This weekend's Philly Show at Valley Forge report

[Al C.risafulli]

The Plank was very, very cool - Bill was kind enough to let me look at it up close. Very nice, clean card, hand cut close to the borders.

Saw a few other nice cards as well, and had a great show. Spent some great time talking to a variety of Net54 members (including those posting in this thread - thanks for the nice comments). Got a big chunk of the Rudy Strejc Collection cards back from SGC - they look great. Spent some time talking with Dave Schrader, Hank Thomas, Kevin Keating (Hank and Kevin had the booth next to me), Jeff Toot and Chuck Blue, all very cool guys.

I also met Josh Evans for the first time Friday; given his post from last week it was nice to see him enjoying the show with his crew, who had the booth right across from mine.

My only disappointment was that the show was so busy on Saturday that I didn't really get a chance to walk the floor; by the time I started scouring dealer tables it was 2:30 today, and I just didn't really have enough time to pick through and see what everyone had. I saw a nice Carolina Brights Tris Speaker at one table and some great memorabilia at another. Chuck and Jeff's table is always filled with great stuff, and the Bagger table had a host of great prewar items, as usual.

Saw a gentleman walk into the show with a ball signed by Connie Mack that his dad obtained years and years ago at a Philadelphia event. PSA authenticated it and he was happy as a clam. Beautiful ball. Saw another gentleman reach INTO HIS WALLET and pull out eight ungraded T205s including a Cy Young. His nephew had gotten some spots of silver modeling paint onto a few of them; I stuffed those babies into Card Savers and tried not to have a stroke as I delicately explained to the guy not to put cards in his wallet EVER. AGAIN.

There were a ton of autograph seekers at the show on Saturday, which I thought was awesome. I had a blast telling kids about the stuff in my case. Kids are cool, it's not always easy for me to remember that it's a kids' hobby.

I really enjoyed the show - can't wait for the next one.

-Al