Indianapolis is quickly becoming my second home. I seem to be there every other weekend. This past Saturday (May 2, 2015), I was set up at Seth Murray's La Quinta Inn show. Seth recently took over the promoting duties of this show. He said the show has been held at the La Quinta for about 15 years. The show is housed in a small room and Seth is currently negotiating a larger room in the hotel. This was my second time at the La Quinta show. Sales were a little slow on my previous visit. This time around, however, I had a surprisingly good day.
Show officially opens to the public at 8 a.m. I arrived just before 7 a.m. and saw that Seth was already set up and had five or six customers at his table. By 8 a.m., the little room was a mob scene. You could not walk through the aisles. I knew I was going to have a good day when I sold my entire 1975 Topps baseball book right away. I had quite a few vintage set builders throughout the whole day -- which is my bread and butter.
One customer purchased some 1971 Topps baseball. A customer I met a few weeks ago at the Fishers Show, purchased a bunch of hockey from the 1970's. He is also working on 1976 Topps baseball but I unfortunately did not have the binder reloaded in time for the show. I am still working on that thing. Those binders from the 1970's just take forever to reload. I should have it ready to go by this weekend.
Quite a few Cincinnati Reds fans in the room on this day. Seems like much of the conversations were focused on the state of the Reds. One customer wearing a Reds cap purchased some 1971 Topps Coins and a 1963 Topps Sandy Koufax. I broke out my newly reloaded 25-cent box and 50-cent box and both received quite a bit of action. An older customer spent the better part of the morning going through both boxes and pulled out quite a few cards. A customer on crutches purchased a bunch of 1970 Topps baseball cards. Another customer purchased a bunch of 1974 Topps.
Annoying Bob from the Fishers show was set up at La Quinta. Before the show, he promised not to go through my binders. His word is mush because he packed up around noon, announced he had to go to a little league game then spent the next hour annoying the hell out of me. He ended up buying a lot of cards but it was not worth it for me because he is such a headache. Every time we would agree on a price he would try and short-change me by four or five dollars, saying he did not have all the money. Another dealer, Wayne, said that is one of Bob's "moves." He will never give you the cash for the agreed upon price. He will always be a few bucks short. What a scumbag! I hate this guy!!
After Bob finally left, all the dealers seemed to have a story about Bob. Wayne had a good one where Bob asked him to buy a card from another dealer because Bob felt Wayne could get a better price from that particular dealer than he could. Wayne goes and purchases the card and brings it over to Bob expecting to get paid for the card. Nope! Bob asks Wayne if he could hold onto the card for a while because he did have the money for the card -- the card in which Wayne had no interest but was just purchasing as a favor to Bob! Another dealer said he once purchased a box of cards from Bob. An hour after the purchase, Bob came over to his table, gave him his money back and asked for the box. The dealer took the money, gave Bob the box and watched Bob go sell the box to someone else for more money! Out of all the shows I have ever done, Bob is the absolute worst person, be it customer or dealer, at any show. Did I say I hate this guy?
Thankfully, I had a bunch of new customers at this show who were extremely pleasant to deal with, canceling the negativity from Bob. All the other dealers, beside Bob, a really good guys. I purchased a bunch of 1972 high numbers from Walt, one of the other dealers. So I was pretty happy when I left the show with some money in my pocket and some good purchases. I ran into another dealer John Dobecke at one of the I65 rest stops. John lives in northern Indiana and has a pretty long ride as well.
On Sunday, May 3, 2015, I brought my wares over to the Wyndham Garden in Schaumburg, Illinois. I was crammed in the middle of the room with Beanie Don. It was a tight squeeze but we made it work. Attendance was up at this show which was nice to see. We had a nice late-morning rush. I sold some cards to Dave, Mort, Chuck, Randy and a few others. Thanks guys. I was hoping for a few more sales but things don't always go your way. I purchased a handful of cards as well along with some comic books to try to sell at the flea market. After the show, Willie and I feasted at Morretti's. I had the Buffalo chicken sandwich and it was very good.
Next up on Saturday, May 9, 2015, is the Smith & Gordon show at the Clarion in Milwaukee. The Smith & Gordon show has been my best and most consistent show of the year. I am expecting more of the same on Saturday. I have already received quite a few calls, texts and emails from guys planning on attending the show. We are in the smaller Rembrandt Room this time around. I just did not sell enough tables to splurge on the larger Mitchell Room, which is very pricey. I hope to finish up that 1976 binder, price some cards for my display cases and work on 1955 Topps baseball. In a perfect world, I'll get to 1956 Topps football as well. I'm looking forward to the show on Saturday. Seth is coming up from Indy to set up. We have our usual cast of dealers with some new guys sprinkled in. It should be a great show. I hope to see everyone Saturday in Milwaukee!
Show officially opens to the public at 8 a.m. I arrived just before 7 a.m. and saw that Seth was already set up and had five or six customers at his table. By 8 a.m., the little room was a mob scene. You could not walk through the aisles. I knew I was going to have a good day when I sold my entire 1975 Topps baseball book right away. I had quite a few vintage set builders throughout the whole day -- which is my bread and butter.
One customer purchased some 1971 Topps baseball. A customer I met a few weeks ago at the Fishers Show, purchased a bunch of hockey from the 1970's. He is also working on 1976 Topps baseball but I unfortunately did not have the binder reloaded in time for the show. I am still working on that thing. Those binders from the 1970's just take forever to reload. I should have it ready to go by this weekend.
Quite a few Cincinnati Reds fans in the room on this day. Seems like much of the conversations were focused on the state of the Reds. One customer wearing a Reds cap purchased some 1971 Topps Coins and a 1963 Topps Sandy Koufax. I broke out my newly reloaded 25-cent box and 50-cent box and both received quite a bit of action. An older customer spent the better part of the morning going through both boxes and pulled out quite a few cards. A customer on crutches purchased a bunch of 1970 Topps baseball cards. Another customer purchased a bunch of 1974 Topps.
Annoying Bob from the Fishers show was set up at La Quinta. Before the show, he promised not to go through my binders. His word is mush because he packed up around noon, announced he had to go to a little league game then spent the next hour annoying the hell out of me. He ended up buying a lot of cards but it was not worth it for me because he is such a headache. Every time we would agree on a price he would try and short-change me by four or five dollars, saying he did not have all the money. Another dealer, Wayne, said that is one of Bob's "moves." He will never give you the cash for the agreed upon price. He will always be a few bucks short. What a scumbag! I hate this guy!!
After Bob finally left, all the dealers seemed to have a story about Bob. Wayne had a good one where Bob asked him to buy a card from another dealer because Bob felt Wayne could get a better price from that particular dealer than he could. Wayne goes and purchases the card and brings it over to Bob expecting to get paid for the card. Nope! Bob asks Wayne if he could hold onto the card for a while because he did have the money for the card -- the card in which Wayne had no interest but was just purchasing as a favor to Bob! Another dealer said he once purchased a box of cards from Bob. An hour after the purchase, Bob came over to his table, gave him his money back and asked for the box. The dealer took the money, gave Bob the box and watched Bob go sell the box to someone else for more money! Out of all the shows I have ever done, Bob is the absolute worst person, be it customer or dealer, at any show. Did I say I hate this guy?
Thankfully, I had a bunch of new customers at this show who were extremely pleasant to deal with, canceling the negativity from Bob. All the other dealers, beside Bob, a really good guys. I purchased a bunch of 1972 high numbers from Walt, one of the other dealers. So I was pretty happy when I left the show with some money in my pocket and some good purchases. I ran into another dealer John Dobecke at one of the I65 rest stops. John lives in northern Indiana and has a pretty long ride as well.
On Sunday, May 3, 2015, I brought my wares over to the Wyndham Garden in Schaumburg, Illinois. I was crammed in the middle of the room with Beanie Don. It was a tight squeeze but we made it work. Attendance was up at this show which was nice to see. We had a nice late-morning rush. I sold some cards to Dave, Mort, Chuck, Randy and a few others. Thanks guys. I was hoping for a few more sales but things don't always go your way. I purchased a handful of cards as well along with some comic books to try to sell at the flea market. After the show, Willie and I feasted at Morretti's. I had the Buffalo chicken sandwich and it was very good.
Next up on Saturday, May 9, 2015, is the Smith & Gordon show at the Clarion in Milwaukee. The Smith & Gordon show has been my best and most consistent show of the year. I am expecting more of the same on Saturday. I have already received quite a few calls, texts and emails from guys planning on attending the show. We are in the smaller Rembrandt Room this time around. I just did not sell enough tables to splurge on the larger Mitchell Room, which is very pricey. I hope to finish up that 1976 binder, price some cards for my display cases and work on 1955 Topps baseball. In a perfect world, I'll get to 1956 Topps football as well. I'm looking forward to the show on Saturday. Seth is coming up from Indy to set up. We have our usual cast of dealers with some new guys sprinkled in. It should be a great show. I hope to see everyone Saturday in Milwaukee!
RSS Feed