That was my rant for today. Now back to the show. One of the things unique to the Schaumburg show is that customers can come into the room at any time while at other shows customers have to wait until the show starts at say 9 a.m. I made it to Schaumburg at 8 a.m. and there was a customer in the room at 8:15 a.m. Nobody was set up. I think it would have been better to wait until 9 a.m. when everyone was set up.
Shortly after the early bird took off, the crowds came. One of the larger Schaumburg crowds I've seen in a while. I had a nice crowd at my table from 9 a.m. until noon. Uncle Morty was at the show today and picked up a 1948 Bowman basketball card. Don picked up some ABA cards from '71-72. Bill found some '63s. Larry picked up a couple of '56 Topps. Kevin pulled quite a few '70 Topps. A customer from the coin show, located in another room in the hotel today, picked up a '61 Topps Eddie Mathews. I had a second customer pull some '70 Topps. After being on the injured reserve list for quite a while from hip surgery, it was nice to see Bob today. Bob picked up my '60 Topps Al Kaline All Star. Bob is an autograph collector and he plans on sending the card to Kaline to get it signed. Another regular customer picked up some '70s basketball. My 25-cent pack guy found a bunch of packs as usual. Willie picked up a bunch of cards to send out for autographs. A bunch more guys dinked through my binders and found some cards.
On the buying front, a guy asked me if I was interested in some 1980s cards. I politely declined. A guy from the coin show came in and said to Willie, who is another dealer and an autograph expert, that he had a hockey stick signed by the 1946 Montreal Canadiens and would he like to see it. Naturally, Willie says yes and the guy replies that he will go get the stick and bring it in shortly. Later, he comes back in with a stick from 1986, not '46. Willie said Chris Chelios was on there and the autos looked legit and he valued it at $100. Willie deals in signed photos, not signed memorabilia, and passed on the stick. Another coin show dealer came in with a T205 Eddie Cicotte. He didn't have a price in mind that he wanted to sell it for and I didn't make an offer because I don't know enough about the value of the card. The card had some heavy corner wear and a surface wrinkle in the middle of the card. In the end, I picked up a nice grouping of '58s.
There was some construction going on in the hotel today which was kind of a bummer. I was hoping to have breakfast at the buffet at the hotel restaurant but it was closed today. Also, the guys who run the hotel sundry shop were closing up today for good. I have to remember to bring food and drinks to this show for now on. The Korean stewardesses were there which is always a highlight.
Overall an excellent day, my best Schaumburg show in a long while. I have a really nice string of good shows going and I hope it continues to Saturday at Orland Park. I'll be in Orland over the next two weeks. I didn't finish my '74s for Schaumburg today but should have them ready to go for Orland. I'm also hoping to have some '57 football and a pile of star cards new for my display cases.
So, I did end up watching the Super Bowl. In fact, I'm watching the Super Bowl now while I write this up and I just have to comment on what a good game it is. There is currently 3 minutes 39 seconds left and either team can still take it. So often the Super Bowl is a wash, it is nice to have a good game. I hope the new Bears GM is noticing all the good receivers in the game, hint, hint, hint. Bears fans have only been asking for some receivers for the past 10 years. Any way, a big thank you to everyone who came out today in Schaumburg and I hope to see another good crowd in Orland on Saturday.