Saturday, March 29, 2025, Sheraton Hotel, Madison, WI
Another excellent day in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. I brought out all of my baseball and football binders along with publications. I finished setting up right around the opening bell at 9 a.m. I then snuck away for a quick bathroom break before the crowd came in. Shortly after returning to my tables, I was mobbed! Totally unexpected. Folks were lining up to buy stuff. Folks were lining up to sell me stuff. It was a crazy and hectic start to the show!
Beau introduced me to Chris (thanks Beau!!) who was selling his uncle's vintage sports card collection. Chris first showed me a box of raw vintage stars from the 1950s and 1960s. Great stuff in there but priced too high. I'll take smaller margins when purchasing graded cards but not on raw cards as the price is not as definitive on a raw card, so I need much larger margins before I will make a purchase.
Chris said he priced the cards through a Ludex app. I am familiar with Ludex but am unfamiliar with their app. You don't really ever hear Ludex and vintage cards in the same sentence so I was a little suspect of Chris's pricing.
Chris said he had commons as well and went to his car to retrieve them. Next up, a younger guy had a box of cards with some stacks of vintage. I had a tough time flipping through the box as I had to help customers purchasing cards. Then all sorts of people started to butt in on the deal. Not cool! When a deal is going down, folks need to step away so I can negotiate with the seller.
I pulled out one stack from the seller's box and started to flip through it when some random guy asks if he can flip through the stack. I resp0nded with a firm "no!" and tried to explain that we were working on a deal. Butt out buddy!
Another guy asked if he could buy some of the cards after I purchase them. No, again. I have a process for pricing cards and I don't do it at the show shortly after a purchase. Actually, cards sit for a while in my card bunker before I get to pricing them.
Anyway, I made an offer on the cards but I think the seller thought he had gold and he declined my offer. I thought my offer was fair and that maybe he would come back. I guess another dealer made a better offer because he did not come back. The cards were largely 1972 Topps baseball. I have a ton of them and just am not going to make a high offer on those cards.
It was kind of frustrating trying to deal with several sellers at once with so many customers at my table needing attention as well. I probably lost some sales because I was hyper focused on the sellers.
Chris came back with a duffel bag of cards along with two large boxes. Probably around 3,000 baseball and football common cards from 1954 through 1970. I looked through most of them to get an idea of condition. There was a range of condition, as usual when buying a collection. The bulk of the cards were 1956 through 1960 baseball. There was some oddball stuff in there like Fleer baseball from 1959 through 1961 and some 1960 Leaf baseball. I made an offer and Chris and his uncle accepted. Woot!
I did not have much cash with me. Thankfully, Chris accepted a PayPal payment. I talked briefly with Chris's uncle who told me that this was his childhood collection. He said he obtained the bulk of the cards as a kid in 1958 while living in Freeport, Illinois, when his neighbor threw out a box of cards. Chris's uncle said he retrieved the box from the neighbor's garbage can and kept them all these years. Cool story!
So I was kind of dealing with Chris and the other guy with the '72s at the same time and also dealing with customers at my table. It was kind of a cluster%$#@. Once done with Chris and the '72 guy, another seller, who I met at this show last year and purchased a bunch of 1970's sets, had a stack of graded vintage stars. His pricing last year was reasonable. This time around he was way too high. He also had a 1972 set that he wanted to sell. Like I said before, I do not need any 1972s and would only be interested if they were really cheap.
I did a quick eBay search and saw the two most recent sales of '72 sets were around $5K and $2,500. Having dealt with this guy before, I knew his set was not minty and warranting a $5K price tag. He was at $2,400. I was not confident I could sell the set at $2,400 and declined.
I then dealt with some customers before talking to the next seller in line. The next guy up (they literally lined up to sell me cards at 9 a.m.!) was someone I purchased some cards from recently. Maybe last month in Madison. Sometimes all these shows and all these people blend together and I am just lost in space and time. Anyway, he had a 1957 Topps Ernie Banks SGC 1.5 that I ended up purchasing. He also had a 1966 Topps Batman card in a PSA 6. I did not really know what to offer. I kept asking him to give me a price. He wanted an offer. I hate this little game. Everyone has a price in mind. Just tell me your price! I offered 15 bucks. I didn't think these cards sold for much. The seller rejected my offer and walked away. Looking up a random Batman PSA 6 now, one sold for around $60 recently. I probably should have looked it up at the show but there was so much going on at my tables! I just wanted to be done with all these sellers and start helping my paying customers after spending quite a bit of money with Chris.
What a crazy start to the show! A few more guys came by throughout the day to sell me cards but they all seemed to have 1980's and 1990's cards. No thank you!
Then my friend Jim came by and brought me a much-needed Diet Mountain Dew. Thanks Jim!! This was probably the first Sheraton show where I was unable to go downstairs to the faux Starbucks and get a cup of coffee. I am not a morning person and desperately need caffein in the a.m.
I stuffed the boxes of cards I purchased from Chris under my tables then sat down. I am not sure what time this was but it was my first opportunity to observe the room since the show opened. Man alive! It was mobbed!!!! Huge crowd!!! Folks could barely walk through the aisles because there were so many bodies.
I realized that PSA was at the front of the room which explained why the Seacrest boys were across from me when they are normally at the front of the room. Love these guys! Man, they were incredibly busy the whole show while I had some down time after my initial rush.
Speaking of PSA, so cool to see them set up at the Madison show. I have been setting up at Wisconsin shows, all over the state, for the past 25 years and can attest that PSA has never set up in Wisconsin before today. My view of the PSA booth was largely blocked by the hoards of people attending the show but was told that there was a long line of people submitting cards to PSA today. Woot!
Hopefully PSA realizes that Wisconsin is the best place in the world for sports cards and that they return to the show soon!!!
Anyway, I sold all sorts of stuff today, including some vintage programs, Sport Magazine, Sports Illustrated and some vintage baseball digests. I was surprised the publications did so well. I am going to have to reload and bring them out again soon!
Nick from the Bridgeview show purchased some autographs. Thanks Nick! Paul, one of my best regulars at this show, found his usual stack. My regular guys building their 1956 Topps baseball sets, pulled some cards as well. Though, one of my main regular guys was missing today. Hope he is okay! You see guys every month and on the rare occasion they don't show up, you start to worry. We're all family here.
Overall, sales were down from last month but my purchases far made up for it. I realized today that I enjoy purchasing cards much more than selling cards. Selling is just a means to an end. I am like a kid in a candy store when I purchase a collection. As things slowed up at my tables, I enjoyed going through all the cards I purchased from Chris. Fun stuff!
This was a really fun show. Great vibe in the room. Though several guys complained that the venue is too small for the show. Obviously, these people have never tried to put on a show.
I can tell you from 10 years of experience that it is not easy to put on a card show. The hardest part is finding a venue that is reasonably priced and one where management does not take on an adversarial relationship.
I don't know if any larger venues are available in Madison... and if they are, what is the rental fee? I don't think dealers would be willing to pay much more than they are currently paying to set up at the Madison show. Then you have to wonder whether customers would be willing to go to a new venue that may be in another part of town.
I subscribe to the policy: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." I am fine with the way things are at this show. I like it and set up every month. Crowds don't bother me. I have always enjoyed being in a big crowd. I like the energy. I like seeing so many people have a good time.
Yet, I hear the same thing about Oak Creek. Many folks have expressed their opinion that I should move the show to a larger venue. Well, I am doing one at a larger venue and my costs are through the roof. The amount of work I have to do has doubled. I much prefer the monthly show in Oak Creek to my MegaShow in Franklin -- which is why I am only going to do a couple MegaShows a year. Oak Creek is just fine. It ain't broke! Madison is just fine. It ain't broke!
I think instead of complaining, folks should just enjoy the show. The Madison show is an excellent show. Anyone remember what we had in Madison before Beau came around? While Darren is a super great guy, his shows paled in comparison to Beau's shows. Remember that tiny little room where dealers were on top of one another? I forget the name of the hotel but it was just down the road from the Sheraton. Terrible room for a show. It was more like a closet.
Anyway, I have digressed. I had a great day in Madison. Next Madison show is on April 26.
Up next is Oak Creek on Saturday, April 5, 2025. I am way overbooked!! I had a bunch of regular dealers miss the March show so I added all sorts of new guys from the wait list. Now I have all the regulars coming back and all the new guys want to set up again! Ugh! I am probably going to have to add another row of dealers in the Game Room like I did at the end of last year. We'll see how this plays out! It is a strange situation when I hope for dealers to cancel. Fun, fun, fun!
Tables are still available for the MegaShow in Franklin, WI, on April 19. Send me an email at [email protected] if you are interested in a table. This show should be a beast! We have a huge space!! I am going to make nice and wide aisles along with giving the dealers a ton of space behind their tables. So while I am expecting a big crowd, it should not feel crowded.
A huge thank you to Beau for another great show in Madison. Also a huge thank you to everyone who bought and sold me cards. What a day!!
Below are a few more photos from my perch at the Madison show, including a photo of some of my purchases.
Another excellent day in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. I brought out all of my baseball and football binders along with publications. I finished setting up right around the opening bell at 9 a.m. I then snuck away for a quick bathroom break before the crowd came in. Shortly after returning to my tables, I was mobbed! Totally unexpected. Folks were lining up to buy stuff. Folks were lining up to sell me stuff. It was a crazy and hectic start to the show!
Beau introduced me to Chris (thanks Beau!!) who was selling his uncle's vintage sports card collection. Chris first showed me a box of raw vintage stars from the 1950s and 1960s. Great stuff in there but priced too high. I'll take smaller margins when purchasing graded cards but not on raw cards as the price is not as definitive on a raw card, so I need much larger margins before I will make a purchase.
Chris said he priced the cards through a Ludex app. I am familiar with Ludex but am unfamiliar with their app. You don't really ever hear Ludex and vintage cards in the same sentence so I was a little suspect of Chris's pricing.
Chris said he had commons as well and went to his car to retrieve them. Next up, a younger guy had a box of cards with some stacks of vintage. I had a tough time flipping through the box as I had to help customers purchasing cards. Then all sorts of people started to butt in on the deal. Not cool! When a deal is going down, folks need to step away so I can negotiate with the seller.
I pulled out one stack from the seller's box and started to flip through it when some random guy asks if he can flip through the stack. I resp0nded with a firm "no!" and tried to explain that we were working on a deal. Butt out buddy!
Another guy asked if he could buy some of the cards after I purchase them. No, again. I have a process for pricing cards and I don't do it at the show shortly after a purchase. Actually, cards sit for a while in my card bunker before I get to pricing them.
Anyway, I made an offer on the cards but I think the seller thought he had gold and he declined my offer. I thought my offer was fair and that maybe he would come back. I guess another dealer made a better offer because he did not come back. The cards were largely 1972 Topps baseball. I have a ton of them and just am not going to make a high offer on those cards.
It was kind of frustrating trying to deal with several sellers at once with so many customers at my table needing attention as well. I probably lost some sales because I was hyper focused on the sellers.
Chris came back with a duffel bag of cards along with two large boxes. Probably around 3,000 baseball and football common cards from 1954 through 1970. I looked through most of them to get an idea of condition. There was a range of condition, as usual when buying a collection. The bulk of the cards were 1956 through 1960 baseball. There was some oddball stuff in there like Fleer baseball from 1959 through 1961 and some 1960 Leaf baseball. I made an offer and Chris and his uncle accepted. Woot!
I did not have much cash with me. Thankfully, Chris accepted a PayPal payment. I talked briefly with Chris's uncle who told me that this was his childhood collection. He said he obtained the bulk of the cards as a kid in 1958 while living in Freeport, Illinois, when his neighbor threw out a box of cards. Chris's uncle said he retrieved the box from the neighbor's garbage can and kept them all these years. Cool story!
So I was kind of dealing with Chris and the other guy with the '72s at the same time and also dealing with customers at my table. It was kind of a cluster%$#@. Once done with Chris and the '72 guy, another seller, who I met at this show last year and purchased a bunch of 1970's sets, had a stack of graded vintage stars. His pricing last year was reasonable. This time around he was way too high. He also had a 1972 set that he wanted to sell. Like I said before, I do not need any 1972s and would only be interested if they were really cheap.
I did a quick eBay search and saw the two most recent sales of '72 sets were around $5K and $2,500. Having dealt with this guy before, I knew his set was not minty and warranting a $5K price tag. He was at $2,400. I was not confident I could sell the set at $2,400 and declined.
I then dealt with some customers before talking to the next seller in line. The next guy up (they literally lined up to sell me cards at 9 a.m.!) was someone I purchased some cards from recently. Maybe last month in Madison. Sometimes all these shows and all these people blend together and I am just lost in space and time. Anyway, he had a 1957 Topps Ernie Banks SGC 1.5 that I ended up purchasing. He also had a 1966 Topps Batman card in a PSA 6. I did not really know what to offer. I kept asking him to give me a price. He wanted an offer. I hate this little game. Everyone has a price in mind. Just tell me your price! I offered 15 bucks. I didn't think these cards sold for much. The seller rejected my offer and walked away. Looking up a random Batman PSA 6 now, one sold for around $60 recently. I probably should have looked it up at the show but there was so much going on at my tables! I just wanted to be done with all these sellers and start helping my paying customers after spending quite a bit of money with Chris.
What a crazy start to the show! A few more guys came by throughout the day to sell me cards but they all seemed to have 1980's and 1990's cards. No thank you!
Then my friend Jim came by and brought me a much-needed Diet Mountain Dew. Thanks Jim!! This was probably the first Sheraton show where I was unable to go downstairs to the faux Starbucks and get a cup of coffee. I am not a morning person and desperately need caffein in the a.m.
I stuffed the boxes of cards I purchased from Chris under my tables then sat down. I am not sure what time this was but it was my first opportunity to observe the room since the show opened. Man alive! It was mobbed!!!! Huge crowd!!! Folks could barely walk through the aisles because there were so many bodies.
I realized that PSA was at the front of the room which explained why the Seacrest boys were across from me when they are normally at the front of the room. Love these guys! Man, they were incredibly busy the whole show while I had some down time after my initial rush.
Speaking of PSA, so cool to see them set up at the Madison show. I have been setting up at Wisconsin shows, all over the state, for the past 25 years and can attest that PSA has never set up in Wisconsin before today. My view of the PSA booth was largely blocked by the hoards of people attending the show but was told that there was a long line of people submitting cards to PSA today. Woot!
Hopefully PSA realizes that Wisconsin is the best place in the world for sports cards and that they return to the show soon!!!
Anyway, I sold all sorts of stuff today, including some vintage programs, Sport Magazine, Sports Illustrated and some vintage baseball digests. I was surprised the publications did so well. I am going to have to reload and bring them out again soon!
Nick from the Bridgeview show purchased some autographs. Thanks Nick! Paul, one of my best regulars at this show, found his usual stack. My regular guys building their 1956 Topps baseball sets, pulled some cards as well. Though, one of my main regular guys was missing today. Hope he is okay! You see guys every month and on the rare occasion they don't show up, you start to worry. We're all family here.
Overall, sales were down from last month but my purchases far made up for it. I realized today that I enjoy purchasing cards much more than selling cards. Selling is just a means to an end. I am like a kid in a candy store when I purchase a collection. As things slowed up at my tables, I enjoyed going through all the cards I purchased from Chris. Fun stuff!
This was a really fun show. Great vibe in the room. Though several guys complained that the venue is too small for the show. Obviously, these people have never tried to put on a show.
I can tell you from 10 years of experience that it is not easy to put on a card show. The hardest part is finding a venue that is reasonably priced and one where management does not take on an adversarial relationship.
I don't know if any larger venues are available in Madison... and if they are, what is the rental fee? I don't think dealers would be willing to pay much more than they are currently paying to set up at the Madison show. Then you have to wonder whether customers would be willing to go to a new venue that may be in another part of town.
I subscribe to the policy: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." I am fine with the way things are at this show. I like it and set up every month. Crowds don't bother me. I have always enjoyed being in a big crowd. I like the energy. I like seeing so many people have a good time.
Yet, I hear the same thing about Oak Creek. Many folks have expressed their opinion that I should move the show to a larger venue. Well, I am doing one at a larger venue and my costs are through the roof. The amount of work I have to do has doubled. I much prefer the monthly show in Oak Creek to my MegaShow in Franklin -- which is why I am only going to do a couple MegaShows a year. Oak Creek is just fine. It ain't broke! Madison is just fine. It ain't broke!
I think instead of complaining, folks should just enjoy the show. The Madison show is an excellent show. Anyone remember what we had in Madison before Beau came around? While Darren is a super great guy, his shows paled in comparison to Beau's shows. Remember that tiny little room where dealers were on top of one another? I forget the name of the hotel but it was just down the road from the Sheraton. Terrible room for a show. It was more like a closet.
Anyway, I have digressed. I had a great day in Madison. Next Madison show is on April 26.
Up next is Oak Creek on Saturday, April 5, 2025. I am way overbooked!! I had a bunch of regular dealers miss the March show so I added all sorts of new guys from the wait list. Now I have all the regulars coming back and all the new guys want to set up again! Ugh! I am probably going to have to add another row of dealers in the Game Room like I did at the end of last year. We'll see how this plays out! It is a strange situation when I hope for dealers to cancel. Fun, fun, fun!
Tables are still available for the MegaShow in Franklin, WI, on April 19. Send me an email at [email protected] if you are interested in a table. This show should be a beast! We have a huge space!! I am going to make nice and wide aisles along with giving the dealers a ton of space behind their tables. So while I am expecting a big crowd, it should not feel crowded.
A huge thank you to Beau for another great show in Madison. Also a huge thank you to everyone who bought and sold me cards. What a day!!
Below are a few more photos from my perch at the Madison show, including a photo of some of my purchases.
I pulled this last photo off the Madison Card Show Facebook Page. If you look hard enough you can see my bald head in the middle of the room as I accept the much-needed Mountain Dew from Jim. Cool photo! Great show!
RSS Feed