Sunday, July 15, 2012, Milwaukee, Wisc. -- Well, I didn't get much sleep the night before the show. My wife and I woke up around 1 a.m. because someone was shining a flashlight into our bedroom window. The wife got out of bed to investigate. I tried to sleep. She returned to the room and said there were people on our front lawn with flashlights. I got out of bed and when I looked out the front window, an ambulance pulled up and the paramedics got out and started walking around my backyard with flashlights. I got dressed and went out the back door and approached a paramedic holding an axe. My wife didn't think that was a wise move on my part. Luckily, the guy did not slice my head off. He told me they were searching for a missing 4 year-old boy. I asked for the boy's name, his full name. The paramedic would only tell me the boy's name was Allan and he was visiting someone in the neighborhood. He told me to search my premises. So I went back inside and looked for Allan. He wasn't in my house.
When I returned to bed, both my wife and I concluded that there is no way a 4 year-old boy would wander our neighborhood at night. My neighborhood is thickly wooded. There's all sorts of critters including coyotes. It's creepy. My own kids won't walk around at night by themselves. So I know that a random 4 year-old boy would not walk around by himself. Turns out we were right. The next day, we learned that the boy was found in his home, he's actually from the neighborhood, not a visitor, as the paramedic with the axe let on. He never left his house. He was hiding under the kitchen table. My own son often hides under the kitchen table and that would have been one of the places I would have looked before contacting authorities to wake up the whole neighborhood to conduct a massive search. Luckily, they serve coffee at the show.
Extremely nice crowd today. Much larger crowd than last month and nearly triple the size from yesterday's Orland Park show. The only problem was that these folks were not spending money at my table. I had more people standing in front of my table watching the auction than looking at my cards. I was starting to think I might do better if I set up some bleachers in front of my tables and charged for seating.
As usual, I'm being a bit overdramatic. My sales weren't that bad. Actually, sales were up from last month. I just felt that because there was such a large crowd in the room that I should have sold more cards. Anyway, my day got going with a regular customer who picked up a 1955 Bowman Eddie Waitkus. I then sold some vintage supplies to a regular customer. I don't carry supplies but folks have been asking me for stuff like top loaders for tall boys, eight-pocket sheets, four-pocket sheets and six-pocket sheets. I regularly come across this stuff and am happy to pick it up for someone in need. I'm actually debating on whether I should stock vintage supplies. There definitely seems to be a need.
Back to cards... a regular customer purchased some 1955 Bowman football but seemed to cringe when I told him the price. He only spent a few bucks and I don't discount a $3 sale. You gotta spend a little more money. Jeff picked up his usual large pile of cards. Today he purchased '56, '59, '60 and '61 Topps baseball. A new customer pulled some cards from my dime and dollar boxes. A regular customer purchased some '55 Topps baseball and some cards out of my dollar box. A regular customer picked up a bunch of Braves from my 1961 binder.
A regular customer hit my 50-cent and $1 boxes. Jason purchased some 1940 Play Ball along with some 1961 and 1978 Topps baseball. While Jason was looking through cards, his kids played under my tables. It's funny how kids like to hang out under tables. I think Allan's parents should read my blog. But I digress. A youngster purchased a 1980 Topps Robin Yount. A new customer purchased my 1975 Topps Mini Dave Winfield. Gary made a few trips to my tables and each time eyed my 1957 Topps Mickey Mantle. He eventually pulled the trigger.
A new customer purchased some 1954 Topps. A regular customer purchased cards out of my dollar box. A new customer purchased my 1933 Goudey Lefty O'Doul along with some 1959 Topps baseball commons. A regular purchased some 1973 Topps football. My main Milwaukee autograph hound pulled quite a few cards from the 1960s. We got to talking and he was telling me how his family is not very supportive of his hobby. He said that his grown kids were giving him a hard time for attending so many card shows.
"My son recently said to me, dad, how many times can you look at Smokey Burgess?"
I got a nice laugh out of that one. Actually, I don't mind looking at Smokey Burgess, it's Don Mossi that gives me the hee-bee gee-bees.
Customers were chatty today. I don't mind talking about sports and cards. I never get tired of this stuff. Since it was kind of slow at my tables, I had quite a few different conversations. One customer said I look just like Ryan Braun. He said our mannerisms are even alike. This is a new one on me, even though I regularly get compared to people on television. It's actually been a life-long affliction. When I was a kid, other kids swore I was on TV. They thought they saw me on an episode of Emergency or Adam 12. In college, people regularly said I looked like this guy or "that guy." After college, people country-wide, swore I was David Duchovny. That one was really weird. There was a two-year period or so while the X-Files was on TV where I couldn't go anywhere without someone saying I looked like David Duchovny. It happened in stores, in bars, restaurants, on the train, at parties... wherever I was at. I can't tell you how many times people flipped out, I mean they would get really excited and exclaim, "Oh my god, you look just like David Duchovny!" After a while, I started to respond, "Really, I always thought I looked like Oprah."
I've digressed terribly. The subject at hand is vintage baseball cards and I purchased some cards today. I picked up some 1953 Johnston Cookies, some 1962 Topps baseball, some 1964 Topps football, a couple of Kashin Publications cards from the 1920s and a few 1933 Goudey commons. Cool stuff. I was happy with my purchases. I turned down a 1957 Topps Hank Aaron. It looked nice but the guy wanted $200 for a $75 card.
As I said in my Orland blog, I'm heading to Canton, Ohio, next week. I really want to go to Cooperstown for Ron Santo's induction and the local card show. I could swing it. Leave for Cooperstown on Friday, spend the day there on Saturday, then set up at the Canton show on Sunday. But that is a lot of driving. I've been doing a lot of card shows lately along with working a full-time job during the week and I'm tuckered out. I'll probably end up using Friday and Saturday to price cards for the Canton show. Either way, Canton should be a good time. I shouldn't have mentioned that David Duchovny stuff, now at every show, everyone is going to comment that I look like David Duchovny. Let the madness begin!!
When I returned to bed, both my wife and I concluded that there is no way a 4 year-old boy would wander our neighborhood at night. My neighborhood is thickly wooded. There's all sorts of critters including coyotes. It's creepy. My own kids won't walk around at night by themselves. So I know that a random 4 year-old boy would not walk around by himself. Turns out we were right. The next day, we learned that the boy was found in his home, he's actually from the neighborhood, not a visitor, as the paramedic with the axe let on. He never left his house. He was hiding under the kitchen table. My own son often hides under the kitchen table and that would have been one of the places I would have looked before contacting authorities to wake up the whole neighborhood to conduct a massive search. Luckily, they serve coffee at the show.
Extremely nice crowd today. Much larger crowd than last month and nearly triple the size from yesterday's Orland Park show. The only problem was that these folks were not spending money at my table. I had more people standing in front of my table watching the auction than looking at my cards. I was starting to think I might do better if I set up some bleachers in front of my tables and charged for seating.
As usual, I'm being a bit overdramatic. My sales weren't that bad. Actually, sales were up from last month. I just felt that because there was such a large crowd in the room that I should have sold more cards. Anyway, my day got going with a regular customer who picked up a 1955 Bowman Eddie Waitkus. I then sold some vintage supplies to a regular customer. I don't carry supplies but folks have been asking me for stuff like top loaders for tall boys, eight-pocket sheets, four-pocket sheets and six-pocket sheets. I regularly come across this stuff and am happy to pick it up for someone in need. I'm actually debating on whether I should stock vintage supplies. There definitely seems to be a need.
Back to cards... a regular customer purchased some 1955 Bowman football but seemed to cringe when I told him the price. He only spent a few bucks and I don't discount a $3 sale. You gotta spend a little more money. Jeff picked up his usual large pile of cards. Today he purchased '56, '59, '60 and '61 Topps baseball. A new customer pulled some cards from my dime and dollar boxes. A regular customer purchased some '55 Topps baseball and some cards out of my dollar box. A regular customer picked up a bunch of Braves from my 1961 binder.
A regular customer hit my 50-cent and $1 boxes. Jason purchased some 1940 Play Ball along with some 1961 and 1978 Topps baseball. While Jason was looking through cards, his kids played under my tables. It's funny how kids like to hang out under tables. I think Allan's parents should read my blog. But I digress. A youngster purchased a 1980 Topps Robin Yount. A new customer purchased my 1975 Topps Mini Dave Winfield. Gary made a few trips to my tables and each time eyed my 1957 Topps Mickey Mantle. He eventually pulled the trigger.
A new customer purchased some 1954 Topps. A regular customer purchased cards out of my dollar box. A new customer purchased my 1933 Goudey Lefty O'Doul along with some 1959 Topps baseball commons. A regular purchased some 1973 Topps football. My main Milwaukee autograph hound pulled quite a few cards from the 1960s. We got to talking and he was telling me how his family is not very supportive of his hobby. He said that his grown kids were giving him a hard time for attending so many card shows.
"My son recently said to me, dad, how many times can you look at Smokey Burgess?"
I got a nice laugh out of that one. Actually, I don't mind looking at Smokey Burgess, it's Don Mossi that gives me the hee-bee gee-bees.
Customers were chatty today. I don't mind talking about sports and cards. I never get tired of this stuff. Since it was kind of slow at my tables, I had quite a few different conversations. One customer said I look just like Ryan Braun. He said our mannerisms are even alike. This is a new one on me, even though I regularly get compared to people on television. It's actually been a life-long affliction. When I was a kid, other kids swore I was on TV. They thought they saw me on an episode of Emergency or Adam 12. In college, people regularly said I looked like this guy or "that guy." After college, people country-wide, swore I was David Duchovny. That one was really weird. There was a two-year period or so while the X-Files was on TV where I couldn't go anywhere without someone saying I looked like David Duchovny. It happened in stores, in bars, restaurants, on the train, at parties... wherever I was at. I can't tell you how many times people flipped out, I mean they would get really excited and exclaim, "Oh my god, you look just like David Duchovny!" After a while, I started to respond, "Really, I always thought I looked like Oprah."
I've digressed terribly. The subject at hand is vintage baseball cards and I purchased some cards today. I picked up some 1953 Johnston Cookies, some 1962 Topps baseball, some 1964 Topps football, a couple of Kashin Publications cards from the 1920s and a few 1933 Goudey commons. Cool stuff. I was happy with my purchases. I turned down a 1957 Topps Hank Aaron. It looked nice but the guy wanted $200 for a $75 card.
As I said in my Orland blog, I'm heading to Canton, Ohio, next week. I really want to go to Cooperstown for Ron Santo's induction and the local card show. I could swing it. Leave for Cooperstown on Friday, spend the day there on Saturday, then set up at the Canton show on Sunday. But that is a lot of driving. I've been doing a lot of card shows lately along with working a full-time job during the week and I'm tuckered out. I'll probably end up using Friday and Saturday to price cards for the Canton show. Either way, Canton should be a good time. I shouldn't have mentioned that David Duchovny stuff, now at every show, everyone is going to comment that I look like David Duchovny. Let the madness begin!!
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