Vancouver Tales 3/28

[gtmc88]

by Justin Santoro gtmc88

This was my first trip to Vancouver city and to a Bossa productions' sports card and memorabilia show. Never having been to one of these shows, I did not know what to expect.

The wife and I drove into Vancouver, B.C on Friday, March, 28. Even with our google maps we still missed our turn off and ended up over the bridge and in North Vancouver. People that have never been to a new large city and have missed their turn off, probably knew how we were feeling at that moment. A regroup, and we were headed back across the bridge and on our way to find the hotel.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to navigate through south Vancouver and find our way to the Howard Johnson Hotel. Mid afternoon traffic and 50km/hr streets made it a breeze. We arrived at the hotel ,got settled, and hit the lounge for some drinks. We then got a good night's rest for the busy days ahead.

We got up at 6am and headed to the show site. It was a five minute drive. We unloaded got our tables setup and by 9:30 the lineup outside was seemingly growing exponentially. Dealers from all over Canada were friendly with each other and some preshow deals and trades we made.
10 AM the doors opened and the stampede ensued. My tables were right at the entrance way with a full view of the lineups to get in. It took over an hour to get the initial lineup through the door. My early impressions were that there was a lot of excitement in the air and energy was very high. It had continued throughout the day and the entire weekend. My wife and I really did not get a chance to catch a breath until about 2:45 PM. Every chance I had to take a look around, people were buying selling and trading all over.

Around 1 PM a smiling Roggie Vachon arrived on stage, to a thunderous ovation. The line up was from the stage (at far end from us) all the way back to our tables. I was really impressed by what the customers were carrying to get signed. A lot of of 70's and 80's L.A. Kings jerseys, sticks, pictures and all kinds of oddball items to get signed. A professional photographer was on site and for a deuce you could get some pictures if you did not have your own camera. Roggie was a great signer. He talked to the fans, answered all their questions, and signed a lot of autographs. So much so, that he stayed long after his scheduled time to appear. I was so busy I never got the chance to go up on stage and meet him. My wife went instead and got my 1977 Sportscaster Vachon card signed.

While this was all going on I talked to a lot of customers and made a lot of sales and trades. Nobody was really asking for anything in particular. A trade occurred as an elderly gentleman brought a 1929 South Calgary high school yearbook and a 1919 City of Calgary year book. The gentleman said: "these belong in Calgary". The South Calgary yearbook had an interesting hockey team photo with Lorne Carr who played with the NY Rangers and Americans. I traded a 1961 Detroit Red Wings team photo pennant for the pair.

I saw a lot of wax at other dealers tables get purchased. Champs hockey seemed to be the really big seller. I didn't see much UD Montreal Centennial around in box form, but a lot of autos and short prints being traded. KSA grading seemed very steady as people were getting cards graded from all eras. One gentleman had about eight 35-36 OPC push outs and got them all graded. They ended turning out to be 4s through 6s.

Later that day Richard Brodeur signed free autographs as well. A former Vancouver Canuck goalie signing in Vancouver....need I say more? Canuck fans were out in full force worshiping one of their gods.
After the multitude of door prizes were drawn, Saturday ended and we talked to some of the dealers over a beer or six. The general consensus was that customers were buying a lot but big ticket items were just not selling. Understandable though, we all know the shape of global economy.

Sunday was more of the same. With a few hung over, poker tired dealers we braced for day two. This time with Ted Lindsay. Again another great guest signer, pleasant and accommodating, like with Roggie and Richard (and all the other old time greats). Attendance was lower, but there were still a lot of people to see Mr. Lindsay. This time I had a chance to get my own autograph on a very special original photograph of Gordie Howe, Marty Pavleich and Mr.Lindsay. I did hear him say that he would sign your items as "terrible Ted Lindsay", as he felt that he "had to now" because he had done some commercial stuff using that name. I couldn't resist getting my multi autographed jersey signed that way.

The show wrapped up and it was a great experience. So much so I told the promoters (Bossashows.com) of the show that we would attend the Vancouver show regularly. If you like big crowds, a wide range of sport collectibles, with some non sport sprinkled in, and friendly dealers check out the big Vancouver show two times a year. Now on to the Calgary show in four days....

Sorry no pictures for this show at this time, but will have some for the Calgary article.

[Pheebs888]

Thanks for posting! Edited and posted here: https://www.sportscardforum.com/articles/?p=589

Please take a moment to dig, propel and buzz if possible:
digg: http://digg.com/hockey/Vancouver_Tales
propeller: http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/...orum-articles/
buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:0433...438ad419?usc=1

I look forward to reading about Calgary! and pictures would be great :)