Hollywood Park show report
Griffins
Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
I went to the Hollywood Park show today, thought I'd pass on my experience...
Got there about noon, and was somewhat surprised how uncrowded it was. I usually go first thing and am out by about 1130, and I expected a crush. The first row had the usual high quality graded stuff- Goodwin with some nice cards and an amazing set of '13 game cards (can't remember if they were Tom Barker or Polo Grounds) some graded PSA 10, the rest not far off. Bill McAvoy had his usual table of well organized and high grade raw cards. Paul Stark from Colorado is one of the most personable sellers in that row and had lots of 50's and 60's including a good run of '53 Bowmans (mostly in 6's and 7's). A few other tables filled out the high rent row with lots of nice '50's and 60's high end cards, but nothing earth shaking. I was a bit disappointed not to see Terry Knouse (tik and tik) who always has a lot of 19th century items. I'm sure he'll be at the National next month.
Behind that row Marty Pritchard had his lot of unusual regionals- Glendales, Briggs, Stahl Meyers, Sugardales, etc, along with T206's and Diamond Stars. Next to him was Brian Marcy with a lot of 60's and 70's, across from his dad Bob with his amazing set up of non sports from the last 100 years. Around the corner from Bob was Trevor Hocking with an incredible run of Old Judges. I didn't count them but I'm guessing he had a least a couple of hundred there, along with some Buchner Gold coins, N162's, and some mid 19th century prints- maybe tintypes or the like.
While at Trevor's table I met Adam Warshaw from the Net 54, who just wrote a comprehensive guide to Boxing cards. It's a great book and if you have even the slightest interest in these cards I would highly recommend it. Adam is one of the few people I've spoken to that actually got in to see the Burdick collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. If you aren't aware of this, Jefferson Burdick has been called the father of card collecting. He came up with the numbering system that is still in use today (T for Tobacco cards, E for candy cards, etc) and donated his extensive collection to the Met. For the most part it is hidden away and totally inaccessable to the pubic after a few cards (including a '33 Lajoie) were stolen.
The autograph tables were packed when I passed by, McCovey, Cepeda, Pafko, Murray, and a few others all signing.
Skank row was gone this time, the promoters having received too many complaints about porn stars signing posters at the last show.
I saw very few graded packs this time, and ditto graded commons. Overall the show was decent as compared to the last few, but with what looked to me like a smaller turnout. The lady at the PSA desk that took a bunch of submissions from me said it had been steady, but not nuts. The GAI table looked pretty quiet, and I didn't even bother looking towards the Beckett area. I"ve yet to see SGC on the west coast, so it's not surprising that there are few cards from them offered.
Personally I found a Cracker Jack that I needed to bring me within 26 of the set, and a few raw '36 Goudey's that should be upgrades (to keep slightly ahead of the Tylicki's of the world, at least for a week or two!) . The only board poster I saw was Greg Schwartz, although Nick had said he was going to be there this morning as well.
Anybody else go? 6 more weeks til the National!
Got there about noon, and was somewhat surprised how uncrowded it was. I usually go first thing and am out by about 1130, and I expected a crush. The first row had the usual high quality graded stuff- Goodwin with some nice cards and an amazing set of '13 game cards (can't remember if they were Tom Barker or Polo Grounds) some graded PSA 10, the rest not far off. Bill McAvoy had his usual table of well organized and high grade raw cards. Paul Stark from Colorado is one of the most personable sellers in that row and had lots of 50's and 60's including a good run of '53 Bowmans (mostly in 6's and 7's). A few other tables filled out the high rent row with lots of nice '50's and 60's high end cards, but nothing earth shaking. I was a bit disappointed not to see Terry Knouse (tik and tik) who always has a lot of 19th century items. I'm sure he'll be at the National next month.
Behind that row Marty Pritchard had his lot of unusual regionals- Glendales, Briggs, Stahl Meyers, Sugardales, etc, along with T206's and Diamond Stars. Next to him was Brian Marcy with a lot of 60's and 70's, across from his dad Bob with his amazing set up of non sports from the last 100 years. Around the corner from Bob was Trevor Hocking with an incredible run of Old Judges. I didn't count them but I'm guessing he had a least a couple of hundred there, along with some Buchner Gold coins, N162's, and some mid 19th century prints- maybe tintypes or the like.
While at Trevor's table I met Adam Warshaw from the Net 54, who just wrote a comprehensive guide to Boxing cards. It's a great book and if you have even the slightest interest in these cards I would highly recommend it. Adam is one of the few people I've spoken to that actually got in to see the Burdick collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. If you aren't aware of this, Jefferson Burdick has been called the father of card collecting. He came up with the numbering system that is still in use today (T for Tobacco cards, E for candy cards, etc) and donated his extensive collection to the Met. For the most part it is hidden away and totally inaccessable to the pubic after a few cards (including a '33 Lajoie) were stolen.
The autograph tables were packed when I passed by, McCovey, Cepeda, Pafko, Murray, and a few others all signing.
Skank row was gone this time, the promoters having received too many complaints about porn stars signing posters at the last show.
I saw very few graded packs this time, and ditto graded commons. Overall the show was decent as compared to the last few, but with what looked to me like a smaller turnout. The lady at the PSA desk that took a bunch of submissions from me said it had been steady, but not nuts. The GAI table looked pretty quiet, and I didn't even bother looking towards the Beckett area. I"ve yet to see SGC on the west coast, so it's not surprising that there are few cards from them offered.
Personally I found a Cracker Jack that I needed to bring me within 26 of the set, and a few raw '36 Goudey's that should be upgrades (to keep slightly ahead of the Tylicki's of the world, at least for a week or two!) . The only board poster I saw was Greg Schwartz, although Nick had said he was going to be there this morning as well.
Anybody else go? 6 more weeks til the National!
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
0
Comments
Now that I've moved from LA, it's a bit tougher to find the time to head up north to catch it.
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Most of my buying was modern cards (as it normally is at HP). There were a lot of dealers selling even fairly hot modern cards at the price they would expect to net from eBay.
Rich Gove wasn't there, which is too bad. He has a very nice selection of raw vintage cards.
Several dealers said this was the worst HP show they had been to for sales. Modern cards especially did not seem to be selling well. The number of dealers packing up and leaving early was very high - several were gone hours before the show closed on Sunday, and I think 1 or 2 didn't even show up for Sunday.
Issa Fashem had a nice selection of PSA commons and stars from the 1970s, including probably at least a dozen 10s. He's always good to deal with (and I picked up a nice stack of '76 Topps PSA 8s from him).
I did see Jason (KallMaloneSay), and picked up a few cards from his table.
Trevor's Old Judge inventory was just incredible. He also had a nice supply of low-grade graded key cards - including '51 and '52 Bowman Mantles and all four '33 Ruths (amazingly, GAI gave grades of 2 to a pair of Ruths that were extremely nice except for the 1/8" or so diameter hole punched in the lower right).
It seemed that a fair amount of the deals going on were dealer-to-dealer trades.
The next HP show (in September) will have every living Lakers HOFer as an autograph guest.
Nick
Reap the whirlwind.
Need to buy something for the wife or girlfriend? Check out Vintage Designer Clothing.