Ramblings: The Babe Writes On, Card Show Update, Recalling a Funny Story

A few odds and ends today while getting ready for the next sequence of articles.

I heard from long time hobby columnist Bill Wagner, a.k.a. Babe Waxpack, who is still trucking with his newspaper column on the hobby. Recently, Bill sent me a few card scans to ID. I did need a few minutes to go through the memory banks and answer his question. It was good to hear from Bill to see he still has a few cities that run his column and frankly having people like him around, who have been working in mainstream media for years is always good for the hobby. Bill, I hope you stay with the column for a long time.

I actually checked the Dallas Card Show’s web site and they are targeting the second weekend in October for their next show. I’m glad they are making progress but hope that since the venue is going to be a new one, they go all out with publicity. Don’t be afraid to spend the money to bring back those who may have lost track of the show after it pulled out of Craig Ranch. When you move location and time frame, the publicity machine must go to overdrive. I’ll post on the message boards because that is my self-interest as a dealer and you need to do what is in your interests to grow the show for the sake of dealers who buy tables and collectors who come to see a lot of different dealers.

I know a hotel in that area they are targeting which used to have shows in the basement where the ballroom was. I believe there was an elevator so at least the dealers did not have to carry their cards up and down steps. There was a show I occasionally set up in New Jersey run by a young hobbyist at the time (he is my age) named Ed Garber who became a CPA and was the accountant for many hobby dealers back in the 1980’s. A quick Google search shows that Ed is still at the business and his home page proudly talks about his collectible past. However, the only problem with Ed’s location, which to my hazy recollection was in Cranford, New Jersey was there was no elevator and everything had to be carried up and down stairs. Other than that, he drew a nice crowd each year and those shows we always enjoyed.

Speaking of shows, I saw Overland Park, Kansas mentioned at work today and was reminded of one of my favorite John Broggi stories. In the 1980’s, John used to go to the Overland Park, Kansas show and set up each year as that was a major show. At one show, circa 1986, John told me the story of a father and a young child who came up to his showcase and saw a George Brett 1975 Topps rookie card. They asked John how much the card was and John responded with 35. To John, that obviously meant dollars. Well the father and son stood in front of the table for what was 10 minutes, debated it and finally said ‘yes we’ll buy the card’. John took the card out of the showcase only to see the father pull out a quarter and a dime. Somehow the customers thought the card was going to be 35 cents. You know, I don’t think even in 1975 at a Kansas City area show a Brett rookie would have been 35 cents. The mental image of those two collectors pulling out their 35 cents made me smile more than 25 years later.