The Philly Show Is Dying

Hunt Auctions is the owner of The Philly Show, and they are down right killing it.  Ever since the show moved to the Valley Forge Convention Center fewer dealers have been coming.  They keep raising the price for booth space, and the facility the show is held in is falling apart.  This doesn’t take into account that the bathrooms look like a crime scene from CSI and they didn’t have the air conditioning on.  The dealers and visitors weren’t warned about any of the construction that is currently taking place either.  To get to the show, you had to take such a long walk through the hotel.  They could have had more tables to sit at too.  Upper Deck, Hunt Auctions owner should be ashamed.  I miss the days when The Philly Show was held at The Fort Washington Expo Center and The Greater Reading Expo Center.

Since there were such few dealers it didn’t take long to browse through most of the tables.  As usual there were a lot of vintage cards, but I did find some dealers that carried modern stuff.  I didn’t purchase any single cards for my collection.  Instead I bought two boxes of 2011 Topps Finest Football from Marty’s Sports Card Exchange, a few supplies from Eddie of ESE Supplies, and an autograph ticket for Pat Gillick.  MAB Celebrity does a great job when it comes to organizing and bring in the athletes.  That still is a big draw for collectors.

This may have been the last time I attend The Philly Show for awhile until they shape up.  That’s what I heard from a lot of dealers.  I might give the show at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center a shot.  Many dealers had positive things to say about it.  I hear its run by the same group that does the Chantilly show.

Tomorrow I will reveal what I pulled from my two boxes of 2011 Topps Finest Football.

Pat Gillick – 2011 member of the Baseball HOF.  Gillick was the General Manager of the Phillies when they won the 2008 World Series.  He was very nice to come out from behind the table for a photo.

Gillick’s signature can be seen on the right

Bill Mazeroski

Julius Erving – “Dr. J”

Former Phillies shortstop Dickie Thon

Former Phillies second baseman/shortstop Mariano Duncan

Former Phillies Outfielder Ollie Brown

Tyrell Biggs – 1984 Olympic Boxing Gold Medalist

The Philly Show – March 5, 2011

Its been almost a year since I’ve been to The Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show, which is held at the Valley Forge Convention Center.  I noticed a few less dealers, but I had fun.  I got some autographs, busted a few boxes, and did what your suppose to do at The Philly Show.  Let me tell you something.  There are two dealers at this show that do extremely well.  One is Marty’s Sportscard Exchange and the other is ESE Supplies.  Marty Davis of Marty’s Sportscard Exchange always has the best deals on wax, and Eddie of ESE Supplies has any type of holder you’d need.  I even stopped by the Louisville Slugger booth.

FYI – a few vintage sets were stolen at the show.  The announcer said the sets came from 1961 and 1971.  They did not state which sport.

Phillies Fan Favorite Jamie Moyer – Moyer made his MLB debut the day I was born

Art Mahaffey was the 1st Philly to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  You can see Lenny Dykstra (my personal accountant) in the background wearing the hat.

Former Boston Red Sox Manager and Phillies Pitching Coach Joe Kerrigan

Hunt Auctions had an impressive display of memorabilia.  This old “Casey at the Bat” book really caught my eye.

In the top right corner, you’ll see an issue of Beckett Baseball with Ryan Howard on the cover.  I’m actually in that issue for when I wrote a little piece on Victor Martinez’s first card.

More memorabilia from Hunt Auctions

One of my first stops of the day was at the Louisville Slugger booth.  I purchased a new bat with the Phillies logo and “SPORTS CARD INFO” engraved on it.  Then I got Moyer and Mahaffey to sign it.

The Dec. ’09 Philly Show Report

After talking to one of my local shop owners, I didn’t know what to expect while attending The Philly Show this weekend in Valley Forge, PA.  I arrived at the Valley Forge Convention Center at about 9:15 in the morning and the parking lot didn’t seem too full.  Browsing around the show floor you could see that about one third of the dealers weren’t there.  I highly doubt it was the weather, but instead probably because of the increasing setup fees from Hunt Auctions.  Did you know Upper Deck owns Hunt Auctions?  Today was the first time I had heard that.  MAB-Celebrity was in charge of getting the autograph guests for the show, and I think they did a great job.  All of the signers this weekend were or still are Phillies.  Bringing all Phillies in is a great idea from MAB-Celebrity.  Being so close to Philadelphia it just makes sense.  Ever since Hunt Auctions purchased The Philly Show, MAB-Celebrity has brought in big name players like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Frank Robinson, but they really hit the jackpot when it comes to Phillies.  I had never seen so many people lined up for signatures.  This was by far one of the fullest shows I’ve been to.  The dealer that told me Upper Deck owns the show said he wishes they would bring in Michael Jordan and/or LeBron James and just let people get their photo with them for a few bucks.  If Upper Deck did that the place would be extremely packed, but I like the idea.  I hope they continue to bring more Phillies to the show.

While heading for lunch, I met the blogger who runs Phungo and he handed me some custom made Phillies cards for my collection.  The pack even included a card of Harry Kalas.  I also saw Chris Harris from Stale Gum from a distance.  When I started blogging, I never thought I would get recognized at shows 🙂  Thanks Phungo for the cool cards!!!!!!!!!

I got a few autographs, busted some wax, and pulled some insane stuff!!!!  Here are some of the highlights.

Former Phillies catcher Todd Pratt

Pete Rose signing my bat.  I hope he makes it into the HOF someday.

Mike Schmidt

Pratt’s signature is all the way to the right.

Rose has such a huge signature.  It takes up a good portion of the bat and looks awesome.

This Rose ’08 Sports Legends jersey #’ed/100 is the only single I purchased from a dealer.

Pulled this Stafford autograph jersey/ball/jersey #’ed/299 from a single pack of ’09 Absolute.

I took a chance with ’09 UD Black Football and man did it pay off.  This is my first Peyton Manning autograph and it is #’ed/18.  It also contains a piece of film.

Tried a pack of ’09 Leaf Limited and pulled this Brees autograph jersey #’ed/25.

Pulled this from my pack of ’09 Leaf Limited too.  Quad jersey relic of Turner/Peterson/Jones/Brown #’ed/100

I wanted to try a box of ’09 Topps Unique.  Pulled this 3 color Freddy Sanchez patch #’ed/99.  While opening my box of Unique, another collector sat down at the table and started opening their box of Unique too.  They pulled an Utley jersey and an Ibanez autograph 🙂

This was probably my best hit from ’09 Topps Unique and it isn’t even “game used”.  These Presidential Bat Barrels are quite difficult to pull.  I think they come one per case.

Overall, this was probably one of the better shows since Hunt Auctions purchased The Philly Show.  I think Hunt Auctions and MAB-Celebrity finally learned what draws in the fans.  Hopefully some of those dealers return for the show in March.  You can definitely say the “MOJO” was with me today, after seeing all the cool stuff I pulled like the Manning autograph.  I give this show 4.5 hot dogs out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect).

Dealers Angry With Hunt Auctions

The other day I had an interesting conversation with one of my local card shop dealers.  We were talking about the upcoming Philly Show scheduled for next weekend and I learned some inside stuff that I normally don’t hear.  It seems like almost every dealer is angry with Hunt Auctions.  My local shop owner has been in business for over 30 years and has been attending The Philly Show for almost as long.  After Hunt Auctions purchased the show in late 2008, they immediately raised the price of what it would cost for a dealer to setup.  According to the shop owner, he would normally pay around $700.00 to setup his booth.  Since he has a lot of stuff, he usually takes up two spots.  For next weekend’s show, it will cost $1,050.00 to setup.  He told me that I shouldn’t be surprised if half the dealers don’t show because of the price.  He also told me that Hunt Auctions doesn’t advertise the show.  I probably advertise more for the show here then they do at all.  Even though  MAB-Celebrity has been bringing in bigger name athletes like Mays, McCovey, and Fisk, they haven’t been making very much off of their sales of tickets.  One athlete got paid $25,000.00 to sign autographs for only 14 people that purchased tickets.  I’m no expert in math, but I can tell you that those 14 tickets didn’t amount to anything close to 25k.  It will be interesting to see how many dealers actually show next weekend.  This is why The Hobby is heading towards being 100% run over the internet.  I’ve talked about The Philly Show many times because its one of my favorite shows.  I’d hate to see it go down hill like this.

Update:

I also find it disturbing that they still don’t have a list of dealers who plan to attend on their website yet.  They usually have one up by now.  Perhaps they don’t want people knowing how few of them there will be.  MAB-Celebrity doesn’t have Cole Hamels on the list anymore but Hunt Auctions still does.

Dec. ’09 Philly Show Is Heating Up

One of my favorite shows to attend is The Philly Show which is held at The Valley Forge Convention Center in Valley Forge, PA.  Before Hunt Auctions purchased the show last year they would only get one or two autograph guest to come over the whole weekend.  After Hunt Auctions acquired The Philly Show they have been able to bring in a bunch of big ticket athletes for collectors to meet ranging from Willie Mays to Frank Robinson.  The next Philly Show takes place on Dec. 4-6 and is a must for any Phillies fan.  Check out the lineup of athletes scheduled to attend.

Saturday 12-5:

• Pete Rose
• Mike Schmidt
• Todd Pratt

Sunday 12-6:

• Steve Carlton
• Scott Eyre
• Keith Moreland
• Shane Victorino
• Cliff Lee

I enjoy getting in person autographs, because you can obtain cards almost anywhere you live.  It doesn’t matter if you have a hometown card shop or not.  Collectors can always go to the internet.  Meeting athletes like this can’t be done all the time.  The dealers must do well at these shows if Hunt Auctions continues to bring in big celebrities like this.  I plan to attend Saturday and hope to get some great autographs and photos to share.  I might also bust a box or two 🙂  You can learn more about the show from MAB Celebrity and The Philly Show’s site.  More autograph guests could possibly be added in the future.

Autograph Lineup For The Sept. ’09 Philly Show

According to show Manager Paul Kutch, this will be the autograph lineup for The Philly Show that takes place on Sept. 25-27 at the Valley Forge Convention Center.

Sat. 9-26-09

• Johnny Bench
• Carlton Fisk
• Joe Frazier
• Angelo Dundee
• Dave “The Hammer” Schultz – This will be the FREE one that comes with your ticket

Sun. 9-27-09

• Whitey Ford
• Bob Boone
• Ric Flair
• Greg Gross – this will be the FREE autograph that comes with your ticket

The show’s website states that Yogi Berra is coming but he wasn’t on the list that the Manager just sent to me.  It looks as if they replaced Berra with Frazier.  I wasn’t planning on paying the high price for Berra, but it would have been cool to see him.

The Philly Show Report

The Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show will always be one of my favorite events to attend.  This time was probably the most interesting show I had ever been to.  I arrived at the Valley Forge Convention Center at 9:00 a.m. right when the show opened.  Quickly finding out the show was downstairs in one of their giant rooms, I hopped on a elevator and went on down.  When I got there the line was very short (which didn’t last long because it soon went all the way up the stairs), and I purchased my tickets to enter the show, while at the same time looking to see when the autograph guests were going to start signing.  Entering the show, you could see that the facility was much older and run down.  Many of the dealers I talked to weren’t very happy with the way it looked.  I was told that setting up for the show was quite difficult because they would only allow 6 vehicles to pull up at a time to unload or load up stuff.  Being downstairs also made it almost impossible to get a cell phone signal which meant many dealers couldn’t accept credit cards.  Finally, Hunt Auctions requires a ticket to do almost anything – even the free stuff.  Around 10:00 a.m. I got in line to receive my free autograph of Marty Bystrom.  When I got up to meet Mr. Bystrom, the girl next to him asked if I had a yellow ticket.  I said no, and then she wanted me to go all the way back to get one.  Lucky for me, Mr. Bystrom was on the telephone and wasn’t paying attention and he signed my bat anyway.  Those yellow tickets didn’t cost anything, and nobody told us beforehand we needed them.  Hunt Auctions was adding so many extra steps people had a hard time following what to do.  You even needed to purchase tickets at the food court.  Then you would walk five steps to the right and hand someone your tickets in exchange for your lunch.  Hunt Auctions is addicted to tickets.  I’m surprised they didn’t make you purchase a ticket to use the bathroom.  They also should have had more lunch tables for people to sit and eat.  The men’s bathroom looked like a crime scene from CSI.   Hopefully Hunt Auctions can make these improvements for the September show.  This was the first Philly Show with them being the owners, so lets hope the second time around the facility and show run a bit smoother.

Ok, thats enough about the building and new owners.  Lets get to the good stuff…………. the cards and autographs!  I only felt like getting one autograph when I got there.  I didn’t wait in line very long to meet Marty Bystrom, which was a positive.  Larry Christenson was signing at the same time, but I didn’t feel like going to get more TICKETS.  I was able to see each autograph guest:  Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Marty Bystrom, and Larry Christenson.  Mr. McCovey I saw behind the curtain before coming out and Mr. Mays didn’t want photos taken.  

Browsing through the show, I came across a few of my favorite dealers.  I picked up a bunch of wax and a few single cards for my personal collection.  Boxes I picked up included:

• (2) 2008 UD Ultimate Collection Football packs
• (1) 2008 Donruss Threads Baseball box
• (1) 2008 Playoff Absolute Football box
• (2) 2009 Topps Heritage Baseball packs

Check out this video showing some of the highlights of what I pulled:

I bought two loose cards found under glass:

Jimmy Rollins 2003 Fleer Patchworks 2 Color Patch #’ed/300

 

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson 2008 Playoff Prime Cuts Dual Bat #’ed/50 – I finally pulled the trigger and purchased one.  Its one of the best additions to my personal collection.  This card will never leave.

Photos:

 

As you can see, a Gun Show was also taking place.  That came in handy for those angry card collectors that were shorted a hit in a box 🙂

 

Larry Christenson signing autographs

 

Marty Bystrom on the phone while signing my bat

 

Frank Robinson walking into the food court

 

Closeup of the Championship ring

 

Mr. Robinson actually sat down at the table with me and ate a muffin while I busted a pack of ’08 UD Ultimate Collection Football.  He recognized that I took a few pictures when he walked in the building and said, “You should really ask before taking pictures.”  We exchanged a few words and then I headed back into the show.

 

Inside the show

The next Philly Show takes place on September 25-27.  Even though this show had some minor annoyances, I had a great time.  I will be going back for the next one.  

In two weeks I will be headed towards Ephrata, PA for the Ephrata Recreational Center Sports Card Show put together by the Lions Club.  Darren Daulton is scheduled to sign autographs.  Be ready for another report! 

Will You Be There?

Next weekend is the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show.  It takes place 3/13/09 to 3/15/09 at the Valley Forge Convention Center.  Hunt Auctions is the new owner of the show, and there are a ton of autograph guests.  As of right now, it looks like many of my favorite dealers are attending.  I look forward to finding stuff to add to my personal collection, and ripping a bunch of wax.  Hope to see yah there 🙂

 

March 13-15 Philly Show Autograph Updates

Last night I saw that the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, which is owned by Hunt Auction, Inc, updated their website giving more details on the autograph guests that are planned to appear at next month’s show.

Saturday March 14, 2009:

• Willie Mays
• Frank Robinson
• Willie McCovey
• Larry Christenson – All proceeds go to charity
• Marty Bystrom – 1 FREE autograph with each paid admission

Sunday March 15, 2009:

• Jim Rice
• Jennie Finch
• Robin Roberts
• Dickie Noles – 1 FREE autograph with each paid admission

I plan to be attending on Saturday and will try to get autographs of Marty Bystrom and Larry Christenson.  Both are from the 1980 World Series Phillies.  I would love to get Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, or Willie McCovey to sign my bat, but they are charging a lot for an autograph.  If I wanted Willie Mays to sign my bat it would cost $450.00, and they say NO PHOTOGRAPHY with Mays.  McCovey would cost $159.00 and Robinson $199.00.  I know these Hall of Famers didn’t get paid millions, but I think those ticket prices are a little expensive.  I’m guessing that the line for Willie Mays won’t be that long.  I can see those prices working at The National, but not Valley Forge, PA.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  

For more information on the guests and prices, please click here.

Autograph Guests for the March 13-15 Philly Show

This morning I received an e-mail back from Paul Kutch, who is the Show Manager for the Philadelphia Sports Card and Memorabilia Show.  Yesturday I asked him if they had any confirmed signers for the March 13-15, 2009 show at the Valley Forge Convention Center.  Today he told me they have 5 confirmed athletes coming so far.  There will be a free autograph signer each day, and likely one more guest coming on Sunday.

Saturday March 14, 2009:

 

Willie Mays

 

Willie McCovey

 

Frank Robinson

Sunday March 15, 2009:

 

Jim Rice

 

Jennie Finch