L'Anti Expo: Well Worth the Drive

[Pheebs888]

Unless you're lucky enough to live near the regular spots of the National Sports Collectors Convention (Cleveland, Chicago, Atlantic City) or the hockey hotbed that is Toronto with its twice yearly Expo, it can be somewhat hard to get to a good card show. Living in Quebec City I must admit that I thought I'd have more opportunities when I moved back here from England in 2010. The truth of the matter is though, there's only one show around here twice a year called La Tournée des collectionneurs sportifs and it's unfortunately nothing to write home about. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the efforts put in by the people who run it and the presence of those who occupy the booths but it pales in comparison with the show I attended yesterday which is called L'Anti Expo.

Twice a year, the Collège André-Grasset hosts the event which features not only numerous dealers but also autograph sessions, card grading and contests. This time around, the event was held on May 7th and 8th. Since the 8th is mothers' day, I decided to hit the show bright and early on the Saturday. I don't know about you but I think my mom would have been less than impressed if I told her that I couldn't be there on mothers' day because of a card show. Besides, I do like getting to the shows at the start since all the best stuff has yet to have been bought then. Those who bought a either VIP package ($12) or a deluxe VIP package ($25) could enter at 9.00 AM on Saturday whereas general admission (which is free) started at 10.00 PM. On top of the early admission, the VIP package included a mystery envelope containing between $20 and $100 worth of cards and a spin of the wheel to win prizes. As for the Deluxe package they included 2 8x10 signed pictures, 1 8x10 picture unsigned of one of the signers at the event and one spin of the wheel. Only 50 Deluxe packages were available however. Since I had a 2 and a half hour drive to get there, I decided to stick with general admission as a VIP package would have meant a rather early start to my Saturday morning. On Saturday, general admission hours were from 10.00 AM to 16:30 PM and on Sunday from 9:30 AM to 14:30 PM.

With next to no traffic however, I still managed to get there at 9.20 AM and had to kill some time before going in. As it was advertised, you could spin the wheel to win prizes if you wore your favorite team's colours so I dusted off my P.K. Subban jersey which sadly was put away early this year and I got a free spin the wheel ticket. As soon as I got in the Collège gymnasium, I was amazed at the number of booths there were. Of course, it's nowhere near as much as there is at the Nationals in the USA but it's much bigger than my regular show in Quebec. In total, there were over 100 booths and an insane number of cards on display as well as autographed frames and memorabilia, goalie masks replicas, autographed seats of the old Montreal forum and so much more stuff. I started by going around the whole floor once to spot the cards that interested me, that took about an hour. I knew I needed to move fast since the show was in Montreal, it was not hard to guess that I wouldn't be the only Habs fan on site. I was eager to get my hands on few Futurewatch autographs from 2013-2014 (Galchenyuk and Gallagher), I was also hoping that one of the Quebec dealers who had a dual Roy/Price autograph card would be there as we couldn't strike a deal at the last show in Quebec (I had run out of funds) and of course, I was keen to add other pieces to my Canadiens personal collection. I had taken a few cards to trade but it soon became apparent that most dealers wanted to buy only. Word of advice, when attending a show, bring plenty of cash since there was no cash points on site and very few dealers accepted cards. I wanted to buy a signed framed from one of the dealers (Authentique Premium www.authentiquepremium.com ) who accepted plastic but he was unable to get a signal strong enough to make me pay...I ended up leaving without the Galchenyuk frame, guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Thankfully, I did manage to locate most of the cards I was after. I decided to take care of the Roy/Price as a priority and after a bit of bargaining, I acquired it for $10 less than the asking price which left me with enough cash to also buy the Gallager FW autograph. Leaving the show with only 2 cards would have been a shame so I was insanely glad I spotted a friend there, Chris Bossy who was willing to make some trades. I got out my recently pulled McDavid Contours jersey, a Petan Program of Excellence canvas card and a couple of Habs pieces I was willing to move and left his booth with an autographed Glachenyuk Artifacts rookie 12/12, an SPX Gallagher autograph and a Gallagher Artifacts rookie. Having acquired everything I was going to get, I stopped by the organizers booth to spin the wheel for a chance to get a McDavid autographed jersey and unfortunately, lady luck wasn't on my side. I did spot a fantastic piece on their table though, a dual autographed frame showing Carey Price and P.K. Subban doing their now forbidden triple low five...had it been possible to buy it, I sure would have given it a go but I was told that this piece would be part of an auction on September 17th which is part of a Leucan fundraiser. You can find out more about the said fundraiser on www.10kmnathaliebougie.com . In a nutshell, that day will include a 10 km march or race, a dinner while singers perform and the auction. Sure looks like a great day for a great cause!

I left the show at about 12:00 and the place was starting to get really packed, much more busy than the little show in Quebec I'm used to. The first guest had already been there to sign, the Golden Jet Bobby Hull and still to come were Denis DeJordy, Mike McPhee, Ryan Walter, Grant Fuhr and Ed Belfour. Pretty good line-up but nothing that would have met my personal collection's needs so I passed on that...Who knows who'll be on hand at the next edition! I enquired about the next edition and for those who may be interested in setting up there, it costs $195 to get a booth for the weekend but they are generally sold out about two weeks after the show. If you are interested in setting up, waste no time and contact them, all the information is on their website: www.antiexpo.com . Since I was rather pleased with my experience, I can confirm that I'll make the drive back up again for the next edition in October.

[TRDouble]

Nice! and you got some good pieces too. Congrats!

[Gallinator]

Excellent snags and good review - thanks!

Did you see much vintage on display?

[piper1]

Excellent snags and good review - thanks!

Did you see much vintage on display?

There were several dealers with nice vintage, including a couple with Tobacco cards (one with a Vezina RC).

[doniceage]

Congrats on the nice pickup.

Don

[creasecollector]

These pickups were great! Thanks for the great read as well @Pheebs888 !

[Pheebs888]

Thanks for the comments guys! There was some vintage but i'll admit that's not something that takes my fancy so to speak so i didnt pay much attention to it i'm afraid....

[RGM81]

Some great additions to your collection--glad to see you've got the bug back again.

[spuds1961]

Nice review and pick ups Karine, I know all too well about not having a decent card show to attend living in Mississippi.