Local Philly Show -- Stadium Holiday Inn Aug 1st

[Foolkiller]

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only board member who appears at this show... but I seem to be the only one who actually talks about it. For a local show, I think it's pretty good, and there's usually an interesting smattering of dealers along with a fairly packed room (although the room is a little small).

 

If there are other board members who are going to go I'm always interested to put names with faces... also, I'd love to hear what other people's opinions are about this show.

 

For me, it's a little bit routine now because I usually end up talking to Gary Platt mainly, Al Stoltz (when he's there) and Koop. The dollar/50 cent guy who sets (and has everything alphabetically organized) is great. There's also a new dealer Mad Cow Comics who's been showing up... but I haven't bought anything from him yet... mainly out of concern for the grading.

 

Any other board members who attend (or have) ?

[Jgel]

Is it worth a 2 hour drive from Harrisburg?

[namisgr]

FK, I've been going to the Philly show off and on for several years, and will probably make it to the show this Sunday. Although the Blazing one used to attend, bringing the high grade Silver and Bronze content of the room up dramatically, there are occasional good finds still. The other nice aspect for me is that Gary and Koop are always willing to purchase some of my raw Marvel stock, even the stuff that isn't NM. Jeff from Mad Cow has the nicest Silver in the room now by far, but at the last show he mentioned an upcoming vacation, so he may not be attending Sunday.

 

You'll recognize me by my tan Sixers Eastern Conference champions hat (a vintage item, sadly). Hope to run into you.

[Foolkiller]

no... I don't think it's worth a two hour drive. The room is a little small, and you won't find all that much high grade in the room -- especially without looking reeeally hard to find it. But it is a friendly environment, and I'd say there are about 15-17 dealers in the room with a wide variety of stuff. If it was a beautiful day and I really felt like driving and I was in the comics mode, yeah, I'd drive the two hours. Normally, can't say it's worth it.

[Jgel]

Thanks for the info. 15 tables?? I don;t think I will make it

[Foolkiller]

A lot of the dealers have multiple tables (like Gary, who has three or four) so that's why I quoted it based on dealers, not tables.

 

You'll find most shows are about this size. Unless it's Big Apple, most small shows are exactly this -- about 15 to 20 dealers in a room (a lot of times less). This is basically like trying to find the diamond in the rough... pick out that gem... because it's generally hard to find.

 

but if you're like me (10 minutes away) then it's worth a ride and it's a good time to socialize.

[Brother J]

I used to go to the Philly show there fairly often when I lived in the area. I was never a big one for driving into Philly, but the Stadium Holdiay Inn has a pretty good location where you can just jump off the freeway and there you are. It's been a long time since I've been to one of those shows, but I seem to remember it being fairly small and not that well attended when I went. There also used to be a show at the Holiday Inn across from King of Prussia Mall, but I think they stopped having those a while ago. The Philly area used to be a real good place for comic shows if you were willing to drive a bit. I used to go to a pretty large show that was held in Allentown and as a kid I worked for a comic shop owner in Pottstown who held a show a few times in the local Holiday Inn. Ah, the memories!

[namisgr]

FK: Nice to have met you at the Philly show today. Pretty typical day today for this show (excepting the need to get to the show by boat or kayak, owing to amazing morning rains).

 

Here are two of the day's pickups. These came from Al Stoltz of Basement Comics, who recently acquired a very nice collection from around '65-'70, and still had some unsold DCs. The SA205 marks the first Deadman, and for a semikey book from '67 has a surprisingly sparse showing in high grade in the current census, with only 2 9.4 copies being highest graded.

 

 

[Foolkiller]

Nice meeting you too.

 

Al Stoltz's new collection did have a lot of nice books. I saw a bunch of nice JLAs but wasn't really too keen on pulling the trigger with a relatively low discount. However, on another day, I might have done it... a lot of those books were stunning. Of course, the books namisgr picked up were very nice.

 

As usual, the show was sort of the same old, same old. Koop had a nice Avengers 57 CGC 9.0 (looked really nice) and Avengers 58 CGC 9.4, both of which were very high quality books.