October 13, 2012, Orland Park Civic Center, Orland Park, IL -- What a difference a few weeks make. Two weeks ago at Orland Park there was a capacity crowd and an overflow of dealers while today the crowd was sparse and there were empty dealer tables. Where was everybody today? This was a perfect day for a card show with lousy weather, no NFL, and the better college football games scheduled for late in the afternoon. Sometimes there is just no rhyme or reason.
Even though I can live with low turnout because I still sold some cards and had a good time, there is one thing that really gets me and I've talked about it before -- empty dealer tables. I think that the customers that made the effort to attend the show today would have had a far greater experience if all the dealer tables were filled with cards. You have dealers, like myself, that have significant inventory and can easily fill a few extra tables with cards. There's no logical reason for a customer to walk into the room and see empty tables. I think the first day of class at Oakton Community College's ever-popular class Baseball Card Show Promoting 101, students learn that tables are NEVER to be left empty. Somebody was asleep in class.
A couple more observations from today. There were several dealers in the room I don't recall seeing before. The guy set up next to me was one of those new guys and he had a table filled with Starting Line-ups. I don't think the poor guy sold a thing. There was another new guy that had a table filled with non-sports from the 1980s and 1990s. That was kind of a weird set up. I do think, however, he actually sold some things. There was a new guy in the front hall that had a bunch of rock and roll memorabilia and I just happened to catch one of the side-room regular dealers bragging to the new guy that he is the president of the fan club for the band Rush. He said it's a lot of work but he does it for free because he just loves rocking out to Rush. I was hoping that there would be one of those "I'm a cooler rock fan than you" showdowns but the new dealer didn't take the bait.
Back at my table, it was slow going early on then a nice Tom Sawyer, I mean rush, at mid-morning, then a trickle the rest of the day. A regular customer got things going by purchasing some 1962 Topps baseball commons. Another regular picked up some 1971s. One of my many great customers named Larry purchased some 1954 Bowmans, followed by a second Larry that picked up some 1951 and 1952 Bowmans.
Me and Dave made a nice cash and trade deal where I took a little cash along with a stack of 1957 Topps, including a Duke Snider, and Dave went away with a 1953 Bowman Color Stan Musial. Chris picked up some 1968 Topps baseball and some 1967 Topps football. A regular customer purchased some 1968 Topps baseball. Another regular purchased a 1962 Topps Roger Maris and a 1958 Topps Whitey Ford.
Tom picked up some 1969-79 Topps Hockey then engaged a new customer in a conversation about FedEx. Tom recently retired from FedEx after 25 years. The other guy still works at FedEx, regularly driving a truck from Chicago to Indianapolis. He said he's been at FedEx for 35 years. He had some interesting stories about the 1970s at FedEx when he used to have to pull his truck into a hangar at O'Hare airport, between two planes, and somehow avoid clipping the wings. He also said that one of his jobs was to load and unload packages from planes. There was a period in the 1970s when his boss would only hire HoneyBear cheerleaders, the former cheerleading squad for the Bears that Mike Ditka axed in the 1980s. The cheerleaders never did any work and he worked like a dog loading and unloading planes without any help.
Those two guys talked for quite a while and I moved on to help other customers. Paul grabbed my notebook and wrote that he wants to be in the blog. I should have taken a photo. Thanks Paul for your patience while I slowly reload my binders. Paul's been waiting for my 1970's binders for a while. I'm almost there. I should have 1969 reloaded shortly then I'm onto 1970. Today Paul picked up some 1974 Topps football.
Joel picked up some 1966 Topps and 1967 Topps White Sox. A regular picked up 1956 Topps baseball. Dan picked up some 1962s. Rick picked up a 1969-70 Topps Bill Bradly rookie, some other '69-70s and some 1972-73 Topps basketball. Dennis rounded out my day by purchasing a pile of Braves cards, including a 1961 Topps Warren Spahn All Star and a 1956 Topps Hank Aaron. Thanks everybody, I really appreciate the purchases!!
On the buying front, I picked up a nice lot of 1968 Topps football, a bunch of Bazooka cards from the 1960s, some 1961 Golden Press, and some TCMA cards from the 1970s and 1980s.
Luckily the rain died down for loading out and the construction-riddled 294 wasn't so bad today. It's a double-bill weekend. Tomorrow I'm setting up at the Best Western Plus, formerly the Radisson. No Bears game, so maybe some Bears die hards will come out. Next week, I'm heading back up to Milwaukee for the Serb Hall show. I should have that '69 Topps book done by then. I'll probably start work on 1967 Philadelphia football as well.
Thanks for your support everybody. I can see that there has been quite a lot of activity on my website today. I really appreciate it! Come on out to Schaumburg tomorow!!
Pictured below are my pick-ups from today.
Even though I can live with low turnout because I still sold some cards and had a good time, there is one thing that really gets me and I've talked about it before -- empty dealer tables. I think that the customers that made the effort to attend the show today would have had a far greater experience if all the dealer tables were filled with cards. You have dealers, like myself, that have significant inventory and can easily fill a few extra tables with cards. There's no logical reason for a customer to walk into the room and see empty tables. I think the first day of class at Oakton Community College's ever-popular class Baseball Card Show Promoting 101, students learn that tables are NEVER to be left empty. Somebody was asleep in class.
A couple more observations from today. There were several dealers in the room I don't recall seeing before. The guy set up next to me was one of those new guys and he had a table filled with Starting Line-ups. I don't think the poor guy sold a thing. There was another new guy that had a table filled with non-sports from the 1980s and 1990s. That was kind of a weird set up. I do think, however, he actually sold some things. There was a new guy in the front hall that had a bunch of rock and roll memorabilia and I just happened to catch one of the side-room regular dealers bragging to the new guy that he is the president of the fan club for the band Rush. He said it's a lot of work but he does it for free because he just loves rocking out to Rush. I was hoping that there would be one of those "I'm a cooler rock fan than you" showdowns but the new dealer didn't take the bait.
Back at my table, it was slow going early on then a nice Tom Sawyer, I mean rush, at mid-morning, then a trickle the rest of the day. A regular customer got things going by purchasing some 1962 Topps baseball commons. Another regular picked up some 1971s. One of my many great customers named Larry purchased some 1954 Bowmans, followed by a second Larry that picked up some 1951 and 1952 Bowmans.
Me and Dave made a nice cash and trade deal where I took a little cash along with a stack of 1957 Topps, including a Duke Snider, and Dave went away with a 1953 Bowman Color Stan Musial. Chris picked up some 1968 Topps baseball and some 1967 Topps football. A regular customer purchased some 1968 Topps baseball. Another regular purchased a 1962 Topps Roger Maris and a 1958 Topps Whitey Ford.
Tom picked up some 1969-79 Topps Hockey then engaged a new customer in a conversation about FedEx. Tom recently retired from FedEx after 25 years. The other guy still works at FedEx, regularly driving a truck from Chicago to Indianapolis. He said he's been at FedEx for 35 years. He had some interesting stories about the 1970s at FedEx when he used to have to pull his truck into a hangar at O'Hare airport, between two planes, and somehow avoid clipping the wings. He also said that one of his jobs was to load and unload packages from planes. There was a period in the 1970s when his boss would only hire HoneyBear cheerleaders, the former cheerleading squad for the Bears that Mike Ditka axed in the 1980s. The cheerleaders never did any work and he worked like a dog loading and unloading planes without any help.
Those two guys talked for quite a while and I moved on to help other customers. Paul grabbed my notebook and wrote that he wants to be in the blog. I should have taken a photo. Thanks Paul for your patience while I slowly reload my binders. Paul's been waiting for my 1970's binders for a while. I'm almost there. I should have 1969 reloaded shortly then I'm onto 1970. Today Paul picked up some 1974 Topps football.
Joel picked up some 1966 Topps and 1967 Topps White Sox. A regular picked up 1956 Topps baseball. Dan picked up some 1962s. Rick picked up a 1969-70 Topps Bill Bradly rookie, some other '69-70s and some 1972-73 Topps basketball. Dennis rounded out my day by purchasing a pile of Braves cards, including a 1961 Topps Warren Spahn All Star and a 1956 Topps Hank Aaron. Thanks everybody, I really appreciate the purchases!!
On the buying front, I picked up a nice lot of 1968 Topps football, a bunch of Bazooka cards from the 1960s, some 1961 Golden Press, and some TCMA cards from the 1970s and 1980s.
Luckily the rain died down for loading out and the construction-riddled 294 wasn't so bad today. It's a double-bill weekend. Tomorrow I'm setting up at the Best Western Plus, formerly the Radisson. No Bears game, so maybe some Bears die hards will come out. Next week, I'm heading back up to Milwaukee for the Serb Hall show. I should have that '69 Topps book done by then. I'll probably start work on 1967 Philadelphia football as well.
Thanks for your support everybody. I can see that there has been quite a lot of activity on my website today. I really appreciate it! Come on out to Schaumburg tomorow!!
Pictured below are my pick-ups from today.
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