What Are Your Earliest Card Show Memories?

[Collectorsince62]

I started attending all the St. Louis shows in the early 80's, even manning a table once in a while. The instant auctions were just unbelievable. There were so many walk-in items that the auctions seemed to be non-stop. But my favorite memories were from autograph guests. Curt Flood was ushered to a seat at a signing table, but before he started signing, he found a microphone, tapped on it for attention, and proceeded to thank the crowd for supporting him during his playing days. When it was my turn to get his autograph, I noticed he was wearing a WS ring. I asked if it was from '64 or '67 and he took it off and handed it to me to get a better look. What a class act. By the way, it was his '67 ring. He told me his '64 was stolen.

My second favorite autograph experience was at a show with Johnny Mize and Rickey Henderson. I happened to be standing near them before the show started. This was early in Rickey's career, but he was already pretty brazen. Mize was talking to someone about hitting, and Henderson was hanging on every word. No interruptions, no self promotion, just listening intently. That impressed me.

[Leon]

Great stories guys!! I only started back as an adult in the mid 1990s. I wish I had gone to shows in the 70s and 80s......

[GasHouseGang]

Maybe I saw "Collectorsince62" at the first St. Louis show I attended. The first show I ever went to was the National held in St. Louis in 1982. I just remember how totally overwhelming the number of dealers was. I lived in the middle of Missouri at the time, so there weren't any baseball card shops, and the internet didn't exist, so it was all mail order or trade with friends. I remember nothing about what I bought that first trip. Probably just worked on getting singles I needed for some of the early 1970's set. I just remember being so happy to have the opportunity to buy something directly and be able to visually inspect it before purchasing it!

[ls7plus]

Best show memory, after only attending local shows for several years, was the National in Atlanta in 1992--I'll never forget how very, very VAST it was, and the outstanding array of cards and other sports related items. Fast forward to the 2009 National in Cleveland, when it appeared the National had shrunk to about one third of its former size--when I spoke to Bill Goodwin about it, his response was simply that most of the business was being done on the internet.

Now to last year's National in Chicago--IT WAS JUST AS BIG AND VIBRATING WITH VIRTUALLY THE SAME ENERGY AS THE '92 NATIONAL HAD BEEN! What an uplifting feeling re the future of the hobby!

In a somewhat related vein, just bought another coin book for study, reflecting on one international banker/coin collector's assembling a type coin collection, which was eventually sold in 2007, and the profits he made. As I recall, he purchased a 1793 half cent in mid-grade, very fine condition, Ms. Liberty facing left variation, for something in the $4,000 range, then sold it approximately five years later for over $10K. Obviously, there are a lot of type coin collectors, and thus significant demand, but one would think that this coin would have to be at least fairly rare, right? Well, the two major coin grading services had graded a total of 500 such coins! Big, big demand, relatively scarce supply = substantial value. As we watch prices go up in our own hobby, I think this is the direction we will continue to head in.

All the best,

Larry