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Hello Cleve... I mean Dayton!

10/23/2011

3 Comments

 
In 1995, I rented a loft in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood to house my fledgling publishing company. The loft was in an old warehouse and each loft space in the huge building was divided by thin wood boards that went from the ground to about five feet below the tall ceiling. I made the mistake of placing the office desks up against the wall I shared with a karate studio in the adjacent loft. The karate students regularly slammed into the wall while I was trying to edit copy on my computer.

In many ways the Nutter Center sportscard show in Dayton, Ohio, reminds me of my old loft office.  The show is held in a huge gymnasium divided by canvas curtains. Today, one end of the gym had some sort of baseball game or practice going on.  Baseballs made a loud thwap sound up against the canvas throughout the show.  On the other end of the gym there was some sort of cheerleading practice. It was interesting selling cards with shouts of "defense, defense" in the background. I have to give those cheerleaders credit, they practiced for a long time and it sounded grueling. I had no idea cheerleaders worked so hard.

My drive from Chicago to Dayton was uneventful. I worked my real job on Friday then hit the road around 7 p.m. I drove about four hours and landed in Greenfield, Indiana, where I stayed at the Dollar Inn. My room cost 38 bucks and was falling apart, had a great many cigarette burns, and some friendly spiders. I made it to the Nutter Center around 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The show starts at 10 a.m. Most of the other dealers were already set up and conducting business when I arrived. Dan, the promoter of the show, is an extremely nice guy. He gave out free sodas to all the dealers, worked the crowd with a megaphone announcing giveaways, and was like an octopus around the room, checking in with all the dealers and customers.  He told me he first collected baseball cards as a kid in the mid to late 1960s. He saved them all and never knew they had any value until a friend took him to a card shop around 1990.  He said he learned about card shows from the card shop owner.  The card business was booming in the early 1990s but Dayton didn't have a Saturday show. In 1992, he decided to use his marketing background to promote Saturday shows in Dayton.  The Nutter Center had just opened up on the campus of Wright State University, his alma mater, and the university was looking to host events.  My earlier description of the Nutter Center doesn't really do it any justice.  It is a massive modern sports center. There was an ice show in the main stadium going at the same time as the card show. The Nutter Center is a really cool place.

Dan said those early shows were a madhouse with 700 or so people regularly in attendance.  Today, about 140 went through the door.  Dan announced the attendance at the end of the show.  He also holds a drawing at the end of the show for a free dealer table at a future show.  Though, to be in the drawing, dealers have to stick around until the end of the show at 3 p.m.  More than half of the dealers stuck around for the drawing.  The coolest thing about Dan is that you can tell that he loves running the show. Twenty years at the helm hasn't dampened his enthusiasm. It is really cool to see and there was a great vibe in the room because of him.   

In addition to Dan, the customers at the show are extremely kind and welcoming. I was a little astounded at the amount of people who thanked me for setting up at the show. I talked to a lot of people. I enjoyed hearing about some incredible collections. There was also a tremendous collection of inventory in the room today. Quite a bit of vintage.  A lot of dealers had both vintage and modern cards on their tables, something I don't normally see. Three dealers, including myself, were completely vintage.  One dealer in attendance, I didn't get his name, has the best selection of vintage football cards around. I've seen him before at the Sun-Times Show. He's from West Virginia and has a massive inventory of vintage football cards.  A lot of guys had binders filled with Cincinnati Reds cards on their tables.  Cincinnati is located just south of Dayton, so folks at this show are big Reds fans. I sold a lot of Reds cards and one customer even had a large REDS logo tattoo on his left bicep. Another customer wins the show tattoo award, though.  This guy was caked with tattoos. His neck was entirely covered all the way around with bright greens, yellows and reds. Which got me thinking that maybe I should get some tattoos depicting vintage baseball cards. I think a tattoo of a '54 Topps Hank Aaron rookie would look cool on my forearm.

Along with oddball tattoos, I saw some oddball items for sale on the some of the dealer tables. One guy had a table full of autographed country music CDs.  Another guy had an old record player and hundreds of unsleeved 45s on his table. That was a serious flashback.  When I was a kid in the '70s, I regularly bought 45s for a buck at Sounds Good Records near my house.  The record guy was one of the first dealers to leave today. I don't think he sold much.  Another dealer left early after the dealer set up next to me bought him out. This was a modern card transaction, which is out of my realm. Though Dave, a vintage dealer from Akron, was telling me that last weekend at a show in Columbus, he watched a guy spend over $8,000 on modern cards. Obviously there must be some sort of money or value in modern cards but I'm just not interested. Sure, it would be great to get an $8,000 sale, but I sell vintage cards because I LOVE them. If I make money, all the better, but money is not the bottom line for me. I'd rather have a vintage Mantle than a new Pujols any time. I love holding a T206 from 1909, any T206, while jersey cards from 2011 do absolutely nothing for me.  In fact, I think it's a crime that the card companies chop up jerseys and bats to place snippets in cards. These things should be preserved whole. I just can't comprehend modern cards.

Back at the show today, Jeff was one of my first customers. Even though he forgot to bring his list, he found quite a few cards at my table including a really nice '71 Topps Tony Perez, a '72 Topps Joe Morgan Traded, and a beauty '73 Willie Mays. Another customer bought quite a few '60 Topps. My '72 book also got a workout today.  I sold a few '53 Topps.  A father and son team pulled quite a few cards from my quarter binder. I think I sold all of my Frank Robinson cards from '57 through '65 when he was on the Reds.  There were quite a few oohs and aahs at my '57 Ted Kluzewski. Quite a few guys dinked through my books pulling out Reds. I had an autograph hound at my table today who told me that he started sending out cards for signatures in the early 1970s. He also regularly attended Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown and nabbed many hall of famers back then.  In addition to a discussion on autographs, we had a terrific conversation about Chicago gangsters. I have a cousin who was pals with Baby Face Nelson and went to prison for hiding John Dillinger in 1934. So I read a lot of books about gangsters looking for my cousin's name. He's in quite a few books. 

I had a steady group of people at my table most of the day. Ed was my last customer of the day and he purchased some high grade '54 Bowmans.

I made one purchase today, a real nice '63 Topps Mays. Most of the dealers at this show had their vintage cards priced much higher than I'm used to seeing at Orland Park and Gonzaga. It didn't seem like anybody was really willing to deal either. Many of the customers at my table complained about the high prices at the other tables.

I hit the road at 4 p.m. and made it home around 9:30 p.m. I really enjoyed myself at the show in Dayton today and am planning on going back soon.  Next up is Orland Park. I just finished updating my '65 binder and am going to work on '66s along with some '54 Bowman football for Sunday. I'll also have a large stack of star cards priced and ready to go. As much as I enjoyed Dayton today, I'm looking forward to the relatively short drive to Orland Park next week. It's now midnight and I'm wired from the drive and the four Mountain Dews I sucked down along the way. Maybe I'll go sort some cards...
3 Comments

There's No Place Like Home

10/16/2011

1 Comment

 
The Schaumburg show is my home base. I've been regularly setting up at this show for the past 10 years and I can count on dealers like Willie, Woj, Beanie, Gary, Ted and Corky setting up. Everyone has known each other for a long time which brings a lot of good-natured joking around at this show.  Beanie, who grew up in Milwaukee and worked at County Stadium as a young man, took the brunt of the razzing today. He's a great guy and let the constant critique of his age roll right off. One of these days he's going to strike back. Maybe he'll rearrange somebody's table while they're in the washroom or he'll turn into Don Rickles and get off some one liners about everybody's mother. I can feel it, the tables are going to turn soon.

Free entertainment aside, it was a very nice show today. Dealer Bill Nest from Milwaukee joined the fray today. I've known Bill for a few years now and have been marveling at his inventory lately. He had some real nice stuff today. I enjoyed seeing his T206 Tinker, Evers and Chance.  Beanie had some nice vintage on his table today including a '58 Topps Mantle recently acquired at a mall show in Chicago Ridge.  He said a guy was set up at that show selling off his grandfather's collection. Apparently, when the grandfather died, his family discovered his large collection of vintage cards and took them out to that mall show and essentially dumped them cheap.  This is one of the reasons I never write off any show because you never know what is going to walk in the door.  Corky has some '33 Goudeys that I always like looking at. Ted had a reprint '64 Topps Stand Ups Hank Aaron which I thought was an original at first. Willie had a nice assortment of signed vintage postcards. 

Bill started off my day just right by purchasing my Whitey Ford rookie.  I had a few new customers today. One guy was looking for Deacon Jones and purchased a few '70s football cards. Another guy purchased quite a few 1970 Topps baseball. Larry, who I believe is a forest ranger, purchased some '61 Topps baseball. Another customer working on a '78 Topps set found quite a few cards at my table. I made some nice trades with Larry B. and he also purchased my '59 Mantle All Star PSA 6. I also made some trades with Willie and picked up some autos for my collection. Click on the scan below. Another customer purchased some cards out of my discount box. There were quite a few window shoppers today who didn't pull the trigger on anything.  There was a steady crowd all day but another show where my autograph hounds were AWOL. In the end my sales were up from last month.

On the buying side, I picked up a real nice group of '74s from Junior.  I was surprised that Dave didn't have anything to show me. He has been regularly feeding me cards lately. I picked up a near set of '69 Topps baseball which I'm real pleased about.

I caught a glimpse of the stewardesses whom I thought were Japanese but was informed are Korean.  Kind of makes me want to fly to Korea. Also, another show where I didn't make it to the breakfast buffet. I picked up some munchies at the little shop in the hotel.  My granola bar looked like it was from the 1970s -- which is nice for a baseball card but I prefer to have my food prepared a little more recently.

I enjoyed all the comments I received about this blog. I think it is really cool that so many people are following this thing. It's fun for me to write it. I was also thinking it would be fun to have some guest bloggers. Anyone who would like to submit any type of blog or story relating to cards, collecting, buying and selling, send it to abrandongordon@hotmail.com and I'll post it here.

I won't be back in Schaumburg until December because I'm doing St. Louis again and the Sun Times show next month.   Next week I'm heading to Dayton, Ohio, for a show in the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State University. I've heard a lot of good things about this show and am looking forward to meeting some vintage collectors in Ohio.   I'll be spending a lot of time after work this week pricing cards and getting things ready for Ohio. More good times ahead!
1 Comment

Great Gonzaga show, Brewers & Packers win!

10/10/2011

0 Comments

 
There were at least six to eight empty dealer tables at Orland on Saturday. Four of them were filled around 10 a.m. I thought the dealers showed up late but some guys told me yesterday in Milwaukee that the Orland promoter John had moved some guys from the discounted hallway into the main room. Milwaukee autograph dealer Ralf told me that two of those empty Orland tables were his. He didn't make the show because his power went out the night before, knocking out his alarm clock.  Ralf has a real nice selection of autographs. He used to promote shows with autograph guests in Milwaukee and he has a large inventory of autographs from these old shows. I was busy all day during the show and didn't get a chance to check out his table. I like picking up an autograph or two when I see him.

Gonzaga was a full house. No empty dealer tables like Orland. I was late getting to the show and didn't finish setting up until 10:15 a.m. Dave Horshack was pretty excited about a new cake flavor at the food stand. It was a vanilla-cherry mix that looked pretty good. I ducked over to the food stand after setting up and grabbed one of those pieces of cake -- it was gooood. Ahhh cake.

Mark was absent today, he's usually at every show and is always my first customer.  Jim told me that Mark even called him during the week to make sure he was going to the show.  I had brought some non-sports for Mark because he likes oddball stuff.  When I didn't see him, I offered the non-sports to Jim, who also collects this stuff.  I'm not sure what these cards are called, they're from the early 1950s and depict automobiles.  Jim already has two sets of them. He has been asking me for cards called "Freedom War." I've picked them up in the past but haven't seen them in a while. It's tough to find non-sports at a sports card show. There also isn't any type of price guide for non-sports. To try and gauge the price of non-sports, I'll post some on eBay.  I had put some of these automobile cards up and got around a dollar a card. Hopefully I'll see Mark next month and he'll want these cards, if not, I'll put them up on eBay. Jim picked up some '53 Bowmans.

Another dealer Phil sent over a guy to my table who purchased quite a few '56 Topps. Phil's dad later bought my dime box.  Jason picked up a T206 and a large pile of '70s football. I sold a few '34 Goudeys to another customer.  Another good customer bought quite a few '62 Topps. Steve from Jim & Steve's Card Shop in Waukegan is usually at Gonzaga buying. His son bought a '58 Topps Ray Berry and a '62 Fleer Jim Otto. My table attracted quite a few set builders today. There were three or four guys burried in my binders with the their lists at all times during the show. I enjoyed talking with Bob, who is retired and is heading out to Phoenix for the winter. Tim came in from Madison and purchased quite a few cards -- thanks Tim!! I had an autograph hound purchase some cards to send out for autos. Another guy bought a '53 Bowman Leo Durocher and he said he was going to give it to Tony LaRussa later in the afternoon.  Game 1 of the NLCS began in Milwaukee later that afternoon. I wasn't sure if they guy knew LaRussa or was going to try and lean over the dugout and give him the card. Anyway, my sales were steady all day. A real good show, my sales doubled from last month.

I didn't buy anything today. Not much was brought to my table. I saw a guy pushing some '59s to Ken who sets up next to me.  Mark Smith showed me a beautiful Bob Gibson rookie that he purchased from the guy.  For some reason, the seller never offered me any cards. I think I need to put up a sign at the Gonzaga show to let people know that I buy as well as sell.  Another dealer offered me some '69 Topps football but his price was much too high.

Both dealers and customers seemed to clear out by noon. I think most everybody was going to the Brewers/Cardinals playoff game.  It took me a long time to take down my tables and load up my car. To my surprise, I was on the road by 2 p.m. I'm usually not on the road until 3 or 3:15. I caught parts of the Brewers and Packers games. Both teams won which should continue to create electricity at the Gonzaga show.  Next month Don Money will be signing autos at the Gonzaga show. It should be another great show.

Next week I'm setting up at the Fred Copp show at the Radisson Hotel in Schaumburg. I saw a great many people this weekend and hope everybody heads over to the Radisson next Sunday.  I'll have some new inventory out on my table, about a thousand or so cards priced and ready to go. Schaumburg! Woot Woot!!


0 Comments

October sunshine limits Orland Park attendance

10/8/2011

2 Comments

 
It is tough to compete against an beautiful October day in the Chicago area. Both customer and dealer attendance was down significantly today at the Orland Park show. When I first got to the Civic Center, a few guys commented that I was early.  I actually arrived the same time I normally do but all the empty dealer tables made it appear like I was early.  I few dealers showed up well after the show began, so by 11 a.m. the room didn't look so bad. Though there were still empty tables. The Orland show promoter is the only promoter I know who doesn't ask dealers to spread out to hide the empty tables. In my opinion, empty tables give the appearance that the show is dying. I don't think the Orland show is dying, but it did look that way today.  But, like I said, the weather was fantastic today and I can't blame folks for opting for outdoor activities instead of the show.

Luckily, I had a steady group of die hard set builders at my table today and my sales did not suffer. It's days like today, when wives had to be begging their husbands to take them somewhere to enjoy the nice weather or to rake the leaves, that I really appreciate my customers. I had a great time talking sports and cards with the steady group at my table today. Your purchases allow me to be a kid in a candy store and engage in this great hobby. I appreciate all the terrific people I get to hang out with each weekend at the card shows.

Rick is usually the first one at my table at Orland but he never showed up today, a rarity. But others took his place and began digging into my binders.  I worked late last night to complete the reload of my '64 binder.  Quite a few guys picked up some '64s.  I also sold quite a few '63s and '62s.  Gil purchased a large quantity of '63s and Dennis purchased a large quantity of '69s. Another good customer purchased quite a few '76s. A newer customer purchased a large quantity of '58s. I helped another customer locate a '57 Vic Power. Another good customer purchased a '34-36 Diamond Stars Stan Hack. I sold some football and '64 baseball to another customer. Will purchased some '62s. I design my table for guys building sets and I love days like today when four or five guys at a time are going through my binders with their set lists.

I also bought quite a few things.  I picked up about 400 cards from the '60s and '70s of mostly stars and semi-stars. I picked up a nice pile of St. Louis Cardinals to bring out to St. Louis next month. I purchased nearly 600 '72 Topps baseball. I bought a '62 Mays All Star from a customer.  I purchased a small pile of '52 Bowman baseball and I picked up a small pile of about 50 non-sports cards. One dealer had a '67 Seaver rookie that I would have liked to made a play for but I had spent all my cash. Another dealer had some '60 and '61 Fleers that I would have liked as well, but again, I had depleted the funds.

I am going to start reloading my '65 Topps binder this week and have it out at Schaumburg next weekend. Tomorrow, I'm off to Milwaukee for the Gonzaga show. This should be an interesting show with the Brewers on the brink of playing in the World Series for the first time in nearly 30 years.  And the Packers are just dominating the NFL this season. Also, the Badgers look like they have a hell of a football team this year.  It's a great time to be a Wisconsin sports fan and I am looking forward to another great Gonzaga show. 
2 Comments

A fine weekend in Cardinal country

10/3/2011

4 Comments

 
I have wanted to do the Two Hearts show in St. Louis for a long time. I was finally able to make it down there last weekend.  It took me five hours to drive there on Saturday afternoon. I stayed at my law school buddy Andy's place.  He lives on the third floor of an apartment complex with no elevator.  So we had to carry all my bins of cards up to his place. I sort of figured that I would be carrying the cards up some flights of stairs so I didn't bring as much stuff.

Andy took me out to Schlafly's brew pub that night. I was at Schlafly's once before about 12 years ago.  It is as good as I remember it. I think Schlafly's is the best brew pub in the country. The food, service and atmosphere is excellent.  I also really enjoyed the Schlafly's Oktoberfest beer.

I had a bad night of sleep because I was worried that my car would be towed.  There was a sign out in the parking lot that said parking was for residents only. So any time a loud car pulled into the parking lot, I jumped up to see if it was a tow truck. Though a large cup of coffee in the morning picked me up just fine and my trusty GPS brought me to the show.

Two Hearts is a really nice banquet hall.  The room seems about the same size as Orland Park or Gonzaga.  They had a bar where some customers purchased a few brewskis at a very early hour.  They also had a food concession stand with a bunch of tables.  I didn't get much of a chance to walk the room though it seemed like there were more autograph dealers than I have ever seen at a one-day show. I think there were also four or five guys selling wax.  Set up behind me was Phil Brooks, who has been setting up at the Orland shows for years. I never knew Phil was from St. Louis. I appreciate Phil's passion for modern cards but the appeal just isn't there for me. I love the old cards. On my left was my tablemates from the National, Tony and Sarah from Monster Cards. There was also a dealer I had met before at the Sun-Times show. I think his name is Ron. He's a bit of an oddball. He once got all up in my grill about the pricing of a Stan Musial card. Some other dealers stopped at my table at bought some cards. I made a trade with another dealer who has a card shop in St. Louis. He is building a '55 Topps baseball set for his son. He had a nice story on how a guy recently came into his shop with 400 or so 1967 Topps high numbers.  The '67 highs are extremely hard to come by. I've never had more than a dozen or so at one time -- 400 is an unheard of number for these cards.

Business was steady all day. It seemed like most every one was looking for Cardinal cards. One of my first customers wanted high grade vintage Cardinals. I had quite a few of the cards on his list but not in the grade he wanted. Another customer pulled a 1954 Bowman Memo Luna out of my '54 binder. He was thrilled because he had been looking for the card for more than a year.  He told me Luna played a whole two games for the Cardinals. Another customer responded, "What an asshole!"  That customer pulled quite a few '53 Topps Cardinals. A few customers cleaned out my '54 Topps binder of Cardinals.  Another customer wanted a Mike Shannon card, any year. I had just filled my '62 binder and thought he might be in there but he couldn't find him.  This guy had his son with him who looked to be two or three years old. The little boy stood up against the wall across from my tables and tossed up a baseball in the air and caught it. I thought that was pretty good for boy that young.  He also dropped the ball a few times and his father got really angry. I wasn't sure if he was actually angry at the boy or the fact he couldn't find Mike Shannon.

I had a few set builders today. There were guys pulling cards out of my '73 and '74 binders, I sold quite a few '66.  I also sold quite a few football Cardinals. I was surprised folks weren't buying any St. Louis Browns. I had a father and son team pick up a bunch of pre-war. Another pre-war collector showed me a Babe Ruth he purchased at another table.  He also had a Joe Dimaggio Louisville Slugger which I thought was really cool. I had an autograph hound purchase quite a few cards to send out for autos. Then a guy came in wearing a Cubs hat which I thought was a dangerous clothing item in Cardinal country.  Turns out I went to high school with the guy. His brother was in my class while he was in the class a year behind. He purchased my 1940 Play Ball Moe Berg. Another customer purchased a few '74 checklists then came back at the end of the show and purchased quite a few '60 Topps.  It was a real good day. I thought I would be able to get out of the room by 2 p.m. but my last customer left at 2:30 p.m. When I left the room at 3:15 p.m. there were still a few guys set up with customers at their tables. It's nice to be at a show where dealers aren't rushed out the door.

The drive home was long, about six hours. I hit some construction traffic in a few spots. I'm pretty tired as I write this up here on Monday morning.  I just may do the Two Hearts show again in November. It's a long drive, so I'm not entirely certain I want to do that again.  Next week I'm closer to home with the Orland show on Saturday and Gonzaga on Sunday.  It should be a great weekend. I should have my '63 and '64 binders reloaded by Saturday. I enjoyed St. Louis and am looking forward to more shows next weekend.  Ahh, such is the life of a vintage card vagabond. I think Pete Seager needs to write a song about me driving all over the Midwest for card shows.


Below are some pictures of the show taken with my iphone.

 
4 Comments

    Tony Gordon

    Vintage Sports Cards Addict

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