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Please Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

2/26/2015

Insert the word "Diabetic" for the word "Purple" in the Jimi Hendrix classic song and you have my weekend in a nutshell. That Diabetic Haze had control over me the whole weekend. Needless the say, I had a very difficult weekend and probably should have stayed home. I just hate to be one of those "No Show" dealers who books a show and doesn't show up. So against my better judgment, I attended my regularly scheduled card shows.

For those that are regular readers of my blog, you know that I was diagnosed with diabetes about four years ago and am in a constant battle to stay on top of it. The main thing is I have to be extremely careful with what I eat. I am generally pretty good but I misjudged some food Friday night and was sent into a diabetic fog. Needless to say, I had a really rough night Friday. I somehow got to the show Saturday, February 21, 2015, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but I can't tell you much about the show because I didn't know if I was coming or going. The main thing I remember is having excessive nausea and making frequent trips to the bathroom -- two wonderful products of diabetes. I know I sold some cards to some guys I met last month. I'm pretty sure I did not buy any cards. My memory of that day is real hazy. I remember standing by the door talking with Brian and Seth when a lady came in and said she had some really old cards she wanted to sell. Even in my altered state, my spider sense told me that this lady had a bushel of 1988 Topps -- which are absolutely worthless. I was right, it was all cards from the 1980s and 1990s.

We had a good crowd at the show even though it snowed all day long. My main goal for the day was to just get through it and make it to a hotel. After the show, I was able to drive for about an hour, checked into a hotel and passed out.

I wish I had a better show report for Fort Wayne. I really like the show. I'm planning to head back there in May and should be in better health and will have a better account.

I felt a little better on Sunday. I still had a long drive to Canton. I rode Route 30 all the way to Canton. The scene outside my car was surreal. It looked like I was driving on another planet. Everything was caked with bright white snow. There was also heavy fog. The fog, snow and ice made for a scary drive to Canton. Though, for the most part the roads were clear until I got closer to Canton where the roads became messy. Shorty after I pulled up, I saw fellow Chicagoan Dell Heyn. He had the same story about the roads. We both wondered why they don't clear the roads in Canton.

There were quite a few vintage dealers Saturday in Fort Wayne and the vintage theme carried the day in Canton. It was a little tough to compete with all the vintage dealers but I had a few things on my table no one else in the room was carrying. I watched one customer walk around the room and ask the eight other vintage dealers whether they had a 1974 Topps Cleveland Indians team checklist. I was the only dealer in the room with the checklist.

I had a customer purchase a 1975-76 Topps Dr. J. There was a guy wearing a cool Topps hoodie who purchased some 1950 Bowman football. He wanted to sell me a Johnny Pro Baltimore Colts set. While I have seen the Johnny Pro Baltimore Orioles set, I have never seen the Colts set. He had a $500 price tag on it and I took a pass. I spent a lot of time discussing diet with his buddy who ended up purchasing some 1969-70 Topps basketball.

Another customer wearing a Cleveland Indians hat purchased some 1969 Topps baseball cards. Another collector purchased some 1966 Toppps baseball. A father and son team purchased a large number of cards from the 1950s through the 1970s. These guys made my day -- THANK YOU! A biker dude purchased some 1973 and 1974 Topps baseball.

I got into a discussion with a customer about all the great players that started with the Indians in the 1990s and left after a few short years. We were able to come to a deal on a 1966 Philadelphia Dick Butkus rookie. Then a Ohio State fan purchased some 1957 Topps football. A husband and wife team purchased some 1968 Topps baseball. My day ended with a father and son team that purchased some 1978 Topps football and some 1970 and 1972 Topps baseball. I allowed the father to pay me via PayPal which is pretty convenient for both me as a dealer and for the customer.

There was a real nice crowd in the room all day. I noticed there were quite a few kids. Jack, the vintage dealer across from me, said the hobby is dying. I disagreed and pointed to all the kids in the room. He walked away. I observed that he was busy all day. I'm not quite sure what possessed him to say the hobby was dying. Based on the Canton show alone, the hobby is alive and well.

On the buying front, I picked up a few cards including a nice stack of 1960s commons, a couple of 1934 Diamond Stars, a 1950 Bowman Enos Slaughter and a 1951 Bowman Packer common.

At the end of the show, Jane the promoter, held a drawing for the dealers. She called out Dell's name but he had already packed up and was on the road back to Chicago. A few names later, she called out my name. I won some cologne. I like Jane. She is a super nice lady and puts on a terrific show. I booked Canton again for March. It is kind of an ugly drive from Chicago but I really like this show.

I have been battling diabetic fatigue most of the week but I was able to finish reloading my 1975 Topps baseball binder. I started on the 1975 minis but I don't know if I'll have them done by this weekend. Sales on eBay have been lights out this week. Woot! I also had a record number of visitors to this site on Monday -- more than 1,600. Thanks everybody! I really appreciate the support.

Next up is the Smith & Gordon Show No. 6 on Saturday, February 28, 2015. We are in the larger Mitchell Room this time around with 30 tables and 16 dealers. There are just two tables still available for the first person to contact me. I'm also setting up at the Wyndham Garden in Schaumburg, IL, on Sunday. The weather report is clear for Saturday but it may get ugly on Sunday. Be safe out there and I hope to see some nice crowds this weekend in Milwaukee and Schaumburg!

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Home, Good Food, and Knuckleheads

2/14/2015

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After a few months of traveling the four corners of the Earth for card shows, it was nice to set up at some local shows this past weekend. I hustled all week to finish reloading my 1974 Topps baseball binder. Man, that thing is a beast with 660 cards, the traded set along with the team checklists. I then reloaded 1970-71 Topps basketball, a far easier task than the 1974 baseball. I even had time to put some 1975 Fleer Greats football together. Needless to say, I had lots of new stuff out on my tables this weekend.

First up was Corky's show at the Holiday Inn in Elgin, Illinois. For those unfamiliar with the Chicago area, Elgin is an older suburb located far northwest of Chicago along the banks of the beautiful Fox River. Elgin is a bit of a drive from my house in the north suburbs but usually not too bad on a Saturday morning. However, on this Saturday, February 14, 1015, the winter winds were howling. My little car was blown all over the road. I drove Interstate 90 west out to Elgin. At one point the entire eastbound lanes were closed off for an accident. My normal ½-hour drive stretched to about 45 minutes.

In addition to wreaking havoc on the roads, heavy winds wreak havoc on loading into a card show. Everything goes flying from box tops, loose cards, carts, and display cases. Because of the wind, I decided to bring in only two display cases. I have had display cases crash to the ground in the past from heavy winds. I also brought out my football binders. Last month, I put out four display cases and my baseball and basketball binders. This month, I had the two display cases, the baseball, basketball, football and hockey binders. I was pretty happy with my set up.

Noticeably absent was big Tom who normally sets up across from me. In Tom's place, was a father and son team that sells exclusively modern cards. Their set up is pictured above. I believe they run a card shop somewhere in the area. There are several young guys that set up at this show with modern cards. I'm a bad judge of age but I think they are high school age. I appreciate having the young guys set up because it bodes well for the future of the hobby. One of the younger guys had a T205 that came with a collection he recently purchased. The T205 was the only vintage card on his table. He tried to sell it all show then offered it to me at the end where we were able to work out a deal. He was a real nice kid and I hope he made a lot of money and continues setting up at shows. Also in the room were several older dealers along with one wax guy, John who sells comics and non-sports, Gary who I met last month, and old friends Ted, Don and Willie. There was a real nice selection of cards in the room. I thought that crazy wind might affect customer attendance but we had a steady stream of folks in the room all day long.

I got a late start and didn't get my usual Mickey D's breakfast. The hotel has a little sundry shop and I went in there looking for something to munch on. They have mostly $2 candy bars and soda. Not appealing on this morning. There is a Bennigan's in the hotel and I decided to give it a try. For eight bucks, I was able to get eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast, pictured above. I took advantage of the free coffee the hotel provides in the lobby. Breakfast was pretty good. With my belly full, bottomless cups of coffee and a room filled with baseball cards, I was feeling pretty good.

I was soon greeted by Bill who brought me close to 3,000 football cards, pictured below, for a cash and trade deal. It was nice to see Randy, another regular customer. Randy found some 1962s for his set. Gary purchased my 1953 Topps Whitey Ford and Johnny Mize for his set. Jon, who I met at a previous Elgin show, purchased some 1963 Topps Football and 1961 Topps baseball. A father and son team purchased some 1970 Topps baseball. Angel found a few more 1965 Topps baseball for his set. I saw the Dodger guy in the room, who I met at the November show, but he did not stop by my table this time. Overall, I had a decent show but not like last month.

On the buying front, I picked up a 1970 Topps Hank Aaron that I needed for a set I am slowly building. I also picked up a smattering of 1960 Leaf baseball and some ugly 1961 Fleer baseball.

I have conflicts with this show the next two months and can't make it. I also learned that Corky shuts it down over the spring so I won't be back at the Elgin show until September. I am so bummed because there are no other Chicago-area Saturday shows. It looks like I will be spending the majority of my Saturdays in Indiana for a while where there are nothing but Saturday shows.

After the show, Willie and I went across the street to a place called Alexander's Cafe for lunch. From the outside, Alexander's looks like a typical Chicago Greek diner. It turned out to be an upscale restaurant. I was in the mood for sandwich and ended up getting a burger with goat cheese. Willie had the best looking meatloaf I have ever laid my eyes upon. See picture below. We ended up having an exceptional meal. Then I was off to spend Valentine's evening with my honey.

Since, I was setting up at Gonzaga the following morning, I did not bother to unload my car. I was up bright and early on Sunday, February 15, 2015. Thankfully, the wind had died down but in its place was severe cold. The thermometer in my car read 9 degrees. Once I hit the Wisconsin border, the thermometer dropped to zero. It was a frigid load into the show.

Noticeably absent today were Jim and Mark. Also a few other regulars did not purchase any cards from me. Luckily, I still had decent sales. An older collector who told me he recently completed a 1956 Topps baseball set started work on a 1959 Topps set. He found quite a few of them at my table. Jeff pulled his usual large pile of cards. Thanks Jeff! It was great to see Bruce and his grandsons. The kids are grade-school age and are incredibly knowledgeable about older cards and players which got me thinking that kids today seem so much smarter than when I was a kid. One of Bruce’s grandsons purchased a 1952 Topps Larry Doby and correctly stated that Doby was the first African-American ballplayer in the American League. The only thing I knew at that age was that White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray drank a lot of Falstaff beer. Bruce’s grandsons also picked up a T206, some T205s, and a 1940 Play Ball Hal Trosky. I am wondering if I can be adopted into this family.

Flea market Bob was an early visitor to my table. I haven’t seen Bob in a while. He purchased some 1971 Topps Super, some 1979 Star Trek Movie non-sports cards, and some 1951 Bowman baseball. A new customer purchased my 1959 Topps Paul Hornung. An older customer purchased some 1959 and 1964 Topps baseball. One of my regular customers was kind enough to sell me a large quantity of 1970 and 1971 Topps baseball. I probably should have kept the cards but Tim observed the deal and offered to purchase them. It is really hard to hang on to cards when a buyer is staring you in the face. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I then sold some 1951 Bowman baseball to a customer wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers cap. Terry and I made a trade. Eric purchased some 1967 Topps baseball and some 1971 Topps baseball. An older White Sox fan that I met last month purchased a few cards from the 1970s. An older customer purchased some 1965 Topps baseball.

I would now like to pause this blog for a little rant. Today I want to discuss knuckleheads. Not just any knucklehead but the knuckleheads who are seemingly oblivious to basic courteous conduct at a baseball card show. Knuckleheads come in the form of both dealers and customers. At this past Sunday’s show, there were quite a few knucklehead customers. I seemed a little more susceptible to them this past weekend because I was not as busy as usual. Thus, the knuckleheads took over the space in front of my tables normally occupied by serious card collectors sifting through by binders to complete there sets.

There is one guy in particular at this show who walks around the room with a briefcase and tries to sell cards or memorabilia to customers in the room. I pay a fee for the right to sell cards to customers in the room. This guy pays nothing and worse yet, he uses my table or other dealers’ tables to display his wares. Come on! At one point, he placed his briefcase on a box of cards at my neighbor Ken’s table. He covered the box so no customers could access it. Then he tried to sell an item to a guy who was looking at cards in Ken’s display case. So Ken lost a sale from the customer who may have purchased something from his display case and may have lost multiple sales from customers who would have liked to view the cards in the covered up box. There is a four-letter word that best describes this guy.

Next up are the customers who seem to move in and act like my display cases are their own private sorting tables. They place boxes on my display cases so no one can see in the case and I can’t sell any cards. They sort stuff out of their boxes without a care in the world. Hey knucklehead! I paid for the right to place that display case on the table for the sole purpose of selling cards from the case. I can’t sell any cards when you cover it up and spread out your cards! I watched one guy come over and do this on three occasions on this day. Another guy commandeered one of the chairs I place out front for customers to sit and view my binders. He placed his derriere in the chair and blocked two display cases while tooling around on his iPhone. I couldn’t take it and asked him to leave. One of the dealers across the way came right over and used an explicative to describe the guy. Come on people! The dealers pay a fee to display cards on the tables. We can’t sell any cards if you block our tables!!

The vast majority of customers at this show and at other shows are absolutely terrific. However, there is a fraction that need to find a new hobby! End of rant and now back to the blog.

It was a weird show for me. I am usually extremely busy at this show but just didn’t have the usual amount of customers even though the room seemed pretty crowded. With few customers, I had a chance to walk around the room. I saw quite a bit of vintage but no deals out there. The highlight of my day, as usual, was the piece of cake from the concession stand. This show is worth the visit for the cake alone. I was on the road home by 2:15 p.m. The drive was long and painful because of heavy traffic. Oddly, there was heavy snow just a few miles from the highway exit to my house. Snow like this can only mean one thing – lake effect. If you live close enough to Lake Michigan, several times each winter you will get hit from snow storms that form over the lake and hit the surrounding areas. It seemed like it was just snowing over my town and nowhere else. Traffic slowed to a crawl and in a mile stretch I saw five cars that had spun off the road.

Next week, I’m back on the road. I’m hitting the Fort Wayne show on Saturday and I am setting up in Canton, Ohio, on Sunday. My project this week is a reload of the 1975 Topps baseball binder. I’d love to reload the 1975 football binder as well but I don’t think I will have enough time to get to it. Also, the next Smith & Gordon show is approaching quickly. We are in the bigger room this time around on Saturday, February 28, 2015. We currently have five open tables. Table fee is $25 per table. If anyone is interested in setting up at the show, please let me know. That's all for now.

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Lot's of traffic all weekend in and outside the shows

2/11/2015

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Oh my, I did quite a bit of driving this past weekend. I left for Indianapolis on Friday, February 6, 2015, and ended up at an Econo Lodge in West Lafayette. The Econo is a big upgrade from my regular digs at Motel 6. I was living high on the hog for one night but was up ridiculously early to finish the drive to Indy. All the Indy shows are on a Saturday and they all start at 8 a.m. -- which really sucks for me because I lose an hour with the time change. Thank the heavens for coffee! The Econo coffee was really crappy, so I didn't drink any. So much for my false sense of luxury. I hit a McDonald's in Indy for an egg McMuffin and coffee.

Once at the show at the La Quinta Inn (pictured above), on Saturday, February 7, 2015, I was greeted by Graig from Fort Wayne who seems to be following the same show schedule as I am. He told me to stop stalking him. He does have some nice vintage cards and I just may continue to stalk him until he gives up that '63 Mantle real cheap. Once inside the hotel, I saw John Dobiecki who was also set up a few weeks ago at the Fishers show I attended in Indy. The promoter for this show is Seth Murray, one of the nicest guys around. Seth directed me to my two tables. I was a little bummed that the room was so small. This is about the smallest room I have ever set up in. Space was tight. It was tough to load in and out. Seth said he is trying to find a new location with a bigger room -- THANK YOU!

I only had two six-footers. I should have gone with three. Seth is crazy cheap on his table fee. I never asked about the price of the table fee before I set up. I assumed it was 50 bucks or so. However, Seth only charges $35 for two tables which is an amazing bargain. So next time, I'm getting three tables.

With only 12-feet, I went with just two display cases and my baseball and basketball binders. There were a lot of football fans in the room, I probably should have skipped the display cases entirely and put out my football binders. I also observed that this is a dime box crowd. Three of the nine dealers had nothing but dime boxes. They were mobbed all day. I spent most of the day staring at vintage dealer Wayne Johnson across the way. We quickly bored of staring at each other and were entertained by two ladies who pulled large amounts of dime cards from John's boxes and spread them onto Wayne's display cases. Wayne did not say anything to them. There really was no point because there wasn't much business for us. Though, there were a lot of people in the room all day long. Next time, I am going to make sure I have some dime boxes on my table.

The most interesting occurrence of the day was when Walt, the dealer set up on my left, sat down at Terry's table, the dealer on my right, and an extremely well-endowed woman moved/smothered Walt to the side with her huge appendages to get at some of Terry's cards. When Dolly Parton's sister walked away, Terry remarked to Walt, "I think that was intentional." Walt was all red faced. It certainly looked intentional. You always see something new at the card show.

The show was not a total disaster. I did make some sales. A customer I remember from the Fishers show, who wears an Indiana Pacers hat, purchased some 1962 Topps baseball and some 1970 Topps baseball. I sold a 1949 Leaf Ted Fritch to a customer who had all sorts of great historical football tidbits to discuss. There was another customer that I have seen on all of my trips to Indiana who purchased all of my 1952 Topps baseball. He wanted to trade me some Three Stooges cards but I preferred the cash. Another customer purchased some 1966 Topps baseball and some 1978 Topps baseball. I had a customer dig through a bunch of binders and pull out a pile. Another customer pulled a large pile of 1960s and 1970s baseball from the binders. One of the dealers I met at the Fishers show was walking around and tried to low-ball me on my basketball binders. I politely declined.

On the buying front, Fat Dave who drives the scooter and who I met at the Fishers show was selling his 1968 Topps set and a 1974 Topps set. He was a little too high on the price and I passed. My only purchase of the day were three Paul Hornung cards from Terry.

My thoughts on this show is that the pluses are that Seth is super cool, table fee is cheap, and he draws a good-sized crowd. The minuses are that the room is very small and there are not a whole lot of vintage collectors. I am going to give this show another try down the road. I think next time I will skip the display cases and make sure my football binders are out and also put out some cheapy boxes.

Pictured below is another photo of the show along with a couple of display cases from Wayne's table.

After the show I was starving. The hotel sells potato chips and the like but nothing substantial to eat. They did have free coffee which I took advantage of. Nearby, I found a place called Big City Hot Dogs and purchased a very tasty New York style dog that was a kosher dog covered in spicy brown mustard and sauerkraut. It was very good. I then set my GPS for St. Louis.

It is about 235 miles from Indy to St. Louis. For some reason, I thought it was more like 150. The drive from Indy to St. Louis was unpleasant, to say the least. There was a huge amount of truck traffic. It seemed like every truck in America was on I70 on this sunny Saturday afternoon. The speed limit is 70 MPH but I was only able to go 55 MPH most of the way because the trucks were clogging both lanes. It took close to four hours to get to my Motel 6 outside of St. Louis that I had reserved via Priceline. Once out of my car, I had to peel off my coats because the temperature was in the 60s! I think it was in the 20s when I left the Chicago area on Friday.

The guy in front of me in line at the front desk was able to get a room for less than I had reserved on Priceline. So much for reserving rooms. This Motel 6 had sort of a ghetto feel to it. It was run down, flooded in some parts, and there were lots of people hanging around. I thought my cards would be safer in the car than for me to bring them into the hotel in view of all these sketchy people. Shortly after I settled in, my good friend Tony Schaefer came by to pick me up for dinner. We had made plans earlier. Tony is a regular dealer at the Orlando Gardens show in St. Louis. I was incredibly appreciative that he came to get me because I was wiped out and much too tired to drive any more. Tony took us over to a place called Westport where we went into Patrick's Pub, a sports bar. The pub was huge with several dining rooms and a good sized sports bar. We opted for the bar where there were tons of TVs. However, all of the TVs were set to the Louisville-Virginia basketball game. I have never been to a sports bar where all the TVs were tuned in to just one game. Weird.

I asked for a pint from a local microbrewery. The waitress brought me an absolutely delicious IPA. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name. Every time I do a show in St. Louis, I try to get a beer from one of the local microbrews. As I've learned over the years, St. Louis has some amazing local brews. In addition to a great beer selection, Patrick's Pub is right up Mark Smith's alley with all sorts of steaks and ribs on the menu. I went with a prime rib. Tony had tacos. My prime rib was damn good. Back at the sketchy Motel 6, I brought in one bin of cards and quickly fell asleep.

I was up pretty early on Sunday, February 8, 2015, grabbed some coffee and checked out. Luckily, my car was okay. I took Tony's advice and stopped off at a nearby McDonald's for breakfast. Then I had about a 1/2-hour drive to the Orlando Gardens Banquet Hall. I observed a large lodge/bed & breakfast next to the hall and noted that I must investigate that place for my next St. Louis excursion.

This was my first time at the Orlando Gardens. This show used to be held at a banquet hall called Two Hearts. I thought load in was much easier at the Orlando Gardens than at Two Hearts where dealer tables seemed to block the door to the parking lot. I looked over the Orlando Gardens and marveled and the 1970s funeral home decor. I figured that somewhere in this place I must pay my respects to the recently departed.

Promoter Dave Jackson set me up with two 8-footers on a corner. I'm not a big fan of the corner layout and I had to quickly decide how I wanted to set up. Yesterday, I put out just two display cases. I felt like I had room for three today. I placed the display cases next to my neighbor, who had eight tables -- all filled with flea market type stuff. He had flipped one table around so part of it was behind one of my tables. I immediately did not like it because his customers would have to walk behind my table to get at his stuff. As a dealer, you never want any customers behind you where you cannot see them because your items will walk away. I debated on saying something to the dealer but I saw that he had absolute garbage on that table and I did not expect too many people to check that stuff out -- I was right. That table did not see much action at all. In fact, I don't think he sold much at all on all of his eight tables.

Quite a few dealers had a tremendous amount of tables. Tony Shaefer was the only dealer with a large number of tables with quality items for sale. These other guys had flea market junk or dime boxes of modern cards. Now, tables at this show are not cheap. Obviously, these flea market guys are getting some sort of deal. It has been about two years since I've done this show and the quality of dealers has really gone down hill. There was much better stuff in the room at the old Two Hearts shows. This is also a really large room and I think there were only four vintage dealers -- me, Tony, Paul Shreiber and one other guy who I do not know.

Unlike yesterday, where my first sale did not come until 10:30 a.m., I had sales right away -- which is why I love this show. There are always a ton of set builders. My first customer was an older guy working on a 1958 Topps set. He said he had a really nice yellow letter Aaron. He purchased a bunch of cards. A husband and wife team purchased some 1969 Topps baseball. Then Mark, who I met through eBay, showed up. He has purchased a few cards from me in the past on eBay. Recently, he purchased a card via eBay but was having some problems with his PayPal account. I looked at his St. Louis address and offered to bring the card to the show. He gladly accepted. So it was nice to deliver the card to Mark and meet him in person. As a bonus, he purchased a bunch of 1972 Topps baseball.

My next customer purchased some 1965 Topps baseball. A young guy purchased some 1951 and 1952 Bowman baseball along with some 1954 Topps baseball. I had a hockey fan purchase a bunch of hockey cards. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my second hockey binder. An older guy purchased some Cardinal football cards from the 1960s. My best customer of the day was an older gentleman who purchased a large stack of 1955 Bowman baseball. Another older man pulled some 1954 Topps baseball.

I sold some 1959 Topps baseball to another customer. A younger guy found some 1979 Topps baseball for his set. A customer accompanied by his two young daughters purchased some 1970s Topps football and a stack of St. Louis Blues from my hockey binder. Ironically, my hometown Blackhawks were playing the Blues this afternoon in St. Louis. The game was on a large flat screen at the bar not far from my table so I was able to check in on the game all day.

By 10 a.m., the show was a mob scene. They were lined up out the door for Bob Gibson's autograph. Mr. Gibson was set up right in front of the bathroom. On my bathroom breaks, I saw him chatting it up with fans. He seemed so calm and pleasant, unlike his baseball persona where he terrified national league hitters for nearly 15 years or so. Dave said this was his largest crowd in five years. Both the autograph area and the main room were jam packed with customers. I had nice traffic at my tables all day long. I was able to sneak over to the concession stand for a burger and some chili along with many cups of coffee. I was pleased that the Hawks seemed to be in control of the game, much to the chagrin of the dealer next to me. I even saw one guy at the show wearing a Patrick Kane jersey.

Back at my tables, sales continued. One customer pulled out an iPad, placed it on one of my display cases, called up his list and pulled a large pile of 1972 Topps baseball. I had another customer, who was cross-eyed, purchase a bunch of 1972s as well. I sold some 1970 and 1973 Topps baseball cards to a young customer. Randy, who I remember from my previous visits to St. Louis, purchased a bunch of 1970s football. He also offered to sell me some football cards from the 1960s but he was a little bit too high on his pricing. There was another customer who I also remember from my previous visits who was wearing a 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl T-shirt. It had some holes in it and I asked if he has had that thing since 1985. Yes, he said. I'm amazed that T-shirt survived that long. I think I have some T-shirts from the early 1990s that are in rough shape that I just can't seem to throw away. The guy in the Bears shirt purchased some 1962 Topps football cards. My last sale of the day was to a dealer who purchased a 1969-70 and a 1970-71 Lenny Wilkins to get signed.

As I was getting ready to pack up, Jeff came over and told me he is a fan of this blog. How cool is that! I love meeting people all over the country who enjoy my blog. You guys rule! Jeff told me he collects modern cards but still loves my blog. He was able to recognize me from the binders on my table. I believe I was the only dealer in the room with binders. It was great to meet you Jeff and I hope to be back in St. Louis soon!!!

The last guy at my table for the day was a guy with cards to sell. I looked in the box and saw only modern cards. He said he had some vintage but wanted me to look through the entire box of cards to dig out the vintage. I was not interested in looking through a couple thousand modern cards. So he looked through them for me and pulled out a dozen or so cards including a 1962 Topps Warren Spahn and Billy Williams. We were able to come to an agreement on the cards. By the time I started packing up, at least half of the dealers were already gone. With just two tables, pack up and load out was easy.

I could not believe how warm it was when I stepped outside. The thermometer in my car read 68 degrees. It was amazing. I can't believe that just five hours south of wintery Chicago, they are having spring in February. For a moment, I started to plot how I could stay in St Louis and this warm weather. But before I knew it, I was in my car heading north.

Traffic was extremely heavy which was surprising for a Sunday afternoon in the dead of winter. I learned the reason for the traffic when I stopped at a rest area just over the border in Illinois and saw all the red Blackhawk jerseys. I was stuck in traffic with thousands of Blackhawks fans that had driven down for the Hawks/Blues game. Ugh! I was stuck in Hawks traffic for five freakin' hours back to Chicago!! I made it home around 8 p.m. Whew!

It is nice to be home. Next weekend, I am sticking close to home with the Elgin show on Saturday, February 14, 2015, and the Gonzaga show on Sunday, February 15, 2015. I will have my 1974 Topps baseball binder ready to go. I am going to start work on 1951 Bowman baseball but I am not sure if I will get it done by the weekend. Also, the Smith & Gordon show is coming up soon on Saturday, February 28, 2015, at the Clarion in Milwaukee. We will be in the larger Mitchell room and just have a few dealer tables left. It should be a good show. A big thank you to everyone who purchased cards from me in Indianapolis and St. Louis this past weekend. I plan to return to both towns soon. It is time for me to get back to work loading up those binders. Below are some photos of some items for sale at the St. Louis show.

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Slow Day In Holland, Michigan

2/4/2015

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Wow, the days are flying by. It seems like I just got back from Cincinnati which was more than a week ago. Card shows scheduled for the weekend of January 31st and February 1st were Holland, Michigan, and Schaumburg, Illinois. I left Friday afternoon (Jan. 30, 2015) for New Buffalo, Michigan, to spend the night before heading to the Holland. I love New Buffalo in winter. It is so quiet and peaceful, unlike summer, where it can get a little crazy. I just cable-rocked all night. I was up well before dawn on Saturday, January 31, 2015. I was on the road to Holland by 6 a.m. Michigan time (5 a.m. Illinois time). I arrived at the Holland Civic Center around 7:45 a.m.

Man, I like driving into Holland. What a beautiful town. It is one of those places that time forgot, it sort of feels like you are in Bedford Falls from the movie "It's A Wonderful Life." A young Jimmy Stewart is bound to appear at any moment. The promoters of the Holland show, Mark and Bill, could easily be Burt and Ernie. These guys are so nice and welcoming, I can't say enough about them. It is awesome to be around really good show promoters who just love what they are doing. Mark and Bill greet everyone who comes in the door. They give each person a raffle ticket and try to give baseball cards to all the kids that come in.

I was pretty excited on this morning. My pal Mark Smith gave me his usual spot which is the first table on the left as you walk in the door! It is a three-table spot with room for some additional card tables. I had my little Camry packed floor to ceiling with stuff, including extra tables. I forgot that I had made plans to purchase a display case from a dealer I met last month. I was able to incorporate the display case into my set up but was worried on how I was going to fit it into the car after the show. Anyway, I had a real nice set up with 10 display cases, 46 binders, my 25-cent packs, some Sporting News from the 1960s and a 1979 Topps baseball complete set. My set up got a couple "Wows" as some folks walked by. There was a real nice crowd but they seemed to be mostly window shopping.

However, I did make a few sales. My first customer purchased a large pile of 1973 and 1972 Topps baseball. Then I met a Cubs fan from Peoria who purchased some 1978 Topps football and some 1965 Topps baseball. A younger guy purchased a 1970 Topps O.J. Simpson and a 1974 Topps Hank Aaron. Then I had some down time and ran over to the concession stand which seemed to have a smaller menu this time around. Once again they had some delicious looking doughnuts from a local shop. These were no garden variety Dunkin Donuts, instead, they are the hefty homemade type that are oh, so good. I also picked up my first of many cups of coffee. I went back to the concession stand two more times where I purchased a hot dog and a "Polish hot dog." I thought I was getting a Polish sausage but the "Polish hot dog" was just a larger hot dog that was grilled instead of steamed. Unfortunately, the nice lady who runs the concession stand is retiring and this show will no longer have concessions. Mark and Bill seem pretty certain that the City of Holland is going to tear down this amazing civic center. As I said last month, this place is a throwback and so incredibly cool and special. You can feel the history in this place. In my opinion, it is irreplaceable.. which got me thinking. There is so much empty space outside of Holland. Why can't the city just build a new recreation center on the outskirts and keep this wonderful piece of history intact?

After stuffing my face, I had a few more sales. I traded some 1961 Topps baseball for some 1961 Post baseball. The same guy also purchased a 1961 Post Richie Ashburn. When he first approached my table, I asked what he was collecting. He said I would laugh when he told me. I said try me. When he said Post Cereal, I said that is no laughing matter. I love the Post Cereal cards. He said a lot of dealers laugh at him when he asks if they have any Post Cereal cards. First off, I can't understand why a dealer would belittle a customer for collecting any type of cards. Second of all, the Post Cereal are so incredibly cool, why would anyone laugh? Weird.

Next up, I sold some 1971 Topps Coins. A customer I remember from last month, wearing an OBC hat, purchased some 1972-73 Topps hockey and some 1969-70 Topps basketball. Oddly, this was my only repeat customer. The one guy who purchased a bunch of hockey from me last month, didn't even look at my table. Another guy who bought quite a few cards last month, window shopped and walked away. The dealer who purchased my dime box last month did come by and purchase some 1975 Topps for a set he is building. So basically, almost all my sales were to new customers. I sold some 1952 Bowman baseball. A younger guy picked up some 1979 Topps baseball. An extremely tall guy, oddly purchased some 1965 tall boy football. I wondered if the tall guy only collects the 1965 tall boys because he is so freaking tall.

A customer with two young sons in tow purchased a 1966 Philadelphia Mike Ditka, a 1970 Topps Bubba Smith Rookie and a 1984 Topps Eric Dickerson Rookie. An older guy purchased some 1960 Leaf baseball and some of my 25-cent packs. I met a nice family where the young son inherited some terrific old cards from his grandfather. He had a list of 1952 Bowman baseball but did not purchase any cards.

Quite a few people came by and observed that I was not Mark Smith. They asked if I was selling Mark's cards. I had to tell quite a few people that the cards on display are not Mark's but mine. Mark was set up at the Gibralter show on this weekend, thus, I was able to get is cherry spot. In an effort to increase sales, I think next time I am going to tell people that I am Mark's cousin Mike Smith and I am indeed selling Mark's cards.

I walked around the room a few times. There weren't nearly as many dealers as last month. There was a pretty nice inventory of vintage cards in the room but not quite like it was last month. I thought guys had pretty reasonable prices marked on their cards. I talked with several of these dealers who told me their sales were slow as well. It seemed like the modern card dealers were doing a lot better than the vintage guys.

On the buying front, only one guy came to my table with cards. He had a tremendous collection of post-War vintage. He did not have a price in mind. I was not sure what to offer him. I thought about it for a while and when I calculated a price that would work for me, he was gone. I had given him my phone number and hopefully he calls. Sometimes I'm too hesitant to throw out an offer because it seems like most guys want way too much money for their cards. I always like them to throw out a number first so I know whether they are reasonable in their pricing. Another guy came by and wanted to trade me a beat up 1958 Topps Ted Williams All Star for my 1979 Topps set. I declined.

Overall, sales were a little slow. I thought I would do much better with all the cards I brought out. I would like to set up at this show again next year (it is only held in December and January). The show draws a big crowd. I think I need a large number of cheapy boxes on my table for next time. I wonder if publications would do well at this show? I definitely need to bring out some different items next time around. I may want to go back down to one table.

Anyway, the weatherman was calling for a big snow storm and I was eager to hit the road in the afternoon and beat the storm. The new display case made loading the car very difficult. I had to stop outside of Holland to rearrange everything because I felt like it was all going to tumble on my head. Once everything was secure, it took me about three hours to drive home.

When I took the dog out around 10:30 p.m., I noticed there was at least an inch of fresh wet snow on the ground. I woke up at 6 a.m. and out the window was nothing but white. I checked my phone and saw a text from Willie letting me know Fred cancelled the Schaumburg show. I can't remember Fred ever cancelling a show. My car was packed and I was going to brave the weather. But in reality, Fred did the smart thing because that was one of the worst snow storms I have ever seen. My wife and I went out a few times to shovel the driveway but gave up late in the afternoon when the winds really whipped up and it was scary out there.

I posted on the Fred Copp Facebook Page and this website that the show was cancelled. I forgot to contact Ryan C. who was going to meet me at the show to purchase some cards. Ryan went to the hotel. Ugh! I am so sorry Ryan! Dingbat move on my part.

I spent much of the day working on a new 1974 Topps baseball binder. My wife woke up early Monday and shoveled the mounds of snow off the driveway. My wife is incredibly awesome! The news stations reported that my little burg received 22 inches of show! The house is caked in white stuff. They are also reporting snow and rain for next weekend when I am planning to be in Indy on Saturday and St. Louis on Sunday. This should be interesting....

Pictured below are some more photos from the Holland show.

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Please Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Home, Good Food, and Knuckleheads

Lot's of traffic all weekend in and outside the shows

Slow Day In Holland, Michigan

Tony Gordon

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