Dealing at shows...

[Oklahawg]

Hit my first show in 1977, Rock's Dugout in Wichita, KS, sponsored it. Sales were "slow" by the era's standards (or so I learned) but there were some decent deals on cards coming through the door.

For 3-4 years every show I hit in the midwest had copious amounts of cards walking through the door to be purchased (if you were savvy enough to get around the show promoters who wanted to auction them and take a cut) at deep discounts.

You could offer a fair $$ to the seller and still turn a profit, often the same day. Its been forever since a local "mall" show had anything I cared about. And, not sure how many months since the last one was hosted here in OK.

I remember the day I saw a guy walk in to a show with 1400 uncirculated Red Man Tobacco cards, acquired from his Dad who worked in the packaging plant. You couldn't chase away the dealers with dynamite - some behaving professionally and others not so much. The guy got jittery, wound up at the local shop 2-3 times investigating his hoard.

Now? He's a collector having sold not one of those cards. First met him in 1978 - I was a first contact in the parking lot having retrieved a sandwich from the icechest in the backseat of Dad's car. He wanted $50 and I didn't have that much with me. Just imagine...