Will 1099 Forms Lead to Card Show Comeback?

by Rich Klein

Like many of today’s hobbyists, I am an avid reader of various Internet sports collecting chat/message boards. There is so much information to be gleamed from reading these boards. This week, one of the most interesting topics concerned the threads devoted to 1099’s being sent from PayPal. The IRS says you’ll get one if you received more than $20,000 in gross payment volume from sales of goods or services in 2011 and received more than 200 separate payments in 2011.

Frankly, I’m in favor of this because that will reduce one of the biggest advantages collectors/dealers who sell on the Internet have over full time dealers, which was that they did not always pay taxes or even declare any of the income derived from these sales. Sometimes those sales amount to a very large amount of income.

With this, I’m beginning to wonder if the whole thing might result in shows making a bit of a comeback. I do understand that collectors like the convenience of PayPal but how many people are going to start saying ‘how about sending me a check or a money order instead’ or even saving their inventory for a local show where cash is king.

I can’t count how often I read on various newsgroup s threads to this effect: “I’m going to city “x” for the weekend can anyone recommend some good shows or stores to visit?” These people want to see cards in person and perhaps even make purchases in a face to face situation. I also wonder if this will have any effect on collectors selling on eBay.

I will say there are a couple of newer promoters to the hobby in the Dallas area that have contracted with a local hotel in Allen, Tex., to have a show there the third Saturday of each month. The room they have can only fit 10 or 12 tables and one month I will set up there so we can have another show report like we did when my local store (Triple Cards in Plano, TX) had a show in his shop last year. One other advantage is that the customers who come to that show will be bringing cash with them. The promoters have already changed the show to a free admission event so there is no charge to even walk in the door.

Another reason I like shows so much is because they are where I met and hung out with many hobbyists with whom I have forged long-term relationships. When I ramble about meeting so and so, those ramblings are usually based on face to face meetings. Chatting with dealers either at their table or in a store situation gives one some time to really dig in and enjoy our mutual shared hobby.

I wrote about the now late (that is hard for me to comprehend) Tim Turner a couple of times in the past week. Tim is the perfect example of someone who I had traded with before I met him but having met him in the 1980’s helped solidify our relationship. At the Cleveland National a couple of years ago, he had purchased tickets to an Indians game because that was the night they were giving out Victor Martinez bobblehead dolls. He asked some of his friends if they wanted to go, and Doak Ewing and I said sure.

Both Doak and myself agreed that since Tim provided the tickets and there was no cost to us, that we would make sure he kept the Martinez bobble head as our thanks for his picking up the tickets. Tim, frankly, would not have cared if we had kept the bobblehead, he was just happy to share himself with his friends. And that is a great trait that I hope to continue to improve on.

May we say another ‘cool beans’ in Tim’s honor and also hope that this PayPal 1099 decision helps bring back shows so we can continue to forge more interpersonal relationships in the hobby.

Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]