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Busy, Busy, Busy, at the Gonzaga Show

2/28/2012

1 Comment

 
Nice crowd at the Gonzaga show today (February 26, 2012), the room was jam packed from 9 a.m. until noon. Even at 2 p.m., some dealers and customers remained and deals being made as I vacated the room.

Prior to the show, I had planned to put out some cheapie boxes, something I do on occasion at this show, but I was so busy early on, I didn't get to put out my dime box and I wasn't able to get my dollar box out until noon. My problem was that I was a little slow setting up, as usual. Shortly after I placed my binders out, there was a crowd at my table. I was so crowded that I noticed customers walking by my table several times, trying to find an opening to get in and check out some cards. I probably lost some sales today because some customers couldn't get up to my table.

There was a large crowd by the auction today as well. I talked to Keith, the president of the Wisconsin Sports Collectors Association, the group that puts on this show, and he assured me that he is planning to make some changes with the auction to protect autograph buyers. As I wrote last month, I purchased a fake autograph at the auction a few years ago and was a little discouraged when I heard one of the auctioneers advise customers last show to avoid authenticating autographs purchased at the auction. Keith said buyers should get their autographs authenticated and he will take care of any problems that may arise. Keith was definitely sincere when he said he will do all he can to protect customers. All the money the association earns from the auction goes to charity and after talking with Keith, I fully support the auction and recommend that customers participate fully.

Back at my tables, I was too busy to follow the auction today. The dealer on my left, P.J., told me he purchased a complete set of Sportscaster cards for 50 dollars at the auction today. P.J. said the set is worth about $2,000. The cards are cool. He showed me a Wayne Gretsky card where the Great One looked like a little kid. I'm guessing the card was from 1979 or 1980.  The dealer next to P.J. today was Dave, who hasn't been around for a while.  He told me he was out of commission because he broke his foot playing basketball. Been there, done that, and I have a metal strip with 12 screws in my left ankle to show for it.  The dealer next to Dave today was Rolf, an autograph dealer and former show promoter. We had a nice group of dealers today at my end of the show.

Jim was the first customer at my table today. I've probably talked about Jim before. He collects vintage sports and non-sports cards along with vintage tin soldiers. He was telling me how he recently picked up some World War I tin soldiers. I'd love to see his collection one day. Mark was there shortly after Jim, and he picked up quite a few '57 and '58 football cards. I had a bunch of guys working on Braves and Brewers team sets today. My customer who collects Italian ballplayers found a bunch of '57s today. I sold some '70s basketball to a new customer. My customer who is working on sets from most every year, took a nice large pile of cards today.  Steve picked up my PSA '61-62 Topps Bobby Hull and '57 Topps Brooks Robinson rookie. Jason picked up my T206 Ed Ciccotte and 1934-35 Batter Up Ted Lyons and Willis Hudlin.  A new customer purchased my '52 Bowman Don Newcombe along with a pile of '73s. The guy from the Mears auction house picked up a nice '63 Topps checklist. I accepted a six dollar check for some '70s football from an older guy I met at the show last month. He was with a collector who was upgrading his vintage sets at my table. I sold some '75s out of my newly updated book. My 50-cent box got a nice work out today. So did my dollar box for the few hours I had it out. I sold much more stuff, but as I write this, my memory is in a fog.

On the buying front, the numb-nut, who is at every show trying to sell cards to customers at MY table, was around with his box of Braves cards. When he set the box down on my display case to show someone some cards, covering my cards on my table that I have to pay money for, blocking the display from paying customers, I had to say something and I think for the first time he may have realized that I don't want him around. Another guy came around and said he had some cards to sell but didn't bring them. I hear this sort of thing at every show where someone approaches me and says they have this or that to sell but they never have the cards with them. I always tell them to bring me the cards to look at and have a price in mind that they would like to receive for the cards. It is a rare occasion when these folks return with actual cards to sell. Another guy had a binder of '70 Topps baseball. I didn't even look at the cards or ask him the price because I've dealt with him in the past and he is much too high. Brad had a small pile of 1950s-60s commons and stars but they were really beat up.  He wanted $70 for something I'd pay about 20 bucks for, so I passed. I did pick up a '60 Topps Mickey Mantle All Star from a new customer. The guy I purchased the 1965 Chicago White Sox pocket schedule from last month, had a pair of 1964 Kahn's Weiners commons today that I picked up.  I've never had these cards before and am going to post them on the Bay and see how they do.

In sum, very busy, sales were good but not too many buys to be had. I can't make the Gonzaga show next month but will return with piles of new cards for the April show.  Next week is a double bill with Orland on Saturday and Schaumburg on Sunday. I'm hoping to have a binder of '75 Topps Minis ready to go along with a new pile of stars for the display cases. I started reloading my '76 binder but I don't think I'll have it done in time. Also in the works are '59 football and '70-71 basketball.  Thanks to everyone who bought cards from me today, I truly appreciate your business. Hopefully, I'll see the same sort of crowd next weekend in Orland and Schaumburg. Also, don't forget to check out my eBay auctions under the selling name "tabithagordon." I currently have 125 or so vintage cards up for auction on eBay.
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Second of a Back to Back in Orland

2/24/2012

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Sorry for the delay in getting this blog done. I've been experiencing some health issues. I'm still feeling lousy, hopefully I can right the ship soon.

Anyway, I spent the night before the Orland show hanging out with my childhood friend Adam, who was my main sportscard trading partner as a kid in the mid 1970s.  We collected baseball, football, hockey and basketball cards back then. I think Adam's favorite was hockey. I loved baseball cards. For me, there was nothing better than pulling a Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and an Al Kaline out of a 15-cent pack of cards.

Back in 1975 or 1976 I bought a 400 or 500 lot of 1968 Topps commons from Adam. Being a kid and not knowing any better, I drew on some of the cards in pen. On one particular card I drew antennas and a raygun on the player so he looked like a Martian. A year or so later, I sold the '68s at the local flea market.  Recently, I bought a 400 lot of '68s from a guy off eBay.  The seller was from the east coast.  When the cards arrived, to my surprise, there was my Martian! 

Waking up Sunday morning was tough but not really from drinking, just from going to sleep late. That alarm at 6 a.m. felt like running into a brick wall. I made it to Orland around 8:30 a.m. and it took me a very long time to set up. Today was the second of back to back weekends at Orland. Sales were a little down as anticipated. Prior to the show, I debated on skipping it for Serb Hall in Milwaukee but with Gonzaga scheduled for the next week, it would have essentially been a back to back there as well. I also debated on driving out to Columbus, OH, but in the end, I just wasn't interested in driving eight hours for a show this weekend. I am heading to Ohio next month for a pair of shows March 17 in Dayton and March 18 in Canton.

Back at Orland, Rick was my first customer today. He picked up a pile of stuff including some '70-71 Topps basketball and some '57 Topps football. Another early bird picked up some '74 Topps then decided to start the '70 Topps set. A while after he left, I noticed that he left some of his cards and his list at my table. I grabbed the list and cards and went looking for him but he was gone.  Near the end of the show, he came back to my table with a frantic look. I handed him his list and cards. He decided to buy more cards.  Guys regularly forget their lists at my table. I always hang on to them until they claim them.
 
Dave was out with the family. I got a kick out of his 2 year old son holding up a figure of a pirate and making pirate sounds. Dave picked up some '57 Topps football. TJ was a surprise visitor today and he picked up my '33 Goudey Tris Speaker, among others. Joel picked up some White Sox. Larry bought a '56 Topps team card. Denny grabbed some '65s. Tom found some cards in my dime box, which along with my 50-cent box, got a nice workout today. Another customer bought some '75 Topps Minis.
A father and son team picked up a T206 common. My guy who collects NY Mets found a few cards. Another customer purchased my '53 Topps Satchel Paige. A new customer, who told me his is a filmmaker, purchased some '66 Topps. As usual, quite a few guys dinked trough my binders and pulled some cards. Quite a few regulars were absent today, though I did have some new customers. There were also a few empty dealer tables today.  I nice crowd but oddly quiet.

On the buying front, I turned down some low grade stars. One guy wanted to trade me a '60 Topps Mantle/Boyer PSA 3 that looked like a PSA 1. I passed. I ended up buying a nice grouping of '52 Topps and '52 Bowmans.

Next up is Gonzaga. It seems like forever since I've been there and am looking forward to the show. I should have my '75 Topps binder ready to go and I already completed my '58 Topps footbal. I have had a major turnover in my display cases these past two months. i'm feverishly pricing star cards for Gonzaga. I'm looking forward to another terrific Gonzaga show!!
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All Sorts of Poor Decision Making at Today's Show in Orland

2/11/2012

6 Comments

 
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.


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Super Bowl Can't Keep Collectors Away at Schaumburg

2/6/2012

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So it is Super Bowl Sunday and I could really care less. Any images of football are just painful reminders that my beloved Bears happen to suck.  I love George Halas and everything he represents but his daughter and grandsons have turned out to be the worst owners in the NFL. They just hired a new GM who has no experience as a GM and he worked for the old worthless GM. Lovie Smith, a proven crappy coach, is still the coach. They replaced that bum Mike Martz with another bum in Mike Tice as offensive coordinator. I'm expecting more of the same from the Bears for years -- they will suck. How about selling the team to Mark Cuban?  Seems like a great many Chicagoans feel the same as I because we had a great turn out today at the card show in Schaumburg. Damn Giants and Patriots with your perennial great teams!

That was my rant for today. Now back to the show. One of the things unique to the Schaumburg show is that customers can come into the room at any time while at other shows customers have to wait until the show starts at say 9 a.m. I made it to Schaumburg at 8 a.m. and there was a customer in the room at 8:15 a.m. Nobody was set up. I think it would have been better to wait until 9 a.m. when everyone was set up.


Shortly after the early bird took off, the crowds came. One of the larger Schaumburg crowds I've seen in a while. I had a nice crowd at my table from 9 a.m. until noon. Uncle Morty was at the show today and picked up a 1948 Bowman basketball card. Don picked up some ABA cards from '71-72. Bill found some '63s. Larry picked up a couple of '56 Topps. Kevin pulled quite a few '70 Topps. A customer from the coin show, located in another room in the hotel today, picked up a '61 Topps Eddie Mathews.  I had a second customer pull some '70 Topps.  After being on the injured reserve list for quite a while from hip surgery, it was nice to see Bob today. Bob picked up my '60 Topps Al Kaline All Star.  Bob is an autograph collector and he plans on sending the card to Kaline to get it signed. Another regular customer picked up some '70s basketball. My 25-cent pack guy found a bunch of packs as usual. Willie picked up a bunch of cards to send out for autographs. A bunch more guys dinked through my binders and found some cards.

On the buying front, a guy asked me if I was interested in some 1980s cards. I politely declined. A guy from the coin show came in and said to Willie, who is another dealer and an autograph expert, that he had a hockey stick signed by the 1946 Montreal Canadiens and would he like to see it. Naturally, Willie says yes and the guy replies that he will go get the stick and bring it in shortly. Later, he comes back in with a stick from 1986, not '46.  Willie said Chris Chelios was on there and the autos looked legit and he valued it at $100. Willie deals in signed photos, not signed memorabilia, and passed on the stick. Another coin show dealer came in with a T205 Eddie Cicotte. He didn't have a price in mind that he wanted to sell it for and I didn't make an offer because I don't know enough about the value of the card.  The card had some heavy corner wear and a surface wrinkle in the middle of the card. In the end, I picked up a nice grouping of '58s.

There was some construction going on in the hotel today which was kind of a bummer.  I was hoping to have breakfast at the buffet at the hotel restaurant but it was closed today. Also, the guys who run the hotel sundry shop were closing up today for good. I have to remember to bring food and drinks to this show for now on.  The Korean stewardesses were there which is always a highlight.

Overall an excellent day, my best Schaumburg show in a long while.  I have a really nice string of good shows going and I hope it continues to Saturday at Orland Park. I'll be in Orland over the next two weeks. I didn't finish my '74s for Schaumburg today but should have them ready to go for Orland. I'm also hoping to have some '57 football and a pile of star cards new for my display cases.

So, I did end up watching the Super Bowl. In fact, I'm watching the Super Bowl now while I write this up and I just have to comment on what a good game it is. There is currently 3 minutes 39 seconds left and either team can still take it. So often the Super Bowl is a wash, it is nice to have a good game.  I hope the new Bears GM is noticing all the good receivers in the game, hint, hint, hint. Bears fans have only been asking for some receivers for the past 10 years.  Any way, a big thank you to everyone who came out today in Schaumburg and I hope to see another good crowd in Orland on Saturday.  
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    Tony Gordon

    Vintage Sports Cards Addict

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