April 22, 2012, Serb Hall, Milwaukee, WI -- My second weekend in a row in Milwaukee, my home away from home. I love Milwaukee. I always think of the film "American Movie" when ever I am in Milwaukee. "American Movie" is a documentary on a local Milwaukee guy who is making a low budget horror film. It's funny, sad, and very entertaining. There's always a few characters at the Milwaukee card shows that fit right into the mold from "American Movie." There are also many characters that are straight out of circa-1957, sporting their Milwaukee Braves gear. I need to get me one of those old Milwaukee Braves hats, those things are cool. Over the years of doing card shows in Milwaukee, I've come to respect those old Braves teams with Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, and Eddie Mathews. It must have been something to get to watch those teams all summer long.
Today, the Brewers were playing which meant the show cleared out early. One of my regular customers, Jim, was telling me he was a little disappointed with the Brewers' play thus far. Like I told him, it is just April, it is a long season and anything can happen. Jim responded by saying I was right, the season is too long. Jim was my first customer today and he picked up my 1953 Topps Johnny Klippstein. Jason picked up some 1952 Bowman commons along with my 1941 Double Play Pee Wee Reese rookie and my '41 Double Play Johnny Mize-Enos Slaughter. Another customer named Jason, who I will now dub Hockey Jason, picked up a bunch of '79-80 hockey. A regular customer picked up a large stack of '57 Topps and '62 Topps baseball. Kevin picked up my '71-72 Bob Lanier rookie and my '72-73 Bill Bradley. Some new customers, a father and son team, picked up a pile of '70-71 basketball. A new customer pulled some cards out of my 50-cent box. A regular customer picked up a pile of stuff from my dime box and a pile of '71 baseball, including a Pete Rose. An autograph hound picked up some '57 baseball, '69-70 basketball and '56 football. Mike picked up a pile of '69 Topps football.
On the buying front, I picked up some 1970s Wacky Packages wrappers and some 1970s Topps basketball wrappers. I also bought a couple packs of 2010 and 2011 Topps Heritage. I don't buy much in the way of new cards, but I do like the Heritage cards and try and buy a few packs when things are slow. My buy of the day, however, was a small group of 1964 Topps Stand-ups. I think the stand ups are some of the coolest cards Topps ever produced. They feature great original sharp color photos in front of a yellow and green background. The players' images seem to jump off the card. The stand ups are very popular cards, thus, very expensive and often difficult to find. I made what I thought was a reasonable offer on the cards but the customer, at first, wanted more money and declined my offer. He then shopped the cards around the room. He came back later in the show and sold the cards to me. Another dealer seemed upset that I purchased the cards for more money than he was willing to fork over and tried to tell me I paid too much for the cards. I let the guy talk. I know I didn't pay too much for the cards. Obviously, if I had paid less, I would make more money when I sell the cards. But my goal is not to get rich, as long as I make something on top of my purchase price, I'm happy. Also, more importantly, the customer/seller is happy because he got a reasonable amount of money for his cards and will be back with more cards to sell to me and probably skip the other guy who tried to low-ball him. Some dealers seem to forget that it is a hobby and people go to shows to have a good time, not to be aggravated. I was very happy with my purchase.
All in all, an excellent day. My sales were up from last month's Serb Hall show and I made a nice buy on those stand ups. Next up is Orland Park. I should have my 1978 Topps baseball binder reloaded for the show. If there is time, I may get to my '53 Bowmans. I will also have a new pile of stars for my display cases. Have a great week everybody!!
Today, the Brewers were playing which meant the show cleared out early. One of my regular customers, Jim, was telling me he was a little disappointed with the Brewers' play thus far. Like I told him, it is just April, it is a long season and anything can happen. Jim responded by saying I was right, the season is too long. Jim was my first customer today and he picked up my 1953 Topps Johnny Klippstein. Jason picked up some 1952 Bowman commons along with my 1941 Double Play Pee Wee Reese rookie and my '41 Double Play Johnny Mize-Enos Slaughter. Another customer named Jason, who I will now dub Hockey Jason, picked up a bunch of '79-80 hockey. A regular customer picked up a large stack of '57 Topps and '62 Topps baseball. Kevin picked up my '71-72 Bob Lanier rookie and my '72-73 Bill Bradley. Some new customers, a father and son team, picked up a pile of '70-71 basketball. A new customer pulled some cards out of my 50-cent box. A regular customer picked up a pile of stuff from my dime box and a pile of '71 baseball, including a Pete Rose. An autograph hound picked up some '57 baseball, '69-70 basketball and '56 football. Mike picked up a pile of '69 Topps football.
On the buying front, I picked up some 1970s Wacky Packages wrappers and some 1970s Topps basketball wrappers. I also bought a couple packs of 2010 and 2011 Topps Heritage. I don't buy much in the way of new cards, but I do like the Heritage cards and try and buy a few packs when things are slow. My buy of the day, however, was a small group of 1964 Topps Stand-ups. I think the stand ups are some of the coolest cards Topps ever produced. They feature great original sharp color photos in front of a yellow and green background. The players' images seem to jump off the card. The stand ups are very popular cards, thus, very expensive and often difficult to find. I made what I thought was a reasonable offer on the cards but the customer, at first, wanted more money and declined my offer. He then shopped the cards around the room. He came back later in the show and sold the cards to me. Another dealer seemed upset that I purchased the cards for more money than he was willing to fork over and tried to tell me I paid too much for the cards. I let the guy talk. I know I didn't pay too much for the cards. Obviously, if I had paid less, I would make more money when I sell the cards. But my goal is not to get rich, as long as I make something on top of my purchase price, I'm happy. Also, more importantly, the customer/seller is happy because he got a reasonable amount of money for his cards and will be back with more cards to sell to me and probably skip the other guy who tried to low-ball him. Some dealers seem to forget that it is a hobby and people go to shows to have a good time, not to be aggravated. I was very happy with my purchase.
All in all, an excellent day. My sales were up from last month's Serb Hall show and I made a nice buy on those stand ups. Next up is Orland Park. I should have my 1978 Topps baseball binder reloaded for the show. If there is time, I may get to my '53 Bowmans. I will also have a new pile of stars for my display cases. Have a great week everybody!!
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