2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap – This year’s annual B2B gathering of retailers, manufacturers, distributors, breakers and other industry personnel concluded this week. In attendance were over 60 brick-and-mortar stores and breakers. Total registered attendance was around 200 people. This year’s event was held in Las Vegas at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap

The event kicked-off on Sunday, April 2nd with afternoon registration followed by an evening rooftop reception. Guests were treated to several raffle giveaways courtesy of the various manufacturers in attendance.

The real “nuts and bolts” of the Summit started the following morning. GTS Distribution hosted a light buffet breakfast each morning of the event. The company also sponsored and provided the retailer gift bags that included items donated by Panini, Cryptozoic, UltraPro, GTS, Super Break, Historic Autographs and Honus Bonus.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit RecapAs has become a recent custom, honorees of the Industry Summit trading card set were revealed and included such well know B2B hobby personalities as Lynne LaPlaca of Ultra Pro and Janyce Mabra of TRISTAR, just to name a couple. Past honorees have included such other industry professionals as Chairman of the National Sports Collectors Convention, John Broggi and GTS Distribution President, Lloyd Kee.

Each morning, breakfast was followed by an informal panel called Newsmakers, hosted by Go GTS Live’s Rob Bertrand and Ryan Cracknell of Beckett Media. The Q&A participants included such people as Nick Matijevich of Panini America, Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication Services, Mike Jaspersen of Jaspy’s Hobbyland and Jeromy Murray of Beckett Grading to name a few.

These sessions were streamed live on the Go GTS Live Facebook page.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap – Monday Agenda

eCommerce was the primary topic of conversation Monday morning. Bill Sutherland of Beckett Media facilitated a small group discussion with leaders from Amazon, eBay, COMC, the Beckett Marketplace and uBid. The discussion was designed to assist retailers with their online business development.

Topps made their presentation on this year’s National Baseball Card Day. Long time friend of the company Alan Narz, a retailer himself, was very excited in talking about this year’s promotion. Highlights include a longer lead time of promotion, more eligible stores and strong support with in-stadium activations from MLB and MLBPA player support.

A roughly two-hour period was blocked-out mid-day for pre-planned and impromptu business meetings. No events were scheduled between 11:30 and 1:15. This allowed for retailers to meet with each other for networking opportunities as well as with distributors and manufacturers.

GTS Distribution hosted several manufacturers in their lounge. Traffic was consistent each day of the event with retailers able to intimately engage with Onyx Authenticated, Cryptozoic Entertainment, TRISTAR, Honus Bonus Fantasy Baseball, UltraPro and newcomer to the market Interactive Play Technologies Inc. This company is getting ready to launch a high-tech vinyl figure line with an integrated, immersive digital app experience. GTS Distribution also had a display of Imports Dragon NHL Figures and a Spin-to-Win activity where attendees could win prizes including the new 2.5″ NHL mini-figures that integrate with the company’s new digital app that was also being demonstrated throughout the show.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap

Other Monday round-table discussions included a presentation by Alan Narz on in-store case breaks and how retailers can still capitalize on this hobby trend. Successful store owners Wayne Bailey and Mike Fruitman moderated a discussion on expense savings and outlined over 50 ways to reduce costs and run a more efficient business.

The day concluded with an all attendee case break of 2017 Topps Tribute Baseball, courtesy of Topps. This was followed by an NCAA Championship Watch Party hosted by Panini America with open bar and generous h’orderves buffet. North Carolina transplant, and V.P. of Sales for Panini America D.J. Kazmierczak was obviously thrilled with the Tarheels’ victory.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap – Tuesday Agenda

Several distributor and manufacturer representatives provided recommendations to retailers on what product lines might be worth looking to carry as part of an inventory diversification strategy.

Attorney and contributor to Cardboard Connection, Paul Lesko hosted a a legal workshop and Q&A on issues impacting retailers. Most notable of all being recent updates to California law regarding the sale of autographs, into or from the state.

Morning breakout sessions included:

  • Panini AmericaKevin Haake led a discussion on creating loyalty rewards programs
  • ToppsAlan Narz discussed the companies Topps Series 2 Silver pack Promotion
  • Beckett Steve Grad hosted a Q&A regarding the company’s new autograph authentication services

At 1pm, almost all attendees filled the Summit’s main meeting room to hear the always animated and opinionated owner and CEO of Leaf Trading Cards, Brian Gray, speak on a variety of hobby related topics. This included his thoughts on the state of the hobby, which he stated as, “being the best it’s been in several years”. He also presented some of the companies new products for 2017. He finished with a healthy and spirited Q&A session. Each retail attendee was given a unique Leaf Trading Cards, Industry Summit, White Box. These specially designed boxes housed an Executive Collection Cut Signature Card.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap

This was followed by a series of Sports Card Market Development Meetings. A round-table discussion moderated by various industry professionals was hosted for each of the four major sports. Manufacturer reps. sat in and retailers were encouraged to attend the session whose sport has the greatest impact on their business.

The rest of the day was really owned by Topps. The company hosted in their meeting room a round-table session on driving store traffic, a Match Attax 8-player tournament with prizes and another 2017 Topps Tribute Baseball case break. The company finished of the day by partnering with the Magazine Exchange to host the Industry Summit’s annual Retailer Bowling Bonanza.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap – Wednesday Agenda

The last morning of the Industry Summit provided a recap of the Sports Card Marketing Development

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap

V.P. of Sales for Panini America D.J. Kazmierczak and Beckett’s Jeromy Murray

sessions from the previous day. In addition, chairpersons provided snap-shot summaries and key discussion points from the Summit’s Annual Meeting which took place on Monday.

The Summit concluded with the presentation of numerous manufacturer, retailer and distributor awardsPanini America won a category-leading 10 Industry Summit Awards. Highlights of  Panini’s winning entries: “Card of the Year” for the Ezekiel Elliott #301a from 2016 Panini Contenders Football and “Product of the Year” for 2016 National Treasures Football. The awards ceremony was sponsored by Amazon Sports Collectibles.

GTS Distribution was one of two distributors to take top honors in the distribution category. Other award highlights included Bryan Gavin from Ultimate Box Breaks who was honored for category-specific “Best Customer Communication”. Glen Okazaki and Bryan Shigezawa from Honolulu-based AJTK Sports Cards were honored for Excellence in Hobby Shop Communication.

For a complete recap of all the award winners, visit this article at Beckett Media.

2017 Beckett Industry Summit Recap

Beckett Radio Crew With Mike Fruitman of Mike’s Stadium Sports Cards

Industry Summit host, Kevin Isaacson wrapped up the 2017 Industry Summit with an announcement regarding next year’s plans. These include moving the 2018 Industry Summit to Dallas. The idea being the location will provide retailers access to tour Panini America’s headquarters and get a look at Topps production facility.

In addition to Go GTS Live’s Rob Bertand, who live streamed several of the Industry Summit’s events, Beckett Radio conducted several interviews with various attendees and provided tremendous content throughout the Summit. You can listen to each day’s podcast here.

 

GTS Distribution

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