Alright, not usually my thing, but I'm gonna do a bit of a write up. Being my first card show and all, and setting up a table for the hell of it.
I have to thank Adam "The27guy" for sending me some extra Basketball Card Fanatic magazines. Lots of quality content and I'm a sucker for the covers each month. I sold a few which helped offset the cost of the table and people liked looking through them.
I was really impressed as soon as I walked in at about 9am. Lots of tables, lots of variety, lots of positivity.
I can't remember who's who as I chatted to so many people. Other than of course
@kiwi_in_melb. Thanks for stopping by man. It's certainly a different era when people don't snatch up Exquisites.
I also met Omar (I hope that's spelt right) from 1of1 who does custom cards. I was actually really impressed with the quality and think he's got some great things happening, especially with team sports being so strong in the Juniors throughout Australia. Some elegant designs that reminded me of Flawless also.
I think everyone I chatted to was buzzing and seemed really excited. I wish I could remember everyone. But all were really keen to chat cards. It was great to chat about non NBA also. I enquired about Soccer, AFL, Pokemon and Stars Wars. There was a bunch of other stuff also.
What sold was interesting, someone whipped through and grabbed a lot of my 90s stuff. My $1 box got raided of good stuff quickly also. People were very particular with what they were buying. Nobody had a lot of interest in the few Flawless and Exquisites I had out (thanks to
@kiwi_in_melb for the Exquisite love) but I did only have a small sample of doubles. But still. I thought a few would sell.
I had a few people wanting to trade, I actually think I could have been better there, although most had modern Rookie Autos, mostly in College Unis of players I don't even know, or they had Donruss Bass in a PSA 9. A lot of unproven guys and cards. Just not my thing. But maybe that stuff moves. Some of my cards of legends didn't get moved so going with the times could be wise.
I saw a lot of people carrying bags of Blasters of Chronicles or other lower end product, stuff that really is a pretty poor buy. I did have a really great guy talk to me about his start in the Hobby. He mentioned he realized he needed to change when he'd noticed he'd spent $12k on busting with Cherry over a year or so and had very little to show for it. Singles are the way to go if you don't want to lose all your monies. Busting is way more fun, but there really is a lot of junk out there at the moment. Be careful people. As long as you're busting for fun, it doesn't matter, but be prepared to lose often (we've all been there). I'm a little concerned some people will get chewed up and spat out pretty quick.
A lot of product was there for sale. I was supposed to grab a box of 19/20 Mosaic from a great member on here but was in a rush for my flight home.
There were a lot of kids, and some had fine tastes, picking up the Steph Revolution Sunburst I had and the Luka Prizm Silver 9.5 (only 2nd year) for a look. Some savvy kids getting around. A lot carrying those lockable cases.
The Blank Slate set was great to see, as well as the Panini One and One Rookies of Ja and Zion in that showcase. Wild collection.
I had people asking for D. Mitchell, Gobert, Booker, KAT, Jordan, Kemp, vintage, RJ Barrett, Draymond. So people knew what they wanted and scanned carefully.
I didn't get to look at the trading section. I hope Brissy has a similar set up. I might bring some bigger pieces and see what's out there.
I wasn't a fan of the new pump I heard being brought up on stage, which is the authentication side of cards. Like really? We're gonna pay for grading and authenticating now? Seems to be the push from the big names in our "hobby" with Fanatics on board (to be fair a Xmas gift I got was authenticated by Fanatics at a premium, which is just not necessary, but to newbs it is). Big business is find new ways to make more money.
I will say, the BEST thing about the day, was the conversations with people. Really good people too. Everyone was nice and was sharing in the experience. I've never really had that in person before. So that was great to see. I find it a bit hilarious people think the Hobby is dying. Far from it. People just happy to talk cards. Very fun.
I will say, I was flat out from about 11:30am until 1:30pm where it felt like I didn't get a chance to look around. I hope I didn't miss anyone that wanted to look at things on the table or make a deal. It was pretty nutso.
Overall it far exceeded expectations. I feel for people that got stuck in a big line and found it a bit of a squeeze early on. After lunch had a lot more room. I'm taking my kids to Brissy so might go after lunch. We'll see.
Maybe this weekend I'll find a big card. Fingers crossed.
