old picker’s technique of price and negotiate and get some decent discounts. The only thing I bought in a slab was a Dale Earnhardt ‘rookie’; I air-quote it because the card that is popularly deemed his rookie was issued a decade after his actual rookie, a team-issued postcard.

While I find the show to be quite comfortable once I’m inside the arena, outside it is a nightmare. Friends of mine show up trying to get into the line for general admission without prepaid tickets. The line stretches forever. They finally give up and leave.

I exited the show at about 11:40. I’d had enough. It was not so much that I was finished with the material (in fact, I was), but the show was becoming uncomfortably filled with people and hard to navigate.

Going out through the plaza I was absolutely astounded at how many people are there. I would estimate the line of people waiting to get into the show is easily 1,000 deep. It winds all the way down the plaza at the facility and back again.

I decided to try to get something to eat at their Sunday Gravy food store. Surprisingly, I was able to get a really fresh really nice salad at a reasonable price. They also had a food truck that was accessible from inside the show, but it was selling sandwiches, which I did not want. Kudos to the promoters for getting a truck in there for us, though.

By the time I finish lunch, the crowd has gotten even bigger and is stretching around the plaza twice. I have not seen anything like this since a national. I figured, these folks have no chance whatsoever of getting through the door to this place. They’re just isn’t any way. They are gonna stand in line for hours and go home, disappointed. If I was running things, I would probably go out now to sell out, and end it for those people. The friend who gave up before noon circled back at 3:00 and there were still people in line.

One thing I’ve noticed about these shows since I’ve started attending them again is that they have become cultural phenomena rather than simply card shows. For example, it used to be that the announcements were an annoyance. Now they are MC-ing, exhorting the crowd to give more energy. I’m not sure how that fits into a card show, but this is what the next generation seems to like. They run music all day and contests; FWIW, I am definitely not objecting to old-school hip-hop. I can listen to good tunes all day long at these shows.

As I ate my lunch on the plaza watching everyone standing there, socializing, I got the impression that getting into the show was not necessarily their ultimate goal. The Clippers were running all sorts of promotions on the site, exhorting the crowd to join in the excitement over the playoff games that were starting that week, having contests, and promoting the food around the place. It seemed to me that this show had more of a vibe, similar to Fanatics Fest, of making the scene itself the event rather than the acquisition of actual material on sale inside. Even without purchasing items, I believe most of the people there were actually having a lot of fun just being at the event. Since many of these attendees are obviously Gen Z members and they generally prize experience over stuff, being there may be what it’s all about. Personally, I don’t see it, but maybe I’m just getting too fucking old for this.