Are "Trade Nights" good for the National? Hobby Quick Hits E210

Hobby Got Quick Hits, delivering that breaking Hobby Newman direct loads. You want to know those Josh Card chat chaff, You've got your core. Host John new Name. Hello, everyone, welcome to episode to ten of Hobby Quick Hits.

My name is John Newman. Today's topic, you know, setting up at the National and Trade Night. I know the trade nights are a huge success, most people love them, but how about dealers? And as a dealer. Now, obviously, as you probably know, I don't set up at the National, but as a dealer, you know what if I did, you know, what would my feelings to Trade night B And I did speak to some and you know, I'm not gonna mention names.

I told them I wouldn't mention names. They told me they give me their opinion if I didn't mention names. And you know the reason for that is obviously they don't want to be negative and if they said something negative, maybe the National doesn't let them get their table space back. So I agreed to, like, you know, keep their identities unknown so I could get their honest opinion.

And you know, to the six to eight dealers I spoke to that, I know it was kind of split down the middle, and then I'll kind of interject my thoughts as well. We're gonna get to the Hobby release schedule. We're not gonna do a new segment on this episode to keep this episode pretty short, and Sweet's not gonna shouldn't be a long one. So let's get to the Hobby product relief schedule and then we'll tackle this topic.

All right, Let's talk about the releases coming out in the next few weeks. On the twentieth of August, Foundation Seasons one and two from Rittenhouse, same day, twenty twenty five, Leaf Glory in the Game Football twenty twenty five, Panini Boys of Summer Baseball twentieth Still the Boys Season one and two Star Wars Tops Chrome, including the Breakers Delight Edition. The following day, eight twenty one, we have twenty twenty four Panini Immaculate Football twenty twenty five, Leaf Eclectic Pro Bowling Association Hobby in Jumbos. On the twenty second, twenty twenty five, Panini Prism Live Golf twenty twenty five, Leaf Major League Table Tennis Premiere Edition, Leaf Metal twenty twenty five, Authentics Pokemon twenty twenty five Holliday Calendar Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Black Boat Booster Bundle, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet White Flare Booster Bundle, take a few days off and move to the twenty seventh, twenty twenty five Panini Origins Football twenty twenty five, Panini Prism FIFA Club World Cup Soccer twenty twenty five, Panini Select Racing same day on the twenty seventh, twenty twenty five Pulse Meridian Baseball including the heat Seekers Audition twenty twenty five tops Chrome Baseball Sapphire.

Also on the twenty seventh, twenty twenty four to twenty five Upper Deck Clearcut Hockey, James Bond Double seven, No Time to Die from Upper Deck, going to the twenty eighth twenty twenty five Pieces of Past seventeen seventy six, The Freedom Fighters Veterans Edition, the twenty ninth, twenty twenty five Leaf Opta Chrome Football Hobby and Jumbos Skybox Metal Universe Batman from Upper Deck twenty twenty four to twenty five, Pannini Donerus Optic Choice Basketball twenty twenty five, Pannini and Peckaboat Baseball twenty twenty four twenty five Pannini Silhouette Baseball twenty twenty four, twenty five Tops or twenty twenty five Tops, chrumb WWE Cactus Jack Edition Tops twenty four Garbage Camp, Garbage Pale Kids Battle the Band's Green Day, and we'll cover the September fourth, twenty twenty four Pannini won Football. As I always say, choose your happy ripping. Hi, this is Pat Hughes, Cubs announcer, coming to you from the Sports Card Shop in beautiful New Buffalo, Michigan. The Gocher family has built an incredible place here for collectors to buy, sell, and trade cards and memorabilia.

Be sure to stop buy and let them show you around the Sportscardshop dot com, connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors around the world. Hi, this is Alan Pinkett and I'm here to tell you the Gocher family has done it again. They've just opened up the Sport Card Shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana, and it is awesome. If you're a collector, you need to check this place out.

Tell them Alan sent you and get a free gift on your first visit. And now it's our feature presentation. Before we delve into this topic. Let me do some house cleaning and put some stuff out front here.

I'm generally not a trade night guy, although I will tell you at this year's National, I did go to the Vintage Trade Night for a little bit before I had a dinner to attend, and then there was another night. I did briefly attend the trade night, but generally they are not my bag, especially when they occur after a show has already taken place. Here's why. Just so you don't think I'm just a curmudgeon or a grumpy guss, although that may not be untrue.

But I kid you know. You spend six eight hours in the show, whether that's behind the table as a dealer, even as a consumer, in front of the table, walking the floor. For me, and I'm passionate about the hobby. I love the hobby.

I love collecting cars, I love selling cars. I love all the aspects of the hobby. But after six eight ten hours of cards, folks, I'm sort of done. I'm looking for especially when we talk about the National, I'm sort of looking forward to the dinners and gets togethers.

And while we may talk about cards or things we picked up during the day, it's in a different kind of setting, right, usually a restaurant or a bar, a little more relaxing. We can kind of chill out, sit down, share a meal, share some drinks, talk about not only cards but life as well, and that sort of thing. Right, So that is, you know, sort of my take on trade nights. I'm not anti trade night, it's just not my thing.

But you know, when you're tend the National for the whole week, you talk to a lot of people on all aspects of a hobby, dealers, collectors, people just selling their cards from table to table, the whole gamut. And you know, I spoke to, you know, six to eight friends of mine that told me, combined by adding up what they told me, they spent cash not in the show, but in trade nights. So I have eight people I know who when I told me what they spent not on the show for itself, but after the show was closed in trade nights, and just the eight people I spoke to, it was over fifty thousand dollars combined. And that's a decent amount of cash, right, And obviously there's probably millions going down in the show itself, and so you know, keep that in perspective.

But I really thought about it, right, And that's just you know, eight people I spoke to. That means it's more transaction than that people I don't know and didn't speak to, right, And there's probably millions of dollars exchanging hands on the Trade Night floor as well after the show. And it got me to thinking, I've never set up at a national I'm a dealer who sets up at other shows, you know, what's my feelings about that? And I you know, I'm not greedy, but I'm entrepreneurial, right, And I'm thinking to myself these trade nights, right, everyone's just throwing their cards out on a round table. They're on the floor, sitting Indian style with all their prize possessions or available cards placed in front of them.

And some are trade deals where there's no cash and well, and other times it's just a buy and sell. Right, It's a lot of different transactions going on. And as a dealer, you know, knowing that now, as a dealer, could I still attend Trade Night myself and bring some of my stuff to Trade Night? Sure? So the opportunity is there for that. But I thought, what if I'm a dealer and I don't set up at trade night, and all this other money is exchanging hands.

And the folks that are at the trade night, they're not paying any kind of table expense. Sure, they're paying the expense to get to in this case Chicago and their hotels. They're staying at a hotel, and their travel expenses, and they're lodging and food and Uber and you know everything that's entail. But they're not paying the setup fees to set up, you know, inside the National itself.

And obviously more people are attending the National to show itself than the trade nights. But I tell you the truth. I you know, I can't drive to Chicago, But if I did, you know, I think I've changed my I think next, if I ever the next National, I drive to whatever that might be. I might bring some stuff and just set up a table at a trade night and make some money without paying that National you know card show fee, that table fee, right, And the last I knew, and I don't know what the current regime is.

I think it was like something like and I could be under I could be low here between twelve hundred and eighteen hundred for a table at the Nashville I believe eight feet that could be wrong. If you don't bring your showcases, right, you have to write your showcases. I believe those are seventy five dollars a case. Again, these are approximate estimates based on either information I've had prior or talking the people.

Right, So it's four figures for sure, right, And that number again might be higher than I'm even saying. And so if I can just set up shop at a trade night and make thousands of dollars without paying thousands of dollars like I don't blame the people at trade night. It's not their fault. They're just taking advantage of the opportunity presented to them.

It's smart. It's smart on their part. But if I'm a dealer at the show, that kind of bothers me a little bit, because you know, you can hate me for saying this, but here you got here. I'm paying to set up the privilege and honor to set up and sell my cards and items, and then someone after hours can set up in pretty much the same building in a different room and sell their stuff with no overhead like I have.

They don't even need showcases, right, They're putting these cards right out on the table. Some people might have brought their own cases, but generally the higher percentages they're just putting the cards on the table. Now, obviously they're at greater risk for something to be taken or stolen and that sort of thing. But it's a great opportunity, knows, folks, and they're taking advantage of it right to make some cash.

And is that cash going back into the hobby most likely in fright. Frankly, that's none of my business whether it does or it doesn't. But if I'm a dealer, that sort of would bother me, because, right everyone has a budget of some sort. Some are higher than others.

Your budget might be under a thousand bucks. Your budget might be between one and ten thousand, like mine is. Your budget might be ten thousand to twenty thousand. Your budget might be six figures if you're, you know, financially in a really really good spot.

So everyone's budgets different, but everyone has a budget a cap at some point that they really can't go past. And when those moneies are exchanging hands on a trade night floor, that budget most likely goes down for many, may go up for some that are making the sales, but that's money that could have been spent during show hours. And so as a dealer, is it a deal breaker for me? Would I like not set up at the National if I was setting up at the National? No, And I don't think. And the dealers I spoke to in full disclosure, no one, even the ones that sort of didn't like the premise of trade Night, none of them said that it would be a reason they wouldn't set up at the National.

Gain. They may not like it, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't set up at the National again. And a good percentage of the ones I spoke to were not first time vendors. These are people who've been there multiple times or there every year.

And so for me, speaking for myself as someone who's a dealer but not a national dealer, it would kind of bug me a little bit that, you know, we're sort of paying their twos during the day and at night. It's sort of you know, the wild Wall West and free enterprise. And like I said, I've even thought about, like, if the next Nationale I can drive to and bring more stuff with me, I might just put my stuff out there and generate hopefully some cash flow and spend more money at the Nationale and yes, there is a positive too, right, it's not all negative side. Right.

If you make some money on trade night, again, like I said already, you're probably apt to spend more on the show floor the following days for more cards. But you know, not all that money goes back onto the show floor, and so dealers are sort of losing out probably a small piece of that pie, but it is a piece of that pie. So again I spoke to some dealers that I know got their honest to take, honest assessment and takes promised I would not disclose their names or business names, and I'm not going to. And even the ones dad said positive stuff that didn't say, like you don't have you can share my name.

I'm not going to just be fair across the board. So some of the positive comments from dealers who set up in the National, you know, their take was, hey, maybe it brings more people to the National. If there weren't trade Knights, maybe some people wouldn't come in to the show at all. Now I don't know what, you know, how true or what percentage that would be, but I'm sure there is some truth to that.

Another gentleman told me, like the trade Knights don't really bother him because he does fairly well and he doesn't think it really affects him too much. Another gentleman and told me that he thinks trade nights are good. It just keeps the transactions going, It keeps people in a great mood. And he thinks he's a vintage dealer, and he thinks two things.

He thinks that a lot of the trade night stuff is on modern and ultra modern, so it really doesn't affect him too much directly as he doesn't carry that stuff. And he thinks even when there is vintage at a trade night, it does expose some of those the younger set, if he will, is how he worded it, maybe to consider adding vintage to what they collect and transact in. So those were sort of the positive comments. Another person told me, you know, they can't control it.

They don't worry about it that may you know, I get that stance as well. Some of the you know, the negative and it was probably sixty forty positive, but some of the negative comments were kind of how I feel. Right, It's like, in a sense, folks are getting sort of free table space to make some money where they're paying for their table space. On One person told me they'd like to see it a little bit more organized, where you have to pay, maybe not obviously what you pay to set up at the National itself, but a small fee to set up one.

One gentleman even said, you know, they should pay for a table. And even if the National doesn't, you know, it sponsors it but doesn't keep the money, use that money and give it to the charities that they work with. Right, So let's say you wanted to attend, you wanted to sell or trade at the trade night, it'd be fifty bucks for a table, and that fifty bucks would go to you know, whatever charity of choice the National designates, or various charities of choice for the National. I kind of liked that idea.

So they sort of pay a little bit of the freight and people, you know, some people who could use the funds would benefit from those table feed whether it's fifty bucks one hundred bucks, that's for the powers to be to determine the cost to set up at the trade night, maybe even charge admission. Right, so if you go to a trade night but you're not getting the table, you're just walking around with your shoe box or's ion case. Maybe a couple bucks to get in or five bucks to get in again. That money could go to charity, right, that sort of thing.

So I kind of like that. Another dealer was a little more strong about it. He just thinks it's sort of he told me. He thinks it's very unfair.

It's not going to cause him, it's not going to stop him from setting up. But he just thinks it's not you know, it's not the ideal. And he thinks that it does affect maybe how much money's in the room, even though that number is huge no matter what it is. He thinks there's some money getting sucked out of the room and he's not excited about that.

Kenny said, it's not a deal breaker form, but he says if he's being honest, which I asked him to be, that was his take, and so I get it. Trade night is great promotion for the hobby. Keeps the show going, it keeps people there. You know, I thought about it.

You're hearing some of these impromptu trade nights in the hotel lobbies, right, people up to one, two, three in the morning. I can't do this. I can't do that at my age. Now, God bless you.

If you can but man, you know, those are just long days and that sort of thing. But again, to each their own, it's not going to stop me from attending the National. I may not go to every trade night and may pop in and then pop out. It's just not my scene, if you will.

But you know they're not going away, right. We can talk about it on this episode, the pros the cons, But at the end of the day, they're not going away, and if anything, we're going to see more of them, and they're gonna get bigger and better, you know. Like the one dealer I spoke to, I like to see a little more organization with it, maybe to raise some money for good causes at the same time as promoting the hobby. So I'm not opposed that.

I thought that was a great idea proposed by that person that I spoke to. Like I said, the next national I go to where I get to drive to, I'm probably gonna bring a case of cards and maybe, you know, take advantage of the situation, if you will, for the sheer fact of just adding to my co you know, gophers for money I could spend in cards I could buy on the subsequent days after these trade nights. If I sell some of my wear. So what say you? Whether you're a dealer or just a consumer or someone that that sets goes to trade night, sets up at trade night, trays by, buys and sell.

What are your thoughts? Do you think maybe having it more organized and collecting small fees that go to chair do you something you wouldn't mind? Let me know, goodbad, or indifferent? Let me know your thoughts. Stealer not dealer, doesn't matter. Everybody's opinion counts, all right. Thank you for listening to another episode of Hobby Quick Hits.

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