The Chicagoland Card Collectors Club (I can't remember their official name) had card shows in the 1970s at the Hillside Holiday Inn. I think they had them every other month. The show included free autographs from whichever player they convinced to attend.
I didn't spend time in that line often because the mountains of cards on the dealer tables always drew me to spend my paper route and caddying money. I do remember JC Martin being there because he handed us his World Series ring to try on for size.
Why did I decide to write about these shows? The name of the hotel has changed, but I drive by it every day now as I head home from work. I don't remember purchasing any Kellogg's cards there other than a Ron Santo, but it is possible that I completed my 1974 set from those shows.
Why wouldn't I remember buying 1970s cards there? At those shows my friends and I rarely bought anything that was newer than 1969. Dealers didn't really carry lots of new cards. We'd buy everything from T206s to 1960s stars. Too bad for me that I always went for the cheapest cards without regard to condition. I'm still that way today.
Most tables just had stacks of cards separated by year and/or prices. I'd usually go there with about $30 and I'd come home with about 30 - 100 cards depending on any big purchases. For me a big purchase was anything more than one dollar. I remember spending $2 on a T206 Christy Mathewson, a card that I still own.
Isn't that the hotel just north of 55 on Kingery (83)?
ReplyDelete$2 for a T206 Mathewson? Wowza. Good times. I really miss the Holiday Inn shows in my area. They pretty much died out either in the late 90's or early 2000's.
ReplyDeleteNo, there was a Holiday in there that had lots of shows in the late 80s - early 90s. The Hillside one was at Wolf Rd. and the Eisenhower. (I-290).
ReplyDeleteWow! I didn't think you could type the words "$2" and "T206 Mathewson" in the same sentence. I dreamed of finds like this... What was the condition of the card?
ReplyDeleteThis was probably 1976. The card is not horrible. I ignored the cards in nice condition because they were probably as high as $10 each. I remember a dealer telling my friend and I who asked about a price for a 1933 Goudey Ruth - "you can't afford it". Well, it was $50 and we had a total of $70 between us. We didn't buy it - bummer.
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