Tristar Houston show = 1 star

[refrank]

The Tristar show in Houston last weekend was less than wonderful:

1. Ice storm Friday morning.
2. Impossible traffic Saturday because of the conflicting Auto Show & Harlem Globetrotters.
3. Reliant Arena still has overpriced parking, poor facilities, lousy lighting, and bust-yer-feet hard floors.
4. 90% of the dealers are the SOS.

I first went to a January Tristar Houston show 24 years ago and have been to most of 'em since. It really seems like this has degraded to not much more than an autograph show that entices card dealers to subsidize the arena rental.

The one five star part of the show: Marty's Sportscards from Tennessee. He and his wife are friendly, helpful, and offer great prices. And seeing the billboard on the way out of Houston asking the Texans to draft Johnny Football was a hoot, too.

1 star out of 5 for Tristar.

 

[longbomberz]

I kind of feel thats how all big shows are getting. It's either dealers who bring (what seems to me to be) junk or guys with insanely high end stuff that just use it to show off and deal amongst one another. I usually find something solid to buy at the big shows in Chicago, but for the most part it's just becoming a place to submit cards to BGS and bust some cheap-ish wax.

 

[Hawk8]

The Tristar show in Houston last weekend was less than wonderful:

1. Ice storm Friday morning.
2. Impossible traffic Saturday because of the conflicting Auto Show & Harlem Globetrotters.
3. Reliant Arena still has overpriced parking, poor facilities, lousy lighting, and bust-yer-feet hard floors.
4. 90% of the dealers are the SOS.

I first went to a January Tristar Houston show 24 years ago and have been to most of 'em since. It really seems like this has degraded to not much more than an autograph show that entices card dealers to subsidize the arena rental.

The one five star part of the show: Marty's Sportscards from Tennessee. He and his wife are friendly, helpful, and offer great prices. And seeing the billboard on the way out of Houston asking the Texans to draft Johnny Football was a hoot, too.

1 star out of 5 for Tristar.

I was at the show all day Saturday and I would give the show higher than 1 star. I drove from Louisiana to my dads house on Toledo Bend on Friday and then down to Houston on Saturday morning and I had no problem with the weather and I also had no problem with traffic. I agree parking was overpriced and in my opinion so was the admission fees. I spent $42 on parking and admission for my son and dad and myself before I even walked in the door. The lighting inside was also poor and it was cold inside the building and I was not getting any autographs but if I was the announcement system was also poor. I found very few cards to add to my Dawson collection, but found numerous good deal on Drew Brees cards to add to my son's collection. It was only his second card show and his first was a 20 table one so because of his experience and picking up some good deals for his collection I would give the show 3 stars.

 

[predatorkj]

Tristar is a great place to pick up cheapy type cards. Otherwise, you're probably wasting your time unless you're paying for their high priced autograph guests.