National Sports Card Con Report, Chicago

[HOTFLIPS]

Hello Everyone,

 

I know this is not suppose to be a Comic Book Convention & not sure if I am posting this in the right category. Comic Books were sold at this show, I guess this is close enough. Some are curious & some are not.

 

I reported to the Donald E. Stephens convention center Late Tuesday night for early Load in. It was 1 hour left before everyone had to leave. The Convention staff tried to get $100 out of me for early load in. The staff said it was the union that is doing this. Well, I remember last month at Wizard World & the last 6 years we were never charged for early load in. It wasn't worth $100 to try to rush this in 1 hour so I came back the next day.

 

Wednesday Night was preview night. The convention center has every square foot used for this convention, Wall to wall dealers & exhibitors,(More dealers than Wizard) filled with all kinds of Sports & Memoribila, & few Comic books that ws set up. They were dollar boxes.

 

I have some comic books set up, (2 small boxes) displayed, There were people looking at them & found that surprising. I was very limited on comic book supplies, who knew? Very few peopke asked if there are any Comic Book dealers at this convention.

 

Anyway, This show was a very slow moving pace & there were times that we were getting restless, As I looked around the whole convention center. There was a lot of interesting stuff there, Toys, action figures, board games, Lots of wax boxes.

 

I will be posting more for this weekend, It is great to be back in chicago & see a few familiar faces here, hope to see some more of you,This ooks like to be a fun & interesting show, No Long lines & lots of room to walk around.

 

We are set up at Booth #1640 by the autograph pavillion.

If anyone decide to go, stop by & say "HI" & protect your collectibles with us.

 

[capt_comics]

Post some pictures if you get some.

 

I've got a few friends that set up every year. The SD Comic-Con of sports cards.

 

I hope to make it to one of these soon.

 

 

[aardvark88]

SDCC is 90% mass media frenzy. The travelling National Card Show actually has booths full of raw, slabbed and wax boxes of real vintage cards and sports or non-sports memorabilia.

[capt_comics]

Yes, I've heard

 

A REAL sports card show with merchandise to peruse

 

 

 

[HOTFLIPS]

I will try to get some pictures, Today is Friday & the convention started off slow, Ryne Sandberg (CUBS 2nd baseman) had a huge line.

It wasn't jammed pack but the people knew what they wanted.

Yes there was plenty of merchandise to pursue at the convention.

This convention had a little bit of everything for the sportsfan. I also saw someone buying dollar comics at one booth.

Well, I don't have much to write about, I will try to get pictures & talk to few vendors

[HOTFLIPS]

It is Saturday & we went to to center to get ready for the big rush. Well it wasn' that big, There was no Line around the corner like it was at Wizard World. I saw some familiar people from Wizard buying all kinds of sports cards & memoriabila. There was no line to get in, we just walked right through the front door.

 

The only busy part of the convention is Tri Star, They are in charge of getting the sports celebrities. Today there was a lot of all time great football players, Like Tim Brown, LT. & John Riggins, all had tremendous lines. It looked ike the fans were all happy & was getting what they wanted.

 

As far as attendance goes, It looked like that they drew about 10,000 people so far this weekend.

 

I spoke to a few dealers & some of them asked "How does this show compare to Wizard World?" Now I did not know how to answer that, Some were saying that they would rather set up at a Comic Show instead & sell their sports cards & other sports related items. Both Conventions merging together, It might work. It worked for a couple of years in the late 80's & early 90's. Some people were asking if ther was any comics in the convention. I do remember some people asking if there are any sports cards at Wizard world last month. I guess it is possible. Maybe some Star Wars stormtroopers dressed in Team Jerseys, that would be a sight to see.

 

I did take some pictures & will post them when I get back to the Warehouse. There were a lot of neat things there, some dealers were trying to dump their Manny Ramierez autograph RED SOX jersey. No takers.

 

I am getting ready to get some sleep, tomorrow is the last day & back on the road.

[HOTFLIPS]

Sorry for the hold up about the last day of this convention.

 

All I can say is that last weekend was a totally different kind of convention. I would guess that this convention drew about 12,000 fans all weekend. (5 day convention) This convention had twice the dealers than Wizard World Chicago, but less fans, some were asking if I had any kind of comic book related stuff. There was one vendor that brought a few boxes of comics & was selling them for $1.00 each, He did sell half the stock.

 

This is suppose to be the biggest Sports card convention on the planet, It is thier San Diego Comic con, There were lots to choose from & every sports fan came out very happy. The one thing we noticed is that there are very few kids into this hobby, I am sure there are many reasons &we can go on about that in the sports thread that is posted on this message board. At least the convention had a deal on sunday for family admission (Family of 4 for $25)

 

Lots of dealers said they did well & most of hem were complainig, Some were also inquiring about how are the comic book shows are doing & how does this national sports card shows compare to comic book shows. There is no comparison from 2 totally different hobbies, but I can also see the hobbies merging togther like it was back in the late 1980's & early 1990's. After all there are a lot of Sports Fans in this website that collect Comic Books & a thread in here that talks about baseball & others.

 

The one thing I was surprised at on sunday was the breakdown, I know it is a huge NO NO to breakdown early at any comic book convention, but the dealers at this one started to breakdown before the convention started on sunday morning, By 2 pm, The dealer room was half empty & the convention staff did nothing about it. If you were to do that at a Comic Book or Wizard Convention, ou will be asked to never come back & be black listed.

 

Next years convention will be held at Clevelands IX center July 30-Aug 2, the weekend after San Diego Comic con (July 22-26) & the weekend before Wizard World Chicago (August 6-9). I will not be surprised if we start to see more Sports cards dealers at all these shows.

 

Our next show will be the Clifton Comic expo, in Clifton NJ. Spet 14