Shows

Fall 2013 Chicago Non-Sport Card Show: Old Friends and New Traditions

The Fall 2013 Chicago Non Sports Card Show was held this past weekend at The Holiday Inn in Carol Stream, Illinois. This location is the perfect venue for a small show like this. All guests received a team bag full of promos, many of them Chicago exclusives..

By Oct 8,2013  1

The Fall 2013 Chicago Non Sports Card Show was held this past weekend at The Holiday Inn in Carol Stream, Illinois. This location is the perfect venue for a small show like this.

All guests received a team bag full of promos, many of them Chicago exclusives. While attendance was not what it should be, it was a great time for those who came to look for those needs on the want list and chat and trade with like-minded people who love the hobby.

Chicago Non-Sport Card Show Promoter Ed Webb

Show promoter Ed Webb of Scifi Cards

Pretty much anything collectors would want was available. Show promoters (and dealers) Ed Webb of Scifi Cards and Kevin Bennett of K & J Non-Sports Cards offered boxes and albums full of new cards. Other returning dealers included Looky Here Cards, Iggy and Carl, Bryan Schemine and xVader Cards (“xtime” from NSU Card Talk). Dealer Ron Gahan, who has been absent for a while from the shows also set up a table and it was good to see him. On Saturday, NSU Card Talk’s Webjon had a table with lots of cool cards.

Paul Maiellaro, who formerly ran the Chicago show, offered sketches from the Treasure Chest of Art Project and other goodies. I purchased a pack of sketches and received three of the best I’d seen. On Saturday, Paul held auctions for sketch cards, allowing you to see them beforehand. I won an excellent portrait of writer Mark Twain.

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon by Chris Henderson and Samuel Clemens by Dennis Budd

 Excellent sketches from the Treasure Chest of Art: Sgt. Preston of the Yukon sketch by Chris Henderson; Samuel Clemens sketch by Dennis Budd

Artist Gabriel Bautista could only appear on Friday but he did some fantastic sketches, including a Hobbit drawing for NSU Card Talk member “stevetrek”.

Friday evening after the show, we had a gathering at the hotel’s restaurant, Alberto’s. A nice mix of collectors and dealers showed up for what hopefully becomes a show tradition, along the lines of the Red Robin gatherings at the Philly Non-Sports Card Show. After dinner, we chatted about our favorite subject and had a drawing for some Breygent Marketing Red Robin promos, courtesy of Breygent’s Tom Breyer. Bill DeFranzo had also provided some Breygent Marketing American Horror Story promos, so everyone got something.

Saturday’s show was slightly better attended, however, those in attendance were spending money. While Grimm, Psych, and Game of Thrones may have been the hot items, collectors could also find a few older cards—a couple of dealers had 30’s cigarette cards and I noticed a few 50s and 60s cards. One guy even walked in Saturday looking for sports cards and happily “xtime” was able to help him.

Saturday morning one of the hobby’s most beloved figures stopped in—Inkworks’ Allan Caplan and his lovely wife Arlene visited with friends who haven’t seen him in years. Allan has moved back to the Chicago area and hopefully will stop by at future shows. He did purchase a copy of the latest Non-Sport Update to catch up on the hobby. Later in the day, another long lost giant of the hobby walked in—Mike Bowman of Barrington Square Cards. Mike used to run one of the greatest brick and mortar card shops in the Midwest and after getting out of the hobby, has returned with a new mail order business specializing in non-sports.

It was overall, a great show, meeting old friends and making new ones is the highlight of a show like this. Thanks to Kevin and Ed for promoting the show, the great dealers and wonderful collectors including many NSU Card Talkers for stopping by. Let’s hope for a bigger show in 2014.

 

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1 Comment

  • wolfie October 8, 2013 Reply

    Glad to see you had a great show, nice to put some faces to names. If Allen is coming back I best go and delete all those posts I made about him. lol

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