November 2023 Sport Expo Thoughts

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hobbytime

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I went on Saturday. Busy as usual. Nice to see a very good turn out. Hall 5 always brings it as usual.

Now, the interchange between the halls. There was a HUGE bottleneck of people during the autograph sessions, it was really hard to move. I saw one guy try to cut through an emergency exit through a vendor and I heard their display crash down.

Besides that little hiccup, the people showed up huge for Price and Mike Tyson. There was a little too much extra space in the corporate area. Maybe they could stretched out the auto pavilion a little better as the lineups were too tight and crooked.

I feel bad for the vendors in the hallway interchange between the autograph sessions as it was impossible to browse their stuff during that time.
 
Yup that walkway of vendors between the halls have to go next show. Move those vendors to to the open space where the PSA booth was.

The big talk of the show was a guy stole a $12K PSA Bobby Orr rookie. His behind is gonna get caught for sure.
 
Went Friday - pretty manageable as far as the crowd. I'm considering popping back in on Sunday afternoon. Anyone know how busy Sunday afternoon is? Hoping maybe to get a deal or two
 
That hallway was a real joke, tried to get through and just turned back. I agree the vendors out there would suffer for sure. I arrived around11 and the parking lot was already full,had to park in an office building lot a block away.
Cheers
Dan.
 
TMLFan3 said:
Yup that walkway of vendors between the halls have to go next show. Move those vendors to to the open space where the PSA booth was.

The big talk of the show was a guy stole a $12K PSA Bobby Orr rookie. His behind is gonna get caught for sure.
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dam that is harsh. Do they have an idea who it was? I hope they get caught.
 
I feel for the dealers in that hallway and the autograph area. They need to swap out the grading area with the autograph pavilion so that crowd has their own area and the grading companies can do their thing in their area.

The Expo has outgrown the International Center but there are no other options.

The show itself is amazing. The turnout has been unbelievable and the quality of stuff is quite the thing to see. There is a slow turnover of pandemic dealers that bought in high, but the prices seem to be stabilizing. Hopefully people realize those prices aren't coming back and adjusting accordingly.
 
Triple B said:
I feel for the dealers in that hallway and the autograph area. They need to swap out the grading area with the autograph pavilion so that crowd has their own area and the grading companies can do their thing in their area.

The Expo has outgrown the International Center but there are no other options.

The show itself is amazing. The turnout has been unbelievable and the quality of stuff is quite the thing to see. There is a slow turnover of pandemic dealers that bought in high, but the prices seem to be stabilizing. Hopefully people realize those prices aren't coming back and adjusting accordingly.
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I agree with this. And the place I always come back to that can replace the International Center is the Metro Toronto Convention Center. The NHL is going to have their Fan Fest there. The show promoter has run Fan Expo and Comicon all the time there. He knows the site and square footage. There are hotels downtown. I guess the only downside is because they aren't close to the airport.
 
That hallway was absolutely brutal. I took a peek on Saturday and said, "forget it.". Thursday and Friday were much more manageable.
 
Another thing I will mention (and this is an old man take) is that there were quite a few female collectors in the crowd. It was nice to see them enjoying themselves and I had a chance to talk to one who collected Maple Leafs cards and she knew inside and out what she wanted to add to her PC. My kids don't like coming to card shows, but my daughter is excited to get her Lorcana cards back from PSA.
 
hobbytime said:
I agree with this. And the place I always come back to that can replace the International Center is the Metro Toronto Convention Center. The NHL is going to have their Fan Fest there. The show promoter has run Fan Expo and Comicon all the time there. He knows the site and square footage. There are hotels downtown. I guess the only downside is because they aren't close to the airport.
Click to expand...

Another downside is it is much more expensive for hotels downtown, and I would think cost per square foot for the Convention Centre is higher than the International Centre. And if the promoter makes that move, he is unlikely to get the International Centre back if it doesn't work out.

Cory
 
will-411 said:
Another downside is it is much more expensive for hotels downtown, and I would think cost per square foot for the Convention Centre is higher than the International Centre. And if the promoter makes that move, he is unlikely to get the International Centre back if it doesn't work out.

Cory
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There will be an exodus of dealers if that happens.

While the hobby remains high for now, it will contract again. Cycles come and go.
 
I'll also say, lots of nice stuff out there during the two days I went but not a whole heck of a lot of harder to find cards. Yes, some nice McDavid cards and such but it seems that people are holding their collections of autos and stuff. Not a ton of Future Watch Autos from the recent Sp Legends. Ran past a guy who bought a whole bunch of Brushstrokes autos from 08-09 Masterpieces. Almost bought the Salming Auto /10.
 
I was able to stop by late Friday afternoon for 4 hours. I think if they would have only vendors on one side of the hallway going from hall 3 to 5 that may help out the spacing to get back and forth. I always enjoy myself and is great catching up with a few people in person. I was also able to grab Ken Reid's new book and get it autographed to add to my collection. Grabbed the new ovechkin mcfarlane figurines to save shipping and it seemed like a lot more wax this year than in the past, so grabbed some AEW metal
 
Another 3 years and it will be 90% pokemon cards with the odd hockey guy scattered through out, as well as the pepperette guy :)
 

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