Oaks Show question and pick-ups...

[kcohen]

I just returned from the show and came away with the feeling that it has promise even though the foot traffic was indeed slow. I nonetheless did pretty well with sales. I chatted with Marco at the end and he said he's planning the next show for the second weekend in November. That should be good timing inasmuch as it's long enough after the September Hunt show but beats the December show to the punch. I also think he intends to maintain the same more modest autograph guest model with the emphasis left on cards and memorabilia. The merchandise was overwhelmingly skewed toward vintage with very little new stuff in the room.

The downside was that I was set up across from Ted Z. and had to look at him the whole show. Actually, your most enjoyable company was great to nullify the soporific effects of the slow traffic and bad weather. Always fun talking cards and politics. Was great seeing and meeting other fellow Net54ers. Nice to meet for the first time Todd BBCard1, Bill Latsko, Dan Paradis, and Judd Hamlin. As always great to chat with Dan M., Leon, Big Fish, Tony, Mike Peich, Tim Newcombe, HankPhenom, Val K. and anyone else I may be forgetting.

Lastly,I got to meet and take a photo with one of my boyhood favorites, Jim Kaat.

[JamesGallo]

You know what I find to me very funny. Baseball is played in the SUMMER and yet they are few if any summer shows. I guess everyone does other things....?

I do think the modest autograph guests with maybe 1 or 2 bigger names is the way to go. I felt the free autos at this show were far better then the free ones at other shows :-D

James G

[Leon]

I will give my more detailed update later but want to give a quick thanks to John McDaniel, Dan McKee, Teddy Z and Brian Dec. All of these guys made it even more of a special show (for me) overall. I thought the show was a lot of fun with a lot of dealers and quite a bit of pre-war. The foot traffic will no doubt pick up in the future and the large area was one of the things that might have made it look a bit lighter than it was. There were a ton of folks I got to speak with and there is no way I can recall all of them but I do appreciate everyone who came up and chatted for a while. I very well might give some more thoughts later but here are a few of the pickups.... (Walsh got a sunburn from the future of this show being so bright ).

[MGHPro]

I deal in memorabilia, but the show was good for me too. While I agree with everyone else about foot traffic being slow, the weather Saturday was pretty bad and that could of kept people away. Hopefully, dealers give the show a second (or third) chance before writing it off.
Matt

[tedzan]

DITTO......to what Dan McKee said in his post.

Customer traffic was not as expected. But then, Saturday's weather was horrendous....heavy rains and strong winds all day, which resulted
in considerable flooding in many of the surrounding areas. I'm exactly one hour away from Oaks and it took me almost 2 hours to drive home
thru this storm Saturday evening.

I was very happy with this show, I sold considerably more cards at this show than I did at the past Valley Forge shows.....nothwithstanding,
the lighter attendance at Oaks.
Furthermore, I acquired quite a few cards for my collection. And this was because....as Dan McKee said..... " dealer attendance was huge ".
In the recent Valley Forge shows, vintage dealer's presence has been "Slim Pickens".

It was great to see Meadowlark Lemon, a legendary performer from back in my High School days.

Great seeing Al Atkinson, a Jets middle linebacker (10-year career) during the Namath era. From 1960's to early 1970's, I was an avid Jets fan.
Also, rooted for the Redskins (loved Sonny Jurgensen)....but, when the Jets traded John Riggins to Washington, I became a solid Redskins fan.


Todd (bbcard1) and I were at adjacent booths. During idle times, we had a ball Talkin Baseball and trading him T206's for some of his eclectic
assortment of cards.....They included an Allen & Ginter John Ward, 1933 Goudey stars, and a Fred Clarke / Bobby Byrne upgrade for my T201
set.
And, I really made Todd's day, when I gave him a really nice deal on the elusive T206 card of Bill Dahlen (Brooklyn).


Across from me was good ole buddy, Ken Cohen. Ken always has a vast selection of vintage cards, so I was able to pick up certain cards that
I've been searching for, for quite a while.

.... and, one of our most important deals was when Ken traded me a banana for a nicer looking T206 from my "junk-box" ....

The snack food concession at Oaks could be improved. I was hungry, and Ken had a bunch of bananas. So, Ken jokingly said...."I'll trade you
a banana for a T206"....and, I said "you've got a deal" !

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that there were some interesting "walk-ins" of sorts. Something that's recently been lacking at shows.


Kudos to Marco ...... he runs a great show. I look forward to his November show in Oaks.


TED Z

[DanP]

I didn't buy a single card, but still thought the show was great. I made it a point at this show to ask each person at the booth if they were a member of N54. I met Leon, Phil G, Dan McKee, Ted Z, Ken C, James Gallo and BBCard1 (forgot his name). All great guys (except I was a little disappointed that Ted Z forgot about the "free booth discount").

I went Friday and Saturday and agree with everyone else, the attendance was not that good.

My friends son was very happy. He's a Eagle's fan (we're from CT) and also a Michael Vick fan.

What I was amazed at was that a Michael Vick autograph was $100 and even worse he didn't even look at Griffin or even say a word. Wow! Why not say "What do you think of the Eagles chances next year?" or something. I've never paid for an autograph like that, so I was shocked.

Oh well, great to meet you guys!

Dan P

[wonkaticket]

All in all a good show I thought, I agree I think traffic may have looked lighter due to the size of the venue.

I had a great time at the show always good to see other folks and meet new ones.

Had a lot of fun hanging with Dan McKee, Jim Rivera, Mike, Leon and the guys from SGC are just great. (Long live Kevin Campbell….Scott and Joe if you’re reading this..LOL.)

Also great seeing other guys like Roger, Toby, Bill Goodwin, Bill Huggins, Blair, Mike P and others.

Many highlights, also special shout out to Hank Thomas I really enjoyed talking with you.

Got quite a few things graded at the show and picked up a few neat items as well. Thanks to Leon on the T212 panel, thanks to Dan on the missing red ink Wagner and BL350.




Also saw some amazing cards, Joe D’s Matty collection was insane and saw some very cool 19th stuff from a recent find that blew me away.

One really thing that made the trip worthwhile was the T215 of Murphy that popped up thanks to Dan and Brain for the heads up and thank you to Roger for selling the card to me.



This makes 21 different Murphy’s for me its official I have a Murphy problem or one serious man crush on a dude I never met.

Cheers,

John

[greenmonster66]

John,

Love the Panel and Broadleaf Young! Sweet cards!!!