Oaks Show question and pick-ups...

[JLange]

I attended Sunday and it was very different from a Philly show indeed. The foot traffic seemed lighter than I am used to seeing, but instead of dealers grousing or complaining to me a customer (as I have had happen countless times before at other shows) dealers instead went out of their way to chat and learn more about my interests. I talked more about baseball and cards than I have for a long time. I even had some folks ask me what I knew about some of the cards and pins that they were offering, so they could better serve ANOTHER customer (which I felt was a positive). I regret not meeting folks like I had hoped (maybe next time, Leon!) but I will come back and I will tell my friends to go. Now, I sure hope the dealers come back because that would be my major worry if it was indeed lightly attended and if they did poorly.

[tlwise12]

Did anyone notice any Zeenuts, Negro League stuff, or Cuban stuff???

[JamesGallo]

This show was pretty slow. There really seemed to be even less customers then at Hunts shows. Sunday was just plan bad. The show was supposed to close at 4pm and pretty much every dealer was gone by then.
I was open on time and stayed till the end on Friday and Saturday, but it seemed the sales just weren't there for me.

Many dealers I spoke to had good shows because they had regular customers come in, that is great but it does not show a growth of the hobby or a draw that other shows didn't have.

I did talk to a far number of Net 54 folks and I was set up behind Ted :-)

Chatted with Leon, Val and a few other folks from the board I had not met before.

There were some fresh dealers which is good for all, but I didn't have a ton of luck buying much for myself. I was happy to make a very late purchase (pretty much after just about everyone was gone) of a Schalk card that was a large upgrade. Beyond that I bought some comics, a Gandil blanket and some signed checks. I had a few things graded and sent off some other cards as well.

From a dealers standpoint when your sitting around for hours at a time, there isn't much to do, so I think when a show is this dead I would expect dealers to be on the phone or doing other things. That being said if I was on my phone and saw someone at my table I would ask them if they needed anything so I was certainly open to chatting and several times I put down my phone an chatted :-D

I think there is a balance of bored and unhappy and disinterested. I am never disinterested in talking to a customer, but when I am sitting for hours at a time I have to do something.

All in all I think the show was ok. The weather wasn't good, the weekend wasn't great, and the location can be a pain to find if you don't know how to get there. I talked to one person from Boston who walked everywhere and he felt it wasn't user friendly in that respects (which I agree).

I think this show will keep the dealers for 1-3 more shows, but if the attendance doesn't improve a lot it will get small fast.

James G

[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