The Cardboard Investment

An Opportunity To Remember

With the forming of connections within the local card community, we were soon offered the opportunity to fill in for a dealer at one of the largest card shows in New England. Located at the Shriner's Auditorium outside of Boston, we had no idea what to expect. All we knew was that it cost's hundreds of dollars to rent a table for the weekend, we would have to pay for a hotel for at least a couple nights, and we would have to sell quite a few cards just to cover the expenses for the weekend. Big name athletes like Bill Russell and Rickey Henderson were expected to be there, so we had a feeling that this was the real deal. I continued to build my vintage card collection for the show, while my brother focused on Boston team players and began dabbling in young up and coming stars in the NBA.

We were eager to have our first taste of what the hobby really looked like in this day and age. My father was kind enough to lend us his SUV for the trip and we packed the car full of boxes of cards and headed off on the 3 hour trip. When we finally pulled up to the auditorium, it was apparent this was more than just a little conference room in the building. There was security, you had to pay to get in, and cars would end up lining both sides of the road once the parking lot filled up. Once inside and being directed to our table we realized that there was going to be some serious collectors here. We passed tables of collections worth millions. People who had some of the best cards past and present in the world. We were small fish in a world of sharks. Almost as soon as we started setting up, other dealers were approaching us trying to buy things. This was not their first rodeo, and they knew we were in over our heads. It was great to make a few sales right off, but seeing the hobby flourishing was even better.

Things had obviously changed since the days before the internet. Cards were still only worth what someone was willing to pay, but now pricing guides were no longer where you found out how much cards were worth. Almost every dealer or customer who came to buy off us was referencing how much something was selling for on Ebay, and everyone wanted a deal. It was almost as if every person in the hobby was now a flipper. Another major change that occurred was that Beckett was on site giving raw review card grades. Hundreds of people were paying $10-20 per card to have thousands of cards given a numerical condition grade on the spot. Getting the infamous 9.5/10 or 10/10 grade would instantly increase the value of the card, sometimes even doubling what it was going for. The last eye opening thing was that there were hardly any kids at the show. Most people there were between the ages of 20 and 60, with the majority being middle aged men. There was a few women, but by far this hobby had become dominated by men with established careers and expendable money.

We had a successful first couple days of the show, made some sales, covered our expenses and bought a few cards for our collections. When the last day of the show came rolling around we were approached by another dealer and he wanted to buy everything that we had left for inventory. With a little back and forth we negotiated a price that worked for us. This was not just a few hundred dollars worth of cards we had left, this other dealer was willing to invest thousands of dollars on the rest of our inventory to try and sell for himself online or at other shows. One of the largest part of the deal was my brother's Stephen Curry collection. Possibly 100 rookie cards, some serial numbered, some autographed. He was offered a price he was willing to take and everyone was happy. Now, with our pockets full of money, we headed home.

Reflecting on what I had experienced and seen at the card show, it was apparent that most of these dealers and collectors were buying cards in hopes of them increasing in value. This was a somewhat new concept as I had been trying to buy cards at what I thought was a deal and then flip them to make a few dollars. People were asking hundreds of dollars for cards of players I had never heard of before, some of these players just barely out of high school. Why would someone pay hundreds for a player in the minor leagues that is not guaranteed to even make the majors? Collecting sports card had certainly evolved since when I was a kid over a decade before.

Looking back at this opportunity it was leaves a lasting memory of friendships that were made, a bond between myself and my brother, a connection to the past with my father, and missed opportunities. The Stepehen Curry collection my brother sold would easily have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars during the first year of the pandemic. He sold them for a few thousand dollars, which was a decent profit at the time. If we were really going to make money in the hobby, we were going to need a business. This was no longer a conventional market, and we were going to have to turn our eyes to the world wide web.