1538 - Watters Creek Show Recap May 2026

Welcome Dr. James Beckett Sports Card Insights recap of the Waters Creek Show Kyle Robertson put on last weekend. Reflecting on that, had a great time. Had a hobby dinner on Friday night and more about that in a future episode because we had a recorded conversation. Bad audio, but great interaction. The Dallas Card show continues to be top notch. Now I will say this, the Toronto Sports Expo exceeded it. But of the shows in the United States, I've not been to anything that's better other than the national well done Kyle Robertson and team in putting that together. January was maybe the best one ever. March was not far behind. This one was really busy and very aggressive. Prices and cards moving for big bucks. But the configuration had changed a little bit and and I'll go into that. I was remarking to people when I was there, realized that I'd rather be at the show than at a ball game or watching a ball game on TV or being at Disney World. It's a happy place for me. Besides, at Disney World you're standing in line for some brief rides. I'm having fun the whole time at the card show. And you're not just buying cards, you're hearing conversations and you're finding out what's going on and all that stuff. Thanks. Sponsors Tops Panini Upper Deck Heritage Auctions Hugging the Scott Auctions, Mike Stadium Sports Cards, burbank sports cards, compsed.com and beckett media beckett grading, beckett authentication. BGS was doing big time business on Thursday. Just huge lines for that. Mike Fruitman Stadium Sports Cards didn't make it down this time. Comp C was back. That was good. I was pleased. The difference was I missed Thursday because my wife was being honored along with some others for her volunteer work. Was proud to be there with her. I really enjoy the causes she finds important and the people that are involved in those. She has some great friends and that was fun to be there and to take a day off that was on a Thursday evening. Can't be two places at once and I missed out. But I definitely made the better choice. What I missed out on is that one of the dealers I like to hit early sold out on Thursday. So when I came back Friday morning to try to see what was left because I picked different things and the other so sorry. We sold out on Thursday and I have plenty of cards. I'm trying to have less cards but I'd like to go to the show and get some fresh cards. Anyway, I got there Friday morning because I was not there Thursday and Thursday's a really good day. So I got There Friday, and I'm trying to figure out, what am I going to do now? I don't have my pass. And I usually see Akbar, one of Kyle's trusted lieutenants, and he's right there when you walk in. So I see Akbar first. Sometimes he asks me to sign some stuff, and I'll do that. So we've developed a good relationship, and I'm realizing that part of Kyle's success is just like my success, that I had some great teammates. Anyway, so I was looking for Akbar. I looked around. I didn't see him, and I thought, what's going on? Because he's usually there. And so I saw this nice lady walking around who had a Dallas card show T shirt on, and I said, oh, I'm looking for Akbar. Do you know where he is? I'm not sure. Let me see. And so she went around to where he usually is, and I went and said, yes. Do you want me to text him? I said, no, I've got his number. I could text him, but I don't really want to. I'm not stalking him. I just usually see him first, and he has some things. She's, no, fine. Okay, let me help you. And so, next thing you know, he's there. He's there pretty quick. It turns out that was Mrs. Akbar. So obviously she had her husband on speed dial. So I got to make another new friend. She was very nice, gracious, actually. I had a lot of husband wife teams who worked for me as well. If the marriage is good, then having them both there. Sometimes it's one plus one equals three. But let's see. I spent time at the dinner and otherwise with Dave Zenzel, the star basketball guy. Really, really focused. And I think there's some generalist collectors of which I was one that I. I dug deep on certain things, but I really tried to cover a lot of bases. But I was very involved in all those star decisions at the point, And I've realized that Dave is. Don't know that We've given up on trying to convince each other because we do not agree on some of the things. But again, like I say, I was there. He's getting secondhand. I have firsthand. But I think he's now trying to figure to understand what was going on, and I'm trying to understand his position as well. So that was good. He's very focused on that, and I think it's good to have a lane that's his lane. I love basketball. I probably didn't work on that as I really did all of them, certainly, for some of those years. But by the time the basketball and football and hockey got going, I had enough teammates that it wasn't all on me. And so that was good. Did my dollar box routine. And I realized because I still have people that come up and pop me on the shoulder or ask me a question, I don't have a problem with that at all. In the old days, when I was doing Price Guides and working in my private office, I put on headphones, do not disturb. And I really needed to concentrate on that. And that was after hours in most cases. But I don't want to put headphones on. I want to put earbuds on. I really want to hear the chatter that's around. I want to be able to talk to the dealer. I want to be able to talk to the person next to me. And I don't want to be scared when somebody taps me on the shoulder and jolts me. But I'm trying to get an idea of what's going on. There were several conversations. There's lots of conversations. Occasionally I'll hear my name, but it's not me, the person, it's Beck at the company. There were two conversations I want to bring up. One was behind me. I didn't want to turn around, but there were a couple of guys. They did this really long conversation about Pokemon, including the Japanese versions. I won't say I had no idea what they're talking about because I'm not illiterate, but it's not my lane. But they went on and on, and they were 10ft behind me, and they had loud voices and trying to tune them out. But it's just a long narrative back and forth about the excitement they have of Pokemon and finding these rare versions and things like that. That was one, but they finally ran out of wind or something. Then the other one was when I was behind a table with a guy that I've done business with the Force today. I got some cards for you. Just sit down here and go through them. And that was great. Anyway, I'm facing in a different way here. And there were a couple of younger guys in the table I'm facing. And they're not really negotiating, I don't think, but they're just repeating and repeating that this guy had this great card, and he had an offer for it, but it was too low and. But he maybe would take something in trade and. And he just said he offered me this and. But I really want this. And then he'd come back and he said, he said the comp was this, but I said they just went on and on about this one card. And I just thought, you know what? He's offered you 97% of what you want. I felt like saying, hey, can I split the difference and you just make the deal and move on. But I thought maybe they just enjoy the back and forth because I've seen that the hobby nowadays if in doubt, a lot of people make the deal and they think if they make a pretty good deal, the other guy might come back and do another deal sooner or later. But this guy was adamant, he wanted his price. I'm serious. It was 3% difference in what the guy offered and what it would have taken to get the deal done. There were a lot in the stock boxes this time. I projecting that it was half as many. One dealer took a pass, kind of let some of the dealers not have to go to every show, all six shows a year. So one guy took a pass, the other guy sold out on Thursday. Another one switched to vintage away from modern because vintage is hotter now. There were a couple others that just didn't either hit it real hard the time before. If they don't have fresh stuff, I'm not going to go there. So there was a lower supply. And so I don't know if that meant they were less discounting or cutting deals. But usually I kind of have a price in mind or an arrangement that if I buy this many, I'll get this kind of price. So I basically hit the show and I got it all done in two days instead of four. And in the early days a year ago, I was there sun up to sundown practically and rich and I have the difference. We keep talking about it. When he goes to the dollar box, he's prepared to pay a dollar. If they cut him a deal, he's happy. But I just say, you know what? I'm not going to pick very many cards if it's exactly a dollar. If I know it's 90 cents, I'll pick a little bit more. If it's 80 cents, I'll pick even more. I'm just more mathematically Precise. If it's $0.75, $0.60, $0.50, whatever, you tell me the price. And because I might only be able to find 10 cards if it's a dollar and I might be able to find 100 if it's 50 cents. And so if you put it in those kind of terms and I'm not picking out necessarily the cards that would automatically sell to somebody else. The dealers dealt with frequently, they get it. I've talked about the secret shopper thing, and I realized, and it came up in Jeremy Lee's podcast episode, is that if I walk up and introduce myself and then I say, I want to buy these cards, I've actually had people say, you're the price guide guy. You need to tell me what's fair. And I don't want that. Or more than one have said, you know what? You've done so much for the hobby. I can't take your money. So that is not fair. Just treat me like a customer. Now. I want to be treated special in the sense that anybody that says, I want to buy 100 cards or 500 cards or whatever it is, I want the same quantity deal that somebody else gets. I don't want a special deal. I don't want a free deal. I just want a really good deal. That's the same deal you would do to somebody else that walked up in my same circumstance. But I've literally had people find out who I am and say, I can't charge you. And it's not a random act of kindness. I'm uncomfortable with that. We had our hobby dinner. I'll get more into that because there's a lot of detail with that. The audio is terrible. I picked a bad place, but I picked some really good guests, all from out of town, plus me and Rich. That was Friday night. We teed up some questions, but again, I'll save that because that's a lot there. So I didn't go back on Sunday because a lot of times my deal with my wife is, I'm not going back on Sunday unless it really is worth it because we have our own Sunday church routine and all that stuff. And so most of the time, I'm trying to not go on Sunday. Rich's dot show is next Sunday, Monday, Memorial Day weekend doing that. I've got another Dallas card show and then national coming up. So the Waters Creek thing is my batting practice. It's teed up the dollar boxes, and when I get to the national, I'm in shape. I can hit the fastball. That's great. Now, there were less dollar boxes, but there's still some good stuff in there. I still had a couple where I was pulling a lot less than 100 cards an hour and several where I was pulling more. It just depends, but you don't know until you're done. Any rate, thanks, everybody. Great job by Kyle. Eager to tee up the hobby dinner thing. I guess I could tell you who was there that might be one way to do it because that means they were all at the show. But Dane Conan came from Wichita Falls. He's dynasty breaks. It's 120 miles away but still an out of towner and he's been on the podcast for Dave Zenzel, King of Prussia, the star company guy. As I said, Chris Carlin was there. Knew him from upper deck for a long time. Now he's at Collectors psa Customer care. He's the customer care guy. Always get a kick out of Chris. A lot of personality. The Rich Klein. I thought rich. Not from out of town. But I'm include him because he's frequent co host Phil Pierce. He's been on from Oklahoma City. Always enjoy being with Phil. Jim Osborne from COM C. I saw him up at Toronto at the Sports Expo. Kevin Davenport came in from Pennsylvania. He's going to start doing the Com C shows. Good guy. A veteran. That was cool. So what is that? That's seven guys plus me. So it was eight. So eight is a good number and I think it made the content a little bit better because when I have 12 or 16 or 18, just hard people are rushed. But the acoustics were terrible and so I'll do my best to edit that. In the meantime, enjoy the hobby. And if you have a chance to get down here and you're from out of town, let me know. DrJamesBecket Gmail I will do some more hobby dinners in conjunction with the show. I don't do it every time, but I will not do it at a restaurant that doesn't have a private room. I will do it in my house in my card area, which is a lot of fun, but it's a little bit of a drive. So anyway, let me know if you're interested. And I'm probably overdue for another remote Zoom hobby dinner conversation, which I did during COVID We didn't have dinner, but we met and pretended like we were having a dinner. Anyway, thanks everybody. Be back again in a couple days. Another episode. And like I said, shows are great. Shows are hopping.