quote:

Originally posted by Jason Wright:
The guest list is terrible for this event, must be desperate to start pulling in Eastenders cast!!! I would pay £20 to not have a photo with Ricky Groves but each to their own. I'll be along Saturday for the morning and will get an earlybird just so I don't have to stand for 2 hours queuing!!

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

For the first time in the longest time I won't be making the show when I'd actually like to go. I mainly want Danny Webb for Alien3, Colm Meaney is always a welcome addition as he's not too frequent a guest. Laurie Holden is a great addition for X-Files fans, and of course the Walking Dead.
I know that's only 3 names but I only go for a couple of people at most shows - whoever has organised them.

Was Memorabilia ever really known for amazing guest lists?

Wonder how attendance numbers will compare with November

Apart for picking up a large order of cards, Colm Meaney is he main reason for me going. He will complete my poster for the DS9 main Crew

sad news to report that Cult-Stuff will not be attending the show and Unstoppable do not attend. It won't quite be the same without Liza, Jason & Kay.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
sad news to report that Cult-Stuff will not be attending the show and Unstoppable do not attend. It won't quite be the same without Liza, Jason & Kay.

Do you know why Cult Stuff is not there . I was hoping to find out what is going on as I have had no response to e-mails regarding redemptions for the last two months.

Looks like trading card dealers are going to be thin on the ground at this show . I took a look at the programme and several dealers from November are not on the list.

Just found out Dean Rogers from Non Sport Trading Cards will not be there either due to family issues.

Only three card sellers I could find are Paul Hart, Derek's trading cards and D & M Cards. Looks like I will be going home around about the time general admission starts at 11.00. At least I will get to see the Rugby Union and Man.City V WBA.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Triple-Frog,

Umbrella are there too

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
Umbrella are there too

I missed that . Hopefully pick up his latest promo.

Well it was very busy but not a lot to interest trading card collectors. As I suspected I was in at 09.00 and gone by 11.00.

Had a chat with Paul from Umbrella cards( thank you for the promos ) and also Wolfie ( thanks for the Dr Who lenticulars ). The Man Who Fell to Earth cards were being sold at the show, some nice looking sketches.

The only person I wanted an autograph of had not turned up and nobody knew if/when she was going to arrive so in the end I actually spent less in cards at the show than I did on the early entry ticket .

Hopefully November will be better but if what I heard is true some of the dealers who did not come did so because they are not happy with the current organisers.

I'm turning Japanese, yes I'm turning Japanese, yes I think so.

Memorabilia is over for another show and possibly Memorabilia is over altogether.

The show has changed completely over the last few years and has become a large Cosplay / Manga event. Everywhere you look there are people in costumes, stall after stall of strange looking Japanese type stuff, Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh cards aplenty.

The variety of stalls seems to have been lost, now it is just a sea of the same sort of stalls and tables, mixed with gaming and cinema advertising.

Where does this leave non sport card collectors? For the first time I can remember there was no manufacturer presence at Memorabilia and half the dealers I can think of did not attend. For the dealers that did attend things did not look good, I can only hope they did better than it appeared or they may decide to be elsewhere aswell come November.

Maybe the time has come for the card dealers and old style memorabilia sellers to get back to shows like the Toy Fair at the NEC and connect with a new audience as the glory days of this show seem to be over for this type of collecting.

I may, in time, be proved wrong, hope so.

A big thanks should go to the card dealers who did attend, Umbrella, Paul Hart, D & M, Derek and Anthony, hope I didn't miss someone.

Big thanks to Mr Frog who once again gave me a nice bag of cards to sort through, very much appreciated.

Next up Milton Keynes in June, let's hope for better things.

Thanks for the review Wolfie!

Second year attending Memorabilia (the March one, specifically, didn't bother with the November one), and it was far better than last year. Better organised, more space, better seating availability, and only one card dealer I expected to be there who wasn't (Dean Rogers, as mentioned above). Apart from him, I'm not sure who else it was reasonable to expect to be there?

I expect large numbers of cosplayers at every show now, so that aspect of it wasn't a surprise (or a disappointment) at all.

Spent a healthy amount of money with Umbrella, and the ever-reliable Derek, and went home happy.

Having seen what happened to Comic Con (Which generaly gets referred to as the Manga show by friends) in London over the years it was fully expected that the same would happen to Memorabilia.
The show obviously had issues, which is why the new team bought it but its a shame that they are changing it so much that it will soon have no connection to what the show has always been advertised as and just be the Manga show NEC.

A lot of the 'shows' are going that way sadly. The money is coming from the autograph obsessives and costuming folk. There's little or no interest in minority stuff like card collecting now.
Sign of the times and a sign of the greediness of many organisers. Just my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Spencer Quist:

There's little or no interest in minority stuff like card collecting now.

.

I know what you mean but I think there is massive intrest in card collecting, look at the match attax and dr who battles in time cards. Kids were buying them up all over the country but they have no intrest in buying a card that costs £50 which is why I said in my report that dealers need to get back to toy fairs etc and re-connect with the card collectors of the future.

Game cards yes, not so much in trading cards though. The Torchwood cards of a similar variety though, completely failed to spark the same interest as the battles in time ones, despite being far superior in look and breakdown.

quote:

Originally posted by Spencer Quist:
Game cards yes, not so much in trading cards though. The Torchwood cards of a similar variety though, completely failed to spark the same interest as the battles in time ones, despite being far superior in look and breakdown.

Torchwood killed itself by making the packs too expensive, battles in time I do not consider as game cards, they were however being traded and sold all over the country.

It's interesting reading the comments about the show, as after the weekend, I didn't feel like I'd done a Memorabilia Show. I had a quick walk round and agree with what's been said. The amount of dealers selling Manga/Anime weird random stuff is well up, and as a lot of the Memorabilia dealers are all fairly old-school, it looks like a lot didn't book early enough to get a spot. In defence of those dealers though, there's only 11 different contributors to this thread for the UK's biggest show, so that kinda tells you why less dealers are attending. The fact that the show is moving towards more booths rather than dealer tables also is worrying for a lot of card dealers, as that outlay means you just wont get your investment back with non sport cards at that event.
As wolfie said though, the kids are there, and they will buy cards if they are priced correctly, so maybe we need Topps UK to take a look at the show to kickstart the next wave of collectors...