I have been in a funk these past six weeks or so due to my diabetes. Because of the disease and the drugs to treat it, I have no energy. I really just want to spend all day in bed and some days I do.

However, last Sunday's show in Orland Park (January 27), gave me a much-needed energy boost. It seemed like most everyone who came to my table had read my last blog, even though I hadn't posted one in months. I saw so many friendly faces and had such a great time. That show really gave me a recharge and I really appreciate it.

Below is a blog I wrote months ago but failed to post due to said lack of energy. The blog is from my November show at the Four Points Sheraton in Milwaukee. 

Four Points Sheraton, Milwaukee, November 3, 2018

Over the weekend of the October show, the hotel manager, who does not actually work at the hotel but in an office in Schaumburg, Illinois, finally charged my debit card for the September show, after I made repeated requests to do so over the course of the month. Then the next day, she charged my debit card twice for the October show!

I immediately requested a refund for the over charge. She said no. We argued for a couple of weeks and finally agreed to use the second charge for the November show. She also agreed to give me the second room at half price.

Luckily, our own Mike Mahan, who deals in both vintage and modern cards, recently became employed by the hotel as its on-site sales manager. The off-site manager did not stick to our agreement and sold the second room to another event. Without Mike working at the hotel, I might have been in trouble but Mike took care of me and was able to put me in both the larger Mitchell and Concord rooms, at a price that did not break the bank, as I had a run of dealers call and ask for tables. Thanks Mike!
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Turns out that this was my largest show to date with 21 dealers and 50 tables. There was also a tremendous turn out of customers. I went through a ton a wax for my giveaways, purchasing several boxes from wax dealers Roger Baehr and Brian Christopherson during the show. This may have been the most wax I’ve gone through. 

I just can’t say how cool it was to see so many dealers and so many tables at my show. I received a ton of compliments during the show from both customers and dealers alike, which I really appreciate. My philosophy as a show promoter is pretty simple – make a show that I, personally, would want to attend as a customer. I think I’ve done that by providing a friendly atmosphere, free admission, a great variety of dealers, and a free gift of wax packs, good wax packs, not just junk, for everyone who attends. There were two tables with kids selling Pokemon and other non-sports cards which is so incredibly awesome. This is a hobby for young and old and it is so rewarding when both turn out and have a great time.

Another great thing I observed at this show was the large amount of people hanging out all day at the show, socializing and having a good time. I think the social aspect is the most important part of my show. I want people to hang out, talk cards, sports, whatever, and have a good time. I’ve always felt that as a sports card dealer, I am sort of like a bartender at the neighborhood tavern where regulars come in, get to know everybody, and chat like family. I really enjoy talking with everybody who stops into the show. I learn something new about cards or the history of sports at every single show. What it comes down to, is that anyone can go online and buy a card, but it is so impersonal. At my show, you get to see the card in all of its paper glory before making the purchase and you get to talk with the seller and meet a ton of collectors. I consider everyone there my family and good friends. Many of the guys, both dealers and customers, I’ve known for years. It is such a tremendous atmosphere and I look forward to it every single month. When this month’s show was dying down and dealers were packing up, man, I didn’t want it to end! I could have stayed all night and talked cards, bought cards, sold cards.

Speaking of purchasing cards, I certainly bought some cards and other stuff at this show. Prior to the show, a couple of guys emailed, texted, and said they had cards to show me for potential purchase, so I came prepared with a pocketful of cash.

Larry hit me up very early during set up with a box of publications from the 1920s through the 1950s. I bought ‘em. It is tough to find a dealer more reasonably priced than Larry Larsen. Thanks Larry!

Then a new customer came in with his childhood collection. He had a binder filled with 1961 Topps including some stars like Koufax, Gibson, Aaron, Billy Williams rookie, and some high numbers. There was a smattering of other years including a 1959 Aaron and a 1966 Rose. He also had a Milwaukee Braves pennant from the 1950’s and a 1970 Brewers pennant. I made an offer and told him to shop the group around. He came back to me and I bought the cards and the pennants.

I picked up some 1954 Bowman football from Jerry. I purchased a couple of cards from Eric. I bought a Tony Perez rookie from new dealer Dave. I bought some good stuff from dealer Scotty P. I also bought about 40 publications from the 1940’s from Tom and Josh.
The funny part was I didn’t buy anything from the guys who I had spoken to prior to the show. We just couldn’t work out deals. Which is fine. It doesn’t always work for everybody. I’ve bought from them in the past and I am sure I’ll buy from them in the future.

On the selling front, I had a tremendous day. Unfortunately, I realized half-way during the show that I forgot to write down my sales. So I am not exactly sure of what I sold. All I know is that money kept going out of my pocket for purchases but was shortly replenished by sales. I went home with money in my pocket, which as a dealer who likes to buy, is not easy to do!

Let’s see what I can remember… Jerome as usual hit my newest reloaded binder, 1962 Topps baseball. Thanks Jerome! A regular customer purchased my 1959 Topps Mickey Mantle along with a handful of 1958 Topps which he said completes his set. Woot! I love being able to help someone complete their set. He also told me something very interesting. We got to talking about 1961 Topps and he told me that when he was a kid in 1961, the later series, the one with the high numbers, was never distributed in Milwaukee. As a result, he had to wait until he was an adult to complete his childhood set at card shows. I always assumed that the last series was distributed nationally but kids had lost interest by the time they came out in the fall.

Back to sales, Paul purchased some old hockey cards. John, who said he lives on Howell, the same street where both the Sheraton and the Salvation Army Community Center are located, purchased some 1970’s football. A regular customer purchased a T206. One of my regular autograph hounds, purchased some cards to send out in the mail for autographs. He told me there are still a handful of guys living from the 1949 Bowman set. He was happy to see that I had a nice selection of 1949 Bowmans.
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Jim K. purchased some 1955 Topps baseball. I had quite a few new customers and if I may brag a little, my show seems to draw in folks who are interested in rejoining the hobby after years of being out. I had a bunch of new guys buy cards.

What a great show! I am overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who participated, both dealers and customers. Man, you guys really rocked it this month!!

I am ecstatic that the show will be continuing in 2019 at my new location, the Salvation Army Community Center. Those folks are excited to have us come there. Their youth group is going to run a concession stand at each show as a fundraiser for the sports teams.

First show at the Sal, 8853 S. Howell, Oak Creek, WI, is this Saturday, February 2, 2019. We will smash my dealer record from the November Four Points Show with 27 dealers scheduled for Saturday! I'm supposed to go up tomorrow to set up the room, weather permitting. We may be in two rooms with around 60 tables. See you Saturday!

Once again, I've fallen way behind on my show blogs. It has become increasingly difficult for me to get it done. One of the problems is that I'm just beat after the shows. Then I'm just too busy during the week to get it done. Another problem is that if I don't take notes, I forget what happened at the show. I lost my short term memory years ago. As a result, I fall way behind on the blogs. I am going to try and lay some scattered thoughts here.

Sunday, October 21, 2018, Civic Center, Orland Park, IL

So I have a limited memory of this show. I have been setting up at Orland Park for 20 years or so and they really all blend in together at this point. I started to take some notes early on but was distracted by the thief. I do remember that I was very busy at this show and the thief came to my table four or five times. I struggled to keep an eye on him. I think at one point I enlisted Will to shadow him. But alas, he got me. He kept looking at my 1953 Bowman football. Every time he left, I checked the binder to make sure the cards were still there. The last time he was at my table I was at the far corner helping a customer while the '53 Bowman binder was at the opposite end of the table. The thief held up some pages in the binder so I could not see what he was doing from where I was standing. I was unable to go over to him because I had a display case open and was showing high-end cards to a customer.

After the thief left, I was able to check the binder and saw that a bunch of cards were gone. I also looked for the thief and he was long gone. @#$%&!!! He got me. I probably lost $30 or so in cards. 

Thankfully, I had an excellent day selling cards and had a good time hanging with all the regulars, so I was able to put the theft out of my mind. I know I bought a bunch of stuff at the show but cannot remember exactly what I purchased.

Before the thief distracted me from taking notes, I jotted down a handful of sales. My main man Paul purchased some 1969-70 Topps hockey. A regular customer purchased a 1964 Topps Duke Snider and also pulled some cards from my Dollar Box.

Then there was this guy I have seen at all the Chicago-area card shows for years. He always asks me whether I have any 1970 Fleer World Series cards. In the past, I have always told him that I did not have any but he should keep checking with me. So, for the past two decades, he has diligently checked in with me to see whether I had any of those '70 Fleers. Well, just before this show, I finally put together a group of them and placed them in one of my odd-ball binders. I can't tell you how awesome it was to finally tell him I had the '70 Fleers. Oddly enough, he approached my table and didn't ask for the cards. Did he really give up after all these years? I stopped him and showed him the cards. In my head, I heard marching band music as I finally informed him that I obtained some of the cards and showed him the binder. He was pleased and purchased a bunch of them. Unlike most cards on my tables, I don't have a backstock of the '70 Fleers. I wonder if he will keep asking me for them? I do not know when I will obtain any more of them. They are not particularly valuable but you just don't see them at shows. I could probably find them online but I do very little online shopping. I find it too time consuming and frustrating. Most of my buying is done at shows with dealers and customers bringing me cards to purchase. At least I finally had the cards for this collector!

On a completely different note, I am saddened to report the passing of some amazing Midwest dealers. Indianapolis vintage dealer Wayne Johnson died on December 19, 2018. I first observed the mentioning of Wayne's death on Net54, a day or two after he died. I did not believe the report because I just saw Wayne in November at the Sun-Times show and we had a nice conversation about 1966 Topps baseball high numbers. As the days went on, I saw more and more chatter online of Wayne's death. Sadly, it was true.

I have known Wayne for a long time. Along with the Sun-Times show. I regularly ran into him at other shows in Indiana, Ohio, and the Pittsburgh show. He was always a warm and friendly face behind a phenomenal display of vintage cards. Wayne was one of those dealers that only has high-grade cards on his tables. His set up was always beautiful.

Some years ago, I oftened trucked down to Indianapolis for the monthly show at the La Quinta Inn. Wayne always had the back tables in the room. Many times I was fortunate enough to be set up next to him and really enjoyed his company. He was extremely intelligent and an incredibly knowledgeable sports card dealer. His stock was superior to anyone else at that La Quinta show. I was impressed that he even bothered to set up there. I am sure there were many shows where he did not make much in sales because it is tough to sell high-end expensive cards at small shows. But I learned that he didn't set up at that show to make money. Instead, he was there to support the young promoter which I thought was incredibly cool. They don't make too many like Wayne Johnson. My sincere condolences to his family and many, many friends.

Once again I learned of the passing of another dealer on Net54. Paul Fusco died on January 6, 2019. We had been emailing each other in December regarding the show he promotes -- the Ohio Sports Collectors Convention. Again, I was shocked to learn of his passing. Paul was so full of life and a character to boot. I always saw him at the National and at his show in Strongsville, Ohio, where I have been setting up these past few years. When I first asked for dealer space at his Strongsville show, he responded that I had to prove to him that I was a vintage dealer. He hated modern cards and his Strongsville show is vintage only.

Thanks to this website, it was fairly simple to show him that I am a vintage dealer. Like Paul, I do not have any interest in modern cards. Next to the National, Paul's show is the best one around. It is just so awesome to be in a large room filled with vintage cards and memorabilia.

When I would see Paul at the National, he was soft spoken and mellow. Very friendly. At his Strongsville show, he was very animated. He would inspect all the dealer tables to see if anyone was displaying modern cards. If he viewed modern cards on a table, he would demand that the dealer remove them. I found it so entertaining. One time, after I watched him berate a dealer to having modern cards on his table, he come over to me and stated that he hated modern cards and called them a "cancer." I loved it, he was a show within the show. 

Man, I am going to miss Paul Fusco. He treated me so well and I absolutely loved his Strongsville show. My condolences to his family and many, many friends.

Shows just are not going to be the same without Wayne and Paul. The passing of these guys has left a huge void in the hobby. I was lucky to have known them.

I just learned, again on Net54, that the man I consider as the grandfather of card shows in the Chicago area, Bruce Paynter, died on January 20, 2019. I am so sorry to hear of Bruce's passing. Any time I hear the name Bruce Paynter, I am pulled back into my childhood. A flood of great memories, some of which I'll share here.

My golden era of collecting was from 1975 to 1980, about age 8 through 14. When I was a lad, I discovered baseball cards in an aisle at the pharmacy blocks from my house. In those days, most neighborhoods in the Chicago area had a pharmacy before places like Walgreens moved in and put them out of business. The pharmacy in my neighborhood was an awesome place. Seems like as soon as I could walk, I would walk the few blocks from my house and purchase bags of candy. Eventually I started buying Wacky Packages and other decals that came with sticks of gum. 

It was in 1975 that I bought my first pack of baseball cards. The wax pack cost 15 cents. I spent a ton of time in the candy aisle of the pharmacy that summer of 1975. I remember that I constantly pestered my mother for 15 cents.

This was also pre-strip mall days. The pharmacy was a stand alone building. On one side was a gas station on the other side was a house. Next to the house was a place called Convenient Food Mart. The Convenient was a mini-general store. We didn't have a grocery store in my neighborhood and my mother often dragged me to the Convenient to pick up this or that. Well, that summer of '75, I discovered that the Convenient sold cello packs and rack packs, which were not available in the pharmacy. The cello packs cost a quarter while the rack packs were 50 cents. 

I was amazed at the cello packs because they contained more cards than the wax packs and you could see the top and bottom card. Naturally, I searched for Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and local heroes Dick Allen and Bill Madlock. The problem was that the Convenient was run by this mean old couple. Any time I picked up a cello pack or started looking over a rack pack, they screamed bloody murder. If I was there by myself, they would kick me out of the store. When I was with my mother, I could hand her a pack while they screamed at me. So I wasn't ever really able to search the packs like I wanted.

I blame that crochety old couple for my inability to obtain a Jim Willoughby card in 1975. I also seemed to pull hundreds of Larry Christainson minis. I hated pulling minis. I wanted the regular size cards to complete my set. Oh, and there are always some know-it-alls at the card shows who tell me minis were not available in Chicago in 1975. What? I pulled tons of them. Yes they were here in Chicago!

Another great thing about collecting cards in 1975 was that every freakin' kid in the neighborhood and every freakin' kid in school collected cards. So there was a lot of trading going on. Nobody had Jim Willoughby!!!

I think it was in 1978 that I discovered Sports Collectors Digest which at the time was absolutely amazing. It must have been 100 -pages thick back then. I think it was in SCD where I learned about the Chicago Sports Collectors Association. Though, my memory is a little hazy. I may have learned about CSCA from my friend Chuck's dad, who was a sports card dealer.

As an aside, Chuck's dad Jeff was a complete dick. He held several garage sales in the summer where he just sold cards. I bought tons of cards from him. In the summer of 1980, I was about 12 cards away from completing the set. I purchased tons of cards that summer but there were those 12 that alluded me. I went over the Chuck's house to see of Jeff had the 12 cards. He took me down into his basement where there were hundreds of thousands of cards all boxed and shelved. It took him an hour or so to find the 12 cards to complete my set. The whole time he bitched at me and told me to never do this again. First of all, I was 14, he was a grown man and a sports card dealer! Why wouldn't I ask him for the cards? Well, I never purchased any cards from Jeff after that.

Now it may have been Jeff who hooked me up with the CSCA because he was a dealer at the three shows Bruce Paynter and his CSCA put on every year in the late 1970's. I just can't remember.

Anyway, I joined the CSCA in either 1978 or 1979. Bruce Paynter was the president. He sent me an ID card showing that I was a member. I also received regular news letters from him.

Getting to those three yearly CSCA shows held at the Hillside Holiday Inn was difficult because I was too young to drive and my pops thought spending money on baseball cards was a waste. So I had to beg and beg to be driven to Bruce Paynter's shows. Often my dad would drop me off in the morning, go to work, come back and get me at the end of the show. Sometimes he stayed with me at the show which sucked for me because he didn't want to stick around. After he would make me leave, he took me to work with him at his office in Downtown Chicago where I would be stuck until the evening. I would sit in a room and just stare at the cards I purchased for hours.

But those days that he dropped me off were some of the best I can remember. It seemed like a lot of parents dropped off their kids at the shows and left us there all day long. I made a ton of new friends at Bruce Paynter's shows. Kids that lived in different suburbs and went to different schools. We would meet up at each of Bruce's shows and trade amongst ourselves. Some guys sold stuff. I remember one kid had a box of cards signed by Joe DiMaggio. He wanted just 10 bucks for one. I forked over 10 bucks when I only had 20 to spend for the day. I remember regretting spending the 10 bucks on the DiMaggio autograph. The more I thought about it, I wondered how this kid had a box full of DiMaggio autographs. He told me DiMaggio was a family friend. I felt like I had been duped. It was not until recently that I learned that the DiMaggio autograph was real! I finally had it authenticated at one of the Nationals a few years back. I wish I could find that kid again!

Anyway, being a member of the CSCA and going to those Hillside Holiday Inn shows fostered my love of vintage cards that 40-some years later still rings true. I really owe it to Bruce Paynter and am so sad to learn of his passing. RIP.

On a lighter note, my first show at the Salvation Army Community Center, 8853 S. Howell, in Oak Creek, WI, is slated from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 2. 2019. I have had a tremendous response from dealers thus far with 22 planning on setting up. This may be the most dealers I have ever had and we are still two weeks away... more may sign up. I am stoked for this show!! I'll try and post another blog sooner than later. Cheers!