For some reason I always end up finding more and better stuff than I expect at our little podunk show. The "bang-for-buck" factor, for some odd reason, is soooooooo much better than the national shows. Even though none of the dealers are "major" dealers in my specialty, they always seem to have stuff that trips my trigger.
CUPEX is held annually in Urbana, IL (about 2 hours due south of Chicago). It's a small 2-day show; 10 dealers plus the USPS.
Dealers love our show. It's one of the best-organized small shows in the midwest, and has a dealer waiting list a mile long. The table fees are low and the local hotel rates are reasonable. Being situated at the intersection of I-57 and I-74, Urbana is easy to get to from anywhere (2 hours from Chicago, 3 hours from St. Louis, 1.5 hours from Indianapolis, all straight Interstate drives). So we get a fairly diverse range of dealers.
This is the same weekend as the fall MSDA show in Chicago, and for one of our dealers, the MSDA show is in his suburb... he can drive home every night and get much larger crowds. Yet he chose to do our show instead, taking on the drive and 2 nights of hotel costs. I asked him why. He said "I like supporting your show. It's well orgnized, the collectors down here are very knowledgable, I do good business, the table fees are low, and I really enjoy the weekend." Score one for us over the big city.
It's probably been 15 years since I helped set up the show. I'm a club member, but not an active one... my lending a hand was long overdue. So I got my sorry butt out of bed early this morning and got to the Civic Center at 7am. I spent the next 2 hours unloading, moving, setting up, and all matter of step-N-fetchit tasks. There were about 12 people helping set up all told. By the time 9am came, I had completely soaked through my shirt... hadn't anticipated that. Oh well, I look like a complete slob all the time anyway, so no one will notice.
Traffic seemed very light today compared to previous years, and several dealers remarked the same. The weather conspired against us. After a solid week of 30-45 degree temperatures and rain, today was the first sunny day, hitting 60 degrees. So I'm sure everyone was out enjoying it and getting end-of-season honey-dos finished.
I figured I'd spend today strictly on U.S. revenues and then spend tomorrow (if I had any money left) looking for world classics with SON cancels.
Well, up until about 3pm I had only spent about 25% of my show budget... and then hit the last dealer there, and promptly spent 60% just with him. I had set my show budget deliberately large, not expecting to spend it all, and thus able to add some extra to my Chicagopex budget for next month. So much for that idea.
The deals and cherrypicks were absolutely PHENOMENAL today. I never get deals like this at the national shows. The best single show day I've ever had. It was amazing:
Several silk papers:
R10d (SCV $160) for $6
R13d (SCV $140) for 25 cents!
R65d (SCV $110) for $11
R81d (SCV $40) one for $3, and another for $2.50
R82d (SCV $60) cut cancel for $5
A nice example of R64b (SCV $75) for $5
A turquoise blue R21c with SON handstamped cancel, a little schmutzig in places (SCV $600) for $75
A no-question legit R13a (SCV $700 and underpriced in Scott relative to actual scarcity) for $125
A very nice (but slightly beat up) example of the T13a double transfer on R13c (SCV $200) for 40 cents!
An absolutely beautiful R21c, unused (SCV $600) for $225
A very attractive (VF-appearing but fairly good-sized closed tear) R2a ($SCV $2,000) for $150
When I was at COMPEX back in May I had one of the WORST dealer experiences in my life with a dealer... and today I had one of the best I've ever had with a dealer, and I thanked him profusely. I've never had this happen before:
He had a GORGEOUS R98a with SON cancel... rich bright color, great margins, just all the eye appeal in the world. Scott lists it at $150 and he had it priced at $125. Considering the eye appeal, I was perfectly willing to pay that for it. I pulled it out to check it for defects. SONOFAYOUKNOWWHAT! On the left margin I found a 1.5-2mm tear. It had been sealed, and to the naked eye you cannot see it at all, but it's there. Dagnabit!
The dealer couldn't see it, and for a minute there, the way he was frowning, I figured he thought I was trying to pull a fast one to get a gem for a cut-rate price. Then he concentrated a bit closer and let out a 4-letter word. He found the tear.
He sighed and asked "Are you still interested in the stamp? Make me an offer." I knew I still wanted the stamp, because the flaw didn't detract and it still is an eye-grabber. I would be ok with the stamp at half Scott, even with the flaw, and said "How about $75?"
[Realize that show dealers tend NOT to mark down gem-appearing stamps (even with flaws) heavily, so going from $125 down to $75 might not have been in the cards.]
He looked at me and said "Wow. That's more than I thought you would offer. How about you buy it for $50?"
You could have knocked me over with a feather. I literally was speechless. I have NEVER had a show dealer counteroffer with a price lower than I was offering. Ever.
I bought the stamp. And thanked him warmly. That is a dealer I will buy from again.
Tomorrow is "worldwide stamps" day for me. I sold a few better foreign pieces to one of the dealers, so I'll have some playing around money tomorrow.
A dealer let me take home a huge tub of stamps on stockpages to pick from tonight and bring back in the morning, so I'd better get out of here and get to work.
No pics for now; no time. Those will come next week.
Posted 10/22/2011 9:48 pm
