Saturday, November 2, 2019, Salvation Army Community Center, Oak Creek, WI
Busy, busy. I was very busy leading up to the show. Many, many calls, texts and emails. I try to get back to everybody but the closer it gets to the show, the harder it is for me… especially the night before the show. As I stated last month, there is no need to call to confirm the show. I told one dealer at the show, this show is happening come hell or high water. I will be there. If I have health issues, you'll all get to meet my wife, she'll be there for me. I can understand if you are calling to confirm if there is a blizzard or a tornado or an alien invasion, but as a general rule, this show is always on.
So I worked all day Friday at my real job. Once home, I ate dinner then napped for a little while because I was dead tired from Halloween the night before and didn’t get much sleep that night. After napping, I went to Lowe’s to purchase a table. I’m donating a table to the Sal every month. Back at home I worked on turning a Cheese Balls container into a fundraiser container. I am trying to raise funds for the purchase of jerseys for the Salvation Army’s Youth Soccer League. I big THANK YOU to everyone who donated at the show!!!
Back to Friday night. I sent out my pre-show email. Priced some cards. Loaded my car and went to sleep. I know I missed some voicemails, emails and texts. Sorry! I just can’t respond the night before the show. Please contact me earlier in the week!!
I always get a little nervous the night before the show. I try my best to get the word out each month but I always wonder if anyone is going to show up. I had a really nice response from dealers for the November show with 31 in all and we had 60 tables. I knew I’d at least have 31 people in the room.
Wow, I must be doing something right because we had a BIG crowd and people stayed well into the afternoon. I probably dropped about $300 that day on wax because attendance was so great and I wanted to make sure everyone received two free packs of cards. I haven’t received any reports of autograph pulls but quite a few folks pulled jersey cards.
Busy, busy. I was very busy leading up to the show. Many, many calls, texts and emails. I try to get back to everybody but the closer it gets to the show, the harder it is for me… especially the night before the show. As I stated last month, there is no need to call to confirm the show. I told one dealer at the show, this show is happening come hell or high water. I will be there. If I have health issues, you'll all get to meet my wife, she'll be there for me. I can understand if you are calling to confirm if there is a blizzard or a tornado or an alien invasion, but as a general rule, this show is always on.
So I worked all day Friday at my real job. Once home, I ate dinner then napped for a little while because I was dead tired from Halloween the night before and didn’t get much sleep that night. After napping, I went to Lowe’s to purchase a table. I’m donating a table to the Sal every month. Back at home I worked on turning a Cheese Balls container into a fundraiser container. I am trying to raise funds for the purchase of jerseys for the Salvation Army’s Youth Soccer League. I big THANK YOU to everyone who donated at the show!!!
Back to Friday night. I sent out my pre-show email. Priced some cards. Loaded my car and went to sleep. I know I missed some voicemails, emails and texts. Sorry! I just can’t respond the night before the show. Please contact me earlier in the week!!
I always get a little nervous the night before the show. I try my best to get the word out each month but I always wonder if anyone is going to show up. I had a really nice response from dealers for the November show with 31 in all and we had 60 tables. I knew I’d at least have 31 people in the room.
Wow, I must be doing something right because we had a BIG crowd and people stayed well into the afternoon. I probably dropped about $300 that day on wax because attendance was so great and I wanted to make sure everyone received two free packs of cards. I haven’t received any reports of autograph pulls but quite a few folks pulled jersey cards.
Speaking of the free packs, this is something I do out of the kindness of my heart. I start to wonder whether I should keep it up when I have to deal with folks that take more than two. There was a father with his two sons, the kids were 11 or 12 years old. They probably took 10 packs each. They came back a few times. I explained it is just two per customer. The father said he had twins sleeping in the car with his wife and wanted packs for them. I said okay. Then the three went on a free for all and just starting grabbing packs and stuffing them into their pockets. While their paws were all over the boxes, I told them I spend a lot of money on the packs and there needs to be enough left for everyone not just them. They did not seem to care. I think I may have to start banning people that take advantage of my good nature. My wife suggested I take their photo and create a wall of shame. I just might do that! It sucks when a few bad apples ruin a good thing.
Other than these guys, the show was excellent. I don’t have any way to measure the crowd but I think we may have had a few hundred people. All the dealers seemed pretty happy. There was great stuff in the room! I had three wax dealers of which I was steadily purchasing boxes for my giveaway. There were quite a few modern dealers selling singles. A large number of vintage dealers as well. Tim Fritz had some 1914-15 Cracker Jacks in his display case, which you don’t see that often.
There were three new dealers with some really neat memorabilia. Tom Lalasz had some great old autographed photos, Ed Sadowsky had all sorts of old Braves stuff, and Andrew Weaver blew my mind with his display that included autographs of Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Cy Young.
Needless to say, this was an awesome show. My sales were up from October and I made some really nice purchases including some 1953 Bowman football, about 150 1968 Topps baseball, and a 1964 Topps Tony LaRussa rookie and a ’64 Yaz.
As usual, I also stuffed my face at the concession stand. I downed a Polish sausage and a Brat.
All in all, this was a great show. I can’t say how pleased I am at the turn out. A lot of hard work and money goes into this show each month. It is all worth it when so many people come out. Thank you everybody!!
The next one should be great as well. Packer Hall-of-Famer Dave Robinson will be signing autographs at the December 7th show. Autographs cost $25 each and include Hall of Fame 2013 inscription. Each additional inscription is $15. A JSA Authentication is $8. Photos will be available for purchase. A $69 VIP Package includes a custom throwback jersey, autograph, inscription, and JSA authentication. Mail order prices are the same.
In the meantime, the Gonzaga show is next weekend on Sunday, November 10. Sorry, I missed the last Gonzaga show. I took the family on a little trip to Galena for the three-day weekend. I will be at Gonzaga this Sunday and am leaning toward just bringing out display cases. If anyone wants to see a particular binder, let me know and I’ll bring it out.
Have a great week, see you at Gonzaga!
Other than these guys, the show was excellent. I don’t have any way to measure the crowd but I think we may have had a few hundred people. All the dealers seemed pretty happy. There was great stuff in the room! I had three wax dealers of which I was steadily purchasing boxes for my giveaway. There were quite a few modern dealers selling singles. A large number of vintage dealers as well. Tim Fritz had some 1914-15 Cracker Jacks in his display case, which you don’t see that often.
There were three new dealers with some really neat memorabilia. Tom Lalasz had some great old autographed photos, Ed Sadowsky had all sorts of old Braves stuff, and Andrew Weaver blew my mind with his display that included autographs of Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Cy Young.
Needless to say, this was an awesome show. My sales were up from October and I made some really nice purchases including some 1953 Bowman football, about 150 1968 Topps baseball, and a 1964 Topps Tony LaRussa rookie and a ’64 Yaz.
As usual, I also stuffed my face at the concession stand. I downed a Polish sausage and a Brat.
All in all, this was a great show. I can’t say how pleased I am at the turn out. A lot of hard work and money goes into this show each month. It is all worth it when so many people come out. Thank you everybody!!
The next one should be great as well. Packer Hall-of-Famer Dave Robinson will be signing autographs at the December 7th show. Autographs cost $25 each and include Hall of Fame 2013 inscription. Each additional inscription is $15. A JSA Authentication is $8. Photos will be available for purchase. A $69 VIP Package includes a custom throwback jersey, autograph, inscription, and JSA authentication. Mail order prices are the same.
In the meantime, the Gonzaga show is next weekend on Sunday, November 10. Sorry, I missed the last Gonzaga show. I took the family on a little trip to Galena for the three-day weekend. I will be at Gonzaga this Sunday and am leaning toward just bringing out display cases. If anyone wants to see a particular binder, let me know and I’ll bring it out.
Have a great week, see you at Gonzaga!
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