Saturday, December 11, 2021, Rock Church, Rockford, IL
The winds were howling when I woke up this morning. I basically live in a forest where a few trees have fallen on the house over the years. So I am always wary when the winds roar.
It was scary loading my car under the trees with that wind making itself known. I knew I was going to have a tough drive out to Rockford. I was actually having a tough morning because I had a tough night falling asleep. I wanted to get on the road by 7 a.m. but didn't get going until 7:45 a.m.
I recently wrote a blog complaining about late arriving dealers at my show. Now I was going to be a late arriving dealer at another show. I hate to be a headache for the promoter when I am well aware of all the headaches involved in operating a card show.
Anyway, those winds pushed my car around during the whole ride out to Rockford. It would not have been so bad if there weren't so many trucks on the road. It sucks pulling alongside a truck that can't stay in its lane. I was worried the wind was going to slam my car up against a truck or cause a truck to crush me.
There was sleet the whole way as well making for a slippery and windy ride. I sure was happy when I pulled into the Rock Church parking lot in one piece!
There were a few other late arriving dealers. One was a real numbnut who decided to park in front of the front door sideways, taking up three parking spots and leaving me little room to open my side doors to pull out my bins of cards. There is always that one inconsiderate dealer who parks like an a-hole at every show I do.
Once inside, I saw Skip who motioned me to the tables to his right where promoter John had placed a sheet of paper with my name on it. There were a few empty tables by us due to late cancellations.
I went with a binder set up for this show which is a really quick set up and perfect for when I am running late. I was set up and ready for business in no time. After setting up, I observed that the sleet turned into full-on snow which probably kept customers away until late morning.
I made only one dollar during the first hour of the show. At least I wasn't shut out. Thankfully, more folks arrived and there were people in the room well into the afternoon. My sales weren't quite as good as last month but I can't complain.
I had two guys that purchased nice stacks of cards. One drove in from Freeport and went through ALL of my baseball binders and pulled ALL of my Cubs. The other guy was working on quite a few sets and found a great many baseball and football cards. Kevin found a bunch of 1952 Topps. Thanks Kevin! I had a few hours where there was some heavy action at my tables. I sold all sorts of stuff. I think if that morning weather would have been better I would have matched last month's sales or beaten 'em. I did pretty well for the circumstances.
On the buying front, I picked up a stack of vintage cards from Skip. Thanks Skip! Not much else which was fine because I blew a ton of cash last week at my Oak Creek show and at the Schaumburg show. I need to recover and refill the coffers.
I enjoyed being set up next to Skip and behind Nelson Rodriguez and Gary George. Tim Fritz and Tom Mularz were set up at the opposite end of the row. It is always great to hang out with these guys. I watched Gary purchase a slabbed Ernie Banks rookie, a real beauty. I also liked looking at the signed Dr. J rookie in Gary's case.
This is an excellent show with a large number of dealers and a wide variety of cards and memorabilia. I highly recommend visiting this show. Next one is January 8. John said he will have even more dealers at that one. I think I am going to go back to the display case set up for the Jan. 8 show after two months of binders. I'll have two six-foot tables at the Jan. 8 show and can fit six display cases on them. I'm going to fill them up with high end baseball cards. If anybody wants me to bring out some binders, let me know beforehand.
This was a double bill weekend with Orland on Sunday. I'll have that blog out shortly. I have another double bill weekend coming up with the Lake Station VFW on my birthday on Saturday, December 18, and Root River in Milwaukee on Sunday, December 19. I am going to do the binder thing next weekend as well. Come on out and wish me happy birthday! A cake would be nice as well.
Someone commented at the Schaumburg show that I was running myself ragged with all these shows. Au contrere mon frere! I love doing card shows. It is my thing! I have been doing it a long, long time and have no plans to slow down anytime soon. When I am not running the show, there are very few headaches and all sorts of fun. I had nothing but fun this weekend.
Also, this past year has been a banner year for buying and selling cards at card shows. I have both bought and sold more cards than ever before. My inventory of vintage cards right now is just plain silly.
As I was sitting at the Rockford show watching guys dig through my binders, I thought wouldn't it be funny if I just set up with 1972 Topps baseball and nothing else? I could probably fill eight or nine binders, several display cases with just 1972 Topps baseball along with some complete sets, random lots, maybe some quarter boxes with nothin' but '72 Topps. I think it would be kind of funny to have a whole table with nothing but '72 Topps. Anyone interested in a stack of 100 or so 1972 Topps Elliot Maddox cards? How about 200 Ron Fairly's? Maybe 75 Chris Speiers? I just need the time to organize it which is the hard part as I just don't have the time to put that together.... but it sure would be fun to spring it on you guys one day.
I really, really need to stop buying cards... or at least stop buying '72 Topps!
Below was the scene at my tables at the December 11th Rockford show most of the day. A big thank you to everyone who visited me in Rockford!
The winds were howling when I woke up this morning. I basically live in a forest where a few trees have fallen on the house over the years. So I am always wary when the winds roar.
It was scary loading my car under the trees with that wind making itself known. I knew I was going to have a tough drive out to Rockford. I was actually having a tough morning because I had a tough night falling asleep. I wanted to get on the road by 7 a.m. but didn't get going until 7:45 a.m.
I recently wrote a blog complaining about late arriving dealers at my show. Now I was going to be a late arriving dealer at another show. I hate to be a headache for the promoter when I am well aware of all the headaches involved in operating a card show.
Anyway, those winds pushed my car around during the whole ride out to Rockford. It would not have been so bad if there weren't so many trucks on the road. It sucks pulling alongside a truck that can't stay in its lane. I was worried the wind was going to slam my car up against a truck or cause a truck to crush me.
There was sleet the whole way as well making for a slippery and windy ride. I sure was happy when I pulled into the Rock Church parking lot in one piece!
There were a few other late arriving dealers. One was a real numbnut who decided to park in front of the front door sideways, taking up three parking spots and leaving me little room to open my side doors to pull out my bins of cards. There is always that one inconsiderate dealer who parks like an a-hole at every show I do.
Once inside, I saw Skip who motioned me to the tables to his right where promoter John had placed a sheet of paper with my name on it. There were a few empty tables by us due to late cancellations.
I went with a binder set up for this show which is a really quick set up and perfect for when I am running late. I was set up and ready for business in no time. After setting up, I observed that the sleet turned into full-on snow which probably kept customers away until late morning.
I made only one dollar during the first hour of the show. At least I wasn't shut out. Thankfully, more folks arrived and there were people in the room well into the afternoon. My sales weren't quite as good as last month but I can't complain.
I had two guys that purchased nice stacks of cards. One drove in from Freeport and went through ALL of my baseball binders and pulled ALL of my Cubs. The other guy was working on quite a few sets and found a great many baseball and football cards. Kevin found a bunch of 1952 Topps. Thanks Kevin! I had a few hours where there was some heavy action at my tables. I sold all sorts of stuff. I think if that morning weather would have been better I would have matched last month's sales or beaten 'em. I did pretty well for the circumstances.
On the buying front, I picked up a stack of vintage cards from Skip. Thanks Skip! Not much else which was fine because I blew a ton of cash last week at my Oak Creek show and at the Schaumburg show. I need to recover and refill the coffers.
I enjoyed being set up next to Skip and behind Nelson Rodriguez and Gary George. Tim Fritz and Tom Mularz were set up at the opposite end of the row. It is always great to hang out with these guys. I watched Gary purchase a slabbed Ernie Banks rookie, a real beauty. I also liked looking at the signed Dr. J rookie in Gary's case.
This is an excellent show with a large number of dealers and a wide variety of cards and memorabilia. I highly recommend visiting this show. Next one is January 8. John said he will have even more dealers at that one. I think I am going to go back to the display case set up for the Jan. 8 show after two months of binders. I'll have two six-foot tables at the Jan. 8 show and can fit six display cases on them. I'm going to fill them up with high end baseball cards. If anybody wants me to bring out some binders, let me know beforehand.
This was a double bill weekend with Orland on Sunday. I'll have that blog out shortly. I have another double bill weekend coming up with the Lake Station VFW on my birthday on Saturday, December 18, and Root River in Milwaukee on Sunday, December 19. I am going to do the binder thing next weekend as well. Come on out and wish me happy birthday! A cake would be nice as well.
Someone commented at the Schaumburg show that I was running myself ragged with all these shows. Au contrere mon frere! I love doing card shows. It is my thing! I have been doing it a long, long time and have no plans to slow down anytime soon. When I am not running the show, there are very few headaches and all sorts of fun. I had nothing but fun this weekend.
Also, this past year has been a banner year for buying and selling cards at card shows. I have both bought and sold more cards than ever before. My inventory of vintage cards right now is just plain silly.
As I was sitting at the Rockford show watching guys dig through my binders, I thought wouldn't it be funny if I just set up with 1972 Topps baseball and nothing else? I could probably fill eight or nine binders, several display cases with just 1972 Topps baseball along with some complete sets, random lots, maybe some quarter boxes with nothin' but '72 Topps. I think it would be kind of funny to have a whole table with nothing but '72 Topps. Anyone interested in a stack of 100 or so 1972 Topps Elliot Maddox cards? How about 200 Ron Fairly's? Maybe 75 Chris Speiers? I just need the time to organize it which is the hard part as I just don't have the time to put that together.... but it sure would be fun to spring it on you guys one day.
I really, really need to stop buying cards... or at least stop buying '72 Topps!
Below was the scene at my tables at the December 11th Rockford show most of the day. A big thank you to everyone who visited me in Rockford!
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