It's February in Chicago and the weather is always an issue. We have been incredibly lucky so far this winter. I have not missed any card shows due to the weather, while last winter, I missed two shows because of snow. We had an ugly storm this past Friday but the roads were not bad on Saturday and my drive to Orland went fairly smoothly. At the show, I was busy all day but both customer and dealer attendance was down. There were many empty tables.
Attendance issues aside, I need someone to explain to me why there was a group of University of Chicago students roaming the room with "surveys." One of the U of C students came to my table early on and asked me to take a 15-minute survey. I was much too busy to deal with it and declined. However, I observed people around the room taking the survey all day long. One dealer told me the survey consisted of math questions and the U of C student overseeing his exam/survey had a timer out and was keeping track of how long it took him to complete the questions. The other thing about the survey was that the U of C students were paying people 25 bucks or so to take the thing. Now my natural suspicion has kicked in and I'm wondering why a bunch students from the most prestigious university in the Midwest would attend a random, remote baseball card show, and pay sports collectors 25 bucks to perform timed math equations. How did they even find us? At the end of the show, one of the students gave me a flier for a study they were conducting on decision-making. She said if I come out to the U of C, they would pay my travel expenses plus 100 bucks to participate in the decision-making study. I can see it now, I show up for this thing, they put me through all sorts of exhaustive testing procedures resulting in my picture being placed on the cover of some international psychology magazine with the headline: "Fat Ass Can't Make a Decision between a Boston Creme and a Vanilla Frosted Doughnut." I think my decision will be to pass on this one.
I'm also not sure if my decision-making was all that clever today at the show. I sold a lot of stuff to a power dealer at around cost. He spent a lot of money with me, but I know I didn't make much or any profit on the deal. The only positive is that I now have a pocket full cash and I'm going on a vintage card buying spree. I LOVE buying cards. It's where all the fun is in this hobby. It would be nice if the U of C students could fund my vintage card purchases and create some sort of study about it. I mean, really, what sort of knowledge can be gleamed from observing a bunch of old farts clumsily performing mathematics. A much more rewarding and ground-breaking study would be to fund and examine MY baseball card purchases. Actually, the true reward for the students would be that I would kindly explain to them that in no way, shape or form, should 19 or 20 year-olds be up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning, miles away from campus and hanging out with the likes of me. When I was in college, I NEVER saw a Saturday morning. Not one, nada, nothing, no how, no way! I was usually passed out in my own vomit. You only get one shot at this sort of debauchery, don't waste it! I would still be in college to this day if the university didn't force me to graduate 22 years ago. Good times. These damn kids today and their pursuit of knowledge!! I could post some more about how the show went today but I think it would be more fun if I end this blog here and share some old photos from college. Now for all those currently in college, take note, and emulate this activity. You'll thank me in the morning, er, afternoon.
Attendance issues aside, I need someone to explain to me why there was a group of University of Chicago students roaming the room with "surveys." One of the U of C students came to my table early on and asked me to take a 15-minute survey. I was much too busy to deal with it and declined. However, I observed people around the room taking the survey all day long. One dealer told me the survey consisted of math questions and the U of C student overseeing his exam/survey had a timer out and was keeping track of how long it took him to complete the questions. The other thing about the survey was that the U of C students were paying people 25 bucks or so to take the thing. Now my natural suspicion has kicked in and I'm wondering why a bunch students from the most prestigious university in the Midwest would attend a random, remote baseball card show, and pay sports collectors 25 bucks to perform timed math equations. How did they even find us? At the end of the show, one of the students gave me a flier for a study they were conducting on decision-making. She said if I come out to the U of C, they would pay my travel expenses plus 100 bucks to participate in the decision-making study. I can see it now, I show up for this thing, they put me through all sorts of exhaustive testing procedures resulting in my picture being placed on the cover of some international psychology magazine with the headline: "Fat Ass Can't Make a Decision between a Boston Creme and a Vanilla Frosted Doughnut." I think my decision will be to pass on this one.
I'm also not sure if my decision-making was all that clever today at the show. I sold a lot of stuff to a power dealer at around cost. He spent a lot of money with me, but I know I didn't make much or any profit on the deal. The only positive is that I now have a pocket full cash and I'm going on a vintage card buying spree. I LOVE buying cards. It's where all the fun is in this hobby. It would be nice if the U of C students could fund my vintage card purchases and create some sort of study about it. I mean, really, what sort of knowledge can be gleamed from observing a bunch of old farts clumsily performing mathematics. A much more rewarding and ground-breaking study would be to fund and examine MY baseball card purchases. Actually, the true reward for the students would be that I would kindly explain to them that in no way, shape or form, should 19 or 20 year-olds be up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning, miles away from campus and hanging out with the likes of me. When I was in college, I NEVER saw a Saturday morning. Not one, nada, nothing, no how, no way! I was usually passed out in my own vomit. You only get one shot at this sort of debauchery, don't waste it! I would still be in college to this day if the university didn't force me to graduate 22 years ago. Good times. These damn kids today and their pursuit of knowledge!! I could post some more about how the show went today but I think it would be more fun if I end this blog here and share some old photos from college. Now for all those currently in college, take note, and emulate this activity. You'll thank me in the morning, er, afternoon.
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