Saturday, April 30, 2022, Sheraton Hotel, Madison, WI
I saw the tornado warnings prior to the show and was concerned. Luckily, I just dealt with some light sprinkles during my easy drive up to Madison. I think I just missed a downpour as John, from the Rockford show, told me he got stuck in it and could not see the road.
Load in was easy. I brought out three display cases, all of my baseball binders and half of my football binders. It was nice to be back after missing the March show due to the Sun-Spectacular.
The show was busy as usual, and my sales were excellent. My good friend Andy from Orlando surprised me while I was setting up. It is always great to see Andy. I was also surprised to see Rich, who drove up from the Chicago area and purchased some 1968 Topps baseball. Thanks Rich!
A customer, who said he regularly attends my Oak Creek show, purchased all of my Eddie Mathews cards. A younger collector spent most of the day at my tables pulling 1973 Topps baseball. Then an older collector purchased a nice stack of 1957 Topps baseball.
A regular customer purchased a bunch of Cubs photos from my Cubs binder. A new customer purchased a nice pile of football cards. I had brought out my 1964 Philadelphia Football stars for a customer who communicated with me through Facebook but never showed up.
I've got a regular customer who I met years ago at one of Darren's old Madison shows who purchased his usual pile of a mix between football and baseball. My guy who drove down to the Root River show last weekend pulled some more cards at this show.
I met a few customers who had to catch flights out of town after the show. One customer was heading to Los Angeles and pulled a nice pile from many different binders. Another customer was heading to Atlanta and he pulled some 1972 and 1973 Topps baseball.
An older customer purchased my 1960 Topps Nellie Fox along with a nice pile of '60 commons from my binder. A new customer purchased some 1971 Topps baseball. I had many more sales but my memory is fading. I love the Madison show. It is one of my best shows.
I had a great day on the buying front. Last month I talked with a collector named Jeff who wanted to trade some cards for some complete sets. He brought his cards to the show and, as you know, I hate to trade so I ended up purchasing two binders. One binder was filled with Philadelphia football cards and included some stars. The second binder was filled with baseball commons from 1964 to 1966, including some high numbers. Thanks Jeff!
Later, Andy advised that I go over to Tim's table and purchase his T206 Hughie Jennings. I took Andy's advice and purchased the Jennings at the end of the show.
Big crowd and the room got hot after a while. At some point the air came on and cooled things off. I was too busy to check out the second room downstairs but was told it was awfully hot in there as well. Card collectors emit quite a bit of heat. Seems like most card collectors have bad backs as well. I don't know how many times I saw guys grabbing their lower back while looking through my binders.
Rant time! Beau, the promoter, told me he had eight last-minute cancellations and one no-show. I know from experience that there is nothing worse for a card show promoter than last-minute cancellations and no-shows. Not only for the obvious reason that you lose money, but Beau could have easily filled those tables from his waiting list if he was given more time. Then you have to deal with all the angry people on your waiting list who see the empty tables and don't understand that the tables are empty from last-minute cancellations and no shows.
If you book the show, you gotta show up and set up -- period! I know life happens and sometimes cancellations are unavoidable. In those cases you have a duty to either find someone to take your spot or at the very least pay the promoter for the tables!
As I told Beau, I have resolved my cancellation and no-show issues by overbooking my show and banning repeat offenders. I think Beau is going to clamp down after this past show.
Then I got into a stupid discussion with another dealer who feels that promoters should not make any profit on their show? What? So myself and other promoters should just work our tails off on our shows and not get paid? I have no idea where this guy is coming from.
First of all, I could really care less about other promoters' profits from their shows. Why should I care? It is really none of my business and does not effect me in any way. Why is this guy concerned? My only concern when setting up at a show is whether there will be vintage collectors at the show. Funny thing is that this guy sets up at the Sun-Times-Spectacular shows. Doesn't he realize that the Spectacular promoter earns well into the six-figure profit margin for those shows? Those damn promoters who want to get paid for their work!! How dare they?
To make matters worse, this numbnut then went on to complain about certain customer's ethnicity. I have a big F U for that one. You gotta be pretty stupid to think that a customer's ethnicity has any relationship to their spending habits. We're all the same. We're huge sports fans and we are all geeks who collect sports cards. Ethnicity has got nothing to do with nothing, unless you're a racist A-Hole. This guy just sucks. Where is the mute button?
Anyway, numbnut aside, the Madison show was great as usual. I got to chat with many folks who are kind and compassionate people who make this world a better place. To those folks, I appreciate you greatly! A big thank you to everybody who purchased cards from me at the Madison show. Next Madison show is Saturday, May 28. Beau is planning on 150 tables. I can't wait!!!
In the meantime, I have a monster show planned for this Saturday, May 7, 2022, at the Salvation Army Community Center, 8853 S. Howell, in Oak Creek, WI. Not only will I have 77 dealers and 122 tables but former Packers Dorsey Levens, Craig Newsome and Shannon Clevelle will be signing autos. This is going to be fun!
I owe you another blog from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was set up on Sunday. Iowa blog coming soon.
Below are some photos from the Madison show.
I saw the tornado warnings prior to the show and was concerned. Luckily, I just dealt with some light sprinkles during my easy drive up to Madison. I think I just missed a downpour as John, from the Rockford show, told me he got stuck in it and could not see the road.
Load in was easy. I brought out three display cases, all of my baseball binders and half of my football binders. It was nice to be back after missing the March show due to the Sun-Spectacular.
The show was busy as usual, and my sales were excellent. My good friend Andy from Orlando surprised me while I was setting up. It is always great to see Andy. I was also surprised to see Rich, who drove up from the Chicago area and purchased some 1968 Topps baseball. Thanks Rich!
A customer, who said he regularly attends my Oak Creek show, purchased all of my Eddie Mathews cards. A younger collector spent most of the day at my tables pulling 1973 Topps baseball. Then an older collector purchased a nice stack of 1957 Topps baseball.
A regular customer purchased a bunch of Cubs photos from my Cubs binder. A new customer purchased a nice pile of football cards. I had brought out my 1964 Philadelphia Football stars for a customer who communicated with me through Facebook but never showed up.
I've got a regular customer who I met years ago at one of Darren's old Madison shows who purchased his usual pile of a mix between football and baseball. My guy who drove down to the Root River show last weekend pulled some more cards at this show.
I met a few customers who had to catch flights out of town after the show. One customer was heading to Los Angeles and pulled a nice pile from many different binders. Another customer was heading to Atlanta and he pulled some 1972 and 1973 Topps baseball.
An older customer purchased my 1960 Topps Nellie Fox along with a nice pile of '60 commons from my binder. A new customer purchased some 1971 Topps baseball. I had many more sales but my memory is fading. I love the Madison show. It is one of my best shows.
I had a great day on the buying front. Last month I talked with a collector named Jeff who wanted to trade some cards for some complete sets. He brought his cards to the show and, as you know, I hate to trade so I ended up purchasing two binders. One binder was filled with Philadelphia football cards and included some stars. The second binder was filled with baseball commons from 1964 to 1966, including some high numbers. Thanks Jeff!
Later, Andy advised that I go over to Tim's table and purchase his T206 Hughie Jennings. I took Andy's advice and purchased the Jennings at the end of the show.
Big crowd and the room got hot after a while. At some point the air came on and cooled things off. I was too busy to check out the second room downstairs but was told it was awfully hot in there as well. Card collectors emit quite a bit of heat. Seems like most card collectors have bad backs as well. I don't know how many times I saw guys grabbing their lower back while looking through my binders.
Rant time! Beau, the promoter, told me he had eight last-minute cancellations and one no-show. I know from experience that there is nothing worse for a card show promoter than last-minute cancellations and no-shows. Not only for the obvious reason that you lose money, but Beau could have easily filled those tables from his waiting list if he was given more time. Then you have to deal with all the angry people on your waiting list who see the empty tables and don't understand that the tables are empty from last-minute cancellations and no shows.
If you book the show, you gotta show up and set up -- period! I know life happens and sometimes cancellations are unavoidable. In those cases you have a duty to either find someone to take your spot or at the very least pay the promoter for the tables!
As I told Beau, I have resolved my cancellation and no-show issues by overbooking my show and banning repeat offenders. I think Beau is going to clamp down after this past show.
Then I got into a stupid discussion with another dealer who feels that promoters should not make any profit on their show? What? So myself and other promoters should just work our tails off on our shows and not get paid? I have no idea where this guy is coming from.
First of all, I could really care less about other promoters' profits from their shows. Why should I care? It is really none of my business and does not effect me in any way. Why is this guy concerned? My only concern when setting up at a show is whether there will be vintage collectors at the show. Funny thing is that this guy sets up at the Sun-Times-Spectacular shows. Doesn't he realize that the Spectacular promoter earns well into the six-figure profit margin for those shows? Those damn promoters who want to get paid for their work!! How dare they?
To make matters worse, this numbnut then went on to complain about certain customer's ethnicity. I have a big F U for that one. You gotta be pretty stupid to think that a customer's ethnicity has any relationship to their spending habits. We're all the same. We're huge sports fans and we are all geeks who collect sports cards. Ethnicity has got nothing to do with nothing, unless you're a racist A-Hole. This guy just sucks. Where is the mute button?
Anyway, numbnut aside, the Madison show was great as usual. I got to chat with many folks who are kind and compassionate people who make this world a better place. To those folks, I appreciate you greatly! A big thank you to everybody who purchased cards from me at the Madison show. Next Madison show is Saturday, May 28. Beau is planning on 150 tables. I can't wait!!!
In the meantime, I have a monster show planned for this Saturday, May 7, 2022, at the Salvation Army Community Center, 8853 S. Howell, in Oak Creek, WI. Not only will I have 77 dealers and 122 tables but former Packers Dorsey Levens, Craig Newsome and Shannon Clevelle will be signing autos. This is going to be fun!
I owe you another blog from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was set up on Sunday. Iowa blog coming soon.
Below are some photos from the Madison show.
Next is a sampling of my Madison pick-ups.
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