First of all, my apologies for the delay in posting but, as I explained last week, I only had access to the internet via my iPod Touch, and using the Touch keyboard is not the best way of writing a long report on a show!
Also, I would like to apologise to anyone whose name or Card Talk ID I forget to mention in the two reports I'm posting - I met so many people it was overwhelming! If I met you and I don't mention you, please feel free to say you met me in this thread!
I will be posting elsewhere about the US trip outside of the show, I will be using the interviews I recorded over the weekend in an upcoming episode of the podcast - this is just my experiences of the show.
So, Saturday.
Not in any way at all feeling hungover from the Red Robin rehersal on Friday night, I entered the show venue a couple of hours before opening time to help in whatever way possible. This mainly involved me helping to lay out the NSU stand, and catch up with the artists, manufacturers and dealers setting up or preparing to meet the collecting public.
There was a sizable queue at the door, and when they were let in, I started to meet people who had made the trip down to the show to fill gaps in their collections, get some promos, start off new collections, get some promos, meet the artists, get some promos, pick up the new NSU and, oh, did I mention get some promos?
The 'Getting some promos' is a big thing for me - you don't get a lot of them at UK shows (except when Cards Inc. or Cult Stuff or Inkworks were/are around) so seeing such cool cards being given away was fascinating - so fascinating, in fact, that I completely forgot to ask for some of the Breygent cards on ofer!
First port of call was the NSU stand, with the cuttent issue, a number of variants and so many back issues on show that I have never seen! Behind the table were, at various times, Alan Biegel, Bill DeFranzo, Scott Thomas, Harris 'Not Him Again' Toser, myself, Marlin Toser and the lovely Roxanne, who was gamely fighing off a bout of ill health; also the loyal team of helpers, Larry, Virna, Cliff and Carol (who were honoured with their own Philly Promo card this year!) It was here that I met most people - including MiniMe, Batman, TWS, TBear, BJ Metz (and her partner and entourage!), barobehere (who came all that way just to meet me!), Mike Tilford, Byrna and Bev and lots of others (like I said, please post if I met you and I haven't named you - or If I met you on Sunday!)
Opposite the NSU table was Rittenhouse Archive, who had 4 cards - all of which were, I believe, show exclusives. One, for the Brady Bunch Factory set, was being handed out one per person, but the others (True Blood, Star Trek Heroes and Villains and Marvel Universe) were in display on the table and could be picked up freely. Rittenhouse were also doing a prize draw for packs of Eureka Seasons 1 & 2 (I got a ticket and was lucky enough to win later in the afternoon!) Also on diaplay was a case containing some fo the autographs from the new Star Trek set, and two display cases containing costumes from NCIS, which is being worked on for release hopefully next year (there were two different costumes from the same set on display Sunday). Here I met Robert Kohlbus and, later in the day, Johanna (who gave me a huge hug!) Robert I've seen before (he came over to Memorabilia a few years ago) but Johanna I have only ever spoken to via Skype and email, so this was a great moment for me!
I moved around the hall at various times and visited the Breygent, Shop Topps (featuring Jeff Zapata), Cryptozoic and Famous Fabric stand, as well as the Sidekick Media stand (where Tom Lichtman gave me a warm welcome - another person with whom I have spoken on Skype but never met until now).
Tom Breyer was manning the Breygent stand, and there were a number or promos avaiable, including Vampirella and Red Snja (neither of which I got ). Shop Topps had some of their Wacky Packages product on display and for sale - Mike Jasperson very generously gave me a box of Wacky Packages Old School Series 2 which I will be splitting up and giving away on the podcast to interested UK listeners! Jeff was showing some of his work and chatted amiably whilst working on his contribution the the Pumpkin competition (an innovation fo the show this year!)
Dan Hearst of Famous Fabrics had displays of their upcoming product on the stand, and talked to me about authentication and sourcing of autographs for their sets; next to Famous Fabrics was the Cryptozoic stand, and Kurt Nelson had boxes of CBLDF and promos of The Vampire Diaries, as well as some fantastic display boards showing upcoming sets for Big Bang Theory, The Guild and Tarzan Centeniary.
Sidekick had Art Hustle and Suckadelic boxes for sale, and some interesting displays of their lenticular puzzle inerts, which are actually cut like jigsaw pieces! Tom also had some promos on offer for various sets, which were freely available.
All these promos were in addition to the promo pack given away at the door to visitors - this pack included (as as been posted elsewhere) three different Philly promos, cards from Benchwarmer, The Art Hustle, Vampirella and Red Sonja, Spook Show (from Monsterwax), Grimm Fairy Tales (from 5Finity) and a special card from Scifi Cards (numbered P12). Initial uantities of the promo packs contained an embossed version of the 5Finity card and a Wacky Packages promo; there was also another card from Sidekick Media, featuring artwork by a certain Chris Bradberry, but modesty prevents me from describing the card... (Modesty is a fickle mistress though, and doesn't prevent me from posting a picture...)
I wandered around the show and saw so many cards I got quite card blind - there were boxes old and new, base cards, inserts, autographs and sketches, things I've seen a lot of and other things I've never even heard of, let alone seen before (such as the memorabilia card shown to me by Tbear and produced by Breygent for one of their sets which featured 9 pieces of costume - with pictures on the back of all 9 costume items!)

I will declare this now. Bill DeFranzo is the Dark Lord of Temptation's representative on Earth. I mentioned to him the difficulty of obtaining certain promo cards in the UK, and he led me, yes, actually physically led me, to a dealer who had quantities of same for 25c each. These are cards which would sell for a minimum of £1 in the UK - when you can find them. After stripping the binder clean of promos, I also stocked up on a few boxes - one for the Red Robin on Saturday night (Scooby Doo 2 from Inkworks for $15), and a couple of boxes of The Osbournes for $5 each, one of which I am keeping for Open That Box Day 2012. (in case anyone was interested, from the Scooby Doo 2 box I pulled a Fred jacket pieceworks and a redemption card for Alicia Silverstone's autograph...)
I also bought a complete set of the oversize pack promos issued by Rittenhouse in their Star Trek 40 set - these are artist renderings of each of the 5 series casts.
I will report on Sunday in the next post as this one is already way too long!
Au Res.,
Paul

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Quaint1,

Sunday.
After an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel (and with a remarkable lack of anything vaguely hangover shaped) I went to the Card Talk meeting, which rather handily was next door to my room!
There was a good crowd of people in there, including many already named plus lots more who I probably should name but I can't remember (perhaps there was a slight trace of a hangover after all), and I managed to get a coffee and doughnut (yes, I know, I had literally just had breakfast, but when it comes to doghnuts and coffee, Homer Simpson has nothing on me...) and sit down just as Harris stood up to address the meeting. He introduced Alan Biegel to talk about the magazine and Chris Bradberry to talk about the appeal to get me to the show, after which he called me up to recieve the original art for the promo card hinted at in the above post, which had been signed by as many of the contrbutors as he could get. (I will be bringing this to the Memorabilia show to see if I can get the UK contributors, and I know for certain there are a few, to similarly sign the piece, after which it will be framed and put in pride of place in my home!)
Next up was the manufacturers panel, and after some introductions and discussion of upcoming projects, the floor was opened up so some frank Q&A (which I know has been discussed elsewhere) I believe Harris recorded this on video, so I assume he intends to make that available at some point.
After saying farewell to a few Card Talkers who had to head for home (including Barrett Nunnery), I headed for the show again, this time to try to grap some interviews for the podcast, and talk to people I hadn't met on Saturday.
Things were a little quieter, as is the case for most shows on the second day of opening, but there was still a reasonably number of people looking around.
I chatted to dealer Al Wexler about the state of the card world and other things, and also got to talk to the artists, as well as Ted Dastick Jr., yet another person with whom I have Skyped! Ted was visiting the show as a collector but I managed to grab a few words with him! All the artists had a range if goodies on display and for sale; Chris Bradberry had some original work on offer; next to him, Charles Hall (and his effervescent partner Kaylee) had prints and larger art pieces, as did Scott Rorie; George Wright and Fred Wheaton were doing commissions (and had Wacky Packages material on offer); Meghan Hetrick has free promos for Perna Studio's upcoming Classic Mythology set, along with the original artwork for the card, and Laura Inglis had a number of PSC's, prints and other stuff available. She also had some promos on offer
Those of you who listen to my Behind The Canvas podcast will be pleased to hear that I have pretty much secured committments from all the artists to do future episodes! (all except Fred Wheaton, who was on the first episode and so is no longer of interest to me... )

I also got to speak to Dee Robinson (about whom it is All About of course) and was reunited (briefly) with her autograph cards, currently marked down to a bargain price of $999,999...

I picked up a few more boxes of things - and I was the beneficiary of some wonderful gifts from some very generous people! Tom Lichtman gave me a Limited Edition set of cards featuring the mugshots of various members of the Sidekick and Sucklord family; an anonymous donor gave me a box of Upper Deck marvel cards, another anonymous donor gave me the Laura Inglis sketch of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 which they had won in the auction Chris Bradberry set up; Laura gave me a card she did of The Doctor holding up a newspaper announcing my attendence at the show and Charles Hall gave me a pair of his Doctor print cards. Also, Fred Wheaton gave me a signed copy of his comic book in trade for a signed copy of one of my promo cards (I think I did better on that deal than he did, but there you go!) I also bought a fantastic piece by Scott Rorie of the 11th Doctor, and picked up a PSC of The doctor and Amy Pond from Chris Bradberry.
I also got a box of the Topps Santa Claus set (featuring a Santa Rookie card, a Santa memorabilia card and a Santa Autograph card) I can't remember if the very kind donor wanted to remain anonymous, so I won't post details here!

Throughout the show, my ego was given a regular boost by people coming up to me and asking me to sign their promo cards! This is the first time I have ever been asked for my autograph (and almost certainly the last time too!) and I had to think carefully about how I signed - my regular signature is little more than a squiggle, and I didn't want to be the subject of one of those "What the hell is THIS?" posts!

I think it's the generosity of people that I will take away with me - everyone was exceedingly generous with their time, their money or their goodwill. I have rarely felt as welcome at anything other than at a family occasion. I would like to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome - as I explained to Harris on leaving the show on Sunday, I felt like a kid who has overdosed on candy - and I will remember that feeling for years to come.
Au Res.,
Paul

Great review!

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Great review!

I second that! It was nice meeting you too, Paul.

Thanks! Apologies for the typos - if that is what I'm like when I use a full size keyboard, you can only imagine what it would have looked like using the iPod!

I'll be posting a few pictures later.
Au Res.,
Paul

I think we should have had more beers, Paul!!

Next year...
Au Res.,
Paul

A Few Pictures - not as many as I would have liked, but it appears my cameras (both stills and video) were playing up and some stuff I'm sure I took isn't there any more...


'TBear' and Harris (Harris is thinking "Oh Great, Quaint1 showed up...")

Tom Lichtman at the Sidekick stand

'Batman' and Mike Tilford - Batman is wondering why he had those Jagerbombs last night...

Star Trek Autograph display on the Rittenhouse Archive table

NCIS costumes on the Rittenhouse Archive table

'Tbear' and his wares!

Jeff Zapata working on his pumpkin (and, no, that's NOT a euphemism...)

Artists not at work - Fred Wheaton and George Wright (in the background you can make out Meghan Hetrick, Laura Inglis, the back of Chris Bradberry's Hear and ditto Scott Rorie)

Laura Inglis and some British interloper.

Some artists and a British interloper (L-R Meghan Hetrick, Fred Wheaton, George Wright, no idea who that bloke is, Scott Rorie)

Chris Bradberry's original art for the 'Get Paul To Philly' promo

Laura Inglis' sketch of the Eleventh Doctor brandishing a newspaper reporting my arrival at the Philly Show!

...and finally

Harris (thinks)"If ONE MORE PERSON asks how to set up a 'Get me to the UK' appeal..."

Au Res.,
Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Quaint1:
...and finally

Harris (thinks)"If ONE MORE PERSON asks how to set up a 'Get me to the UK' appeal..."

Au Res.,
Paul

This picture needs to have a caption contest!

Hi Paul-

It was truly great to meet you. You're a good guy. Will be in touch soon.

Scott Thomas

quote:

Originally posted by barobehere:

quote:

Originally posted by Quaint1:
...and finally

Harris (thinks)"If ONE MORE PERSON asks how to set up a 'Get me to the UK' appeal..."

Au Res.,
Paul

This picture needs to have a caption contest!

"You WILL give me free back issues of NSU....."



Great review Paul! See you in the Spring!

Good review Paul and some nice pictures. Glad you had a great time over there.

Great Report

Great report Paul! As I've ssid before, it was great to meet in you person. For me that's one of the more enjoyable aspects of the show... putting faces with names.

Thanks Laura - the same back atcha!
To be honest, even if there hadn't been any cards, the show would have been fun - I got to meet so many people from Card Talk, from the magazine, from the podcast and elsewhere - it was truly like coming home to the family!
Au Res.,
Paul