The Hobby Hangout Melbourne

drobfan8 said:

Great to meet you too mate.

It was so quiet before the floodgates opened. Then it was rammed.

Apparently the Hobby is dying according to some on here though. Haha.

It was nice after lunch though.

Bring on Brissy.

I'll do a write up when I get a chance

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I did see what i think was you there and i was very interested in those free cards for kids

Alas, it was too busy so i left you to earn those big bucks!

Iron Clad Lou said:

I did see what i think was you there and i was very interested in those free cards for kids

Alas, it was too busy so i left you to earn those big bucks!

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Ah man, you missed out. Was pretty funny seeing adults flick through them. Which is cool too.

I don't know about big bucks. It was interesting seeing the mindset of most in there.

drobfan8 said:

Ah man, you missed out. Was pretty funny seeing adults flick through them. Which is cool too.

I don't know about big bucks. It was interesting seeing the mindset of most in there.

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You had some prizm base which i needed for my set!

I saw some but there was always somebody in the way so I just left it!

I really liked the event. I didn't think i would like it as much as i did and i want to get more involved with shows!

drobfan8 said:

Ah man, you missed out. Was pretty funny seeing adults flick through them. Which is cool too.

I don't know about big bucks. It was interesting seeing the mindset of most in there.

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Was interesting to me when I was at your table that those exquisites were being ignored by a majority of people walking past, such nice cards and well priced. Maybe it's just us old guys that appreciate them.

Also apologies @Iron Clad Lou if I was in your way

kiwi_in_melb said:

Was interesting to me when I was at your table that those exquisites were being ignored by a majority of people walking past, such nice cards and well priced. Maybe it's just us old guys that appreciate them.

Also apologies @Iron Clad Lou if I was in your way

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I will definitely be touching on this in my write up.

People gonna learn the hard way.

The day was just insane!

I had a table which was facing one of the entries. In the few spare seconds I got I’d often turn around to just see a sea of people. It was unbelievable.

What I found was that the majority of people who I spoke to were just ‘browsing’ and didn’t have a collection they were working to complete. Being a traditional collector, it was a little disappointing as I would have loved to hear about those obscure or non-mainstream collections.

I’ll also be heading up to the Brisbane show. If you’re coming, swing past the MERQARY table to come say hi!

(Bring along any PG’s you’re looking to sell)

Iron Clad Lou said:

Yeah it was 90% Basketball and not much else. Had a good look at lots of stuff and was still enjoyable

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Sounds like it was a great day.

I noticed when I got back into cards how NBA centric the oz hobby was. It's changed a little bit in the last few years and LCS's stock a fair bit of baseball these days which is great to see. Hopefully, the shows will diversify a bit more in future. I still would've loved to have gone just to check it out. I thought there would've been more AFL - especially being in Melbourne.

Hopefully there is another show slated for Melbourne later this year.

Any Youtube content from the show?

SharpysSports said:

The day was just insane!

I had a table which was facing one of the entries. In the few spare seconds I got I’d often turn around to just see a sea of people. It was unbelievable.

What I found was that the majority of people who I spoke to were just ‘browsing’ and didn’t have a collection they were working to complete. Being a traditional collector, it was a little disappointing as I would have loved to hear about those obscure or non-mainstream collections.

I’ll also be heading up to the Brisbane show. If you’re coming, swing past the MERQARY table to come say hi!

(Bring along any PG’s you’re looking to sell)

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You have some very nice PG's man.

The Other Luka said:

Sounds like it was a great day.

I noticed when I got back into cards how NBA centric the oz hobby was. It's changed a little bit in the last few years and LCS's stock a fair bit of baseball these days which is great to see. Hopefully, the shows will diversify a bit more in future. I still would've loved to have gone just to check it out. I thought there would've been more AFL - especially being in Melbourne.

Hopefully there is another show slated for Melbourne later this year.

Any Youtube content from the show?

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I actually thought there was a great range. Definitely not 90% basketball.

Plenty of Pokemon, Yugioh etc.
Plenty of other non sport.

A good amount of AFL.

I'm looking forward to Brissy where I can be a buyer rather than stuck at a table.

I was there selling under the DGCollectables banner. Thought it was a pretty good show with a big turnout. Personally brought too much stock to put on the table and shelves but had a few comments saying that we had a good range of NHL, MLB, WWE, Non-sport and NFL in addition to the usual NBA and UFC/Soccer offerings. Sold a few things but met some forum members for the first time in person. I had a great day but really exhausted after the long drives to and from Sydney as well as unpacking and packing. Great job everyone for making it happen! Also looking forward to the Brissy show next week

N.B. photo courtesy of Rhys!

@DGCollectables

Was good to meet you (I was the guy with Harry) you definitely had a great selection of various stuff

kiwi_in_melb said:

@DGCollectables

Was good to meet you (I was the guy with Harry) you definitely had a great selection of various stuff

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Thanks Matt; great to meet you and Harry too for the first time in person. I will definitely come down again when they do the next Melbourne show.

Alright, not usually my thing, but I'm gonna do a bit of a write up. Being my first card show and all, and setting up a table for the hell of it.

I have to thank Adam "The27guy" for sending me some extra Basketball Card Fanatic magazines. Lots of quality content and I'm a sucker for the covers each month. I sold a few which helped offset the cost of the table and people liked looking through them.

I was really impressed as soon as I walked in at about 9am. Lots of tables, lots of variety, lots of positivity.

I can't remember who's who as I chatted to so many people. Other than of course @kiwi_in_melb. Thanks for stopping by man. It's certainly a different era when people don't snatch up Exquisites.

I also met Omar (I hope that's spelt right) from 1of1 who does custom cards. I was actually really impressed with the quality and think he's got some great things happening, especially with team sports being so strong in the Juniors throughout Australia. Some elegant designs that reminded me of Flawless also.

I think everyone I chatted to was buzzing and seemed really excited. I wish I could remember everyone. But all were really keen to chat cards. It was great to chat about non NBA also. I enquired about Soccer, AFL, Pokemon and Stars Wars. There was a bunch of other stuff also.

What sold was interesting, someone whipped through and grabbed a lot of my 90s stuff. My $1 box got raided of good stuff quickly also. People were very particular with what they were buying. Nobody had a lot of interest in the few Flawless and Exquisites I had out (thanks to @kiwi_in_melb for the Exquisite love) but I did only have a small sample of doubles. But still. I thought a few would sell.

I had a few people wanting to trade, I actually think I could have been better there, although most had modern Rookie Autos, mostly in College Unis of players I don't even know, or they had Donruss Bass in a PSA 9. A lot of unproven guys and cards. Just not my thing. But maybe that stuff moves. Some of my cards of legends didn't get moved so going with the times could be wise.

I saw a lot of people carrying bags of Blasters of Chronicles or other lower end product, stuff that really is a pretty poor buy. I did have a really great guy talk to me about his start in the Hobby. He mentioned he realized he needed to change when he'd noticed he'd spent $12k on busting with Cherry over a year or so and had very little to show for it. Singles are the way to go if you don't want to lose all your monies. Busting is way more fun, but there really is a lot of junk out there at the moment. Be careful people. As long as you're busting for fun, it doesn't matter, but be prepared to lose often (we've all been there). I'm a little concerned some people will get chewed up and spat out pretty quick.

A lot of product was there for sale. I was supposed to grab a box of 19/20 Mosaic from a great member on here but was in a rush for my flight home.

There were a lot of kids, and some had fine tastes, picking up the Steph Revolution Sunburst I had and the Luka Prizm Silver 9.5 (only 2nd year) for a look. Some savvy kids getting around. A lot carrying those lockable cases.

The Blank Slate set was great to see, as well as the Panini One and One Rookies of Ja and Zion in that showcase. Wild collection.

I had people asking for D. Mitchell, Gobert, Booker, KAT, Jordan, Kemp, vintage, RJ Barrett, Draymond. So people knew what they wanted and scanned carefully.

I didn't get to look at the trading section. I hope Brissy has a similar set up. I might bring some bigger pieces and see what's out there.

I wasn't a fan of the new pump I heard being brought up on stage, which is the authentication side of cards. Like really? We're gonna pay for grading and authenticating now? Seems to be the push from the big names in our "hobby" with Fanatics on board (to be fair a Xmas gift I got was authenticated by Fanatics at a premium, which is just not necessary, but to newbs it is). Big business is find new ways to make more money.

I will say, the BEST thing about the day, was the conversations with people. Really good people too. Everyone was nice and was sharing in the experience. I've never really had that in person before. So that was great to see. I find it a bit hilarious people think the Hobby is dying. Far from it. People just happy to talk cards. Very fun.

I will say, I was flat out from about 11:30am until 1:30pm where it felt like I didn't get a chance to look around. I hope I didn't miss anyone that wanted to look at things on the table or make a deal. It was pretty nutso.

Overall it far exceeded expectations. I feel for people that got stuck in a big line and found it a bit of a squeeze early on. After lunch had a lot more room. I'm taking my kids to Brissy so might go after lunch. We'll see.

Maybe this weekend I'll find a big card. Fingers crossed.

Was there from 11-2ish and the packed crowds made it impossible to enjoy the experience. Almost every stall I wanted to look at had crowds 2-3 people deep which meant lining up for 5-10 minutes just to see what they were selling. There were also no seats available for the panel discussion, despite being shown on the event map; which make it awkward for the handful of people trying to stand in front of the stage to listen to it. Even the two food trucks that were on site were completely swamped, we tried to buy something at lunchtime but didn’t want to wait half an hour.

Great event in concept, great list of sellers etc but it just didn’t work being packed into that venue IMO. Perhaps next time the organisers can look at somewhere like the Royal Exhibition Building so that there is more room to move.

Jeff's shed.

Plenty of room

good write up @drobfan8 - what was the authentication shite you speak of? I haven’t heard

Great concept, poor venue selection. This includes parking around the area which was nuts. Somewhere more central to CBD and does offers paid car park options (not just off street littered with permit zones)

Unfortunately family missed out as post returning an hour later (so as not to wait in long line with young kids). Came back an hour later and Circled venue for over 30 minutes to find car park…with no success. Returned home empty handied with a couple of upset kids (and one big kid of course)

Though reading reviews may have been way too crowded and too chaotic to bring the kids.

Glad those that got to go had an enjoyable time. Hoping I can make next show and venue selection a bit more considered.

GarnettFan4Life said:

good write up @drobfan8 - what was the authentication s***e you speak of? I haven’t heard

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Authenticating your actual card as legit.

Could be the patch. Could be the card itself.

Honestly I think the main issue was that nobody knew what to expect.

When I walked in at 9am to set up, the place looked massive. I never would have thought that we'd be here saying that room was an issue.

The stall next to me wasn't sure what to expect either. They said 1200 tickets were sold. Nobody was sure what the capacity was.

Definitely might be ready for a bigger venue next year.

And maybe some staggered times.

I certainly wouldn't want my kids there when it was that busy. Although, I personally had hardly any time to look up and see just how chaotic it was.

It absolutely sucks that people had a negative experience.

I wonder if they'll make any changes for Brissy. But I am definitely going later. Even if I might miss some of the early opportunities at cards

Only negative imo was my bank balance