Sunday May 20, 2012, Serb Hall, Milwaukee, WI -- As I was loading my bins of cards into the hall around 8:15 a.m., I was greeted by my good friend Andy, who is in town visiting his mother. Andy lives in St. Louis and I stay at his place when I set up at the Two Hearts show down there. Andy grew up on the southeast side of Milwaukee, a beautiful neighborhood on the shores of Lake Michigan. We went to law school together and like to chat about folks we knew back then and our current legal careers. It's always great hanging out with Andy. If he spends any more time with me, I think I'll be able to get him to start on a '56 Topps set before long.
Small crowd today at Serb. There also seemed to be a lot less dealers. The auction wasn't much at all. I did notice a couple of new dealers like Dave Horshack. Dave usually sets up behind me at Gonzaga but I never see him at Serb. He told me he had some extra inventory he wanted to get rid of, so he came out today. Also, the guy next to me was new and had a mix of vintage and modern cards. I really liked the floor lamps he had. The lighting at Serb, like most shows, is awful. This guy had the perfect lamps to light up his tables.
I did have a few sales today. A regular picked up my 1962 Topps Johnny Logan. Another regular pulled some 74s. A regular purchased all my 1956 Topps football cards. Jeff grabbed a large stack of '54 Topps baseball and '73 Topps football. A semi-regular picked up some '77 baseball. A father and son team purchased some '52 Bowmans and a 1956 Phil Rizzuto. Another regular picked up some '72s. A regular picked up some '69 Topps football. A father with his two sons purchased all sorts of baseball, football and basketball cards. They were telling me about a local celebrity golf outing that is going to have quite a few old Packers there like Bart Starr and Lynn Dickey. They were pulling cards to get signed at the golf outing.
I noticed that the dealer across from me was doing a brisk business with bobble heads. Over the years that I've been setting up in Milwaukee, I've noticed that bobble heads are really popular. This is something that is unique to Milwaukee, at least in my experience, because I haven't really seen a whole lot of bobble heads anywhere else. Which also got me thinking that if you collect bobble heads, you have to have some serious space to display them. I'd love to see some displays!! Send me photos of your displays at [email protected]. I'll post the photos here.
The last guy at my table today asked me if I was blowing out my cards. My first thought was, why would I blow out my cards? I know the show today is kind of dead but that doesn't mean I gotta blow out my cards. I told him I'd make some deals if he spent a few hundred bucks. So he started making some low-ball offers. Thanks, but no thanks.
On the buying front -- nada, nothing, zilch. Nobody offered me any cards today and I didn't see anything on the other dealers' tables that interested me. While I had customers at my tables all day, attendance was definitely down as were sales. So goes it at Serb Hall, which is one of the shows that you never really know how it is going to go. The promoter PJ has been giving dealers an extra table these past few shows. He told me today that in order to get the extra table in the future, dealers have to contribute five items to his live auction. It seemed reasonable to me at the time but as I thought about it after the show, I don't know anything about the auction. How does the auction work? I'm guessing a part of the auction proceeds goes to the house. I'm going to have to get some more details before next show. I'm also not sure what to put in the auction. Seems like most of the stuff in the auction is absolute junk, like lots from the '80s and '90s. I don't really have that type of stuff.
This is also the last Serb Hall show until August. Even though sales and attendance were down today, I'd still set up if PJ had shows in June and July. I've got some regulars that make the show worth my while. So now I have to scramble to find shows to replace Serb. I'm also not sure if I want to set up at the August show when there are going to be two months without a show. I think skipping two months puts this show on the backburner for customers. Collectors are just going to forget about it. PJ did the same thing last year and I skipped the August show. I talked to a couple of dealers who went and they told me it was a disaster. So I probably won't go back to Serb until September.
Next week I'm heading to the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, Illinois. I'm finishing up some '76-77 hockey for the show and plan to load up some '54 Bowman baseball as well. I've noticed that I've got 100 to 200 people checking out my website each and every day and I'd love to see everybody come out to Bloomingdale next Sunday. If you're a dealer, call up the promoter Fred Copp and reserve some tables. He's the easiest promoter to deal with and his table fee is more than reasonable. If you're a collector, come on out and check out some great cards!! Let's fill up the Indian Lakes Resort on Sunday!!!
Small crowd today at Serb. There also seemed to be a lot less dealers. The auction wasn't much at all. I did notice a couple of new dealers like Dave Horshack. Dave usually sets up behind me at Gonzaga but I never see him at Serb. He told me he had some extra inventory he wanted to get rid of, so he came out today. Also, the guy next to me was new and had a mix of vintage and modern cards. I really liked the floor lamps he had. The lighting at Serb, like most shows, is awful. This guy had the perfect lamps to light up his tables.
I did have a few sales today. A regular picked up my 1962 Topps Johnny Logan. Another regular pulled some 74s. A regular purchased all my 1956 Topps football cards. Jeff grabbed a large stack of '54 Topps baseball and '73 Topps football. A semi-regular picked up some '77 baseball. A father and son team purchased some '52 Bowmans and a 1956 Phil Rizzuto. Another regular picked up some '72s. A regular picked up some '69 Topps football. A father with his two sons purchased all sorts of baseball, football and basketball cards. They were telling me about a local celebrity golf outing that is going to have quite a few old Packers there like Bart Starr and Lynn Dickey. They were pulling cards to get signed at the golf outing.
I noticed that the dealer across from me was doing a brisk business with bobble heads. Over the years that I've been setting up in Milwaukee, I've noticed that bobble heads are really popular. This is something that is unique to Milwaukee, at least in my experience, because I haven't really seen a whole lot of bobble heads anywhere else. Which also got me thinking that if you collect bobble heads, you have to have some serious space to display them. I'd love to see some displays!! Send me photos of your displays at [email protected]. I'll post the photos here.
The last guy at my table today asked me if I was blowing out my cards. My first thought was, why would I blow out my cards? I know the show today is kind of dead but that doesn't mean I gotta blow out my cards. I told him I'd make some deals if he spent a few hundred bucks. So he started making some low-ball offers. Thanks, but no thanks.
On the buying front -- nada, nothing, zilch. Nobody offered me any cards today and I didn't see anything on the other dealers' tables that interested me. While I had customers at my tables all day, attendance was definitely down as were sales. So goes it at Serb Hall, which is one of the shows that you never really know how it is going to go. The promoter PJ has been giving dealers an extra table these past few shows. He told me today that in order to get the extra table in the future, dealers have to contribute five items to his live auction. It seemed reasonable to me at the time but as I thought about it after the show, I don't know anything about the auction. How does the auction work? I'm guessing a part of the auction proceeds goes to the house. I'm going to have to get some more details before next show. I'm also not sure what to put in the auction. Seems like most of the stuff in the auction is absolute junk, like lots from the '80s and '90s. I don't really have that type of stuff.
This is also the last Serb Hall show until August. Even though sales and attendance were down today, I'd still set up if PJ had shows in June and July. I've got some regulars that make the show worth my while. So now I have to scramble to find shows to replace Serb. I'm also not sure if I want to set up at the August show when there are going to be two months without a show. I think skipping two months puts this show on the backburner for customers. Collectors are just going to forget about it. PJ did the same thing last year and I skipped the August show. I talked to a couple of dealers who went and they told me it was a disaster. So I probably won't go back to Serb until September.
Next week I'm heading to the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, Illinois. I'm finishing up some '76-77 hockey for the show and plan to load up some '54 Bowman baseball as well. I've noticed that I've got 100 to 200 people checking out my website each and every day and I'd love to see everybody come out to Bloomingdale next Sunday. If you're a dealer, call up the promoter Fred Copp and reserve some tables. He's the easiest promoter to deal with and his table fee is more than reasonable. If you're a collector, come on out and check out some great cards!! Let's fill up the Indian Lakes Resort on Sunday!!!
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