My weekend summed up in a nutshell -- pricing cards, movies, pricing cards, drinking, card show, drinking. I'm not quite sure how I'm coherent at the moment and am actually writing this blog. I got home from the day job Friday, ate some food, priced some cards, then stayed up all night watching movies on HBO. With two small kids, I don't normally get to watch movies that aren't made by Disney. I think I caught up on all my movie watchin' in one night. I slept all morning on Saturday then priced and sorted cards all afternoon. About 6 p.m. I went over to an old buddy's place for a barbecue and drank beer and ate food for about four hours. It was a good time. I don't normally go out without the wife and kids. I saw some old friends from high school, made a lot of new friends, and watched some college football. I somehow got my butt out of bed at 6 a.m. on Sunday and made it to the Orland Park Card Show, though I was hurtin' and hung over.
The crowd was a little lighter than usual today. Quite a few regulars were missing. A great deal of vintage was in the room. Rick was my first customer of the day. He picked out a nice pile of '61 Topps. I was surprised he didn't pick out more '62s. I refilled my '61 and '62 binders before the show. Rick likes high grade cards and I thought the '62 book had quite a few more than the '61 book. Dave was also an early customer today. It's been nice to see Dave regularly. I keep forgetting to ask him how his fantasy baseball season worked out. Dave brought me a blues CD/DVD today which I hope to listen to this week sometime. We also made a nice trade today where I received a '57 Topps Brooks Robinson rookie in exchange for '66 and '67 Mantles. I'm real happy with the Robinson. I've never had the rookie before. I had an opportunity to buy a really nice one a few years ago but was too cheap that day to pull the trigger and I've been regretting it ever since. Dave also picked up some '56 Topps. Chris bought quite a few '61s. Another regular picked up some '61s. My football binders got a workout today. I really need to update those books. I've been working hard on the baseball books and haven't had a chance to get to the football. I'm hoping to knock out my '63 baseball book this week with time left over before the weekend to get to my '53 Bowman football. I sold a beautiful '48 Bowman Snuffy Stirnweiss to a customer today. Another customer picked up some '53 Bowman color baseball. Though he seemed agitated over the pricing of one card which books at $20 and I had priced at $5. In my opinion the card was in fair to good condition. No creases, some corner wear. They main problem with the card is some small writing on the back in pen. The customer thought 25% of book is too high for a card with writing. I disagree. If the front of the card is decent and the writing on the back is small, I think 25% is fair, and from my 30-plus years experience selling cards, so do most of my customers because I sell a ton of cards that have some sort of writing.
I had pockets of dead time today. Last Orland show I was busy from start to finish. Will picked up some '62s. Derek picked up some '70s basketball. Tony Schaefer from Monster Cards picked up a bunch of good stuff like a '49 Bowman Roy Campanella rookie and a 1934-36 Diamond Stars Hank Greenberg. There were many others that made purchases but I was hungover and can't remember them all. It was a fairly good show on the sales front though down from the past few.
On the buying front, I picked up a little pile of '50s and '60s cards that had a few stars in there. I sold the '69 Ted Williams out of this pile to Chris. I picked up some '68 baseball and a nice grouping of '72 football. I also picked up several hockey from the late '50s/early '60s. Old hockey is really tough to come by and I try and buy it on those rare occasions it comes to my table. I saw Junior today and picked up a nice pile of cards from the '60s along with a 1915 Cracker Jack card of some random player on the Cubs. I LOVE the Cracker Jack cards and rarely see them. When I win the Lottery, one of my first purchases will be a Cracker Jack set. I picked up my first Cracker Jack card, a Tris Speaker, at a show in the early 1990s and have been hooked ever since. I even researched the Cracker Jack company history because I was curious to see if the building where Cracker Jack was made in 1915 still stood. I learned that it was torn down long ago. Though a later Cracker Jack building still stands near Midway Airport. Cracker Jack is no longer an independent company and no longer made in Chicago, unfortunately. Yet it is a neat part of Chicago history.
Anyway, when the show ended today, I was hurtin'. I just don't ever go out drinking anymore. I made it home about five minutes into the Bears/Packers game. In the middle of the third quarter, the wife, kids and I went over to a neighbor's house where I did some more drinking and am feeling no pain at the moment. I'm a little afraid of tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I can get out of bed for the real job.
I also just heard some good news. Tony Schaefer helped me out and got me into the St. Louis show next Sunday. I'm looking forward to this show. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Also a good buddy of mine from law school is living in St. Louis and hopefully I can get him to come to the show. Life is good!
The crowd was a little lighter than usual today. Quite a few regulars were missing. A great deal of vintage was in the room. Rick was my first customer of the day. He picked out a nice pile of '61 Topps. I was surprised he didn't pick out more '62s. I refilled my '61 and '62 binders before the show. Rick likes high grade cards and I thought the '62 book had quite a few more than the '61 book. Dave was also an early customer today. It's been nice to see Dave regularly. I keep forgetting to ask him how his fantasy baseball season worked out. Dave brought me a blues CD/DVD today which I hope to listen to this week sometime. We also made a nice trade today where I received a '57 Topps Brooks Robinson rookie in exchange for '66 and '67 Mantles. I'm real happy with the Robinson. I've never had the rookie before. I had an opportunity to buy a really nice one a few years ago but was too cheap that day to pull the trigger and I've been regretting it ever since. Dave also picked up some '56 Topps. Chris bought quite a few '61s. Another regular picked up some '61s. My football binders got a workout today. I really need to update those books. I've been working hard on the baseball books and haven't had a chance to get to the football. I'm hoping to knock out my '63 baseball book this week with time left over before the weekend to get to my '53 Bowman football. I sold a beautiful '48 Bowman Snuffy Stirnweiss to a customer today. Another customer picked up some '53 Bowman color baseball. Though he seemed agitated over the pricing of one card which books at $20 and I had priced at $5. In my opinion the card was in fair to good condition. No creases, some corner wear. They main problem with the card is some small writing on the back in pen. The customer thought 25% of book is too high for a card with writing. I disagree. If the front of the card is decent and the writing on the back is small, I think 25% is fair, and from my 30-plus years experience selling cards, so do most of my customers because I sell a ton of cards that have some sort of writing.
I had pockets of dead time today. Last Orland show I was busy from start to finish. Will picked up some '62s. Derek picked up some '70s basketball. Tony Schaefer from Monster Cards picked up a bunch of good stuff like a '49 Bowman Roy Campanella rookie and a 1934-36 Diamond Stars Hank Greenberg. There were many others that made purchases but I was hungover and can't remember them all. It was a fairly good show on the sales front though down from the past few.
On the buying front, I picked up a little pile of '50s and '60s cards that had a few stars in there. I sold the '69 Ted Williams out of this pile to Chris. I picked up some '68 baseball and a nice grouping of '72 football. I also picked up several hockey from the late '50s/early '60s. Old hockey is really tough to come by and I try and buy it on those rare occasions it comes to my table. I saw Junior today and picked up a nice pile of cards from the '60s along with a 1915 Cracker Jack card of some random player on the Cubs. I LOVE the Cracker Jack cards and rarely see them. When I win the Lottery, one of my first purchases will be a Cracker Jack set. I picked up my first Cracker Jack card, a Tris Speaker, at a show in the early 1990s and have been hooked ever since. I even researched the Cracker Jack company history because I was curious to see if the building where Cracker Jack was made in 1915 still stood. I learned that it was torn down long ago. Though a later Cracker Jack building still stands near Midway Airport. Cracker Jack is no longer an independent company and no longer made in Chicago, unfortunately. Yet it is a neat part of Chicago history.
Anyway, when the show ended today, I was hurtin'. I just don't ever go out drinking anymore. I made it home about five minutes into the Bears/Packers game. In the middle of the third quarter, the wife, kids and I went over to a neighbor's house where I did some more drinking and am feeling no pain at the moment. I'm a little afraid of tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I can get out of bed for the real job.
I also just heard some good news. Tony Schaefer helped me out and got me into the St. Louis show next Sunday. I'm looking forward to this show. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Also a good buddy of mine from law school is living in St. Louis and hopefully I can get him to come to the show. Life is good!
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