Saturday, March 12, 2022, Rock Church, Rockford, IL
There were three or four shows scheduled on March 12 in Wisconsin and one in Illinois and I was little worried attendance would be affected at the Rock Church show. Thankfully, we had really nice attendance, not quite as much as last month but the building had a steady flow all day long.
As a vintage dealer, I really need to pick and choose the shows I attend because most shows do not have much in the way of vintage and certainly not many vintage buyers. The Rock Church show is strong on both vintage dealers and vintage buyers, which makes it my kind of show!
John, the promoter, lined up the vintage dealers on the back wall. We called it Vintage Row. We all get along great and have a lot of fun. Also, having a lot of fun were long-time buddies Phil and Skip, who were set up near me and making fun of me the whole day. Those guys cracked me up. We had a good time.
My day was made early on when a father and son team purchased my SGC 1933 Goudey Hack Wilson and my SGC 1971 Topps Roberto Clemente. I brought out a mish-mosh of stuff because I am holding my star inventory for the upcoming Sun-Times and Strongsville shows. I brought out five complete sets and seven or eight vintage starter lots. Skip tried to walk off with the display case housing the sets! Surprisingly, I did not sell any of the sets or lots. Mike, who helps John run the show, set me up with a collector who I think is going to purchase my 1966 Topps baseball set down the road. Thanks Mike!
Then I placed out my oversized pre-War cards and Exhibits in another case and sold an Eddie Mathews Exhibit. I had one case of graded cards then three cases of my duplicate star cards. I know I sold some of the duplicate stars but can't remember exactly which cards sold. I also had space for some binders and brought out baseball from 1949 through 1966. I sold quite a few cards out of the binders. Lastly, I brought out a quarter box which got a lot of action. Thanks everybody for purchasing cards on Saturday! My sales were dramatically up from last month.
I have been bringing out different cheapy boxes lately. I have observed that there is a whole cheapy box culture. The cheapy box guys are different eggs from other buyers. For one, they spend a great deal of time in the box. I was amazed at how long some guys stood at the box. A few guys pulled out just about all of the cards and sorted them in some unknown manner. One guy came by twice and practically spent all day at the box.
I think I might have lost some sales out of my binders as they were covered with stacks of cards from the quarter box most of the day. Also, there were two or three guys going through the box at any one time and blocking the binders. Nevertheless, I think I will keep going with the cheapy box theme and bring out my 50-cent boxes next month. I need to reload those puppies as they were hit pretty good last time I brought them out.
Not much offered for purchase. I talked to a couple of guys about potential purchases down the road. Skip sold me a 1982 World Series program. I was set up next to Tim Fritz, who has the best selection of Pre-War around. I picked up a common Cracker Jack and a T205 Joe Tinker from Tim.
Not much else to report. I had a really pleasant day. The Rock Church is one of my favorite shows. A couple of guys recommended I fill up on gas nearby at Woodman's after the show before heading back toward Chicago. They said gas was $3.88 at Woodman's. Unfortunately, I do not really know my way around Rockford and could not find Woodman's. I ended up getting gas at Casey's for $4.19, still much cheaper than the gas stations by my house.
Next Rock Church show is April 9. In the meantime, I've got the Sun-Times show all next weekend in Rosemont. I am going to try and set up Thursday but not sure if I can get in because Dave reserved the tables and I think I need him to get the badges but was unable to convince him to meet me there on Thursday. We'll see how this goes. I might make a trip out there for naught on Thursday.
Next Oak Creek show is April 2nd. I get my hallway back for that show and am contacting guys on the Waiting List to fill up the extra space. If everything goes smoothly, I should have 120 tables at the April 2nd show.
Once again, I had a double bill weekend with Orland on Sunday. Orland blog coming soon.
Below are a couple of random photos I took while seated behind my tables.
There were three or four shows scheduled on March 12 in Wisconsin and one in Illinois and I was little worried attendance would be affected at the Rock Church show. Thankfully, we had really nice attendance, not quite as much as last month but the building had a steady flow all day long.
As a vintage dealer, I really need to pick and choose the shows I attend because most shows do not have much in the way of vintage and certainly not many vintage buyers. The Rock Church show is strong on both vintage dealers and vintage buyers, which makes it my kind of show!
John, the promoter, lined up the vintage dealers on the back wall. We called it Vintage Row. We all get along great and have a lot of fun. Also, having a lot of fun were long-time buddies Phil and Skip, who were set up near me and making fun of me the whole day. Those guys cracked me up. We had a good time.
My day was made early on when a father and son team purchased my SGC 1933 Goudey Hack Wilson and my SGC 1971 Topps Roberto Clemente. I brought out a mish-mosh of stuff because I am holding my star inventory for the upcoming Sun-Times and Strongsville shows. I brought out five complete sets and seven or eight vintage starter lots. Skip tried to walk off with the display case housing the sets! Surprisingly, I did not sell any of the sets or lots. Mike, who helps John run the show, set me up with a collector who I think is going to purchase my 1966 Topps baseball set down the road. Thanks Mike!
Then I placed out my oversized pre-War cards and Exhibits in another case and sold an Eddie Mathews Exhibit. I had one case of graded cards then three cases of my duplicate star cards. I know I sold some of the duplicate stars but can't remember exactly which cards sold. I also had space for some binders and brought out baseball from 1949 through 1966. I sold quite a few cards out of the binders. Lastly, I brought out a quarter box which got a lot of action. Thanks everybody for purchasing cards on Saturday! My sales were dramatically up from last month.
I have been bringing out different cheapy boxes lately. I have observed that there is a whole cheapy box culture. The cheapy box guys are different eggs from other buyers. For one, they spend a great deal of time in the box. I was amazed at how long some guys stood at the box. A few guys pulled out just about all of the cards and sorted them in some unknown manner. One guy came by twice and practically spent all day at the box.
I think I might have lost some sales out of my binders as they were covered with stacks of cards from the quarter box most of the day. Also, there were two or three guys going through the box at any one time and blocking the binders. Nevertheless, I think I will keep going with the cheapy box theme and bring out my 50-cent boxes next month. I need to reload those puppies as they were hit pretty good last time I brought them out.
Not much offered for purchase. I talked to a couple of guys about potential purchases down the road. Skip sold me a 1982 World Series program. I was set up next to Tim Fritz, who has the best selection of Pre-War around. I picked up a common Cracker Jack and a T205 Joe Tinker from Tim.
Not much else to report. I had a really pleasant day. The Rock Church is one of my favorite shows. A couple of guys recommended I fill up on gas nearby at Woodman's after the show before heading back toward Chicago. They said gas was $3.88 at Woodman's. Unfortunately, I do not really know my way around Rockford and could not find Woodman's. I ended up getting gas at Casey's for $4.19, still much cheaper than the gas stations by my house.
Next Rock Church show is April 9. In the meantime, I've got the Sun-Times show all next weekend in Rosemont. I am going to try and set up Thursday but not sure if I can get in because Dave reserved the tables and I think I need him to get the badges but was unable to convince him to meet me there on Thursday. We'll see how this goes. I might make a trip out there for naught on Thursday.
Next Oak Creek show is April 2nd. I get my hallway back for that show and am contacting guys on the Waiting List to fill up the extra space. If everything goes smoothly, I should have 120 tables at the April 2nd show.
Once again, I had a double bill weekend with Orland on Sunday. Orland blog coming soon.
Below are a couple of random photos I took while seated behind my tables.
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