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04-19-2015 Hey everyone, I guess I don't have a quote to kick this one off. A theme alludes me at the moment. This is just a blog about an extraordinary show (April 12 in St Louis) and life on the road...about bad hotels and the good customers who make it all worthwhile. By now, it's the following Sunday. On my to-do list from Tuesday: "blog." On my to-do list from Thursday: "blog." Sometimes actual card work gets in the way, and that definitely happened this week. Pre-show deals Well before the weekend began, I had two deals lined up to view. One of them should have been in the bag because all terms were agreed upon over e-mail. Naturally, the only scenario in which that can happen is if the cards are graded. In this case, there were (207) different 1955 Bowman baseball cards for sale. I'd viewed the list, made and offer, and after some negotiation (a couple weeks worth of e-mails actually), we settled on a price. Done and done. The only things left to do were for the other person to show up on Sunday, for me to verify all the cards were there (and that the grades were all relayed correctly), and put some cash in his hand. That all happened. And by now, some of those cards have been sold on eBay. Sorting, scanning, and listing those cards is part of what keeps blog-writing on the back burner. I'm glad you're an understanding crowd! The other deal was much more typical in that I went into it with much less certainty that I would buy it. All the cards were ungraded, and on top of that, the customer had recently tried his hand setting up at one show, and also recently had some cards graded by PSA. Those factors are both wild cards. I've had those scenarios happen with other collectors where they think they can turn into a dealer. This gentleman had a little success with his PSA cards, but a slow inaugural show, and I believe he found life on the other side of the table to be more of a drag than a path to riches. More on that in a second. I'm telling these stories out of order, as this meeting happened on Saturday, before the show. We had a little trouble deciding on a place to meet in St Louis, but then realized the parking lot of the show (Orlando Gardens) was nearly equidistant from his house and my hotel, so the day before we agreed to meet there. Easy. So slightly after noon on a gorgeous, sunny spring day, he dropped the tailgate of his truck and we chatted while he let me look through all his cards, which were still priced and organized from his recent show. After doing this for a while, I suppose there are things I can pick up on when sorting through a collection. 1) These were his cards from childhood. When the condition of the '61s is leaps and bounds better than the '57s, you know the early ones were played with and then eventually his focus moved from cards to other interests. Sure enough, he credited his mom and said he was one of a very few kids on his block who didn't have their cards thrown away. 2) He chose a bad show to set up at. I think anyone reading this knows I don't have a desire to destroy anyone who is selling me their collection. So, maybe I was showing my hand a little when occasionally would pull a card out and say, "Nobody bought this for $5?" or "Oh, I would pay $8 for this in a second." Even though he didn't tell me what he wanted for everything, I had a strong feeling this buy was going to work out when he had some cards priced at $8 that I was figuring into the deal at $20. In the end, I made an offer that it took him about 10 seconds to accept. Could I have purchased these cheaper? Probably so. But it ended up being a "peaceful, easy dealing" for both of us. The Hotel Frequent readers know I'm chronically tight-lipped when it comes to specific numbers, dollar figures, or full names of customers or dealers into these columns. I realize this can sometimes take the spice out of my stories. Sorry, but it seems like the professional way to handle things when these posts live on the internet. I'm happy to talk or write about good dealers though. Anyway, so as not to slander/libel the hotel (can't remember which is which from back in my college journalism classes), and to make a long story short, the hotel I stayed at Saturday really cheesed me off. I initially tried to check-in at noon, which is OK about 75% of the time. Not that day...rooms were still being cleaned. No big deal though. I went off on my merry way to meet the above customer, then visited a friend in town, and then grabbed some Sugarfire BBQ for a lunch/dinner combination (since my eating, sleeping, everything schedules generally are thrown off when I travel). And even though 7-11 was having a Bring-Your-Own-Container for Slurpees day, I managed to resist. Somehow my willpower overcame my desire to have a Slurpee as big as my head. While my metabolism and hairline aren't what they were in high school, I suppose my decision-making is marginally better. I got back to the hotel around 4 - well after every hotel in the world's 3PM check-in time - and there was still no clean room for Tony. Not for 40 minutes, according to the desk clerk. Piss. But at least I had food and nice weather, so I sat in my van (most people don't consider how much dealers have to guard their cards when they travel) and munched on a side dish. (I wanted a full-on desk/table to eat a BBQ sandwich at, or else I'd end up wearing half of it.) 4:45 - "Sorry, we don't have any clean rooms yet." 5:15 - I get the green light to check-in, and immediately fire off angry e-mails to the GM of the hotel and Priceline. At this point, I'm basically Rain Man. When I travel, I NEED some routine and relaxation. If not, I'll go from mild-mannered toothpick counter to full-on flipping the fuck out about not being able to watch Wapner at 3:30. This didn't end up being a short story, but the GM gave me a half-refund and I settled in with my cold sandwich. Priceline, which I've used for years and years, didn't help a bit. Shatner sucks. As a kicker, the hotel elevator was out of service when I left the next morning. Did I want to start my day lugging tubs of cards down four flights of stairs? NOPE!  (Image issues...not sure if this will be the correct orientation. Anyway, there's the proof.) The Show McDonald's makes all things right though. So I started my show day like always - large OJ and Sausage/Egg/Cheese McGriddle. Tremendous. I can't say enough good things about McDonald's. The show immediately looked different upon arrival. The promoter put the signers (Brock, Bunning, Schoendienst) in the same physical room as the show instead of in the lobby, which was cool. I think it's good to have that extra traffic and general buzz of activity around. With regard to the above '55 Bowman deal, we completed that early on. But then I began to realize something big was happening. A dealer I've done some BIG transactions with over the years swung through and bought a '58 set from me and then picked a bunch of star cards from my showcases. There was no real haggling about the price - I just told him to pick at a certain percentage off of my sticker and he went to town. Another easy deal. And now I present to you the stories of the 4 Mikes. These aren't exactly Canterbury Tales-level shit, but all fairly unique and noteworthy in their own way. Presented simply in chronological order, to the best of my memory... Mike #1 - Mike #1 is my kindred spirit...a Cubs and Koufax fan. We always have plenty to talk about between those and other subjects. At this show, he picked up several graded cards that were new to my inventory. He also had his boys with him, and again for frequent readers, you know how it warms my heart to see fathers/sons come out to shows together. At the end of the transaction part of our visit, we talked about some of the quarter cards I had at the very end of my tables. I told his boys to go ahead and grab a bunch more. The part that I really enjoyed was that I side-stepped giving an exact number of cards, and instead chose to just gesture by spreading my thumb and index finger a few inches apart and said, "Take about this many." Fantastically unspecific ... what a blast! Mike #2 - Mike #2 like high-grade stars. Unfortunately, those are getting harder and harder to come by. But this time I had a very nicely centered '64 Mays he liked. Only one obstacle: it was in a PSA 7 holder. He wanted it, but out of the holder. "No problem," I say. So for anyone within earshot, and especially for the 10-12 people at my tables, I gave an impromptu how-to on breaking cards out of PSA holders. Don't see that every day. And I didn't even have proper tools - just a swiss army knife. Later on, the same thing happened for a non-Mike customer. The culprit this time was a Maris rookie and a GAI 6 holder. While I've broken out literally 1000s or tens of thousands of PSA cards, GAI proved to be a tougher holder...softer plastic that didn't crack as easily. Good times though, and hopefully entertaining for show-goers. Mike #3 - So Mike #3 illustrates how fun it is to quickly flip cards. This happened twice on Sunday. Mike #3 had a '55 Bowman list, and I told him when he was done looking through my regular inventory that he could come behind the table and flip through the graded bunch I'd just purchased. I think he was able to find 6-8 and I came up with some reasonable prices, and away some of that deal went! The other instance of this at the show was when I purchased a couple binders of baseball and football - mostly 70s/80s rookies - from a customer. I bought these when the wholesale-y deal was going down, so that dealer was still sitting at my table looking through cards. One binder had a Payton rookie, and that dealer asked when I wanted for it. I said $100 and he said OK. So, that's the story of me owning a Payton rookie for approximately 15 seconds. Mike #4 - Mike #4 is actually another dealer who swung by toward the end of the day and we chatted as things in the room died down. nothing too novel here, but he had one line I wish I remembered...something about how I don't talk a lot. Basically, about how I don't run my mouth about too many dealers, transactions, etc., confirming what I mentioned above. Totals and aftermath From strictly a sales perspective, this show was tremendous for me. "Insane" is the specific word I kept using to tell my friends about it. Even if you completely ignore the significant part of my sales that went to the other dealer (Payton RC + '58 set + stars), I sold 3x the amount that I normally do at a strong one-day St Louis show. That's huge. So, a big thank you to everyone who came out to buy or sell. By now, my customers are familiar with me saying, "Oh, one sec, can I get the number off the back of that card?" This is so I can remove these from my eBay store and not end up selling them twice (which does happen). The sheet where I write those numbers and sales totals and miscellaneous notes down at the show was a complete cluster-f by the end of the day. Full, front and back. (Maybe I need a new system...but I'm not able to upgrade to a barcode scanner just yet.) That's usually an hour+ of spreadsheet work once I get home. Between tearing down at the show, packing, driving, unloading, and paperwork, most show days I'm up at 5:30 and rolling non-stop until 10, 11, midnight just getting the essentials done. But, no complaints (except about the hotel, which was inexcusable). After all these years, I still get excited and have a good amount of adrenaline flowing on a show day, especially when it's really rockin and busy. That's a huge difference between having a "real job" and owning my own biz. So I'm glad to be able to share a behind the scenes look at a show day/weekend. It's very fulfilling to have built a fairly successful business with a great customer base. Have fun! -T |
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