Latest news with #TheNational
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vendors are bringing millions of dollars to The National to buy your cards
It's never been easier to sell your cards; it's also never been easier to get ripped off. Some vendors are looking to change that. At this year's National Sports Card Convention, the competition will be intense, though maybe not where you'd expect. This year, it's likely that more cards will be bought or consigned for cash than at any show in hobby history, largely thanks to a few key players. One of them, is betting that its unique offer will convince sellers to choose their table over anyone else's. There are only a few ways a vendor can differentiate their buying ability: what percentage they offer off the most recent comp, what percentage they will offer for trade, and how fast you get your money. Comp is an industry term usually used for the recently sold price of a card. At the National you will see signs indicating people will buy for 50% comps up to over 100%. It varies vendor to vendor, and you could see wildly different offers from one vendor to the next. If you're not careful, it's very easy to get ripped off. Why Has Buying Exploded at Card Shows The sports card hobby infrastructure has never been more alive. There are more places to sell and buy cards than ever before, from live platforms like Whatnot, Fanatics Live, and TikTok, to eBay's continued dominance in the hobby, vendors have no shortage of exits. Repack businesses have also emerged as a major outlet, with recently raising $30 million to scale their model. For dealers, picking up a card at a discount and flipping it that same weekend, often for a 15–20% margin, has become a reliable play. Alt's Offer Most tables at The National will offer instant cash, assuming they're actively buying. What makes Alt's offer stand out is the volume. According to an Alt spokeswoman, the company will double the amount of cash it brings for advances for the fourth year in a row. This year's goal is to offer multiple millions of dollars in advances. That means sellers have a reliable spot to get cash on the spot, any time during the show. Alt isn't just buying cards to flip like most vendors. Cards submitted are sent to auction, and the money you receive is a cash advance. Ultimately, you're paid full comp value once the auction ends, not just a percentage. Here's how it works: Bring your cards to Alt's booth (#2411) at The National. Alt evaluates your cards and makes an immediate cash advance offer. The percentage of comp offered varies based on the cards submitted. Once the cards go to auction, two outcomes are possible: If a card sells for less than the advance, Alt eats the loss. If it sells for more, you get the difference (minus fees) credited to your account. Tips for Maximizing the Offer for Your Cards at the National To get the best offer from any buyer, bring a wide variety of cards. A diverse, high-quantity submission reduces risk compared to a single, ultra-high-value card, which can lead to more favorable upfront offers. It's also important to understand your expectations. Price out your cards ahead of time and have a clear idea of what you're willing to accept. If one offer feels significantly off, ask about it. You're under no obligation to sell once you receive a quote. Additionally, buyers appreciate a prepared seller. Come early, sell early. Most buyers will eventually run out of cash or buy all the inventory they need. Don't wait until the last day when vendors are fatigued, ready to get home, and have already bought thousands of dollars worth of cards. Avoid selling lower-end cards. Buyers don't want to take 5 minutes to price out a card worth $5. If you have a lot of lower-end cards you need to get rid of at The National, your best option is finding a vendor who either accepts bulk for consignment or needs singles for Whatnot/TikTok. If you want to get the full value of your lower-end stuff, I would highly recommend visiting the COMC booth. With The National's buying scene more competitive than ever, collectors would be keen to leverage this buying environment in order to get the best possible return on their cards. What do you plan on selling at the National? Let us know on Mantel.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Arrives to Protests and Mockery in Country That Hates Him: ‘Twinned With Epstein Island'
President Donald Trump will get no warm welcome in his mother's homeland. The president will land at Prestwick Airport, near Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday evening and immediately head to his golf resort at Turnberry, South Ayrshire, in the southwest of the country. He will then visit his other course in Aberdeen, in the northeast, before debuting a new 18-hole course bearing the name of his Scottish mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. Anti-Trump protests and marches are scheduled to take place throughout the weekend, with events planned in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and at his golf courses. The Stop Trump Coalition has planned marches that will kick off simultaneously in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. A coalition of trade unions, disability advocates, climate activists, pro-Palestinian and Ukrainian solidarity groups, as well as American diaspora organizations, is also coordinating several days of events. The political campaign group Everyone Hates Elon has already set the tone by sabotaging Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire by placing a placard under its sign, claiming that it is 'twinned with Epstein Island.' The group also claimed responsibility for sticking a photograph of Trump and the disgraced financier on a bus stop near the U.S. embassy in London. Even locals in his mother's birthplace in the Outer Hebrides appear rankled by his impending visit. 'Trump is running scared from the Epstein files,' one local said on X, adding a warning, 'Running to Scotland won't help him. We're ready - and waiting.' Seven out of 10 Scots have ill feelings towards the U.S. commander-in-chief, according to the latest Ipsos poll. 'The Scottish public hold a broadly unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump,' Emily Gray, managing director of Ipsos Scotland, said after the figures were released in March. One young man from Glasgow, interviewed by Scottish publication The National ahead of Trump's visit, worded it slightly differently. 'You're a p---k, man,' he said, using a derogatory term for a rude man. 'Tyranny and authoritarianism just isn't welcome in our country.' 'I hate Donald Trump,' another person said Thursday on the streets of Glasgow, according to The National. 'Get him out. Why is he coming? Why are we allowing him?' 'I heard he's got a chronic illness. And I hope it takes him out soon! Please!' she added. The White House described the visit as a 'private trip,' though Trump is set for a Monday meet with the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump will meet with politicians who have previously scorned him. Greeting the president as he steps off Air Force One will be Scotland's secretary of state, Ian Murray, who once backed a motion accusing Trump of 'misogyny, racism, and xenophobia.' Scottish National Party leader John Swinney, whom Trump will meet next week, urged the cancellation of September's state visit after a televised shouting match erupted during the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's trip to the White House in February.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Drowned Out by His Own Bagpiper at His Scotland Event
Donald Trump encountered some difficulty during his comments to the media ahead of his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, as the president's own bagpiper played loudly through his opening statements. The president is meeting with his British counterpart at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland this morning, where the pair were expected to discuss a range of issues from trade to the war in Gaza. The piper had apparently been invited to play at Trump's course as Starmer arrived—blasting out a performance close enough to the leaders to make it difficult to hear what they were saying to assembled reporters. After the noise eventually piped down, Trump appeared at pains to sing his own praises during what remained of his pre-talk press conference with Starmer. 'If I weren't around, right now you'd have six major wars going on,' he was finally heard to tell reporters. 'Nobody's ever done what we've done,' the president went on. 'We've done a lot. It's an honor to do it. It's not hard for me to do it.' Trump's self-administered pick-me-up follows a rocky weekend visit to the northernmost of the United Kingdom's four nations. Though the president's mother was born in Scotland, more than 70 percent of Scots have a dim view of his policies and politics, at a rate roughly 10 percent higher than across the U.K. overall. His arrival earlier on Friday was hardly met with a warm welcome. Heralded ahead of time by a front-page spread from Scottish daily newspaper The National that read 'CONVICTED US FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND,' protesters lined up along the side of the road as his motorcade made its way from Glasgow to his Turnberry resort, many of them holding up signs taking potshots at the president over the ongoing Epstein Files furor. Demonstrations continued in at least three Scottish cities throughout the weekend, including outside the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, as well as outside his Turnberry resort and Trump International Scotland in Aberdeen, where one protest group has installed a sign that reads: 'Twinned with Epstein Island.' Trump has spent much of his time in Scotland so far playing the green (accompanied by an armored golf cart), which would nevertheless appear to have done little to assuage his reported behind-the-scenes anger over his administration's handling of the Epstein crisis—admitting to reporters Sunday, 'I'm actually not in a good mood.' Those comments came hot on the heels of a meeting with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen that yielded a new trade deal with the bloc, though the arrangement's since been slammed by the Wall Street Journal's editorial board as 'odd' for what the newspaper describes as mostly 'abandoning [his] goals' in trade relations with the continent.
The National
7 hours ago
- Business
- The National
Nvidia defends GPU sales to China amid criticism from Democratic senators
Nvidia has defended itself against recent criticism over a decision by President Donald Trump's administration to grant licences to the company to sell its H20 graphics processing unit (GPU) to China. The response comes after a group of Democratic senators on Monday urged the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who largely crafts export policies, to reverse course on the licences. The lawmakers said a decision to sell H20 chips to China was "an abrupt departure" from the administration's position in April that Beijing's access to the processors posed a serious national security risk. "And it undermines the administration's recent Al Action Plan, which purports to strengthen export control efforts on Al compute,' the letter states, referring to Mr Trump's AI strategy that included 90 federal policy actions. The senators also warned that such policy reversals would bolster China's push to use AI to 'strengthen military systems'. The letter is the latest in a back-and-forth battle over how to best protect and promote US AI technology. 'The H20 helps America win the support of developers worldwide, promoting America's economic and national security,' an Nvidia representative told The National. 'It does not enhance anyone's military capabilities, and the US government has full visibility and authority over every H20 transaction.' Shortly after a trip to Beijing this month, Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang highlighted the Trump administration's assurances about resuming sales of the H20 to China, and said deliveries would begin soon. The H20 is designed to comply with US regulations that seek to prevent powerful AI technology from being used by countries it views as adversaries. But in recent years, and particularly during former president Joe Biden's administration, the US has sought to clamp down on the export of AI technologies to a greater degree, especially CPUs and GPUs, which have become critical for countries seeking to build up AI infrastructure. Nvidia came out in January against the stronger export controls proposed by Mr Biden, saying these undermined US leadership in AI with a 'regulatory morass'. Since his inauguration, Mr Trump has taken a softer approach to AI-related export controls. Recent deals announced with the UAE to build an AI data centre, which also included security stipulations to prevent the potential diffusion of US technology to adversarial countries, was widely seen as a win for US technology companies that have largely opposed strict export policies. Despite efforts in recent years to prevent the diffusion of US AI technology, some analysts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the overall policy. A new report from Jefferies, an investment banking and capital market firm based in New York, indicated that strict US export policies had prompted China to recalibrate and build up its own chip-making capability, with companies like Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation making strides. Regardless, in their letter to Mr Lutnick, the senators maintained that 'restricting access to leading-edge chips has been the defining barrier for China's efforts to achieve Al parity', expressing concern that the Trump administration would make further exceptions to loosen various export policies it once advocated. 'This administration is permitting adversaries access to technologies critical to national security as part of trade discussions without consultation or input from Congress,' they wrote. A spokesperson with the US Department of Commerce said Biden administration didn't impose 'any restrictions on the H20 whatsoever and they flowed freely into China,' adding that the Trump White House was the first to implement a licence requirement for the exports to Beijing. 'The Trump administration will consider any H20 licence applications carefully, accounting for both the benefits and the costs of potential exports from America and considering the views of experts across the US Government,' the Commerce Department spokesperson told The National. White House officials have recently indicated that policies seeking to prevent the export of US AI technology might ultimately backfire.
The National
7 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Activists react to John Swinney's plan for independence convention
It comes after it was revealed that the SNP leader will ask party members to support the move in a motion put forward at the upcoming conference in Aberdeen in October. Swinney has argued that the only time a referendum had been secured was after the SNP's historic majority win in 2011, when it returned 69 MSPs, and so, he intends to set up a 'Scottish constitutional convention' to 'marshal support for Scotland's right to decide through gathering support from the people of Scotland, civic bodies and international opinion'. SNP depute leader Keith Brown, who has co-signed the motion, previously told the party's conference in 2024 that he would support an independence convention that included other Yes-party representatives. READ MORE: John Swinney issues statement after Donald Trump meeting – read in full Brown said the move puts independence "at the very heart of the 2026 election campaign". "I know how important the establishment of a civic convention will be for our movement –it has been pushed by some of our leading Yessers and The National newspaper itself. "Together, we will deliver it and make this campaign a reality. That will be welcomed by activists across Scotland," Brown added. A constantly-declining seriousness about the SNP Robin McAlpine, founder of pro-independence think tank Common Weal reacted to the news by describing the announcement as an attempt at "saving political careers.". "There is a recklessness about the way the SNP is exhausting what remains of the patience of independence supporters," he said, questioning: "Is there a committee that meets to come up with ways to say the same thing again and again using slightly different words? "Wasn't there a new strategy two weeks ago? Will there be more? Shouldn't we just wait for the next one?" McAlpine added: "The prospectus for independence remains full of holes and a serious constitutional convention could play an important role. That's not what this is. This is a plea for an uncritical fan club that the First Minister hopes will rescue his election campaign. There is to be no independent thought, no alternative opinions, just cheerleading. "There is a constantly-declining seriousness about the [[SNP]] these days. I don't think anyone really believes any of this anymore. Tying independence inseparably to the Scottish Government isn't about progressing independence but saving political careers. "Still, at this rate we'll only have to pretend to believe in this strategy for a few weeks until the next one comes along." 'Eyes on the prize' Former SNP MP Tommy Sheppard told The National that if in nine months time, there is any Scottish government formed other than one led by the SNP, "it is a major setback for the national movement," urging the party to keep the "eyes on the prize". "It just makes it so very much harder to start talking about moving forward to independence. It doesn't mean a campaign stops, but will be a big blow, and we will lose the levers of government which can which could be deployed," Sheppard said. When it comes to other pro-independence political parties on the ticket, Sheppard said if they were to get "even 3 or 4% of the vote each, all that means is that they don't get anybody elected, and neither does the SNP". Sheppard added: "We need to make sure that those who resist or deny Scotland's right to self-determination are defeated, and that those who insist upon it are victorious." Elsewhere, Alba leader Kenny MacAskill said the convention was to be welcomed, but it must be used as "the launch pad for a plebiscite election". He also demanded that all pro-independence parties must be included, claiming that the referendum route proposed by Swinney is "doomed to fail", adding: "Otherwise it will be a blind alley leading to a political cul de sac". 'Holyrood 2026 must be Scotland's independence election where the pro-independence parties seek a mandate for Independence and agree that a majority of votes cast for pro-independence parties, on the regional list, will constitute that mandate," MacAskill said. 'Alba have consistently called for action on independence. The SNP have an opportunity to make this convention more than symbolic, and instead ensure that it leads directly to a clear, democratic mandate for independence at the next election.' READ MORE: Did Donald Trump bar more critical news outlets from his new golf course opening? Brown said he understood the frustration felt by the public, and called on Scotland use the "golden opportunity to change all of this" in 2026. 'There is a lot of frustration out there at the moment – people across the UK feel like they are working harder than ever, but their living standards aren't improving, and their energy bills and food costs are going up. We were told to wait for a Labour government but now we have a government which is balancing the books on the backs of the poor, the disabled and the elderly. 'Next year, people in Scotland have a golden opportunity to change all of this – using the election to put ourselves in the driving seat of our own destiny. 'Westminster wins when we in the independence movement convince ourselves that we cannot – that has always been their objective. But the reality is that support for independence in Scotland has never been as consistently high as it is today, and the case for [[Westminster]] control of Scotland has never looked weaker. "There is not a single question facing Scotland right now for which Westminster control provides the answer. 'The [[SNP]] is the party of Scottish independence – and over the next few months, we will lead a new debate for a new Scotland. We will set out an ambitious and radical vision for Scotland's future – showing how we can use our immense energy wealth to raise living standards, power Scotland's economy and transform public services".
