The Chicago Sports Spectacular, formerly known as the Sun Times Show, was held this weekend and for the first time offered an early admission on Friday afternoon, which I took advantage of.
The $25 price was well worth the ten dollars over the daily admission as it allowed convention goers a 2-1/2 hour window before the normal gates opened, and most dealers were completely set up to handle the couple hundred in attendance. It gave me plenty of open tables and aisles to roam early and provided some early buys of material I know would not be available later in the day.
I came with a good amount of cash, having earned quite a bit doing local shows the past couple of weeks. I ended up not spending it all, although I'm sure I could have.
I brought one card with me, a 1933 Goudey Hack Wilson which I picked up for a song last weekend, and ended up making more than three times my money in a trade for eight Goudey Cubs and one 1949 Bowman Bob Scheffing (name on front) to complete my team set. Great deal to allow me to venture into 30's cards.
I also picked up a 1943 team photo pic of Bill Nicholson, another need. Cubs organizational post season books for 87 and 88 were found (cheap), some tickets with Banks and Santo on them, and various cards for resale from the Cubs and Bulls were also garnered.
Now to the good stuff...
Found a cigarette lighter from Ron Santo's Pro's Pizza which operated in the late 60's, a full sized Milton Bradley baseball game with Ernie Banks among the cover photos (still need the smaller version) and in its original state with all player cards still wrapped, and the 1975 Cubs/Pabst calendar with its unused stickers on the back along with its bendable counter top triangle, which was used but in very. very good condition. This is the one piece I know would have sold later in the day had I not gotten to it early.
It's the first time I've attended this show on a Friday, since the 3:30-8:30 window doesn't seem like a long enough time frame to cover the entire show, but with the early admission option, I was able to cover a lot of ground in the first two and a half hours without fighting the crowd that I was actually able to leave at 6:30 and made it home about four hours later. I could have never done this with the regular five hour time frame, plus the four hour drive afterward. Normally, I would wait until Saturday to go to the show, but this experience pretty much convinced me early admission is worth the price.
The $25 price was well worth the ten dollars over the daily admission as it allowed convention goers a 2-1/2 hour window before the normal gates opened, and most dealers were completely set up to handle the couple hundred in attendance. It gave me plenty of open tables and aisles to roam early and provided some early buys of material I know would not be available later in the day.
I came with a good amount of cash, having earned quite a bit doing local shows the past couple of weeks. I ended up not spending it all, although I'm sure I could have.
I brought one card with me, a 1933 Goudey Hack Wilson which I picked up for a song last weekend, and ended up making more than three times my money in a trade for eight Goudey Cubs and one 1949 Bowman Bob Scheffing (name on front) to complete my team set. Great deal to allow me to venture into 30's cards.
I also picked up a 1943 team photo pic of Bill Nicholson, another need. Cubs organizational post season books for 87 and 88 were found (cheap), some tickets with Banks and Santo on them, and various cards for resale from the Cubs and Bulls were also garnered.
Now to the good stuff...
Found a cigarette lighter from Ron Santo's Pro's Pizza which operated in the late 60's, a full sized Milton Bradley baseball game with Ernie Banks among the cover photos (still need the smaller version) and in its original state with all player cards still wrapped, and the 1975 Cubs/Pabst calendar with its unused stickers on the back along with its bendable counter top triangle, which was used but in very. very good condition. This is the one piece I know would have sold later in the day had I not gotten to it early.
It's the first time I've attended this show on a Friday, since the 3:30-8:30 window doesn't seem like a long enough time frame to cover the entire show, but with the early admission option, I was able to cover a lot of ground in the first two and a half hours without fighting the crowd that I was actually able to leave at 6:30 and made it home about four hours later. I could have never done this with the regular five hour time frame, plus the four hour drive afterward. Normally, I would wait until Saturday to go to the show, but this experience pretty much convinced me early admission is worth the price.
