So I was pulled over on the 294 on my way to the Orland Park show. I'm not quite sure how I was singled out from the multitude of speeders but I received a ticket and have to pay $147 and go through traffic school. The officer also took my drivers license. Is that really necessary? Why do they have to take your drivers license? I'm not sure when I'll get it back. I'm guessing after I complete the traffic school. Needless to say, I'm going to stick closer to the speed limit for now on.

The show itself was a little slow. I figured as much prior because it was a holiday weekend. Many folks were probably out of town visiting family for Easter. There was also quite a bit of vintage in the room, more than usual, so I think I lost some sales to some other tables. Though in the long run I think having a room filled with vintage can only help all the dealers because the selection is just too good for customers to miss the show. I still made quite a few sales. One guy I have been seeing semi-regularly pulled a large stack of 1961 Topps from my binder.  Another guy that has recently become a regular purchased a 1957 Topps Mantle/Berra card, a 1964 Post Mantle, and a couple of early 1970s Topps Gordie Howe cards. While Mantle has always been popular, there seems to be even more interest of late. Another guy picked up a 1963 Topps Leader card with Mantle. Dave took his usual stack of high grade including a really cool 1951 Bowman Chico Carrasquel.  Rick also grabbed his usual stack of high grade including a beautiful 1964 Topps Ron Santo.  Will picked up quite a few 1962 Topps commons and also had a good story about Terry Boars, a local sports radio host, wanting to fight his son Joe.

I helped out a new customer who was working on Yankee team sets. Another new customer picked up some 1955 Bowman baseball for his set. I sold some late 1970s hockey, along with a bit of basketball. I also sold some 1972 Topps baseball high numbers to a regular customer.  I have been selling quite a bit of 1972 Topps lately.  Another customer, who I have seen once before at the Schaumburg show, picked up a bunch of 1950s and 1960s cards that he plans to send out and get autographed. I also sold some 1967 Topps to Junior. All and all, sales were pretty good.

I picked up quite a few cards as usual. Jim had a nice lot of 1950s/60s commons for me along with some pre-war and a 1954 Topps Jackie Robinson. I picked up a 1971 Topps Terry Bradshaw rookie from Junior. Tony had a very cool 1936 R311 Bill Terry SGC 40 for me. I generally buy cards for resale but this thing is too cool and is going up on the wall in the mancave. I turned down cards as well. One guy had some 1952 Topps commons. I currently have a nice inventory of '52 Topps and didn't feel like spending money on more of them.  Another guy brought a stack of battered and beaten pre-war and some early Bowmans. I wouldn't pay more than $50 for such an ugly stack.  The guy wanted $600.

I drove very slow on the way home and had to listen to a horrible Bulls game. I can't understand why the Bulls can't pull away from the Pacers. Next Sunday is Serb Hall in Milwaukee. I missed the last Serb Hall show because I was on vacation.  I heard the show was horrible because they were forced to set up in the bar which doesn't have much room. Both customers and dealers were upset about that one.  Hopefully we get the normal room on Sunday and the last show didn't scare customers away. I also hope to take some photos of Serb Hall and post them on this site.

I had an absolutely terrific show today at Gonzaga Hall in Milwaukee. Prior to the show, I was concerned because I had a very good show at Gonzaga last month and I didn't have a whole lot of new star cards for today, though I brought quite a few new commons and some Red Mans along.  I definitely benefited from the absence of two of the larger vintage dealers who, I believe, were out in Philadelphia doing a new major show. The early morning started out slow but then the crowd kicked in and I was busy all day.

I'm not really even sure what I sold, I was extremely busy and trying to help customers as quickly as possible.  Here is what I can recall -- I sold a T206 Doc White, a strip card from the 1920s of Paul Waner, a 1941 Double Play Cookie Lavegetto, a 1952 Red Man Red Schoendienst, a 1953 Red Man Enos Slaughter, a 1956 Topps Whitey Ford, a 1958 Topps Curt Flood rookie, a 1960 Topps Hank Aaron and a Willie Mays, and a 1969 Topps Roberto Clemente and a Rod Carew.  I sold a ton of commons. A regular Jason picked up some 1959s, Mark bought some 1966 Topps football, the dealer set up across from me bought quite a bit of 1971 Topps football, I sold quite a bit of 1958 Topps baseball, some 1967 Topps baseball, some 1970 Topps baseball, some 1954 Topps, some 1964s, a ton of commons out of my 50-cent box, and much, much more.

I purchased a bunch of Hank Aarons and some older Braves and some Brewers from a guy.  I don't really focus on buying cards per team because the majority of my customers are working on sets and need all teams.  Though it seems guys in Milwaukee think Braves and Brewers are a hot commodity while in Chicago some people think the Cubs and Sox are the hot commodity. If the price is right, I'll buy these cards but what ends up happening is I have a surplus of these cards. I also made a really bad buy of 1971 Topps Supers from another dealer.  I've never had a lot of these cards and I didn't know the value so I ended up overpaying.  Though, now I know and won't overpay for these cards again.  Another guy tried to sell me about $500 worth of cards for nearly $3,000. I politely declined.  At the very end of the show while I was packing up, an old man brought in some minor league newsletter from the 1940s when Bill Veeck owned a minor league team in Milwaukee.  The newsletters were cool but I had no idea what to offer the guy for them. He said he has had the newsletters since he was a kid.  Another dealer offered him $20 but he didn't seem interested.  When the guy walked away, the other dealer told me those newsletters are worth about $500.  I find this value hard to believe but I don't deal in memorabilia, I try to stick to cards.

Overall a tremendous day.  I had one of my best days ever at Gonzaga and can't wait for next month's show.

Another terrific Orland Park show today. I was a little worried that the nice weather would keep customers away but in actuality, quite a few dealers were missing while the show was well attended.  I sold a 1966 Topps Mickey Mantle along with some '64 and '66 commons to Dennis, a semi-regular customer.  Rick and Dave picked up their usual groupings of higher grade cards.  Though I had brought quite a few nice 1963 Topps baseball high numbers that didn't interest them much.  Larry, who has been working on a '63 set for a while, picked up quite a few of those '63s.  I also sold quite a few '76 baseball commons, some '64 Philadelphia football commons and a Jim Brown; I sold a pair of '65 RBI leaders with Mantle, and the Mantle base card to a regular; I also sold some '72s, some '65 Topps football, some '70 Topps baseball, a few '53 commons to Gil, some '68 Topps baseball, and some '62 Topps baseball stars and commons to a customer who is working on his third set.

I bought quite a few cards as usual. I picked up a nice grouping of '67s, '69s and '72s from Jim; a small grouping from Terry that included an early 1950s Johnston Cookie Warren Spahn, and a small group of late '60s commons from a dealer that normally sells autographs.  I purchased a 1956 Topps Roy Campanella from Bill, who owns a card shop up in Milwaukee.  Bill and I also did a little trade, I gave him a fairly nice 1957 Whitey Ford and a '58 Lew Burdette for a 1956 Topps Hank Aaron in Fair Condition and a 1958 Nellie Fox All Star.

I turned down a couple cards.  Pre-war collector Tony had an oversize card of Bill Terry. I had never seen the card before and didn't have the money to purchase the card.  If he brings it next show, I may pick it up.  Another guy who I had never seen before, brought me an odd stack.  There were some modern basketball cards, some 1950s baseball then a 1933 Sports Kings Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb along with a 1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig.  I've probably said this before, when a guy comes to my table with cards, I know he has a price in mind that he'd like to receive for the cards.  Oddly, some guys won't tell me their price and insist that I make an offer.  I practically begged the guy to give me a price. He wouldn't.  I offered $1,000 for the group. He got really offended. If he would have just told me his price at the start, which was $5,000, we could have had a quick conversation where I would have said thanks but no thanks but we had to drag this on for 20 minutes or so until he'd tell me his price.  Now the cards were all in Good Condition.  No creases but wear on the corners, edges and surface.  Each card also seemed to have a light layer of dirt/smudge.  The guy told me the Gehrig books at $2,800 and he thinks he should get close to that because there are no creases.  Well, like I said, there was wear on the card and he'll never get $2,800.  If it books at $2,800, I would price it at $700 because of the wear and dirt/smudging.  The guys just wasn't realistic.  Another problem I found was that the cards were not graded and those cards are heavily counterfeited, so I'm really hesitant to buy those cards from a guy I've never seen before.  I told him to come back and I'll make another offer at the next show.  I need to look up the Sports Kings.  Also, my customer Rick has more experience with those cards than I do and he offered to look them over for me.  Though, I don't see a deal getting done on the cards, the guy just isn't reasonable.

While I'm ranting, another thing that bugs me are comments that the economy is hurting the card business.  I've been selling cards since 1979 and have been through quite a few recessions and NONE of them, including the current one, has affected my sales.  I had a very good year selling cards in 2010 and 2011 has been the same.  My card sales are always consistent no matter what the economy is. When the economy is humming, like during the Clinton years, I fared no better than I do now.  It's consistent no matter what is happening with the economy.  People seem to spend the same amount on cards no matter what. It just bugs me that so many people make these assumptions based on no other fact other than the economy is in turmoil so cards sales must be in turmoil.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  I think a few things account for the stability of cards, especially vintage cards.  The majority of people involved in sports cards, do it as a hobby, myself included, and don't rely on it for living expenses.  I haven't lost my job and neither have 90 percent of Americans, so there is plenty of money out there.  Those involved in sports cards are very passionate about the hobby and rely on it as stress release and a diversion from work and family.  There is also a great sense of camaraderie at card shows and people consistently show up because they enjoy the company.  You also don't have to spend thousands of dollars to collect cards.  You can work on building a set of vintage cards by spending just $100 a month and really enjoy yourself.  The economy does not affect cards because it is a great hobby that can be enjoyed by young and old and shared between generations.  So please stop telling me that card business is dying when I go home with a pocket full of money after each and every show, each and every week.  The vintage card market is just fine.