Sunday, March 11, 2012 -- My 6 year-old son Kolby has a cold and didn't sleep very well last night, thus, I didn't sleep very well. I was dragging today. I made it to Serb Hall in Milwaukee just after 8 a.m. Load in and set up went smoothly but I didn't feel good all day. I think it was the lack of sleep coupled with the diabetes. I'm having a terrible time with my eyesight right now thanks to the big "D." I had a few rough patches today but was able to tough it out. Serb promoter PJ flipped me an extra table so I had a ton of space and a real nice display today.
Things were slow going early on and I was nervous with the lack of customers in the room. Around 10 a.m. things picked up and we actually ended up having a nice crowd today. My one customer who is working on a great many sets got my day going with a nice pile of cards that included some '57 baseball, '65 baseball and '59 football. A new customer purchased some 1922 American Caramels. Another customer pulled out some '66 baseball and '70s basketball. A regular customer picked up quite a few '71s. Jason bought a pile of stuff including some '73s and a '50 Bowman Pee Wee Reese. A new customer, also named Jason, picked up some hockey and sent me a kind email after the show, which is much appreciated. Another new customer picked up some '54 Bowman football and some '68 Topps baseball. I sold some football to another customer. A regular picked up some '56 Topps baseball. Quite a few guys dinked through my binders and pulled some cards. No Mark and Jim today. Hopefully, I'll see those guys next month.
On the buying front, not much doing. One guy brought by a small binder with some '70-'71 Topps basketball and some modern football and baseball. I have a large inventory of '70-71 basketball and am not interested in modern cards so I didn't make an offer. I watched the guy shop the cards at other tables and he didn't have any takers. Nobody else brought anything by my table to sell. Another dealer Bill made a real nice buy on some '70s football including a bunch of Payton, Staubach and Bradshaw rookies. I was able to find the 15 cards I needed to complete a '77 baseball set at Bill's table.
All in all, a good day, and sales were up from the last Serb Hall show. My only real disappointment was the gas prices in Milwaukee. The price of gas in Milwaukee is almost always 20 cents cheaper than by my house in Illinois but today it was only 1 cent cheaper! I am really glad gas prices are rising just in time for me to drive to Ohio next weekend. NOT! I'm doing a show in Dayton on Saturday and Canton on Sunday. I'm skipping the Sun Times show in Rosemont, IL, this weekend. I haven't had a good Sun Times show in several years and with the expensive table fee, parking fee, crappy convention food, the show is just a loser for me. I think the only big show I'll do in Chicago is the National. I may try big shows in some other cities in the future. There is one in Pittsburgh in May that I'd like to do. I just have to convince my wife that we need to go to Pittsburgh in May. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to my weekend in Ohio. I plan on hooking up with my old roommate from college, who is a native of Dayton. I also had a real nice show last fall at the Nutter Center in Dayton and am hoping for more of the same next weekend. Canton is going to be a new show for me and it is always fun setting up at a new show. Good times planned for next weekend. I'll be sure to snap some photos next weekend and post them here.
Things were slow going early on and I was nervous with the lack of customers in the room. Around 10 a.m. things picked up and we actually ended up having a nice crowd today. My one customer who is working on a great many sets got my day going with a nice pile of cards that included some '57 baseball, '65 baseball and '59 football. A new customer purchased some 1922 American Caramels. Another customer pulled out some '66 baseball and '70s basketball. A regular customer picked up quite a few '71s. Jason bought a pile of stuff including some '73s and a '50 Bowman Pee Wee Reese. A new customer, also named Jason, picked up some hockey and sent me a kind email after the show, which is much appreciated. Another new customer picked up some '54 Bowman football and some '68 Topps baseball. I sold some football to another customer. A regular picked up some '56 Topps baseball. Quite a few guys dinked through my binders and pulled some cards. No Mark and Jim today. Hopefully, I'll see those guys next month.
On the buying front, not much doing. One guy brought by a small binder with some '70-'71 Topps basketball and some modern football and baseball. I have a large inventory of '70-71 basketball and am not interested in modern cards so I didn't make an offer. I watched the guy shop the cards at other tables and he didn't have any takers. Nobody else brought anything by my table to sell. Another dealer Bill made a real nice buy on some '70s football including a bunch of Payton, Staubach and Bradshaw rookies. I was able to find the 15 cards I needed to complete a '77 baseball set at Bill's table.
All in all, a good day, and sales were up from the last Serb Hall show. My only real disappointment was the gas prices in Milwaukee. The price of gas in Milwaukee is almost always 20 cents cheaper than by my house in Illinois but today it was only 1 cent cheaper! I am really glad gas prices are rising just in time for me to drive to Ohio next weekend. NOT! I'm doing a show in Dayton on Saturday and Canton on Sunday. I'm skipping the Sun Times show in Rosemont, IL, this weekend. I haven't had a good Sun Times show in several years and with the expensive table fee, parking fee, crappy convention food, the show is just a loser for me. I think the only big show I'll do in Chicago is the National. I may try big shows in some other cities in the future. There is one in Pittsburgh in May that I'd like to do. I just have to convince my wife that we need to go to Pittsburgh in May. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to my weekend in Ohio. I plan on hooking up with my old roommate from college, who is a native of Dayton. I also had a real nice show last fall at the Nutter Center in Dayton and am hoping for more of the same next weekend. Canton is going to be a new show for me and it is always fun setting up at a new show. Good times planned for next weekend. I'll be sure to snap some photos next weekend and post them here.
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