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Nutcases aside, a nice day at Serb Hall

11/29/2011

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Smooth ride to Milwaukee on Sunday morning. We were in the President's Hall on this day. My tables were right in front of a giant portrait of John F. Kennedy.  I get two 8-foot tables at this show for 50 bucks. I'd like more tables but the traffic at this show is always light and I don't want to drop the cash in case I have a slow show. So I only had three display cases along with all my binders. In the cases I stacked my cards by year. When I got to the third case, I had extra room so I spread out my basketball and some of my hockey cards.  It made for an interesting display, something I don't normally have on my table.

Pretty good crowd today for a Serb Hall show. There was a steady flow of people into the room from 9 a.m. until about noon. At  my tables, things were slow early on so I took a walk around the room where I noticed a large number of bobble heads. Another dealer had cards imbedded on plaques. I haven't seen that in at least 20 years. I remember when that was popular in the late 1980s, early 1990s. The guys across from me had a big display of modern cards. There were a few guys with some vintage on their tables along with the promoter PJ, who has a very large vintage inventory. He's the only dealer I know with more binders than me.

Things started to heat up at my table. Jason purchased some '70 Topps football and some '59 baseball. Another regular purchased some '53s and '64s. Another regular bought quite a lot of stuff out of many binders. My one Milwaukee autograph hound was pleased with some of the cards he found at my table. Another customer, who I haven't seen in a while, picked up some '79s. Quite a few other guys dinked through my binders and purchased cards. I didn't sell much out of the cases today, though I had a lot of lookers at the baseball. Nothing doing on my football, basketball and hockey. I was hoping Mark and Jim would be around today but they were no shows.  Sales were a little slower than I would have liked but I can't really complain.  I haven't been to this show since May and it's hard to have consistency when you're not there regularly.

One of my customers Kevin Gleason purchased quite a few cards today, including a nice pile of '67s. Kevin has been buying cards from me for several years now. When I first started doing the Milwaukee shows, I mistook him for someone from the Orland Park shows because he usually wears a White Sox or Blackhawks shirt. Today, I learned that Kevin is the son of Chicago icon Bill Gleason, who was a hugely popular sports writer for 60 years in Chicago. Kevin explained he inherited his love of sports from his dad, who died two years ago.  Bill Gleason, a real character who seemed to be always smoking a cigar, wrote about Chicago sports with the old Chicago American newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Southtown Economist, along with appearing on the hugely popular television show "The Sports Writers."  Surprisingly, Kevin said his dad didn't really have much in the way of sports memorabilia. Though he did have programs from the '59 World Series and the '63 NFL Championship Game. Cool stuff!

On the buying front, zilch, nada, nothing.  No deals on any of the other tables in the room.  One dealer had a '60 Topps Mickey Mantle in his case graded 5.5. He wanted $300. I moved on. Later, he started shouting "Where's my card?" and "Give me back my card!" and looking at me from across the room. Was he suggesting I stole his card? He never came over to my table so I'm not really sure if he was accusing me of stealing his card. I never even handled the card. It was in his display case when I was at his table. Most importantly, I don't steal -- period. I spend thousands of dollars on cards every single month and I am a regular victim of theft. I've never been accused of theft before, it was just plain weird. Even though the guy is a serious nutcase, I hope he finds his card.

Later a guy showed up at my table with a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth.  The card was in a thick screwdown holder. I hate the screwdowns because they hide all the flaws in the card. The Goudey Ruth cards are highly counterfeited and I wasn't totally sure the card was legit.  The front of the card looked real. A telling sign is the blocks at the base of the card which are not symmetric on the real cards but seem to always be symmetric on the fakes. The card definitely looked smaller than a legit '33 Goudey and may have been trimmed if it is real. I asked for a price and the guy responded that another dealer in the room offered $800.  Well, knowing the other dealers in the room, I doubt any of them offered $800, so I'm thinking the card was a fake.

The parade of nutcases continued when a guy came by my table as I was packing up.  He had a small stack of cards and I asked him how much he wanted. He wouldn't give me a price.  I hate this game.  Everybody has a price. Just tell me your freakin' price and save us both a lot of time and hassle.  In the stack was a Joe Dugan strip card from the 1920s, three T206s, a T205, a few '75 TCMA cards, some cards I have never seen before like '70s Nabisco basketball and some oddball baseball. I don't make offers on cards I don't know anything about, so I pulled out the Dugan and the tobacco cards.  They were beat, torn, frayed, stained and creased, i.e, poor condition.  I offered him $40 thinking I can maybe get $50 or $60 for the group.  He pulled them away and said he wanted $125. I kindly thanked him for showing me the cards. Unfortunately, this little scene plays out all too often and I have to blame it on the price guides. People who aren't avid collectors get ahold of a Beckett or SCD price guide and look at the Mint, or as most people say "high book," price and ignore the lower VG-EX price.  The price guides also fail to explain that if your card is in terrible condition, it's worth at best 15 percent of the high book for a superstar card or 5 to 10 percent of high book if it is a common.  Thus, a dealer, like myself, has to buy the low-grade card below 15 percent of high book in order to make a profit.  I find it amazing the amount of folks that try and sell me cards and fail to consider that I'm buying the card for resale and I can't stay in business if I buy a group of cards for $125 and sell it for $60.

The nutcases aren't unique to Serb Hall, they're at every show.  Luckily, there are far more pleasant people than nutcases at the shows and I've learned over the years to just brush it off and move on. Tomorrow is another adventure. Actually my next baseball card adventure is Sunday at the Schaumburg Radisson, not to be confused with the simultaneous show occurring down the street at the Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows.  I will be set up at Fred Copp's show at the Radisson, just a block or so west of Route 53, on Algonquin Road. I've already priced some 1955 Topps All-American football cards and am working on my 1970s Topps baseball binder. If there is time, I may price up some '69-70 Topps basketball. I've been sitting on a large pile of these cards for a while now.  I consider the Schaumburg show my home base and always enjoy seeing the great cast of characters that regularly appear at this show. Sunday should be a great time, though nutcases please stay away!

Below are some photos from Sunday's show at Serb Hall:
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Orland Park Thanksgiving Show

11/28/2011

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I was wiped out on Monday after the Sun-Times Show. I went to work but wasn't very productive. After work I tried to price some cards for the Orland Show but couldn't get much done.  Slowly as the week wore on I was able to get a little more pricing done for the show.  I went through about 4,000 1969 Topps baseball cards last week in order to reload my '69 binder.  I finished at about 1 a.m. the night before the show. 

I somehow made it to Orland around 8:15 a.m. The first thing I noticed was the large amount of vintage dealers at the show. With some regular vintage customers set up as dealers, a new vintage guy from Sheboygan, Wisc., along with some semi-regular vintage dealers, it was a packed house of vintage.  I was a little worried about my sales with all the vintage dealers but I ended up having a good day.

There was a good crowd in the room for a Saturday show. However, in years past we had folks from out of state attend the Thanksgiving weekend show while visiting family in the Chicago area.  I don't think I had any of these type of customers today. The room was filled with regulars and semi-regulars. I didn't have any new customers today.  One year, I sold some T-206s to a guy from Australia who was in town visiting his wife's family.  For several years, I had a family from Iowa regularly buy from me at this show, but I haven't seen them in the last two years.

Rick was my first customer today. He picked up some '69s. Another regular purchased some '74s. I sold some football cards to another regular. I made a nice cash and trade deal with Gil. I picked up a box of '63s while Gil got a large pile of '64s.  Gil came back later in the show and gave me a small box of 1950s football in exchange for a '65 Banks, a '64 Mays and a few other cards. Another regular purchased quite a few '60 Topps. Dennis pulled a large pile of cards from the '69 book and purchased all my '69 stars. It was nice to see Don, who I haven't seen in a while.  Don is recently retired and keeps busy coaching youth sports. Don picked up some '53 Bowmans and a Batter Up Jimmy Dykes today. Tony S. purchased a '56 Clemente and a '56 Jackie Robinson. Chris picked up some '70 Topps football. Will bought some '62s and was kind after I forgot to bring the cards he purchased from me on eBay (Next show Will for sure!). A semi-regular picked up my '52 Bowman Minnie Minoso rookie and my '51 Bowman Billy Pierce rookie. Quite a few other guys dinked through my binders and pulled assorted cards and treasures.

On the buying front, I picked up some early '70s hockey.  I also made a nice trade with Chuck where I got a whole bunch of '62 Post.  Last Orland show another dealer Steve gave me a nice deal on some cards.  I went over to his table near the end of the show today to see if he had anything else but I couldn't really look at his display case because Terry had it blocked with his briefcase.  In fact, Terry seemed to be intimidating anyone who approached Steve's table while hassling Steve to purchase his whole table.  I didn't even get to look at any cards out of the case because Steve sold his whole table to Terry while I was standing there. The little episode left a bad taste in my mouth.

All in all, it was an excellent show. There's a lot of good people at the Orland show and it is always a pleasure to see them.  Next up, Serb Hall in Milwaukee.  I haven't been to Serb since May and I am a little nervous about this show because I've had some bombs in the past. I'm hoping all my Milwaukee peeps show up or it is going to be a long day. 

I was too busy to take any photos so I scanned some of my purchases-trades below:
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Sun-Times Show Wrap Up

11/21/2011

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Typical Sunday for me at the Sun-Times show with slow sales. I noticed that only a few people were waiting to get in the room when I arrived at about 8:45 a.m. At 10 a.m. there was a decent crowd in the room. I added some more cards to my cases in the morning. I didn't change much else with the display.  I thought we had a real nice display between Dave, Bob and I. Though Dave didn't like it too much because he wants a longer table on the aisle. I think if I give him a little more space next to me, it should solve the problem. I hope we keep this layout for future shows.

I actually had about an hour there where I was real busy. I was helping customers with cards out of my cases and four or five guys were at my books. I sold a 1953 Bowman Black & White Andy Pafko to a customer. I sold a 1960 Topps Rocky Colavito to another customer. Gary bought my 1964 Topps Ernie Banks.  Gary sets up at Wolff's flea market in the summer and I usually see him at Fred Copp's Schaumburg shows. He regularly buys Cubs from me. I sold my 1954 Topps Eddie Mathews PSA 4 to another customer. I had quite a few guys go through my 50-cent box and my dollar box on this day. I sold a bunch of '76 Topps to a gentleman from Niles, Illinois.  One of the top hat guys from Detroit bought all my '68 Topps Tigers. I had another customer purchase quite a few Braves cards from my binders. Another gentleman was pretty excited when he found a '68 Topps Tony LaRussa in my '68 binder. I sold a 1962 Topps Frank Robinson to a gentleman from the Quad Cities. Another customer purchased quite a few '65 Topps. I sold a smattering of football cards. Chuck, who I've known for years from the Fred Copp shows, purchased some '63 high numbers.  His son is now 16 years old and 6'1" -- I remember when he was up to my waste.

On the buying front, I made a nice cash and trade deal with Larry B. for a '56 Topps Sandy Koufax.  I also purchased a 1934-36 Batter Up Pie Traynor from a dealer. A guy came by my table with a complete '61 Topps set and a '63 set but he wanted waaaayyy too much money for the sets. I'm pretty sure he went home with those.  Junior had some stuff but it was largely schwag and I passed. I saw Mike and Steve from the Orland shows. I saw Bill Nest, who I first met at Gonzaga several years ago.

Steve report: Except for when he started to go off about Mike and Lisa Madigan, he wasn't so bad today.  Though he and Dave had a heated argument about stocks which I found particularly annoying.  Steve was golden in the end when he found us a cart as we packed up.

My final thoughts on the Sun-Times show: It's a lousy show for me. I haven't done well there in at least four years. As far as the other dealers go, I've decided I really hate these artist guys -- the guys who sell paintings of athletes and they paint something during the show.  I've learned over the years of being stuck next to them that they're all tools. The guy this weekend set up late and had to place his tables right up against mine. He had plenty of room where he didn't have to pimp my space. The show in general feels more like a shopping mall than a card show.  There's so many dealers selling framed photos/autographs, jerseys, pennants and assorted crap for your basement wall. I don't really care for these guys and miss the days when it was largely vintage card dealers.  There were a lot less dealers at this show in general. The room was down at least one row from last time. I'm going to have to decide whether I want to set up again in March. On the positive side, there are quite a few customers at the Sun-Times Show that I don't see anywhere else.  On the negative side, I used to have a lot more of these folks and they've disappeared. I'll have it figured out sometime in February on whether I want to set up in March.

In the meantime, I have a double bill next weekend with Orland and Serb Hall. I'll have a ton of star cards priced for the shows along with my '69 Topps baseball book updated. I missed the last Orland show, so it will be nice to be back there. I haven't done Serb since May and am hoping for a good show. I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day and see you next weekend!


Below are some photos from Sunday including some after-show carnage:
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Typical Saturday at the Sun-Times Show

11/19/2011

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I forget my iPhone today. I didn't realize how lost I am without my phone. I kept reaching for it all day and had no idea about the time all day. The one benefit was that Steve couldn't call me today. Though I feel bad about my Steve rant from yesterday. He's not so bad. He bought us sandwiches today from Subway which was much appreciated. No political talk today. I had a lot more sales so I was in a much better mood.

I got to the Stephens Center around 8:30 a.m. They don't let the public in until 9 a.m. and there was a nice line waiting to get in. A changed my set up a little bit today. I didn't sell any cards out of my cheapie quarter book or my '78-'79 hockey book yesterday so I placed those books behind my table. I also pulled my '69 baseball book off the table because it is nearly empty. In place of these books I put out my '70 & '72 football book, my '58 book and my '59 book. I thought this gave me a much stronger display. Dave was again busy all day.  It took awhile for customers to find my stuff. From 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m. there was a steady stream.  Though at past Sun-Times Shows, this time period was always a mob scene.  Late in the day, the crowd thinned out significantly. My first sale of the day was a '66 Philadelphia Mel Renfro to Willie, who regularly sets up at Fred Copp's shows and the Saturday Orland shows.  Willie loves the autographs and bought the card to get signed by Renfro at the show. Later I sold some Jack Lambert cards to other customers who were going to get the cards signed by Lambert at the show.  I saw Tom, a memorabilia dealer from Orland, who had a pile of Lambert gear to get signed. I had one customer pull out quite a few '66 Topps baseball from my binder. I sold some '65s. I sold quite a few '53 Bowman Color to a gentleman from Springfield, Illinois. Another customer pulled out quite a few '55 Bowman from my binder. I had a customer buy some '60 Fleer Greats of the Game. Another customer from Iowa was buying up Fritz Peterson cards because Peterson is doing a signing out there. I sold a smattering of football out of my binders but not as much as last night. I had some sales out of my dollar box, my 50-cent box and my quarter binder.

There is a group of guys that always come out to this show and they belong to a vintage collectors/trading club called Old Baseball Cards (OBC). You can't miss them because they wear these somewhat loud white and blue baseball caps. I love these guys, they always buy from me but, like I was telling T.J. who belongs to the group, they need to bend up those brims on those hats. When I was a kid, we couldn't bend those brims enough. Thirty something years later, I still want to bend up those brims. These OBC guys are good guys and T.J. was telling me that the guys at the show today have some amazing collections. I've known T.J. for years and I can attest that he has a great collection. He was telling me how he just finished up his '61 set and is three card away from the '67 set. T.J. buys a lot of pre-war from me and today was no exception. He picked up my American Caramels and some Diamond Stars. Another guy in the OPC group bought my 1964 Topps Stand-Up Ernie Banks.

I had a father and son team that I remember from the National buy some cards today. The dad picked up my '52 Bowman Duke Snider and Gil Hodges while the son picked up my '59 Topps Stan Musial.  Another customer bought my '62 Topps Whitey Ford. Jim Goodfriend made an appearance today. He was in a real good mood. Often he's a bit surly. Jim bought my '55 Topps Willie Mays. I sold a lot of stuff today but as I write this in the wee hours of the morning, I can't seem to remember all that I sold.

I didn't buy anything today. Not much showed up at my table and I didn't get a chance to walk around.  Though I did see Al Oliver signing autographs at the Bob Feller Museum table. I always liked Al Oliver, he was a tough player and great hitter. I also saw a guy wearing a Jim McMahon jersey. I haven't seen one of those No. 9 jerseys in a long while.  My tablemate Bob "Memoraboblia" Downing noted that he saw a guy wearing a Cubs Jim Riggleman jersey.

It was a good day today and I'll take a repeat tomorrow. Unfortunately, I always bomb out on Sunday at this show. I remember last November, I had some real nice sales to another dealer first thing in the morning then nothing, zero, zilch, the rest of the day. I priced out some more cards for my cases tonight, so I'll have some good stuff but with football games starting at noon, I'm expecting a long day. So if you're reading this and live within an hour or so of Rosemont, Illinois, please come out to the show and buy up my stuff!!

Sorry, no photos today because I forgot my freakin' phone. I'll have some photos tomorrow. 
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Sun-Times Show Day 1 - The Steve

11/18/2011

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William Burroughs once said that when you are in the presence of someone who makes you feel like you have lost several quarts of plasma, avoid that person, you need him like you need pernicious anemia. I only see Steve at the big shows in Rosemont and when I do, I always feel like I've lost several quarts of plasma. Pernicious anemia is settling in.

Now I don't hate Steve and he is not a bad guy, it's just that sometimes I feel like he's mountainous log cabin away from the Unibomber. He has always got to talk politics. I generally don't care to talk politics, especially at a card show. At the big shows in Rosemont, you have at one end of the room some of the greatest living professional athletes ever to grace this Earth.  In the rest of the room are some of the coolest pieces sports memorabilia and sports history you will ever see. My mind is NOT on politics or world events.  I could care less about what is happening in Greece. I really don't care about the motivation or lack thereof of folks on food stamps. How can you go on and on about this crap?!! Why don't you stop ranting and go check out all those '52 Mantles in 707's booth, you freak! Ugh! Two more days of Steve...

Enough of my ranting, I don't want to start sounding like Steve. There was a decent crowd tonight at the Stephens Center. So often Friday nights are dead. I was pleased with the turnout. I saw lots of folks there today like Jim, Harry, and Terry from the Orland Shows, Jason and Jim from Gonzaga, Larry from Schaumburg. I saw long-time customer Ed Knapp tonight. I don't see Ed that often any more.  I used to count on him buying football cards from me at the Schaumburg shows. Another Larry, who I see at the Gonzaga shows, brought his son Matthew tonight.

My tablemate Dave McDonald does an incredible business at this show with his high grade vintage.  He was busy all night. My mix of high, mid and low grade doesn't fare as well at the Sun-Times Show as it does at the smaller shows.  Though I did make some sales tonight. Jason picked up my '34 Goudey Paul Waner.  Another customer picked up my '68 Topps Mike Ditka along with a pile of '75 Topps Bears. Another customer bought my '57 Topps Frank Robinson rookie, and another guy picked up my T206 Johnny Evers. I sold quite a bit of football from my binders.  A customer in a Cardinals jersey purchased quite a few '65 Topps baseball. A father and son team pulled out quite a few '63 Topps baseball. Though my favorite customer of the night was the mom who pulled out her list of '74 Topps and found some cards in my binder while her husband stood by.  I've actually never seen this scenario before where the wife has the list and the husband stands around.  It's always the husband with the list and the wife stands around. That guy is one lucky bastard. If my wife would start to put together sets of vintage cards I'd be in heaven.

I walked around about half the room and made a few minor purchases.  I'm working on a 1970 Topps set and found a Fergie Jenkins I've needed for a while.  I also found the Rick Miller I needed to complete my '78 Topps set. Though, which is par for this show, most of the prices at the other tables were a bit too high.  Junior came by with some cards to sell but nothing really interested me. I'm sure I'll see him all weekend and will snag a few cards before it is all over.

It was a long day.  I got to the Stephens Center around 10:15 a.m. It took a long time to set up. I also raced out to Frannie's Beef in Schiller Park for some grub. I hate the food at the Stephens Center, it's nasty. I got home around 9:30 p.m. I'm about plum tuckered out and have to get up early tomorrow. I'm hoping to make it to the show around 8:30 a.m. I finished pricing '70 Topps football and a few '40 Play Balls and will have those out new for the show tomorrow. Steve said he's working on his roof tomorrow morning, so the morning should be pleasant. Ugh! Two more days of Steve!!

Pictured below are photos from tonight's show:

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Kids Carry The Day At Gonzaga

11/14/2011

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Aaahh, the easy drive to Gonzaga. I spent a total of two hours in the car on Sunday, as opposed to 12 last weekend. I arrived at Gonzaga a little after 8 a.m. which is very early for me. Even Ken, the vintage dealer who regularly sets up next to me, commented on how early I was. My problem on this warm windy morning was that it took me until about 9:45 a.m. to finish setting up. I chatted with several other dealers and some early customers around 8 a.m. and the next thing I knew it was nearly 10 a.m.

Nice crowd on this day. The area in front of the auction was jam packed.  There was a bit of an overflow of auction-folks crowding in front of my tables.  It's a real drag when the auction people block out my tables from paying customers. I was tempted to shoo these people away a few times but they eventually got the picture and moved away. I was busy all day. It was great to see my young friend Josh, a bunch of his friends, their dads, and Josh's dad. I think it is incredibly cool how these guys support their kids and encourage them to engage in collecting vintage cards. I've seen these kids now for three or four years and watched them grow, literally -- seems like yesterday I was looking down at them, now I have to look up. Josh recently had surgery on both of his feet and was using a walker. He was looking a little pale too. Josh, if you're reading this, I hope you're feeling better. Josh and his pals, about five guys around ages 11 or 12, are incredibly knowledgeable for their age about old-time ballplayers and vintage cards. I love their enthusiasm. They bought some terrific old cards like a 1950 Bowman Pee Wee Reese, a 1952 Bowman Bob Feller, a 1955 Topps Warren Spahn, a 1956 Topps Roy Campanella, a 1956 Topps Pee Wee Reese, a 1956 Topps Nellie Fox, a 1960 Topps Al Kaline All Star, a 1961 Topps Brooks Robinson and a 1968 Topps Willie Mays.

One of the dads grew up in Venezuela. He was telling me how he collected the much sought-after Venezuelan-issued baseball cards as a boy. But like most of his American counterparts, his mother threw them out.  He also told me that 1950s-era Chicago White Sox shortstop Chico Carresquel was from Venezuela. I always thought Carresquel was from Cuba. I have to mention how cool sounding it was when the dad spoke Carresquel's name. I am a fourth generation Chicagoan and old-time Chicagoans don't speak too good of English let alone Spanish. I can't roll those R's and absolutely butcher saying "Carresquel." I sold the dad my 1951 Bowman Carresquel.
 
I have another group of young guys who regularly buy Goudeys from me. Their dad is also a real nice guy. It is always great to see them and they picked up a few '33 Goudeys and a 1941 Play Ball Horse Danning to add to their terrific collection. There were quite a few 8 to 12 year olds at the show buying cards on this day. I don't charge kids much for cards because I want to encourage them to collect. I plan on setting up at shows for the next 20 to 30 years and I need these guys to continue to collect cards as they grow up so I can stick around. Though it's always tough to collect cards once you get into high school. I collected cards in high school but I never told any girls I collected. If I did, there would have been a lot of lonely Saturday nights. On the other hand, if I had all the money back I spent on girls in high school and college, I'd have an amazing collection of cards today.
 
Back at the show, I saw my buddy Mark, who seemed to have other things on his mind and didn't buy any cards. Mark's friend Jim bought a few '53 Bowmans and '53 Topps. Jim has a great deal of knowledge on cards and pointed out a few short prints in the '53 Topps set I wasn't aware of. Jim also collects non-sports and tin soldiers. Another customer bought some '52 Topps and told me that Ralph Kiner once dated Elizabeth Taylor. I have two regulars at this show both named Jason. One Jason picked up quite a few '59 Topps while the other Jason bought a bunch of '73 and '74 Topps football commons.
Another regular bought quite a few cards from the late 1960s. Another regular purchased a great many '67 and '68 Topps commons. A few semi-regulars added cards to their want lists. Quite a few other guys pulled cards out of my binders. Steve was looking for Bobby Douglas cards and found a '77 in one of my binders.

One customer pulled a small stack of cards out of my binders and must have gotten pissed off at me and shoved the cards into one of my display cases.  I was real busy and tried my best to help everyone but I'm sure there were times when I might have missed someone. I'm just one person covering four tables. I appreciate everyone who shows up at my tables and by no means do I intentionally snub anyone. If I'm helping someone with cards out of my display cases, feel free to approach me with your stack from the binders and we can settle up. I'm sorry I missed that customer but I think it's bad form to stuff the cards into one of my display cases and walk away. I guess I'm grateful the guy didn't steal the cards.

On the buying front, there was a guy walking around with a small binder of cards from the 1950s and 1960s.  He had a 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle that I'd say was in Very Good Condition.  The centering was off and the corners had some minor wear.  The guy wanted 400 bucks which I think is about 200 too high for that card. I asked him about a few more cards and he was very high on all of them.  Some guys don't understand that you can't charge high prices for cards that aren't in Mint Condition. Also, dealers are buying cards for resale and can't make any money if they pay high book for a card. I politely thanked the guy for showing me the cards.  Ken also mentioned that the guy was ridiculously high.  Another guy, who I regularly deal with and is reasonable, had near sets of 1953 and 1954 Johnston Cookie cards.  I love the Johnston Cookie cards and never saw them until I started doing shows in Wisconsin, where the cards were exclusively issued.  They feature players from those great Braves teams from the 1950s. They're cool! The guy's price was just a tad too high, I was close to pulling the trigger on those. I still may if he has them next month. Another customer had an oddball assortment of cards that I picked up including a 1934-36 Diamond Star Pepper Martin PSA 4 and a bunch of old boxing cards that I have never seen before.  I also bought a 1964 Topps Sandy Koufax World Series card from one of my young customers.

I had customers at my table up until the end of the show and was one of the last dealers to leave the room. The wind was pretty heavy when I was loading my car. The top of one of my bins blew across the street. Driving home was a little scary but I made it safe and sound.

Next week is the Sun-Times Show.  I'm not a huge fan of this show, even though it's the closest show to my house that I regularly do. I live about 25 minutes away.  I used to live only a mile away but moved north about three years ago. I've had good Sun-Times shows in the past but the last two haven't been very good. I team up with Dave McDonald and Bob Downing for these shows and it is always fun to hang out with those guys for a weekend.  I've got a lot of new cards to price for the show and hope to have them ready by Friday. I'm also hoping to break my string of bad Sun-Times shows this weekend. Friday should be telling. I always bomb on Friday. If nothing else, I'll buy a bunch of cards.  There is always a tremendous selection of cards at this show.  Next to the National, I think this is one of the best shows in the country as far as vintage inventory.  I'm also going to try and get over to the Onion Roll Restaurant in Oak Park on Friday for lunch. It's about 20 minutes from the show and one of my favorite restaurants in the world. If you're going to the show, please stop by my table and say hello.

Pictured below are photos from the Gonzaga show:
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Despite large crowd, slow sales in St. Louis

11/7/2011

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After spending the day buying winter clothes for my kids on Saturday, I was on the road to St. Louis at about 3:30 p.m. I stopped a few times for my leaky bladder and then for a Chinese buffet in Springfield, Illinois. That buffet was good, it was located just off Sangamon Avenue, for anyone near Springfield. I made it to my buddy Andy's place in St. Louis around 9 p.m. and was greeted with some Spaten Oktoberfest beer, good stuff. I didn't sleep well that night. I have a tough time sleeping after being in my car for hours on end. Luckily I can count on Andy for a pot of coffee in the morning. 

Guided by my GPS, I made it to the show around 8:15 a.m. I love driving through St. Louis. It is a beautiful city with rolling hills, big old trees, neat Victorian buildings, and lots of open space. St. Louis is just a terrific place.  The Two Hearts Banquet Center is a terrific place for a show, though a little difficult to load in and out.

The morning started out slow. I started to worry that I wasn't going to make table fee. Something I observed about the Two Hearts customers, which is unique to this show, is that they'll make two or three trips to my table before they make a purchase. So when guys came back for the third time, purchases started to come in. I sold a T206 Nap Lajoie PSA 2 to get things going. I sold another T206 common. One customer pulled quite a few '55 Bowmans from my binder. Another guy was collecting '54 Bowmans and found some. I sold some '57 Topps to another customer. A customer I remember from last month bought some '61s. Another customer I remember from last month, who sends out cards to get signed, bought a bunch of cards from the mid-60s.  I had a father and son duo pick out quite a few cards from the '60s and 70s for their sets.  Another customer from Michigan, who is in St. Louis for a few months for work, went through most every binder and pulled quite a few Detroit Tigers cards in addition to Jim Kaat cards.  He was telling me that Kaat went to the same high school in Michigan where his son currently attends. Another customer found quite a few '70 Topps for his set. 

One customer was eyeing a 1964 Topps RBI leader card in my '64 binder with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente pictured on it. He walked away, came back later to buy the card, but someone had already purchased it. Luckily I had another one, much nicer in my case which he picked up. My favorite customer of the day was the lady who bought my '56 Topps Ernie Banks PSA 6 for her husband as a Christmas gift. She made the purchase while her husband was in the washroom. She is going to surprise him with the card on Christmas. Like I told her, I wish my wife would buy me cards for Christmas. Another customer picked up my 1961 Golden Press Frankie Frisch PSA 8 which lead to a discussion with another customer about Golden Press cards.  The customer was telling me how he had the Golden Press booklet as a child and has not seen one since. I sold quite a few 1967 Topps cards.  One customer went through my '67 binder and pulled out all the Cardinals.  Overall, a decent day but sales were down from last month.  Two customers who spent a nice amount of money with me last month, were no shows this time around. I was surprised sales weren't stronger. I thought St. Louis collectors would be fired up to buy after the Cardinals amazing run through the World Series.  There was definitely a lot more people in attendance than last month. I'd say about 250 people went through the room.  There were more people at this show than I've seen at a small show in a long time.  Though, quite a few people just walked by my table.  I'm guessing they were modern card or autograph collectors.

The crowd was decked out in Cardinal wear.  I was amazed at the variety of World Series garb.  When the White Sox won the World Series in '05, I didn't see much of a variety of shirts and hats around Chicago.  I must have seen a dozen or so different types of hats, shirts and jerseys. I thought the variety was pretty cool. One guy had a table selling solely World Series shirts. Though the shirt of the day for me, being from Chicago, was a Chicago Blitz T-shirt. I attended the very first Blitz USFL football game in 1983 at Soldier Field in Chicago.  I was a fan of the Blitz and watched a lot of their games.  I rarely see anyone wearing a T-shirt from the now defunct Blitz in Chicago these days and was surprised to see one in St. Louis.

While I'm discussing my observations about people at the show, I have to mention the banquet hall guys working the bar.  What's with these guys? Fairly creepy and smoking cigarettes.  I really didn't appreciate the cigarette smoke.  I can recall the days when I used to suffer through cigarette smoke at card shows.  There used to be quite a few dealers at some of the old hotel shows that chain smoked at their tables back when smoking was legal in public places. I hated it then and didn't like those creeps smoking away behind the bar on Sunday.

Though the vast majority of the dealers and customers at this show are kind and considerate and not creepy. Tony Schaefer was set up near me along with his friend, I think his name was Todd. Another friend of Tony's went out to Jimmy John's and got us sandwiches, which was much appreciated.

The buying front was a little soft when compared to the boon at Orland last weekend. One guy offered me a Cal Ripken rookie. I avoid all cards from the mass-produced 1980s, even Cal Ripken rookies, because they're a dime a dozen and worthless.  A lady came to my table with a small pile of cards from the 70s and 80s. She told me that she pulled out the '74 Tony LaRussa card, thinking it had value.  I sadly informed her that the LaRussa is only worth about one dollar.  The vast majority of the cards she had were nickel and dime cards. I told her she should try eBay or get a table at the show herself. I wasn't going to make an offer on the cards because they had very little value and I think she thought she had some real money there.  I picked up a smattering of 1960s Philadelphia Gum Company football cards from Tony Schaefer. Another dealer Phil sold me a '79 Walter Payton real cheap.  There were a couple of other vintage dealers set up at the show but they didn't have anything I could use. This show has a ton of autograph dealers with reasonable prices. Though I didn't buy any autos because I don't know the dealers and there's so many fakes out there, I'm wary of being burned. If I ever get to know some of these guys and can trust them, I'll buy some autos.

I was out the door around 3 p.m. and got home around 9 p.m. I drank a few Mountain Dews and Dr. Peppers during the drive and had to stop quite a bit. I know quite a few dealers who regularly drive 300-plus miles to set up at shows. I've done it now three times in the past five weeks and I have to give those other dealers a lot of credit because I don't like sitting in my car for
10 or 11 hours in a weekend. I think I'm going to take a break from these road trips, it's too mind numbing. The group that puts on the Two Hearts show has a three-day show in February at another venue.  I may do the three-day show. I'm not interested in driving in for the single day show for a while. It was really tough to get back in my car this morning to drive to work. I'm really sick of being in my car.

Luckily, next weekend is Gonzaga in Milwaukee which is only an hour away from home. Former Brewer Don Money will be at the show signing autographs. I love the Gonzaga show. It is consistently my best show on the sales front. I've got all sorts of cards I want to price and have ready for the show like '78-79 Topps Hockey, 1970 Topps football and 1968 Topps baseball. I've also been picking up quite a few star cards that I hope to have priced and in my display cases for the show. While the Two Hearts Show in St. Louis is an excellent show, and I will be back sometime next year, I'm looking forward to sticking closer to home for a while.


Below are some photos from central Illinois and the Two Hearts Show.
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Bought More Than I Sold... Again

11/1/2011

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I had a real rough week of back pain prior to the Orland Park show this past weekend. Ten hours in my car the previous weekend had a negative effect on my back.  I didn't get a whole lot of cards priced over the days leading to the show because I spent most of the time on the couch with a heating pad.  Luckily, I didn't feel as bad on the morning of the show, though I noticed I was feeling a little weak.  It was tough to load and unload the car. Anyway, I made it to Orland around 8:30 a.m. and observed quite a few more cars in the parking lot than last show.  I didn't see any empty tables in the show today like last show either.  There were also quite a few dealers I didn't recognize. Which isn't all that unusual for Orland but today it seemed like close to half the room were new dealers.  I noticed one modern card dealer came up from St. Louis.  I was next to an older couple, who I had never seen before, that had two tables filled with wax.  Turns out they're just from nearby Palos Heights.  Which just goes to show you, you don't have to be a regular at a card show these days to posses a large amount of cards. Though I'm curious as to just how many massive collections are out there that were all acquired via eBay or some other internet site.  One of my customers had a good idea today about creating an informal group to meet and trade cards. If anybody has any interest in creating a trading group, let me know, and maybe we can meet one evening after work and try and fill some want lists by trading doubles. I'm slowly working on a 1970 Topps set, I need a lousy Rick Miller #482 to complete a '78 set.  I also just started a '72 set and am not very far along.

There was a nice crowd in the room today.  Many more people than I've seen in a while. Rick and Dave were the first ones at my table as usual.  Rick picked up my 1940 Play Ball Rabbit McNair along with a nice stack of '66s, '65s and '64s. Dave picked up a small pile of '66s and '65s in exchange for a large lot of '68s of which I still owe some cash on (It's coming Dave, thanks for the cards!). Another regular bought some '57s. I sold some '53 Bowman Color and a '58 Aaron All Star to a new customer who is putting together old Milwaukee Braves team sets. A regular picked up a large stack of '74s. Dennis bought some '64s as upgrades for his set. I could tell he was disappointed I didn't have my '69 book reloaded. I was able to get '65s and '66s done for this show. I'm shooting for '67s this week. I only have enough time to get one book done a week.  It's incredibly time consuming. In some cases I'm sorting through several thousand cards, placing them in numerical order, grading/pricing them then placing them in the book. Between my day job and my family, I can only get in an hour or so a night. So it is a painfully slow process. 

I sold some '61s to a regular customer. Some '62s and '63s to another customer. Chuck picked up some '52 Bowmans. I sold a '62 Aaron to a new customer. My one regular Orland autograph hound purchased some cards to send out for signatures. I made some sales out of my cheapie binder. I sold quite a few '72s and some '73s.  I sold some '59s. I sold a few more cards out of my cases but I just can't seem to recall what they were.  Quite a few other guys dinked through my binders picking out a few cards here and there. Jim Goodfriend made an appearance today.  Another oldtimer, I believe his name is John stopped in today for the first time in a while.  I was pretty busy on this day.  Though I made more trades than usual which I think accounts for lower sales than last show.  I picked up a large pile of '65s, '66s, and '67s in trade.  I picked up a nice pile of Post Cereal cards from the '60s in trade. Will traded me a nice '64 Mays and Spahn. Another regular traded me a nice pile of '72s. I generally don't look to trade but if a guy brings me something I can use and the deal is fair, I'll pull the trigger.
 
I pulled the trigger on quite a few purchases today as well. Jim had his usual pile for me. I picked up a '61 Billy Williams rookie from Junior. I picked up a 58-59 Topps hockey card of an old Hawk which I promptly traded to Will. I bought a great box of cards from Chuck filled with everything from '54 Bowman to 71-72 hockey. I also bought a nice pile of stars from from the '60s that included some cool hockey sticker/stamp inserts from the early 1970s of guys like Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito. I had to race out to an ATM to buy that last pile. I turned down a bunch of stuff too, largely cards I have in triplicate. One dealer had a large box of cards from the late '70s for $95. The cards looked a little beat and I have so much of that stuff. If I had more money in my pocket, I might of made a counter-offer on the box.  Unfortunately, I can't buy everything, though I sure would like to.

Overall, a real nice day at Orland. I'm especially pleased with my purchases. With my wife posting cards on eBay for me, I need to regularly pick up new inventory for her. I think I scored today. Next weekend, I'm heading down to St. Louis for the Two Hearts show.  Old Chicago promoter George Johnson ran a show down there last weekend.  I talked to one dealer who went down there and said it was awful.  I've learned the hard way to stay away from new shows. I only set up at established shows.  The Two Hearts show has been the regular show in St. Louis since the 1980s. It's a great show and should be rocking after the Cards amazing run at the end of the season to capture the World Series. Lee Smith will be signing autos along with old St. Louis Blues hockey player Bob Plager. My old buddy Andy is letting me stay at his place again. It should be a great time!


Pictured below is some of my haul from Orland this past Sunday. 
Picture
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    Tony Gordon

    Vintage Sports Cards Addict

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