Expo
This may be a different post than anything I have ever written. It is purely from the heart and from careful analysis and thoughts over the past 4 days at expo and my day off today.
As I get older, I tend to see things a bit differently. There is a general sense of time is running out combined with a fear of scarcity running through my veins. Rightly or wrongly it is what it is. Most would call this a proper midlife crisis, except I am not buying a new car or chasing a new skirt. My wife has been my rock through all my trials and tribulations.
I am going to write what I write and I hope you take what you need from it and get a glimpse into the mind of a middle aged guy who feels like he has been caught straddling a giant fence..
Expo was bittersweet in that I love it. I love the friends. I love meeting new people but there has been something gnawing at me for the past few years and arguably most of my life.
Aside from good friends, I met some new folks. The guys and gals I call my friends are getting older, some still look great, others are not faring as well and quite a few have passed on. Most of the folks I chatted with are greying with grace and speak with a wisdom of a wise elephant. Some folks never got past the age of 12 in terms of maturity. The key is that I love them all and I can’t wait to see them in November. I got a chance to hang out with a good portion of the crew at the HI dinner at Jack Astors. I somehow became Jeremy-light as the restaurant manager came to me to ask about how many people were coming and how to split the bills. Haha.
The crowd is younger, more diverse and hungrier than ever and very intelligent. I witnessed young kids who are no older than 12, using technology to hunt for bargains and negotiate deals. The older crowd I used to sell too, appear at the show less and less each year. I mentioned a few have departed and a few have lost interest and/or feel priced out of the market. There are far more women in the arena and people from many diverse backgrounds. It’s less about player collecting and more about investments pieces, slabs, soccer, football, and goats from all various sports and non sports.
Collecting cliques have formed and everyone is flossin’ the latest swag. The show is definitely more of a trade show looks very polished. I was happy to see that.
Over the past 4 shows, I am seeing big dollars change hands, myself included. Those used to be rare but now it feels normal. If I were to compare this to November, people were way more cautious about spending money and cards have dropped. We didn’t have Jeremy or his crew of SCL fans, we didn’t have the cameras running about from Sport Card Investor.
Technology is so ****ing cool. I played around with the centre stage AI application and I was blown away. Take one picture and all the historical pricing appears on your phone. I talked to the two folks from that company for about an hour or more and they have the right plan. I hope it scales well.
I did deals on people I knew from instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and various other social media outlets and of course at the show. I did superbly well and was happy with the ROI but I was still not superbly satisfied.
Not having Jeremy set up besides me that felt weird. I have sat beside him for over 15 years and I think he missed 2 shows in that time. The guys at the booth were commenting on how it was odd not to people watch while Jeremy was doing deals. We have him down to a science.. Btw Jeremy, we know when you are not really listening and just nodding your head when we tell you what card we bought. HAHA..
I took a few moments to walk around the show but I was very selective in my buying. There was a moment where I stood in the aisles and watched Quincy doing deals, TuukkaTime, LSOH and so many others. It was as if I took a mental note in my mind to enjoy the sights and sounds of those whose company I enjoy. As I said earlier, a few folks left the stage. Who knows when the usual crew may do the same. I smiled amidst the sounds of Randy from Upper Deck trying to get everyone to say they love Upper Deck. I love Randy but Chris’s voice was the one I really wanted to hear and I hope he comes back.
I picked up 12-25 cards in total. All were investment pieces. I sent off about 10 - 15 cards to PSA via the East Coast Mafia and another 10 - 15 to Beckett via Charles in charge. I sent off about 60 cards to be auctioned off with a good buddy of ours and dropped off 3500 cards to COMC.
I will be changing how I do my selling and what inventory I will be bringing to the next show. I feel good about the direction I want to go in. I hope I don’t disappoint some of my regulars but it’s time to change. I will def bring in more of my slabs as those sold well and keep my inventory to reflect what people asked more about and what I know well. It will be a fun change as I will burn through my inventory a bit quicker to raise capital for what I want to do next.
My favourite deal was getting a Playmakers Theatre Ovechkin /100 which was in a fantastic shape. I hope BGS treats me well on that. I also picked up a Stef curry rookie too along with a PSA 10 Marner YG. Truth be told I can’t recall what else I bought. I will find out once I get my grading order back and bend over once I get the invoice.
All in all, the feeling I got was that I was priced out of the market. I don’t have the bankroll like some guys / gals do to fill their show cases and that is okay. I was dealing with a deep seated feeling of insecurity when I was comparing my show cases with others. It got so bad that I didn’t want to do the YouTube show because I felt like I wasn’t good enough or cool enough like the latest kids. In short, I wasn’t feeling like my usual self. Falling into that trap was the biggest mistake I made.. I put a pause on the YT show and I kind of recoiled back into obscurity so that I could fix my thinking. I still struggle from it a bit but now I feel better and I can talk about it. My wife has been the backbone for me and helped me get through some of what I would consider darker times. Phew, now I got that off my chest because so many people were asking me why I was not on social and not doing videos and not talking to people. I just went dark and I hope if any of you out there is feeling the same, it is okay to be NOT ok. This too shall pass is my motto.
I look forward to the usual suspects next year. I look forward to seeing more of my usual self. I sure as **** didn’t like where I had gone in the past year. I missed my usual self. I am glad he is back.
Take care and see you next show.
PS: Someone please tell Jeremy to take his vitamins/flu shots.
PPS: I will give a special shout out to Quincy. Thanks for letting me vent and thanks for being a ****ing cool dude and always willing to hear a brother out.
PPPS: There are far too many of you who have been kind to me. Thank you all for being there for me. Much appreciated.
This may be a different post than anything I have ever written. It is purely from the heart and from careful analysis and thoughts over the past 4 days at expo and my day off today.
As I get older, I tend to see things a bit differently. There is a general sense of time is running out combined with a fear of scarcity running through my veins. Rightly or wrongly it is what it is. Most would call this a proper midlife crisis, except I am not buying a new car or chasing a new skirt. My wife has been my rock through all my trials and tribulations.
I am going to write what I write and I hope you take what you need from it and get a glimpse into the mind of a middle aged guy who feels like he has been caught straddling a giant fence..
Expo was bittersweet in that I love it. I love the friends. I love meeting new people but there has been something gnawing at me for the past few years and arguably most of my life.
Aside from good friends, I met some new folks. The guys and gals I call my friends are getting older, some still look great, others are not faring as well and quite a few have passed on. Most of the folks I chatted with are greying with grace and speak with a wisdom of a wise elephant. Some folks never got past the age of 12 in terms of maturity. The key is that I love them all and I can’t wait to see them in November. I got a chance to hang out with a good portion of the crew at the HI dinner at Jack Astors. I somehow became Jeremy-light as the restaurant manager came to me to ask about how many people were coming and how to split the bills. Haha.
The crowd is younger, more diverse and hungrier than ever and very intelligent. I witnessed young kids who are no older than 12, using technology to hunt for bargains and negotiate deals. The older crowd I used to sell too, appear at the show less and less each year. I mentioned a few have departed and a few have lost interest and/or feel priced out of the market. There are far more women in the arena and people from many diverse backgrounds. It’s less about player collecting and more about investments pieces, slabs, soccer, football, and goats from all various sports and non sports.
Collecting cliques have formed and everyone is flossin’ the latest swag. The show is definitely more of a trade show looks very polished. I was happy to see that.
Over the past 4 shows, I am seeing big dollars change hands, myself included. Those used to be rare but now it feels normal. If I were to compare this to November, people were way more cautious about spending money and cards have dropped. We didn’t have Jeremy or his crew of SCL fans, we didn’t have the cameras running about from Sport Card Investor.
Technology is so ****ing cool. I played around with the centre stage AI application and I was blown away. Take one picture and all the historical pricing appears on your phone. I talked to the two folks from that company for about an hour or more and they have the right plan. I hope it scales well.
I did deals on people I knew from instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and various other social media outlets and of course at the show. I did superbly well and was happy with the ROI but I was still not superbly satisfied.
Not having Jeremy set up besides me that felt weird. I have sat beside him for over 15 years and I think he missed 2 shows in that time. The guys at the booth were commenting on how it was odd not to people watch while Jeremy was doing deals. We have him down to a science.. Btw Jeremy, we know when you are not really listening and just nodding your head when we tell you what card we bought. HAHA..
I took a few moments to walk around the show but I was very selective in my buying. There was a moment where I stood in the aisles and watched Quincy doing deals, TuukkaTime, LSOH and so many others. It was as if I took a mental note in my mind to enjoy the sights and sounds of those whose company I enjoy. As I said earlier, a few folks left the stage. Who knows when the usual crew may do the same. I smiled amidst the sounds of Randy from Upper Deck trying to get everyone to say they love Upper Deck. I love Randy but Chris’s voice was the one I really wanted to hear and I hope he comes back.
I picked up 12-25 cards in total. All were investment pieces. I sent off about 10 - 15 cards to PSA via the East Coast Mafia and another 10 - 15 to Beckett via Charles in charge. I sent off about 60 cards to be auctioned off with a good buddy of ours and dropped off 3500 cards to COMC.
I will be changing how I do my selling and what inventory I will be bringing to the next show. I feel good about the direction I want to go in. I hope I don’t disappoint some of my regulars but it’s time to change. I will def bring in more of my slabs as those sold well and keep my inventory to reflect what people asked more about and what I know well. It will be a fun change as I will burn through my inventory a bit quicker to raise capital for what I want to do next.
My favourite deal was getting a Playmakers Theatre Ovechkin /100 which was in a fantastic shape. I hope BGS treats me well on that. I also picked up a Stef curry rookie too along with a PSA 10 Marner YG. Truth be told I can’t recall what else I bought. I will find out once I get my grading order back and bend over once I get the invoice.
All in all, the feeling I got was that I was priced out of the market. I don’t have the bankroll like some guys / gals do to fill their show cases and that is okay. I was dealing with a deep seated feeling of insecurity when I was comparing my show cases with others. It got so bad that I didn’t want to do the YouTube show because I felt like I wasn’t good enough or cool enough like the latest kids. In short, I wasn’t feeling like my usual self. Falling into that trap was the biggest mistake I made.. I put a pause on the YT show and I kind of recoiled back into obscurity so that I could fix my thinking. I still struggle from it a bit but now I feel better and I can talk about it. My wife has been the backbone for me and helped me get through some of what I would consider darker times. Phew, now I got that off my chest because so many people were asking me why I was not on social and not doing videos and not talking to people. I just went dark and I hope if any of you out there is feeling the same, it is okay to be NOT ok. This too shall pass is my motto.
I look forward to the usual suspects next year. I look forward to seeing more of my usual self. I sure as **** didn’t like where I had gone in the past year. I missed my usual self. I am glad he is back.
Take care and see you next show.
PS: Someone please tell Jeremy to take his vitamins/flu shots.
PPS: I will give a special shout out to Quincy. Thanks for letting me vent and thanks for being a ****ing cool dude and always willing to hear a brother out.
PPPS: There are far too many of you who have been kind to me. Thank you all for being there for me. Much appreciated.
