Kind of a weird day after a very weird few weeks. I was diagnosed with diabetes last week and have been heavily medicated and on a new diet and exercise plan. My meds make me feel like hell -- like I have the flu and I am drunk at the same time. So today I decided that I just can't deal with the meds and skipped 'em. The result was that I feel the best I've felt in a very long time. I'm going to monitor my blood sugar and see if I can get by without these horrible pills. Goodbye doughnuts, we had a good run, but all good things have to come to an end.
Without the meds, I was able to wake up rather easily, unlike the previous week of morning drug haze. I made it to Orland around 8 a.m., much earlier than usual. The room was sparsely populated... which was the theme for the day. Several empty dealer tables and a much smaller crowd than usual. Usually my table is mobbed while I'm setting up. Not today. My easiest set up to date.
Though, even with the empty tables, there were quite a few new dealers in the room and quite a bit of vintage. Where do these new guys come from? One guy had some old hockey, another binders of 1950s cards, and still another with a table full of singles. I find it really amazing that new vintage dealers seem to come out of the woodwork and set up at this show. The result is that the Orland Show is the best show around for collectors of vintage cards because there is always an ever-changing large inventory of cards in the room.
Back at my tables, Dave was the first guy to arrive, much to Rick's chagrin. Dave picked up my '56 Topps Luis Aparicio rookie along with some '58 Topps football. Rick picked up a variety including a '60 Topps Duke Snider, some '58 Topps football and some basketball cards. A regular picked up quite a few '70 Topps. Another regular picked up some '58 Topps football. Denny picked up some '65 Topps baseball and some '70-71 Topps basketball. Joel picked up my '55 Topps Sherman Lollar, among a pile of Sox cards from various years. A customer, who I haven't seen in a while, picked up some '71 Topps baseball. Chris picked up some '75s then the tumbleweeds rolled in. It was eerily silent at the back end of the room. Lou, the dealer across from me, along with the dealer on my left, whose name escapes me, and I just stared at each other for a while. Lou started cracking jokes at our lack of customers. Then Lou and I carried on a conversation across the aisle without any interruption. Nobody walked by, not even the dopey bald guy who works at the Civic Center. Though at one point later in the show, Uncle Fester took a group of people behind my tables and out a side door. Just before Fester Adams provided an easy opportunity for strangers to swipe stuff off my tables, the dealer on my left folded up shop and went home.
Luckily, Will and Joe showed up and and I got on a bit of a roll. Sales started to come in. Some guys dinked through my binders and pulled some cards. Will picked up a '62 Topps Koufax and Spahn along with a '61 Topps Mantle MVP. A new customer purchased some cards out of my binders then started to haggle over my '55 Topps Clemente rookie. We couldn't come to an agreement and he walked away. Willie came by and picked up my '60 Topps McCovey rookie and my '69 Topps Ernie Banks. The new customer came back and bought the Clemente. A few more sales came in and I ended up having a decent show.
On the buying front, Junior had a '60 Yaz rookie and a '67 Colavito high number that just seemed priced a bit too high for the condition and I passed. I picked up a box of early '80s Donruss baseball from Chris. Selling cards from the 1980s is tough but I seem to be able to sell early 1980s cards. My pal Chuck gave me a nice pile of '74 Topps Cubs and Sox. I picked up a '59 Banks All Star, '60 Kaline, '67 Frank Robinson, and a '63 Fleer Santo from a dealer who brought some stuff to my table. I also picked up a large pile of mid-50s baseball and early '50s football from Jim, along with a small stack of '65 Topps football tall boys.
With all my sales seemingly coming at the end of the show, I was real slow getting out of the room today. Some numb-nut, who works at the Civic Center, not Uncle Fester, shut off the lights in the room around 2:30 p.m. I really hate these Civic Center people. I was the last one out of the room today. Where's Mark Smith when you need him?
Overall, I'm pleased with the show and I always enjoy hanging out with my regular crew at the Orland show. I also felt really good after a somewhat harrowing past 10 days with the onset of diabetes. The Orland show was the first of a double-bill weekend and I will have something on the Schaumburg show shortly. All is well in the world of Fat Daddy, though a bit slimmer these days. I lost about 30 pounds over the past several months thanks to the diabetes. Doughnuts are bad. I gotta walk the doughnut gauntlet tomorrow morning when I arrive at Union Station in Downtown Chicago and walk to work passing half a dozen places where some of the world's most delicious doughnuts reside. Won't do it. NO DOUGHNUTS!!
Without the meds, I was able to wake up rather easily, unlike the previous week of morning drug haze. I made it to Orland around 8 a.m., much earlier than usual. The room was sparsely populated... which was the theme for the day. Several empty dealer tables and a much smaller crowd than usual. Usually my table is mobbed while I'm setting up. Not today. My easiest set up to date.
Though, even with the empty tables, there were quite a few new dealers in the room and quite a bit of vintage. Where do these new guys come from? One guy had some old hockey, another binders of 1950s cards, and still another with a table full of singles. I find it really amazing that new vintage dealers seem to come out of the woodwork and set up at this show. The result is that the Orland Show is the best show around for collectors of vintage cards because there is always an ever-changing large inventory of cards in the room.
Back at my tables, Dave was the first guy to arrive, much to Rick's chagrin. Dave picked up my '56 Topps Luis Aparicio rookie along with some '58 Topps football. Rick picked up a variety including a '60 Topps Duke Snider, some '58 Topps football and some basketball cards. A regular picked up quite a few '70 Topps. Another regular picked up some '58 Topps football. Denny picked up some '65 Topps baseball and some '70-71 Topps basketball. Joel picked up my '55 Topps Sherman Lollar, among a pile of Sox cards from various years. A customer, who I haven't seen in a while, picked up some '71 Topps baseball. Chris picked up some '75s then the tumbleweeds rolled in. It was eerily silent at the back end of the room. Lou, the dealer across from me, along with the dealer on my left, whose name escapes me, and I just stared at each other for a while. Lou started cracking jokes at our lack of customers. Then Lou and I carried on a conversation across the aisle without any interruption. Nobody walked by, not even the dopey bald guy who works at the Civic Center. Though at one point later in the show, Uncle Fester took a group of people behind my tables and out a side door. Just before Fester Adams provided an easy opportunity for strangers to swipe stuff off my tables, the dealer on my left folded up shop and went home.
Luckily, Will and Joe showed up and and I got on a bit of a roll. Sales started to come in. Some guys dinked through my binders and pulled some cards. Will picked up a '62 Topps Koufax and Spahn along with a '61 Topps Mantle MVP. A new customer purchased some cards out of my binders then started to haggle over my '55 Topps Clemente rookie. We couldn't come to an agreement and he walked away. Willie came by and picked up my '60 Topps McCovey rookie and my '69 Topps Ernie Banks. The new customer came back and bought the Clemente. A few more sales came in and I ended up having a decent show.
On the buying front, Junior had a '60 Yaz rookie and a '67 Colavito high number that just seemed priced a bit too high for the condition and I passed. I picked up a box of early '80s Donruss baseball from Chris. Selling cards from the 1980s is tough but I seem to be able to sell early 1980s cards. My pal Chuck gave me a nice pile of '74 Topps Cubs and Sox. I picked up a '59 Banks All Star, '60 Kaline, '67 Frank Robinson, and a '63 Fleer Santo from a dealer who brought some stuff to my table. I also picked up a large pile of mid-50s baseball and early '50s football from Jim, along with a small stack of '65 Topps football tall boys.
With all my sales seemingly coming at the end of the show, I was real slow getting out of the room today. Some numb-nut, who works at the Civic Center, not Uncle Fester, shut off the lights in the room around 2:30 p.m. I really hate these Civic Center people. I was the last one out of the room today. Where's Mark Smith when you need him?
Overall, I'm pleased with the show and I always enjoy hanging out with my regular crew at the Orland show. I also felt really good after a somewhat harrowing past 10 days with the onset of diabetes. The Orland show was the first of a double-bill weekend and I will have something on the Schaumburg show shortly. All is well in the world of Fat Daddy, though a bit slimmer these days. I lost about 30 pounds over the past several months thanks to the diabetes. Doughnuts are bad. I gotta walk the doughnut gauntlet tomorrow morning when I arrive at Union Station in Downtown Chicago and walk to work passing half a dozen places where some of the world's most delicious doughnuts reside. Won't do it. NO DOUGHNUTS!!
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