2024 Fall expo thread-

Great time as always seeing everyone, for me its more or less about the community there everyone is polite and respectful. A ton of dealers seem like they want to help collectors finish their projects/sets, a few of them asked me to email em my wantlist since they go around to a ton of shows

I told em Id pay a finders fee and they said they dont want one, they just enjoy assisting others... gotta love ppl like that

Have a few funny stories:
1) This guy (Eitan- hockeycardscartel on ig) have been messaging each other for a solid year on ig. He had no clue what I looked like and I told him he would get to see what I looked like at the show. Wanted to mess with him so I went up to his booth and low balled the heck out of him on a Mcdavid rc with a straight face and his body language was "that is a total kick in the nuts but imma be polite about not accepting your offer with a smile". After he said he would take 1500 for the card (my offer was 400) I introduced myself and we had a good laugh

2) I was chatting with a dealer about a few of my rarer wants (some of them are expensive i guess)... a person (maybe 50-60) looked at me and asked "are you Jeff Bezoz's son?"... I replied "yes" and his jaw dropped, I guess he believed me

3) I had a small cardboard box I was carrying around with just some random packs of cards I was giving away to ppl I knew (nothing huge $100 worth of older packs and 22-23 S2). I was looking at a dealer's stuff and some random guy kept up to me and was just not stop talking about whatever while I'm trying to look. He then asked what I had in the box I told him just packs I was giving out to ppl nothing special. Then he said at a previous show he was following a guy with a briefcase full of money, the guy gave him $100 to stop following him. I started to leave going to a different table and he followed and blabbed so I just said "I cant talk to you right now" and he stopped and just went away... never can be too careful I guess, worse comes to worst security is all over so just seek assistance



Great seeing everyone I saw!!!! Had a blast as always pumped for Spring (which from what I hear is bigger than fall)
 
I found it alittle underwhelming. Lots of dealers very overpriced, some dealers with the same cards last 5 shows at the same price, and the new hall layout wasn’t the best.
 
Made it to the show for the first time in 7 years, and a lot has changed, some good and some not so good. I will start off and say that getting into the show was SOOOO much better than at the National this year. The show team did a good job keeping the lines moving. The new setup in my opinion was not bad, just a lot more walking for sure.

As far as the items to buy goes, yeah there was a LOT of high-end, I expect that at a large show. My problem was that I remember a lot more collectible pieces being available. I am always looking for the oddball Lemieux pieces, coins, tickets, etc. There was not much to be had, that was a let down. I also struggled to find much Lemieux that was not base 1990's or high-end, where was all the $20 to $250 cards?

I will say as far as getting cards for my semi-master set, now that was a good time, I found a bunch of those and some of the harder ones. So yeah it was good overall, was completely worn out both days, so you know it was a good day.

Don't plan on another trip for a while, but as always, shows like this are what you make of it. So put a little effort into it, try something new, and talk to as many as you can! I did learn a good bit about PSA 10 Lemieux rookies on Saturday, had no idea about the lettering on the back, and what some will pay for the "better" card.

Cheers to all!
Thad
 
I have to say, first deal I did was so easy and smooth. Guy had a complete set of Forever Rivals Autos and I picked up some of the better ones (Sundin, Keon, Gilmour, Salming) etc. for a good price. Found my wanted Sundin Patch auto pretty fast too for a good deal. Found a dealer who had a card on Ebay that I offered for many times and never got anywhere - ended up getting it on the second day for way under any of my previous offers!

Knies was hot hot hot, Matthews was not. So many amazing dealers, love all the ones who just let you know right away that they're not interested and the ones who try really hard to make it work. I have to say, I know for some it's a business and for some they need to make profit. My only unpleasurable experience was a dealer who was unrealistic. Wanted a specific card, offered him more than fair trade/cash deal - I was definitely already over paying - and he wanted like an extra $100 on top and then got flustered when he didn't get it and said if were going to deal like that no thanks. But this is the negotiation and no hard feelings from me.

Some dealers with some really beautiful cards, maybe it was me but it really didn't seem like there were a lot of super unique cards - maybe they're in PCs - but a lot of similar stuff from booth to booth.
 
Knies was hot hot hot, Matthews was not.

Very true. I'll go a little further:
My front cases are all marquee players - Gretzky, Crosby, Ovechkin, Lemieux, Matthews, McDavid, Mackinnon, Makar (lotta Ms...) etc. You get the idea. Those cases did not do the heavy lifting this expo. My three side cases with veterans of various caliber? PICKED CLEAN. People fell on those cases like a coyote on a 3-legged Pomeranian. The rookie cases were middling action, with a lot of call for Knies.

Every Expo is a little different, and this was a new wrinkle on me.
 
I watched a deal for a PSA 1 Vezina RC. Sticker was $13.5k. Buyer offered $11.5k and dealer went down to $12.5k. Lots of back and forth until the buyer offered a coin toss solution. Heads he wins and pays $11.5k, tails the dealer wins and the buyer pays $13.5k. It was RIVETTING sh*t. it went about 10 minutes of trying to get the dealer to agree. The buyer pulls out $12k in $100s and lays it on the table to add pressure. Dealer doesn't fall for it. They go on for a bit and finally the buyer gets impatient and they agree to a $12.2k deal. RIVETTING.

When I realize a deal was made, I ask them all "no flip?" and they say no. I "cha, bumboclat" my way out of there.
 
Interesting notes so far.


People were great except for one dirtbag who was a dealer. I've known him so well that I don't even bother getting up from my chair.

A few positive highlights shall we! See below.

* I loved the floor plan. It was spacious as F and load of room to move.
* I was not set up with Gomaz. I thought I'd get separation anxiety but I was able to manage lol
* I was stones throw from Steve Angel (Quincy) which was awesome. Shirts hideous but no one cares lol
* My area was a magnet for the influencers who made life interesting.
* I got to interview Doctor Collectible and Rothcards. That actually made my day. I missing doing the podcast so much.
* I met a clubhouse app friend, COMC friends and enemies-that-became-friends-by-the-end-of-the-show.
* I got to meet Candice from Press Pass Breaks. Super nice but was too sick to do the panel with the above mentioned folks.
* I got to say hello and shake hands with my hobby friends.
* There was a **** load of TCG on the floor. I picked up a 1st edition Venosaur for my little guy.
* A YouTuber kid who's name I forget, gave me a compliment that my show cases and pricing was the best in the show. I still can't fathom how he opened up his briefcase with about $7,500 bucks in there. When I was a teenager, I had like $50 to my name. I was super appreciative of his purchases. Maybe he was being kind to his elders? Who knows.
* The bathrooms were not as awful as years past.
* Couldn't get food because lines were too long. I nearly passed out from hunger.
* The Noise was manageable unless years past where the announcers would blow your ear drums off
* dumping off my COMC shipment so I can get rid of the dead weight lol
* Lots of non sport on the floor.
* I gave a kids free cards and they were happy.
* I didn't leave my booth that often :)
* Avalanche fan gave me a pack of OPC. That was fun to rip.
* I opened my customary one or 2 boxes of product for fun.


Ok lets get into what sold!

My booth was in a great spot so people found me easily. I had a mix of lower end, middle and top end cards. I'd have to say that I didn't move as many out of the show cases as I have in the past but I did manage to sell enough out of there. I think 25-30 cards as follows: Marner YGs and FWA, Matthews slabbed 9.5s, Doncic Prizm PSA 10, Kobe slabs, Jordan Slabs, Gretzky PSA 10s, Luke Hughes YG PSA along with many non sport autos and mem.

Everyone wanted Knies and I sold all of them, phew.
I am going to set up a donation box for every-time someone asked me if I have a Dimed McDavid YG. DIMED? FML.. yea DIMED.. and this guy was older than me.

My big winners were the patch / auto boxes that I kept refilling and of course my $2 - $10 boxes which I happily reduced through sales and/or packing up a big lot for COMC :)
 
am going to set up a donation box for every-time someone asked me if I have a Dimed McDavid YG. DIMED? FML.. yea DIMED.. and this guy was older than me.

For the uninitiated, such as myself, wtf does "dimed" mean?
 
I am a foolish fool. I was in Toronto...and completely spaced that this was even happening. It wasn't until I was talking to some hockey fans at the hotel did they inform me that I had missed it.

Shame on me.
 
I had a short visit, and thanks to Steve for getting me in the door and amongst the people... :) My mind was elsewhere Thursday and Friday while I was there and while I enjoyed looking around, my hobby passion was somewhat low. That said, it was great to see all of the people that I did and happen to know (Steve, Josh, Rob, Carlos, Art, Jeff, Ameet, Jeremy, Mel, etc.) most of you I met 20 to 25 years ago because of this hobby.

Here's hoping I'm closer to my usual self come next show.

And I will add in that I thought the layout with the combined halls was far superior to what was endured the last few years with the connector hallway. It did suck trying to find some people as everyone was moved around, but as mentioned above, it felt more spacious to me.

See you all next show!

Cory
 
Stopped by Expo Thurs/Fri/Sat. The new layout was way better IMO, but it was easy to get turned around. Some of my personal highlights;

- Talking non-sports stuffs over at Quincy and Ameets booths. Can never have enough Michael Keaton autos...
- Chatting with Kelvin over at F&C about older inserts and COMC.
- Meeting up with my usual $1 box nemesis'. Always fun to see what gets pulled out of the boxes.
- Seeing Chinner try and work the floor to move his SPA quad auto.
- Finding out Kenny from Imperial is a big Forsberg guy. Known the guy for years and he's never mentioned it. He grabbed my Forsberg/Hasek SPA auto.
- Couldn't believe how many guys from Vancouver made the trip out. Seemed like every time I turned a corner, I ran into one of the locals.
- Didn't succumb to the "Let's open wax for fun on the last day" trope that usually hits. Although I would have opened some Marvel Studios S1 if there was any reasonably priced.

Now just one more local show and then I can rest my back. It's getting killed looking through all the bins/boxes lately.
 
I was only down there for Friday and spent from 11-4 or so trying to navigate around. I said a quick hi to Q and Jeremy as I passed by their booths but did not have time to chat for long as my time was short. I did stop by Ameet's booth but he must has been in the long food lines at the time (will catch you next time).

I did not miss "the connector" at all, but I did find it harder to keep track of the rows I was done and not as some of the larger booths (CSC) broke up some rows and not others. Overall it was not a bad layout to be honest, just different. I believe I heard it will be back to the usual layout for spring but that was just a rumor.

My buddy was looking for a Jordan RC and they were few and far between and the ones that were on display were very high grade for well over his limit. He did find a BVG 3 but was not able to make the deal.

I am not looking in the display cases for the most part as I am a $1/value box guy. Found a few sellers with decent boxes and deals but I found a trend that most of the boxes were filled with priced as marked cards with no additional deals. It is possible I could work a deal in the end but with limited time I prefer to know the deal ahead of time so I don't waste time. I literally found one side table box with a Draisiatl 1/1 Tonight's lineup card with a sticker for $2,000, not what I expect to find in those.

Parking was still a nightmare and I ended up parking in the same area I normally do for Hall 5 when the entrance was Hall 2/3. It was a bit cool standing outside but I enjoyed not lining up outside, only to buy a ticket to lineup again inside.

Overall I had a great time and look forward to the next.
 
I had potentially my best show yet in terms of picks ups. It was really nice to see so much wrestling in cases. I'm fairly new into that area of the hobby and got 3 of my 6 big wants in wrestling autos. I also did really well on the Marvel side, with some real fun Marvel Studios Allure breaks.
It was fantastic seeing so many people again, Jeremy, Ameet and Norm included, if even for only a few moments.
I really liked the layout of the show this year, seemed a little bit more opened up, however the concession area was a bit of a tangle and the random Pizza Pizza spot up by the main entrance kind of made for a rough bottle neck.
All in all, solid show, hoping to get back for next fall.
 
It's always a fun time to make the trek out east to Toronto for the expo.

- I found the new layout much better. There was no "bottleneck" like the last show with the connector hallway. It feels like a single large space. I felt that the autograph pavilion and grading areas were nicely positioned to allow for the larger crowds/lines.

- It was great to connect with old hobby friends and new hobby friends. Shoutout to Quincy for allowing me to use his booth as a home base to rest my feet throughout the show. I always enjoy shooting the breeze and catching up on all things hobby related. Quincy also has one of the best booths in terms of quality and variety of singles available. Not a shabby place to drool over nice cardboard. I always try to snag something for the PC from his booth.

- Walking around and bargain bin hunting with OT Sports. The amount of knowledge this guy has related to all things cardboard is astonishing. News flash, I still have the SPA quad auto lol.

- Lots of people from Vancouver. It's good to see more people exploring shows outside of BC, that just means there is a little less Canucks stuff to pick out from this show.

- Heavy presence with the social media influencers and repackers. The expo is definitely on the radar for collectors outside of Canada.
 
Here is a brief story and experience;

First time I was able to spend all of Saturday at an expo, as I arrived Friday evening. Part of Sunday as always. Which is the problem. I want to spend ALL Sunday there next year.

So first of all, right off the bat I noticed maybe there wasn't as many people as last year. I walked around and unknowingly went to Jeremy's table. I recently picked up some Edvinsson cards and have been mysteriously pulling him so a card of his caught my eye, finally a decent price. So I met Gomaz for the first time. Obviously super nice, great prices, easy to deal with etc etc, never really went back to converse more which I had anticipated I would at the time.

But as time went on I realized the floor plan was just awesome. I swear there are sections I just could not find the time to go to. I picked up quite a few singles which was nice and not usual of me. So it is a goal of mine next year as well as being there for closing Sunday for deals. As usual I broke the usual amount of hobby boxes and whatnot. No clothes this time but I need to find an OHL or CHL team to follow because there were nice stuff there.

The only bottle-neck was having a washroom and a Pizza Pizza beside eachother near the entrance. A lot people in line there probably didn't realize there was other food and a whole cafeteria area which I never go to.

In my opinion it was great but 98% of showcase cards were vastly over-priced in my opinion. Dropped stuff off at COMC. Overall it was great.
 

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