Sunday, April 23, 2023, Civic Center, Orland Park, IL
A big thank you to everyone for checking in on me. I am feeling much better. I am learning how to manage these new meds. The best news is that my blood pressure is coming down. I should be good to go.
I had a bit of a crazy weekend. My son decided, at the last minute, that this was the weekend he wanted to go check out Michigan State University. So we set out Friday night for East Lansing, Michigan. We drove for about two hours and stopped for the night in St. Joseph, Michigan.
We had kind of a late start Saturday morning and did not arrive in East Lansing until 1 p.m. The Michigan State University campus is difficult to navigate. We drove around for a while before we parked at the football stadium and spent the next several hours walking around.
The university’s website contained a self-guided walking tour which we tried to follow. Whoever drew up the maps for the tour was on some wacky tobacky. The map did not follow the actual layout of the campus. We made do the best we could.
Unfortunately, most of the buildings were locked and we could not view any of the classrooms. However, in a way, it was comforting to see the doors locked after the recent mass shooting on campus. Such a beautiful, tranquil place. It is hard to imagine some lunatic walking around with an automatic weapon shooting innocent kids. It is such a messed up world we live in, I can't even....
So I am concerned about my son attending Michigan State with that history. I did not see any police or security personnel on campus, which was troubling.
Overall, I really liked the campus and wanted to enroll myself. I did feel safe there. Beautiful red brick Victorian buildings with three-lined streets and walking paths. A large river runs through the middle of the campus. There were quite a few folks fishing in the river.
Next to the campus is a ton of housing, shops and restaurants. My son won’t have a car here so it is nice to see that he can walk to anything he needs.
We stopped at the gift shop on campus and purchased a couple of Michigan State sweatshirts. I got a little choked up when my boy put on that sweatshirt. It is going to be awfully hard to let him go in the fall.
We arrived back home late Saturday night. I was up early Sunday morning for the Orland show. I arrived at the Civic Center around 8 a.m. It was nice to see that the Orland Park Little League was back. It was a cold day for a game.
Easy load in and set up. Late arriving crowd. I was a little concerned early on. The place eventually filled up and sales came often.
As usual, Andy was one of my first customers and he found some cards. Mike was back after a few months off. He purchased some cards out of my newly reloaded 1963 Topps binder. Chris was there, fresh off his trip to Dallas and to Arlington to see a Rangers game. Chris has been to a ridiculous number of major league baseball parks. Sounds like he had fun in Dallas.
Will and Joe arrived early with some much-needed grub. Thanks guys! Pat stopped by. I haven’t seen Pat in quite some time. I sold a large pile of 1959 Topps to a customer I met last month. A new customer, who had some assistance from his wife, pulled a large pile of 1977 Topps baseball. My regular hockey guy found some cards. The lady who collects White Sox from the 1970’s founds some cards.
A customer I met years ago at the Fred Copp shows purchased a nice pile of cards. He asked about Fred. I haven't seen Fred in quite a while. Fred, if you are reading this, it is time for you to book a show!
I sold a 1961 Topps Whitey Ford to a new customer. Then I chatted for a while with Mike S., then with Pat Quinn. I love talking to Pat Quinn who told me about collecting Exhibits when he was a kid. I assumed he grew up on the South Side of Chicago but he told me he grew up on the North Side near Belmont and Western avenues. He said there was a little corner store that had a machine where you could place a penny and receive a single Exhibit card in return.
Pat told me as he tried to put together the complete run of Exhibits as a kid, he convinced the shop owner to show him the box of cards before he placed them into the machine. That way he could pick out the cards he needed. He also said that he purchased quite a few Exhibits at nearby Riverview Amusement Park, now long gone. I’ve talked to quite a few old timers who said they purchased their Exhibits at Riverview. Many of these guys even call the cards “Riverview Cards.”
Pat said, as he got older, he began to get his Exhibits autographed. He said that by the time he sold his collection he had more than 300 different autographed Exhibits. Wow. I would have loved to have seen those!
Quite a few guys purchased cards today. Will was the big winner, purchasing a near set of 1970-71 Topps basketball. Will had quite a few memories associated with those cards. He recalled attending Chicago Zephyrs games at the old International Amphitheater.
I had a real nice buying day, purchasing a 1960 Topps Johnny Unitas, a 1957 Topps Warren Spahn, a pile of non-sports cards from the 1950’s and 1960’s, and some 1972 Topps football high numbers.
Will’s grandson Charlie surprised him by attending the show with a buddy. Will is such a proud grandpa, it is so nice to see him and Charlie together.
Me, Will and Joe capped off the day at the sub shop. We all tried the fried shrimp today and it was awesome! Wow! I was not expecting it to be so good!! This may be my new main meal at the sub shop.
After lunch, I had to race home to pick up my daughter from work. Later, my kids went and got us all Portillo’s for dinner. I went with the ribs. I then started to reload my 1979 Topps baseball binder before calling it a night.
Another great weekend in the books. A big thank you to Rich and crew for operating another excellent show. I had to laugh at Rich early in the morning as he tried to direct some new vendors to their tables. Like me, Rich places a name tag on all the tables. He was frustrated with some vendors who ignored the name tags and plopped down wherever they wanted.
The table to my right does not have a regular vendor. I am treated to a new guy each show. The guy this month was one of the ones that plopped down on the other side of the room when his table was clearly labeled next to mine. He was kind of a weird dude, I thought. He was selling Nascar. I don’t think Nascar sells well at card shows. He spent most of the morning on his phone with the speaker blaring. He was gone by noon.
Anyway, I did enjoy the day. Next Orland show is May 21, 2023. I plan on bringing out all of the binders again. I should have that ’79 binder completed by then. I noticed that my football binders are really hurting. I might have to take a month and focus on refilling football. I am starting to make a little headway on the baseball but have a long way to go. I plan on reloading 1977-78 Topps Hockey after I complete the ’79 baseball. Good stuff coming soon!
Next Oak Creek show is coming up fast on May 6. As usual, I am all sold out of dealer tables. It should be another packed house. I am starting to consider getting an autograph guest for one of my summer shows. I will keep you posted.
In a rare move, I do not have any shows scheduled for this coming weekend. Honestly, I need the break. These new meds are tiring me out. I might set up at the Wilmot Flea Market on Sunday. I was not able to make it out there last year due to the weather. So if the weather is nice, I might just be out there. Have a great week everybody!
A big thank you to everyone for checking in on me. I am feeling much better. I am learning how to manage these new meds. The best news is that my blood pressure is coming down. I should be good to go.
I had a bit of a crazy weekend. My son decided, at the last minute, that this was the weekend he wanted to go check out Michigan State University. So we set out Friday night for East Lansing, Michigan. We drove for about two hours and stopped for the night in St. Joseph, Michigan.
We had kind of a late start Saturday morning and did not arrive in East Lansing until 1 p.m. The Michigan State University campus is difficult to navigate. We drove around for a while before we parked at the football stadium and spent the next several hours walking around.
The university’s website contained a self-guided walking tour which we tried to follow. Whoever drew up the maps for the tour was on some wacky tobacky. The map did not follow the actual layout of the campus. We made do the best we could.
Unfortunately, most of the buildings were locked and we could not view any of the classrooms. However, in a way, it was comforting to see the doors locked after the recent mass shooting on campus. Such a beautiful, tranquil place. It is hard to imagine some lunatic walking around with an automatic weapon shooting innocent kids. It is such a messed up world we live in, I can't even....
So I am concerned about my son attending Michigan State with that history. I did not see any police or security personnel on campus, which was troubling.
Overall, I really liked the campus and wanted to enroll myself. I did feel safe there. Beautiful red brick Victorian buildings with three-lined streets and walking paths. A large river runs through the middle of the campus. There were quite a few folks fishing in the river.
Next to the campus is a ton of housing, shops and restaurants. My son won’t have a car here so it is nice to see that he can walk to anything he needs.
We stopped at the gift shop on campus and purchased a couple of Michigan State sweatshirts. I got a little choked up when my boy put on that sweatshirt. It is going to be awfully hard to let him go in the fall.
We arrived back home late Saturday night. I was up early Sunday morning for the Orland show. I arrived at the Civic Center around 8 a.m. It was nice to see that the Orland Park Little League was back. It was a cold day for a game.
Easy load in and set up. Late arriving crowd. I was a little concerned early on. The place eventually filled up and sales came often.
As usual, Andy was one of my first customers and he found some cards. Mike was back after a few months off. He purchased some cards out of my newly reloaded 1963 Topps binder. Chris was there, fresh off his trip to Dallas and to Arlington to see a Rangers game. Chris has been to a ridiculous number of major league baseball parks. Sounds like he had fun in Dallas.
Will and Joe arrived early with some much-needed grub. Thanks guys! Pat stopped by. I haven’t seen Pat in quite some time. I sold a large pile of 1959 Topps to a customer I met last month. A new customer, who had some assistance from his wife, pulled a large pile of 1977 Topps baseball. My regular hockey guy found some cards. The lady who collects White Sox from the 1970’s founds some cards.
A customer I met years ago at the Fred Copp shows purchased a nice pile of cards. He asked about Fred. I haven't seen Fred in quite a while. Fred, if you are reading this, it is time for you to book a show!
I sold a 1961 Topps Whitey Ford to a new customer. Then I chatted for a while with Mike S., then with Pat Quinn. I love talking to Pat Quinn who told me about collecting Exhibits when he was a kid. I assumed he grew up on the South Side of Chicago but he told me he grew up on the North Side near Belmont and Western avenues. He said there was a little corner store that had a machine where you could place a penny and receive a single Exhibit card in return.
Pat told me as he tried to put together the complete run of Exhibits as a kid, he convinced the shop owner to show him the box of cards before he placed them into the machine. That way he could pick out the cards he needed. He also said that he purchased quite a few Exhibits at nearby Riverview Amusement Park, now long gone. I’ve talked to quite a few old timers who said they purchased their Exhibits at Riverview. Many of these guys even call the cards “Riverview Cards.”
Pat said, as he got older, he began to get his Exhibits autographed. He said that by the time he sold his collection he had more than 300 different autographed Exhibits. Wow. I would have loved to have seen those!
Quite a few guys purchased cards today. Will was the big winner, purchasing a near set of 1970-71 Topps basketball. Will had quite a few memories associated with those cards. He recalled attending Chicago Zephyrs games at the old International Amphitheater.
I had a real nice buying day, purchasing a 1960 Topps Johnny Unitas, a 1957 Topps Warren Spahn, a pile of non-sports cards from the 1950’s and 1960’s, and some 1972 Topps football high numbers.
Will’s grandson Charlie surprised him by attending the show with a buddy. Will is such a proud grandpa, it is so nice to see him and Charlie together.
Me, Will and Joe capped off the day at the sub shop. We all tried the fried shrimp today and it was awesome! Wow! I was not expecting it to be so good!! This may be my new main meal at the sub shop.
After lunch, I had to race home to pick up my daughter from work. Later, my kids went and got us all Portillo’s for dinner. I went with the ribs. I then started to reload my 1979 Topps baseball binder before calling it a night.
Another great weekend in the books. A big thank you to Rich and crew for operating another excellent show. I had to laugh at Rich early in the morning as he tried to direct some new vendors to their tables. Like me, Rich places a name tag on all the tables. He was frustrated with some vendors who ignored the name tags and plopped down wherever they wanted.
The table to my right does not have a regular vendor. I am treated to a new guy each show. The guy this month was one of the ones that plopped down on the other side of the room when his table was clearly labeled next to mine. He was kind of a weird dude, I thought. He was selling Nascar. I don’t think Nascar sells well at card shows. He spent most of the morning on his phone with the speaker blaring. He was gone by noon.
Anyway, I did enjoy the day. Next Orland show is May 21, 2023. I plan on bringing out all of the binders again. I should have that ’79 binder completed by then. I noticed that my football binders are really hurting. I might have to take a month and focus on refilling football. I am starting to make a little headway on the baseball but have a long way to go. I plan on reloading 1977-78 Topps Hockey after I complete the ’79 baseball. Good stuff coming soon!
Next Oak Creek show is coming up fast on May 6. As usual, I am all sold out of dealer tables. It should be another packed house. I am starting to consider getting an autograph guest for one of my summer shows. I will keep you posted.
In a rare move, I do not have any shows scheduled for this coming weekend. Honestly, I need the break. These new meds are tiring me out. I might set up at the Wilmot Flea Market on Sunday. I was not able to make it out there last year due to the weather. So if the weather is nice, I might just be out there. Have a great week everybody!
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