The Burbank Show 1

So, the biggest show in SoCal since the 2006 National hit Anaheim this weekend. Now, why is The Burbank Show in Anaheim? Fun answer: for the same reason the baseball team is called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, stupid i.e., forget it, he’s rolling. Real answer: because Burbank Sports Cards runs it, and the show outgrew its Burbank venue (but not the brand) with the first show last summer: fire marshals limited entry and it was a zoo. My daughter was helping me with my table and she couldn’t even get in with a dealer’s pass (she finally begged and cajoled her way in through a side door). One of my customers had a panic attack and abruptly dropped the cards and left my table (I don’t panic in crowds because I am 6’4” and my head is always above the masses, but I can see how the little fellows might). The next one was in Ontario, CA, about 50 miles to the east, and now for the third show it has shifted to a space it can grow into organically.

A word about the sponsors: BCS has been my local card store for 20 years. The family that owns it is really nice, really responsible members of the Hobby, and when they say they want the show to be a top-flight collector experience, they mean it, which is why the show has shifted venues each time looking for the right facility. They could have stayed in Burbank and kept it an overcrowded 200 table show but they chose to try and grow it instead.

I see why they chose Anaheim. The Anaheim Convention Center is the nicest show venue I’ve seen since the Baltimore Nationals. We are in the annex building across from the sports arena. The facility is clean and modern with (gasp!) a fully carpeted show floor. Yes, you foot-weary National attendees read that right: fully carpeted show floor! Tons of sitting areas outside the show floor as well. There are even bottle-filling water fountains, so no need to haul plastic bottles by the ton or get raped at the concessions stand just to have a drink. I have yet to visit a bathroom there, so that report will have to wait, but I have every reason to believe that when the enchilada casserole I plan to have for breakfast decides to pop back up to say hello, I will find an appropriate relief space. There are thousands of hotel rooms in the convention complex; the Marriott that is the official show hotel has over a thousand rooms. Nice toilets there too, though after I drove in yesterday, I wrecked one of the bathrooms; even with commercial air handling, they are going to have to close that one for a few hours.

But I digress…

I parked at my hotel (yeah, we get hosed on the parking costs at $30 a night, like any resort) and loaded in from there. As an aside, I got a George Constanza-style amazing parking spot and now I don’t want to move my car…but I need breakfast and lunch stuff. I am actually considering a mile-long walk to get fed; the space is that good. Oh, the humanity!

Best news of all about the show layout is that all of the corporate crap, services (PSA, etc.) and noisy nonsense (breaking, gamers, etc.) is in a separate hall. People (well, me and the other OG (O(ld) G(uys)) collectors have been asking the National to move that stuff somewhere it doesn’t break the contiguous flow of the card tables, and this show did it. Just fantastic. One of the gamer dorks (I can say that because a grown man wearing a Louis Vuitton hat, a Mickey Mouse tee, a Chanel logo belt, and skinny jean floods is a dork on every continent except France) was complaining about it and predicting a bad show for us sports guys as a result. Yeah, not seeing it.

Last night was VIP night, which cost a hefty $150 for the VIP pass. Attendance was hard to gauge. The room is massive at 220,000+ square feet, so the feel was mellow instead of mosh pit. I grossed more than my table fees before the show opened, but I am not a good measure of things because I do not specialize in mainstream stuff (that is my picker boxes) and oddball stuff sells to its own rhythm. Funny story there. A collector told me he collects 1950s-1970s Topps sets and wants things that are set-related, like proofs. I pulled out three pieces of original art from the 1975 Topps basketball set that I got years ago from the Topps Vault. He also bought a pair of the most ridiculous marketing things I have ever seen: in 1961, KMPC, a local radio station, actually thought it would be a good idea to put out Dodgers and Angels schedules in booklets on how to explain baseball to housewives. How’s that for niche selling?

Now, as far as inventory mix goes, the vast majority of what I saw last night was modern, but I would say that I only saw about half of the tables. I did see quite a few high end vintage cards, mainly T206 and 1933 Goudey on the prewar side, and lots of post-war mainstream stars as well. Nearly all slabs but a few picker tables. I expect the dealers who cater to pickers, as I do, will do very very well once the general public comes in.

You may be asking why I am writing early in the morning after a 10:00 show close? Well, apparently the Hilton across the way has some sort of labor issues and a big pack of picketers started shouting, banging drums, blowing horns, and ringing cowbells around 6:00 a.m. Turns out there can be too much cow bell.

But again, I digress…

The collectors I dealt with last night came loaded for bear: they were looking to spend. There is a lot of pent up demand for a big show here in Cali; there hasn’t been a National since 2006 and it doesn’t look like there will be one west of Chicago ever again. If the National is going to be a regional show like that, the field is ripe for a new show in the West. 50 million people are not going to be ignored, Dan. I hope this show is it.

More poorly thought-out reflections and comments tomorrow.