Ramblings: A Little Selling, a Lot of Promoting

Recently the Dallas Card Show returned to the LaQuinta located at Walnut Hill and Central (Highway 75) in Dallas. As usual, the show had free admission and even had some free packs at the door courtesy of Panini.

As a seller I did fine for the day but as usual there were several interesting occurrences.

Flyers for the show seemed to arrive via email not far ahead of time and I asked the promoter about that. He told me he’s learned that most people don’t pay attention or make plans until about two weeks before an event. He sent about five total e-mails in the two weeks prior to the show so the word was certainly out there. Marketing in today’s media climate is an interesting subject. There’s a lot of trial and error.

This was the first show in a long time I did not even have a customer for the 1957-69 commons I always have on hand. I was very surprised since I usually have several people asking for those cards. However, I had about 15 total pre-1945 cards with me and everyone sold by the end of the show. None of those cards were in good condition and several had damage but the buyers were OK with that. There’s a lot of appreciation for truly vintage material these days.

We had a husband and wife team who was in town from Tulsa and they both collect 1989-present Dallas Cowboys cards. The husband collects players from Oklahoma State such as Dez Bryant while the wife collects OU (Oklahoma University) cards such as Troy Aikman. They also have five children at home which does affect the card budget as well as available space but they try to be as complete as possible. Plus it was really fun to see the spouse more into card collecting. They were a real nice couple.

In addition, I had a gentleman come in to purchase cards of Josh Hamilton. Since I had a wide assortment of Texas Rangers cards, I was able to help. I always bring the local hero cards with me and since I rarely sell a lot of them it was nice to see that decision validated. It’s hard to know who walks through the door each week.

I gave out flyers to the fundraising show I’m planning for next month (PlanoCardShow.com) to everyone I saw walk in. That was my real primary reason for being there. The Dallas Card Show promoter has again agreed to spread the word about our show via his email list. Several of the dealers mentioned they were planning to set up and many of the collectors already had the show marked in their google calendars, so that’s a good sign.

The date is August 31, which is the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Our location, Adat Chaverim, is tucked into a shopping center at the northeast corner of Spring Creek and Independence in Plano, TX.

On the way home I stopped at both Nick’s Sportscards and Triple Cards, the two shops closest to me. The last time I was in Nick’s he mentioned how at least five times a week he hears someone say “I’ve been out of the hobby for 15-20 years and this is the first time in many years I’ve been back in a store.” Wouldn’t you know while I was there, that very conversation took place. I saw some bikes outside of Nick’s and said that was really like the old days but in this case the bikers were visiting another store in the strip mall.

Kerry Wood art Eric Cash artist — Kerry Wood card created and signed by Eric Cash.

The next day I drove back to the home of an old Beckett comrade, Eric Cash. His art studio is just amazing to visit and if you’re a sports fan, you could lose yourself in there for a long time. He’s done some great baseball pieces, but Eric does more than sports. He creates a lot of Beatles and Americana cards, too. Just being in that room is so cool.

More importantly for our show, Eric made a nice donation and because of what he gave us we will have both door prizes and silent auction items. Eric drew a ton of the cards in the 2004 Diamond Kings set and among the material he was donating was a whole grouping of cards he not only drew but has since signed.

Of course we are always looking for more donations of cards and memorabilia for our show to benefit our brotherhood (Men’s Club) and our charitable ventures. If you want to send anything please let me know and I’ll be happy to provide you a tax receipt. We have a nice mix of material already and are always looking for more.

We’re pleased to announce that Beckett Auction Services under the aegis of Bill Sutherland will again have a presence. There are some really nice items they auction off each month. The last time Bill was there he donated a large amount of cards so every person who pays the $1 suggested donation will receive a free BCCG card. It’s great to be able to give a collector more than their money’s worth when they come in the door.