The first night of Paul's finale CECE show is over. It was a nice night with a relaxed atmosphere. It was good to see dealers like Ed, Kevin, and even Looky Here as well as artists Laura, Jeff Clark, Connie, Ted, and a bunch of others. I also enjoyed talking with Cynthia Narcisi after not seeing her for a few years. On the collector front, we saw Don and Dave, venim5liter, xtime, MikeFitz, and a bunch of others. Even got to see Bill DeFranzo and meet Bill's son.

The big news is that Ed and Kevin (of Scifi Cards and K & J Non-Sports) are continuing the tradition with a new show at the same location in March of next year.

I'm looking forward to the charity breakfast tomorrow morning and seeing a few people who weren't here today like Mark McHaley, Scott Schwartz, and Dave Dorman.

Paul and Diane do such an excellent job and it is a shame that they will no longer be running this show but I know we'll continue to see them around in the hobby for years to come.

Glad to hear the show will go on! Woo hoo!

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few hours. . .hopefully there are some good finds left!

Jon

Had a great time at the show. Good to see everyone, Harris, Marlin and Roxanne, Dave Loosen, Ed Webb, xtime, Venom5liter, Iggy and many others.

Paul did a great job of hosting the show. It got off to a start at 7:30 pm, and people stayed until closing time of 11 pm. I was beat, so I went up to my room after 10:30, but Dave and I chatted until 12:30.
Breakfast was at 7:30, very good as usual, and Paul and Diane served cake honoring their last show, first time i had cake with breakfast but it was all good. Paul handed out envelopes to all who attended cotaining various promos from previous shows, and a little envelope containing pictures of Bozo's Circus - the real Bozo's Circus with Bob Bell and Mr Ned.

We did not have a trading session, but I had still traded with a few people, xtime in particular provided me with a bunch of Allen and Ginter.

I picked up some great stuff, I have hundreds of cards to process, but heres a quick rundown:
5 sketch cards
2 Costumes
24 autos
1 Kiss card
6 sets

The Tosers were selling packs for $2, so I picked up a few, got 3 autographs and a costume card from Bond sets, the best hit was Corrine Clery Woman of Bond style auto

I also got a box of Benchwarmer Signature Series 2005 from the Tosers, for $40. It gave me 10 autos (including a Flo Jalin) and a Kiss card from Victoria Silversted.

I picked up a box of Betty Page from Ed, got a fair autograph, but the base set is beautiful!

From Paul I won a box set of Project Superpowers in the raffle. 2 nice sketches. Later I got 2 Breygent San Deigo packs from Ed. Got another Proj Sup. sketch by Robert Hack, very nice, also a Vampirella sketch, Vampi autograph, and auto of the guy that plays the king in the Tudors.

Talked with Ted Dastick, who gave me his extra Americana cards, and drew a pic of James Bond in the sketchbook I bought from him - thanks Ted!

The only celeb this time was Scott Schwartz, and it was really nice to talk to him and meet his fiancee.

I would have stayed longer, but my old foot was acting up, so had to come home, but really enjoyed the show. Thanks to all, Paul and Diane and their team, and the dealers, for a great show!

Me and the Posse had a wonderful time. I will post pics later. Really tired at the moment.It was great seeing everyone. Thanks Ed Webb at Sci-fi for the trade....

Jewel

quote:

Originally posted by Kennywood:

In all fairness, Paul did say he wanted his steak medium-rare, not rare.

Thanks for everyone who stopped by and made it an awsome show and a very special thanks to Paul and Diane for hosting all of us lunatics. Things just won't be the same without them.

Here's a few pics. Enjoy....





Loved the makeup Diane.....

Jewel

It was great seeing Don, Dave, John, Jon, Mike, Steve, Carl, Iggy, Lou, Paul, Toser's and too many more to name.
Played both sides of the table...seller & buyer...this show. Both days kept me very busy.
Still I was able to walk around and do some shopping and trading. Overall haul...
1 auto/relic
14 autos
8 relics
10 promos
85 chase
6 boxes
97 packs
45 commons
& about 300 sports cards.
Thanks to Don, Ed & John for great trades.
Finally, had an opportunity to personally thank Roxanne for her NSU article about premium packs.

Show was busy fun.

Looking forward to March 2012.

Great report and pictures.

Love the spook shows promo.

Love Laura's promos.

I agree with Wolfie. Great reports and photos posted above. I've posted a report and pictures as well on our blog:

Show Report from the Final Chicagoland Entertainment Collectors Expo

I have a few more photos that I'll try and post here a bit later.

It was another great show. There was a lot going on between make-up artists, the time machine, charity breakfast and charity auction, fitness instructors, yoga sessions, etc. I enjoyed seeing the usual's the best though. I enjoyed speaking with Cynthia Narcisi, Don Norton, and Bill DeFranzo. Bill from Looky Here is always good for a laugh.

I had a great time at the show. I won't list names (because I'll forget someone) but it was great visiting with everyone at the show, especially all the CardTalkers.
I did some trading and I'm just one card away from a base set of Cereal Killers cards. I also picked up a box of Women of Star Trek cards from Bryan Schemine but I haven't had a chance to open it. Despite saying I wasn't interested in Warehouse 13 autograph/costume cards, I also picked up the Eddie McClintock autographed costume card. I'll post photos later when I'm more awake
Thanks to Paul and Diane for all the hard work in putting the show together and best of luck to Kevin and Ed going forward.
I'm looking forward to doing this all again in about a month at the Philly show.

My full review is up on webjon, but like everyone else I had a great time at the show. There were a ton of people in attendance and I really enjoyed chatting with folks.

There were lots of good deals to be found, and the charity auction was a lot of fun. It would be cool if somehow they could continue that tradition in the future. . .

My favorite pick up was a James Lovell Spaceshots autograph that was in a binder of cards I bought at the charity auction, but I also found some other really good buys. . . Looking forward to the new management's show in March!

Jon

Awesome pics. It looks like it was a cool show.

Really great pictures everyone, so much wish I could have gone. Looks like it was a fantastic weekend!

Enjoyed the pix & reports from Paul & Diane's grand finale show... Looks like an awesome time was had by all!!!

Great people + Great cards = GREAT SHOW

Paul & Di were masters of this equation.

Thanks for all the fun you gave us at your shows over the last decade

more photos forthcoming!