Sunday, March 13, 2022, Civic Center, Orland Park, IL
Rough night of sleep. I fell asleep around 10 p.m. the night before the show then woke up at 2 or 3 a.m. and could not fall back asleep until 5 a.m. That alarm clock rang like a hammer. I really needed that extra hour lost to daylight savings time.
I was grateful my car was already loaded because I did not have any energy that morning to load the car. Easy drive to Orland. I think the time change kept a lot of people off the road and in bed where they should be!
The Civic Center parking lot was back to normal. For some reason, the parking lot was jammed with cars last month when I first arrived. On this morning, I had my pick of parking spots. I always try to park a little ways away from the pack so I can open all the doors of my car and unload easily. Wouldn't you know it, I went into the building to grab a large cart and when I returned to my car, some numbnut parked right next to me. The parking lot was practically empty, why park next to me, far away from the building? Ugh.
I started to unload while the numbnut went to grab a cart. When he returned, he had to wait until I unloaded my car before he could access his car. "Your fault," I thought, while he was standing over me. He could have parked just about anywhere, but chose to park next to me while the whole parking lot was open.
Speaking of blocking space, that group that blocked the aisles in the show last month were not there, thankfully, and I was able to easily bring my cart into the room. My neighbors were new on both sides. I was a little worried because on one side was a mom with three or four kids and on the other side seemed like a family of six. I thought I might have trouble with them blocking my tables but all was fine. I would not mind if they came back to the April 24th show, when I'll next be at Orland. I have to miss the March 27 show as I'll be set up in Strongsville, Ohio.
I pretty much brought out the same stuff from yesterday in Rockford. I have a little more space in Orland and was able to place out all of my baseball binders. I was not very confident with this set up. I was worried I was going to have another Schaumburg day where I sold very little. My fear was heightened when the crowd was very slow to arrive. There was nobody in the room for the first hour. Daylight savings time must of delayed attendance as the place filled up after 10 a.m. Turns out I had nothing to fear! Monster show!
Andy was the first one at my table and purchased a bunch of cards. Thanks Andy! Then old friends Paul Ponce and John Freyer arrived. Paul sold me his collection last year and has hardly been around which is a bummer because he is one of my favorites. I would love to see him get back into collecting! Now John, I met some 25 years ago in another life when I operated a publishing company that published a free bi-weekly newspaper called "Barfly," a guide to Chicago's drinking establishments. John was working for either a brewery or a distributor at the time, my memory fails. I learned shortly after meeting him that he was a huge baseball fan and we had great discussions back in the day. He ended up writing articles for my newspaper as he is an expert on everything related to beer. He wrote some great stuff! I have not seen him in years, it was fun to catch up!
John and Paul go way back and had a lot more catching up to do than John and me. They grew up together and were lost in conversation at one end of my tables for most of the morning, over by the display case containing my graded cards. I told them they were good luck because I sold most of those graded cards while they were deep in recalling days of yore. I caught snippets of their conversation in-between helping a ton of customers. I got crazy busy!
"So, that was the day Sulli punched Pantek in the gut," John said.
Will, who was at his usual perch behind my tables going through the 1956 Topps binder, grew up in the same part of town as these guys and knew some of the ruffians they were talking about like the Fantas brothers who were the biggest guys in the neighborhood. Will said their dad operated a store in the old neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Will stressed that the Fantas brothers were big boys and had a rock band called Thousand Pounds of Sound. Will recalls the band being pretty good.
Anyway, it was great seeing Paul and John. While they were deep in reminiscent land, Eddie came by and about cleaned out my graded cards. Thanks Eddie! Then a new customer purchased four or five more. I sold a few others as well. I was then off and running toward a great day!
A newer customer, who has been regularly purchasing cards from me at Orland over the last several months, found a pile. Gil purchased a bunch of cards including quite a few out of my quarter box. Will purchased a pile of '56 Topps baseball. The guy that purchased my '70 and '71 lots came back and purchased my '66, '67 and '69 lots. That about does it for the lots, I'm going to have to work on some new ones.
I ended up being crazy busy and sold a TON of stuff and had a MONSTER day! Thank you guys!
A few cards came to my tables as well and I purchased some stuff. I can't really remember what I bought. I'll have to dig them out and update this blog. Overall, an awesome day in Orland Park. Only drawback was my lack of sleep. I skipped the sub shop and went home after the show and passed out.
Unfortunately, I have to miss the next Orland show on March 27th. My next Orland show is April 24. In the meantime, I'm setting up in Rosemont this weekend. I'm just bringing out display cases and have been feverishly pricing cards. I should have a lot of new stuff out. Come visit me and Dave McDonald in booths 104 and 105.
Reminder, my next Oak Creek show is April 2 and should be the largest one to date with 120 tables.
Thanks for following along!
I think I took the photo below late in the day after the show started to clear out. I was too busy most of the day to take any photos.
Rough night of sleep. I fell asleep around 10 p.m. the night before the show then woke up at 2 or 3 a.m. and could not fall back asleep until 5 a.m. That alarm clock rang like a hammer. I really needed that extra hour lost to daylight savings time.
I was grateful my car was already loaded because I did not have any energy that morning to load the car. Easy drive to Orland. I think the time change kept a lot of people off the road and in bed where they should be!
The Civic Center parking lot was back to normal. For some reason, the parking lot was jammed with cars last month when I first arrived. On this morning, I had my pick of parking spots. I always try to park a little ways away from the pack so I can open all the doors of my car and unload easily. Wouldn't you know it, I went into the building to grab a large cart and when I returned to my car, some numbnut parked right next to me. The parking lot was practically empty, why park next to me, far away from the building? Ugh.
I started to unload while the numbnut went to grab a cart. When he returned, he had to wait until I unloaded my car before he could access his car. "Your fault," I thought, while he was standing over me. He could have parked just about anywhere, but chose to park next to me while the whole parking lot was open.
Speaking of blocking space, that group that blocked the aisles in the show last month were not there, thankfully, and I was able to easily bring my cart into the room. My neighbors were new on both sides. I was a little worried because on one side was a mom with three or four kids and on the other side seemed like a family of six. I thought I might have trouble with them blocking my tables but all was fine. I would not mind if they came back to the April 24th show, when I'll next be at Orland. I have to miss the March 27 show as I'll be set up in Strongsville, Ohio.
I pretty much brought out the same stuff from yesterday in Rockford. I have a little more space in Orland and was able to place out all of my baseball binders. I was not very confident with this set up. I was worried I was going to have another Schaumburg day where I sold very little. My fear was heightened when the crowd was very slow to arrive. There was nobody in the room for the first hour. Daylight savings time must of delayed attendance as the place filled up after 10 a.m. Turns out I had nothing to fear! Monster show!
Andy was the first one at my table and purchased a bunch of cards. Thanks Andy! Then old friends Paul Ponce and John Freyer arrived. Paul sold me his collection last year and has hardly been around which is a bummer because he is one of my favorites. I would love to see him get back into collecting! Now John, I met some 25 years ago in another life when I operated a publishing company that published a free bi-weekly newspaper called "Barfly," a guide to Chicago's drinking establishments. John was working for either a brewery or a distributor at the time, my memory fails. I learned shortly after meeting him that he was a huge baseball fan and we had great discussions back in the day. He ended up writing articles for my newspaper as he is an expert on everything related to beer. He wrote some great stuff! I have not seen him in years, it was fun to catch up!
John and Paul go way back and had a lot more catching up to do than John and me. They grew up together and were lost in conversation at one end of my tables for most of the morning, over by the display case containing my graded cards. I told them they were good luck because I sold most of those graded cards while they were deep in recalling days of yore. I caught snippets of their conversation in-between helping a ton of customers. I got crazy busy!
"So, that was the day Sulli punched Pantek in the gut," John said.
Will, who was at his usual perch behind my tables going through the 1956 Topps binder, grew up in the same part of town as these guys and knew some of the ruffians they were talking about like the Fantas brothers who were the biggest guys in the neighborhood. Will said their dad operated a store in the old neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Will stressed that the Fantas brothers were big boys and had a rock band called Thousand Pounds of Sound. Will recalls the band being pretty good.
Anyway, it was great seeing Paul and John. While they were deep in reminiscent land, Eddie came by and about cleaned out my graded cards. Thanks Eddie! Then a new customer purchased four or five more. I sold a few others as well. I was then off and running toward a great day!
A newer customer, who has been regularly purchasing cards from me at Orland over the last several months, found a pile. Gil purchased a bunch of cards including quite a few out of my quarter box. Will purchased a pile of '56 Topps baseball. The guy that purchased my '70 and '71 lots came back and purchased my '66, '67 and '69 lots. That about does it for the lots, I'm going to have to work on some new ones.
I ended up being crazy busy and sold a TON of stuff and had a MONSTER day! Thank you guys!
A few cards came to my tables as well and I purchased some stuff. I can't really remember what I bought. I'll have to dig them out and update this blog. Overall, an awesome day in Orland Park. Only drawback was my lack of sleep. I skipped the sub shop and went home after the show and passed out.
Unfortunately, I have to miss the next Orland show on March 27th. My next Orland show is April 24. In the meantime, I'm setting up in Rosemont this weekend. I'm just bringing out display cases and have been feverishly pricing cards. I should have a lot of new stuff out. Come visit me and Dave McDonald in booths 104 and 105.
Reminder, my next Oak Creek show is April 2 and should be the largest one to date with 120 tables.
Thanks for following along!
I think I took the photo below late in the day after the show started to clear out. I was too busy most of the day to take any photos.
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