Collectacon has boomed from 2 shows a year to almost 2 shows a month.
www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/comments/1nhv47r/collect_a_con_disappointment/
Reading thru over 400+ comments here, it seems a common sentiment is that collectacon has turned into a platform mainly for vendor 2 vendor business while collectors are sidelined.
If they start to fizzle out because people stop paying $60+ to be disappointed, what do you think it would do for the hobby?
I’ve never been to one and I’m quite positive there’s still plenty of deals big and small to be had outside of CaC.
Nothing at all against CaC or cons in general. It’s just an introverted hobby for me, and CaC is anything but that with all the prize wheels, concerts, signings, IG videos, headcam vlogging, advertising, coin flips, stacks of cash to oogle at etc etc.
More like the Hahbee is changing Collect-a-Con for the worse.
Reddit commentors are a demographic with the free time to post and desire to engage in the negativity which the platform structure rewards. Don’t think a Reddit consensus truly reflects reality.
The hObBy is so big people are free to engage with it however they like. CAC is a single cherry in a really big mixed berry pie.
Personally, I find great deals at every CAC I go to. But it depends on what you’re looking for. Expecting great deals on the most liquid modern cards is unrealistic. Expecting sealed at MSRP is just setting oneself up for disappointment, as Redditors often do.
Yeah I feel like collect-a-con is a reflection of the hobby rather than it being the driver of change.
I went to my first collect a con this last weekend. It was actually my first time ever going to any kind of card show. My fiancé and I went with the intention of buying singles we liked and that’s pretty much what we did. Everyone we spoke with was nice and there were plenty of cards there lol. We had a fun time but we didn’t focus on the spinning wheels, coin flips, or sealed product.
We just flipped through binders and looked at cases and had a blast doing it.
I like convention show floors, it’s fun to walk around and peruse through vendor’s stocks and see what all is out there. The joy of finding something you’ve been wanting out in the wild really is a great feeling, and there are deals out there! Vendors aren’t a storefront, haggling is in fact the name of the game. It’s like a large flea market tailored to your exact interests.
What has changed, and what I do I dislike is how performative and braggadocious this has all become. Every other post you see from a con is “WE JUST MADE A CRAZY $5,000 DOLLAR DEAL BLAH BLAH BLAH” and it’s just another Moonbreon/Bubble Mew/Poncho trade with a wad of cash on the table perfectly in frame of the camera. Like congrats, I guess, the rest of us are wisely going to do our larger deals in private. I sincerely do not gel with people that insist on flaunting and showboating, and they seem to be a massive component of modern conventions.
It’s actually crazy because I come from a time these type of conventions didn’t exist in my country at all, Hell Pokémon collecting on a serious level was non existent. There were a few of us who used Psa & the people who offered graded cards for sale you could count on 2 hands.
Now these conventions are everywhere and everyone and their mom collects, Feels like there’s a new convention every week. They’re all like 1:1 copy pasted from American one’s too “Vendor POV, Coin Flip, I buy at 80%”
Like others have mentioned I believe it’s a reflection of how mainstream collecting cards has become, there’s a new grail born every minute, and that new grail that… that is MY CHASE.
I had a lot of fun at the last one I went to and am looking forward to the next one.
I’ll echo the sentiment that it’s just one of the biggest venues for pokemon sellers, so obviously it’ll reflect whatever the state the hobby is in right now rather than drive change. So yes, there are plenty of negatives, but there are also way more positive experiences to be had just like any other Pokemon card related event or community right now.
Does having multiple large conventions a month create an avenue for rapidly increasing prices though?
Would be interested to see if there is a correlation between lowering the barrier for people to liquidate and the increase in flippers.
The vendor 2 vendor trades counting as “private confirmed sales” don’t help with valuations either.
A friend and I traveled out of town to go to a small but large to us convention. I enjoyed walking around looking at singles and talking to some vendors. I steered clear of all the sealed product and big PSA 10 slabs. If a booth was mainly sealed product at ridiculous prices I would move along pretty quickly. Finding the cheaper IR’s and full arts was great in bulk. It was nice to get the card in hand instead of paying shipping and waiting for it to show up from a site.
What I enjoyed most was talking to a handful of vendors about the hobby and the environment that we are in today. Many people didn’t really care to talk but a handful of them were awesome and led to some great conversations.
It definitely increases liquidity, which in turn allows the market to move more freely and quickly. So I would say that yes, you’re right in that sense. But all of this goes back to the initial increase in demand in my opinion. The increase in shows, Pokemon selling content, and public attention keep the ball rolling, but all of these things came about from that initial push in genuine demand.
I think this is the issue i have with many vendors at conventions. Very little of it feels genuine or thought through, to the point many have no goals beyond making money. They could grab any product from retail stores right before the show and be happy saying its an amazing product, as long as they can sell it for double.
I have been to two Collect A Cons and have an absolute blast both times. Found great cards. Made great trades. I should caveat that both times I went on a Sunday so it was not nearly as crowded and also vendors are more willing to make deals.
I read an interesting Reddit post where the guy’s daughter had a terrible time and wanted to go home.
Now that’s young kids for you but the explanation was it was not a place for buying singles but rather for buying overpriced sealed product. And there seemed to be a lot of people tradiny their $XXXX card for sealed.
I can see why a kid wouldn’t enjoy that.