haha, i know thjat one year i had a room and set up on sunday was work. I mean i broke a sweat trying to pack up sunday and leave the place. Well
hopefully next year you will come. Maybe jsut set up one room which i think would be easier on you
Thank God for my show helper Larry Allen, the pack up/hump downstairs/set up again on Saturday was beyond brutal, he was a Godsend, he's officially retired from shows and I was unable to find a replacement for this show, which played into my decision.
Quick funny story; we're in the lower ballroom, there is 8 feet from the edge of my table to the edge of the table of the vendor across from me, there used to be a vendor who would steal tables and invert his layout, stealing about 6 feet of the 8 feet, I went to Roger Garfield the show promoter over it, it was beyond annoying, left me no room to work.
One year Larry measured the distance and put tape down to mark the 4 foot mark, I had no clue he did that............we're downstairs setting up and the other dealer is all torqued off "I can't believe Roger put tape down to mark the 4 foot spot, wait until I see him, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!!!"..............me and Larry get in the elevator around midnight to go upstairs to grab a few hours shut eye before going back downstairs on Sunday to finish setting up...............he starts laughing uncontrollably.............I'm confused, so I say "You wanna share the joke?"..........he blurts out "I'M the one who put the tape down!!"..........we were literally killing ourselves laughing on the way back to the room..........every once and awhile on Sunday, we'd both look at each other and just start laughing.
In the ballroom where I am, Nick from TSSD passed away, plus Gerrard from Frontline, Nick from Crown, John from the Marxman, Gary from Warstore Collectibles, Eddie from Relic Golden Amusements and Judy and Glenn from Unique Collectibles have all dropped out of the show, not sure how they will fill that lower room, time marches on and it's sad, we had a million laughs pre and post show in that room, some of the banter back and forth was priceless.
It's the little things I will miss about Chicago......................