I managed to get away from setting up to get a decent look around the show. I can't speak on vintage cards (not really my specialty) but there is plenty of new product on hand. If you're looking for boxes, binders, inserts/sets for newer releases like Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead, Avengers, Red Sonja or Vampirella you're in luck as there's a decent variety of all of these (and more) at the show.
Axebone was the only artist who had set up, but he has a great selection of items including a full oolor sketch book for only $10 - and it comes with 3 promo cards!
I've also met two of our international visitors - Szym and Hammer. It's always great to be able to put faces with names and I look forward to chatting more with both of them (and all the other CardTalkers) during the weekend.
I'll try and post some photos tomorrow.

I managed to get my hands on some 258 West Authentic Mystery Packs. . . I was planning on saving some packs to trade, but I couldn't stop. . . I'll let the picture do the talking. . .



If you were thinking about jumping on these I'd jump quick. . . as loaded as they are they shouldn't last long. . . Great work, Marco!

Jon

Easy drive last night, went to Red Robin with Headless and Uncle Jason, Hammer and Szym came over and we had a few beverages. Saw Bill Defranzo and Otim in the lobby on the way back and headed back to the rooms for some more socializing and a pre-show box break of Headless's Avengers boxes, he pulled a Chris Hemsworth auto so he should be happy but probably not. Show is just about an hour away, I am hearing rumors of over 70 possible promos! Should be fun!

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
Easy drive last night, went to Red Robin with Headless and Uncle Jason, Hammer and Szym came over and we had a few beverages. Saw Bill Defranzo and Otim in the lobby on the way back and headed back to the rooms for some more socializing and a pre-show box break of Headless's Avengers boxes, he pulled a Chris Hemsworth auto so he should be happy but probably not. Show is just about an hour away, I am hearing rumors of over 70 possible promos! Should be fun!

I would have been happier if Batman and Gordon Ramsey brought their own beer and didn't drink ours.

Gordon Ramsey??? Who's that then?

C'mon people. First day gone. Where's the reports and photos?

Well it was a long drive up to the show (and an even longer drive back thanks to my crappy GPS). I had a great time, but the place was hot hot hot!! I quickly saw Harris, Jane, and friends, but was so hot that I didn't stay and talk - I'm so sorry guys!

Well, I decided to focus on my Xena collection and boy did I! Here's the loot I got:

DA7 Auto of Ted Raimi and Renee O'Connor
DA8 Auto of Ted Raimi and Lucy Lawless
GC2 Costume of Renee O'Connor Leather
Autograph of Alexandria Tydings - from the first series of autographs they did
Hercules A17 auto of Alexandria Tydings
Xena C1 from Dangerous Liaisons of Pao Ssu
DC6 Dual costume of Discord and Autolycus from Dangerous Liaisons
Musetta Vander's auto from Buffy
And not Xena related - Felicia Day's auto from Buffy (Whoohoo!!)
Also got a box of Xena Beauty and Brawn and a box of Seasons 4 and 5

Spent all my money too!! It was great to come back and start up my collection again.

Also got some great promos - highlights are Game of Thrones, NCIS, True Blood (!), and Grimm.

I didn't think to get photos Sorry about that.

I can't post any photos at the moment but here's my report for day 1.
It seemed as if most people were looking for autos or costumes from Big Bang Theory and The Walking Dead. There are plenty of boxes & binders for those releases but not too many costume or autograph cards are left. I saw some beautiful sketches from Perna Studios and there are dealers with a variety of items (unopened packs, just base sets, inserts, sketches) from that release.
Cryptozoic didn't bring too much with them but they did bring one of Nathan Fillion's jackets from Castle and a costume from another series I didn't recognize. They were giving out a Smallville promo and P5 for Vampire Diaries.
Topps brought boxes of Wacky Packs Old School with them (series 1, 2 and 3) and by the end of the day they only had some series 2 boxes left. They also had binders for all 3 releases, some type of Mars Attacks figure and sell sheets for the upcoming Mars Attacks set.
The main focus at the Sidekick booth was Melty Misfits. I ended up buying a pack of those as I thought they were neat. They also had packs and boxes of Suckpax and the Art Hustle.
Frank Eachus Publishing was selling the Tattoo Art sets for $10 (regular retail will e $15.99). It's a 25 card set and the first 50 are guaranteed to have an autograph card. They also plan on coming out with packs this summer. 5 cards per pack with more autographs and some other chase (details TBD).
258 Authentic was selling their Mystery Packs as well as single autograph cards. The Mystery Packs were a big hit. They were also giving out the 3 promo cards that they had produced for Wondercon.
Rittenhouse Archives had costumes(uncut) on display from Falling Skies. They also had some of the NCIS and Game of Thrones autographs on display. Also on hand was a binder with the James Bond 50th Anniversary set. I'm not a huge Bond fan but I have to say this is a beautiful looking set. Door prizes for Saturday were packs of Spartacus premium cards. Sunday door prizes include a TNG Communicator pin card and Marvel Shadow box card. They also had a nice variety of promo cards to give out.
Breygent Marketing...I believe the final tally was that they had made up 21 different promo cards to be given out at the show. They also had the Vampirella 2 and Red Sonja mini-master sets on display. Also displayed were some of the sketch cards from the upcoming Warlord of Mars series. Several vendors had the Warlord of Mars preview set for sale and there was a nice selection of Vampirella and Red Sonja product available for sale around the room.
My purchases/trades so far include the Propaganda Poster series pack (and a variety of chase), Age of Sorcery Pack (also from Cult-Stuff), current issue of NSU, sketchbook from Axebone and a variety of boxes including Judgement Day, McFarlane Era Spiderman, Marvel 1st Covers, Marvel Universe IV and Barclay Shaw.
So far it's been a fun show and I'm looking forward to the Card Talk breakfast and day 2 tomorrow.

What is a Marvel Shadow box card?

This is the look and feel of the Marvel Shadow Box cards:

I wonder if it is an exclusive.

Report for Saturday - The queue went much quicker this year than last but it certainly felt like more people were at the show and that the gaming tables were bringing in new people to the show. Picked up a box of Big Bang and STNG 2 (plus binders) from Ed webb - boxes of BBT are going for $100/$125 a box. I "think" I got all the promo's (around 60+) but too tired to count them, picked up a few sketches as well. RA had Game of thrones on display, very impressive auto line-up and also had Bond 50th on Display. RA are doing the shadow box cards for Game of Thrones (1 every 2 boxes), Bond and some others.

Good day - now getting ready for Meeting, then show, then long trip back home.

Looks like the show is doing awesome! Wish I could be there.

Thanks for the reports, glad you are all having a good time.

This was my first time going on Saturday. Much busier than I expected. I had great luck with cards from my want list. It wasn't quantity but quality. I picked up one 1994 MM bronze holofoil(only two more to go), two of the 1996 MM Double Impact(at an insane price!), two of the 1996 MM Gallery and a few DC Legacy sketch cards. My son bought a Spongebob framed 3-D picture. Great time but sad that I can not make it today.

I had a great time at the show yesterday. I bought nothing but Star Trek autographs including 2 Zoe Saldanas from the 2009 movie. Big Bang Theory and Walking Dead cards were definitely red hot in demand and highly discussed at the show. I also took notice of the everlasting popularity of certain William Shatner autographs. I witnessed his Twilight Zone 1 autograph sell for $500 and heard another dealer discussing how he can't keep Shatner's Star Trek TOS autos in stock because they sell so fast. It's amazing Shatner has so many different autographs and almost all of them are so highly sought after. It really made me want to hunt down those that I've always wanted and haven't got around to buying yet.

Another great show (and Card Talk Breakfast).

The guest artists we very infomative. Also gave out some great prizes. Would have liked to win a box of Brady Bunch Cards. Didnt happen, but I did get a nice Lord of the Rings costume card - Thanks to Topps

At the show, picked up lots of promos (Thanks to all for supplying them, expecialy Tom at Brygent Marketing). Had a great time at the Twin Galaxies display. Got a bunch of cards signed by the guests - Thanks Billy Mitchell for the bottle of hot sauce). Never realized that there was still such a following for old video games. Will be checking there web site for more information. As far as cards, picked up a Titus Welliver auto (Great in Lost, and now in Touch). Also picked up a Star Trek Premium Pack for next weeks Open The Box.

Had a great time and looking forward to the October Show

I'm just back home. It was a grueling weekend but a very successful one (imo). I think most of the dealers did pretty well. We had lot of new faces due in large part to the Twin Galaxies and the video gaming community.

Bench Warmer models Mary Riley and Billie Jo Powers seemed to have a nice, steady crowd all day long and signed lots of cards. I can't thank Bench Warmer enough for all the promos they did and for sending out the two models. As a thank you to dealer, they also did a dealer-only, quad-signature promo card with signatures from four of the Bench Warmer girls!

Speaking of thank you's, a big thank you all of the companies that did promos for the show, exhibited, and participated in the show. We really had a LOT of help this time -- Bench Warmer, Breygent Marketing, Rittenhouse Archives, Cryptozoic Entertainment, Frank Eachus Publishing, Twin Galaxies, SideKick, Topps, shopTopps.com, Famous Fabrics, 258 West Authentic Signatures, 5FINITY, Bad Axe Studios, Bags Unlimited, Versicolor Productions, and Cult Stuff. Phew! I'm probably forgetting one or two and apologize in advance to anyone I did.

It was cool to see several collectors at the show from the U.K. and our Szym from France. Plus lots of collectors from Canada. Really appreciate everyone making the trip.

We had about 15 to 20 go to the casino after the show last night, plus a few who came on their own. And then it was off to Red Robin. I'd say we had 25 people there. The highlight had to be the turkey hat which Alan Biegel said came from the Turkey Hat store. We opened several boxes of cards and premium packs at Red Robin, all of which came from the show.

Card Talk this morning seemed to go well. We recorded the session. I haven't looked at it yet and I'm hoping it came out alright. If it did, I plan to post that on the blog in several days. We gave away 35 to 40 prizes this morning including several high ticket items. Another big thank you to all who gave me items to give away.

Finally, a huge thank you to all the collectors who came out to the show this weekend, the dealers who set up, and our amazing artists! Hope it was a good show for everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
C'mon people. First day gone. Where's the reports and photos?

I sent many photos to Harris tonight. He will post them soon. Enjoy!

I have been dying to see pics of the Rittenhouse autograph display
they are the company that got me most excited about cards this year