2007 National: From the Floor
Aug 3 2007 7:12PM
A sampling of random comments from the floor of the Cleveland I-X Center, site of the 2007 National Sports Collectors Convention:
"The autograph list is not as good as the last time it was in Cleveland [in 2004]. I'm a big Steelers fan and the last time they had the Steel Curtain, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Jim Brown. This year, they don't seem to have as big a pool of people.
Even though the autograph guest list is not as good as last time, it's been great. It's been fun. Even if you can't afford it, you see a lot of stuff that you never, ever see in your life." -- Collector Vanessa Fremer, Eerie, Pa.
"It's been fine. It's about what I expected. The most requested item are Pete Rose Rookie Cards."
-- Dealer Grant Marks, Cincinnati
"Excellent crowd. Motivated buyers. It's shaping up to be our best National ever. They're buying it all: Football, baseball, even basketball, which has had a slow year. Unbelievably, hockey is selling. The most unbelievable thing about it is that dealers are buying hockey off my table to go sell on their table.
We had a $20,000 sale of vintage packs. It was all sports, assorted '50s and '60s packs. It's everything we hoped for and more. We'll definitely be back next year. Go, Chicago!
-- Adam Martin, Dave and Adam's Card World
Wednesday's opening night was pretty good. We were pretty happy with the crowd. Yesterday was too bad and today [Friday] we're a little disappointed in the crowd. There's not as many people here as we thought there should be.
Overall, we're semi-satisfied but we'd like to see more customers. There's been a lot of buyers on our side [of the show floor]. We sold a lot of singles to people finishing sets -- Allen & Ginter sets, Mickey Mantle cards, Topps inserts -- so we've done a lot of business that way. I'd just like to see a little bit more traffic.
-- Lisa Stellato, Evolution Sports Marketing
The show so far for us has been outstanding. People have been very receptive to our packaged-goods product line, both Hidden Treasures and our new minor league products. People are getting used to TRISTAR putting out upscale cards. Not just ink on paper but cards that look and feel expensive.
The biggest thrill for me personally is having people come up and ask us about Minor League Baseball cards and when we're putting out our next prospects sets. When's it going to come out and who's going to be in it, etc."
-- Jim Stefano, TRISTAR
"The show's been awesome so far. There's so much stuff out there. From a collector's viewpoint, it doesn't get any better than this. I've been out there and there's a lot of stuff to be had at good prices. We've been very steady with our wrapper redemption program. Variety-wise, this is one of the better shows I've seen.
-- Ben Ecklar, Donruss
This has been one of our strongest shows for grading. It's definitely been one of our most exciting shows on the publication side. The show has been encouraging because of the level of enthusiasm of the collectors. You see a lot of people doing a lot of business. They're buying a lot of cards, they're buying a lot of Beckett magazines, they're getting a lot of cards graded. You see people trading amongst themselves. And they're happy about what they're seeing on both the modern and vintage sides."
-- Elon Werner, Beckett Media
"Our redemption program has been very successful. Very Successful. The Cleveland crowd has been great. Greg Oden [who appeared at the Topps' booth on Friday afternoon] has a great personality. He's really good with the fans. He's really good with the kids. He's going to be one of those guys that people love."
-- Clay Luraschi, Topps
"It's been a little quiet so far but it's picking up with Kids Day and throughout the weekend it's going to definitely explode a little bit more. There's a lot to see so I think people are taking it all in.
"I think it's good to have it in the Midwest. I see a lot of people that we wouldn't see if it was on one coast or the other. It's really good to see a lot of collectors from all over the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada all coming in. Some of the bigger collectors are here for sure, and that helps the retailers.
"[The Cleveland fans] love Lebron, that's for sure. There's a lot of love for LeBron, especially after he did so well in the Eastern Conference Finals."
-- Chris Carlin, Upper Deck
"It's been a pretty consistent crowd with past years. We've had a lot of success with our new Legends football product coming out and we've had seemingly endless box breaks at our booth with the wrapper redemption program.
"I think people who aren't familiar with the product have been very pleasantly surprised. We've been real happy with that. We've had a lot of repeat customers. Once they open one box, they're back opening some more. That's been good for the dealers, too. And the NASCAR redemption's been good, too."
-- Tom Farrell, Press Pass
| 
