And another Chicagopex is in the books! I drove up Thursday morning, stopping at a fellow revenue collector’s house in Joliet, IL, where I was given a tour of his impressive collection(s), and we did some revenue document horse trading. The weather for the drive was beautiful; in fact the entire weekend was gorgeous: bright and sunny with highs in the 50s-60s… a far cry from some years when it’s been snow and ice.

I arrived onsite at about noon, and there were already dealers about, although the bourse room wasn’t available for load-in until 2PM. I got my guest dealer badge and spent 2-6PM on the floor greeting and catching up with dealers I hadn’t seen in a year. As soon as Denny Peoples got even close to setting up, there was as usual a feeding frenzy. I had just seen him at the Indianapolis MSDA show 2 weeks prior so there wasn’t a whole lot new, but I was able to set aside an item that I had passed on at that show but had been regretting (a Scott #RL1 plate number imprint capture on document).

I dropped off a box of reveue-stamped paper (Scott # RNs) that I had brought for Peter Schwartz for him to look through and purhase from. I’d met him last year at Eric Jackson‘s booth when he was at Chicagopex as an attendee. This was his first year setting up as a dealer, and he has wonderful material and a very artistic eye as to his booth display.

Thursday night I had dinner with, and sold some material to, a revenue collector who had flown in from New Mexico. He comes to the show every 3-4 years and I bring material for his collecting interests. It was great to catch up, and his purchase funded my major show acquisition. Took some of the sting out of things.

I had asked Eric if he had any RL (Customs Fee) documents beyond what he had on his website and if so, could he bring them. He did, some of them exceptionally rare, and he graciously allowed me to take all of them, along with the RL documents already in inventory, up to my hotel room overnight so I could scan them for a forthcoming reference/census page I’m planning. So I scanned while my friend shopped, and it was an enjoyable evening.

During the evening, I went through the unsold lots at Rasdale Stamps on the off chance there might be something revenue-related, and there actually was! I bought an R174a (horizontal pair, imperf between) at a very nice price. I already have one, but this will make nice trade bait. It’s a fairly esoteric item, which is presumably why it didn’t sell, as there were no issues with it conditionwise.

Friday dawned, and I hit the bourse at 8AM when the doors opened. Within minutes, dealer-to-dealer buying/selling/trading was well underway. My largest purchase of the show was actually my first purchase of the show, from Sterling Stamps: A Scott # R84a with all the right characteristics (color, margins, cancel date, and paper type). I was able to have both Eric Jackson and Richard Friedberg examine the stamp prior to my purchasing it, and both gave it their (informal) stamp of approval, so I jumped. It was at a price I couldn’t say no to, and perfectly sound, which is never found in this price range. The manuscript cancel is a little wonky, but overall I’m thrilled. I also picked up a stockbook lot of oddball worldwide non-Scott cinderellas and a large unsold auction lot of Persia.

Rusty Shoaf had a bunch of new Zieher and Semmler (numismatic) postcards. I picked up a few postally used examples, but held off on any major purchase, as I still have not created list of which ones I have and didn’t want to purchase dupes… I’ll revisit the issue at the January WI/IL Stateline MSDA show. I picked up a nice little battleship documentary improper use cover from Stephen Taylor.

Mark Cwiakala had contacted me after receiving the wantlist letter I sent to all of the dealers prior to the show, saying that he had some 19th century billheads for me. I set a few pieces aside pending his bringing in some additional billheads for me later in the show.

Kevin LaFrance had a revenue cancel collection that he had purchased from another dealer earlier in the day, that even after being flipped, showed some value potential. It included about a half dozen examples of printed card company cancels on the 2-cent Playing Cards (Scott # R2c). He was absolutely firm on his price though, so I decided to hold off and mull it over.

At one point I stopped by Denny’s table to see whether he had purchased anything interesting from other dealers. He had, and I picked up a very unusual item that none of us could figure out what it is (separate forum post coming for that one). I spent a few hours at Richard’s table, looking through 15 or so sales books of new material he had acquired, and set aside a few nice cancels and an R3b pair. I also bit the bullet and picked up two Silver Tax documents I had been eyeing for the past several shows.

Overall, the show traffic appeared solid, especially during the morning. It appeared to taper off in the afternoon somewhat. The dealer sentiment was pretty positive for day 1… would it hold up?

Several of us went out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant about a half hour away from the show venue. It was my first time having Vietnamese cuisine, and dang was it good! Surprisingly affordable (for Chicagoland) as well. Then it was back to my hotel room for some trading and to go over the day’s acquisitions.

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday morning and off I went… I bought a small revenue box lot and several improper use documents from Karl at Michigan Street Antiques. Charles Berg of Stamp King had told me he had revenue material, which is not usually the case, so I spent some time at his table and picked up a few nice items including a gorgeously centered R80c.

I stopped by Volovski Rarities and looked through a revenue collection that had a lot of decent mint material; we just couldn’t come to terms on it. I spent the majority of the day sitting across from Michael at A to Z Stamps going through a ton of new revenue material. While I was there, another dealer came up and said they had just caught a show attendee stealing from them and had called security. Michael said that they had caught someone on Friday at their booth (foreshadowing).

After I was done there, I returned to Kevin’s booth. I decided to try and get that cancel collection, but on slightly better terms. After browsing through his revenue inventory again, I offered “I’ll pay your asking price on the collection if you will take [HEAVILY REDUCED PRICE] for these other items.” After a frown and a ponder, he agreed. So that worked out ok in the end. While this process was going on, there was a kerfuffle at Michael’s table. Apparently ANOTHER person had been caught stealing, and apparently a significant enough amount that the police were called and he was led away in handcuffs. People… sheesh.

I stopped by Rasdale to pick up the lot I had purchased Thursday night, thus saving me shipping costs. Making rounds and speaking with dealers at the end of the day Saturday, the general sentiment had grown from positive to in some cases PHENOMENAL! Several mentioned it being their best Chicagopex in 5+ years. Seating at Michael’s booth was completely full every time I looked and for the entirety of the 5+ hours I spent there on Saturday.

Saturday evening was just dinner at the hotel (BTW, the Asian cauliflower wings there are WONDERFUL!), some more trading, and then an early night after packing up to prep for an early exit on Sunday.

Sunday morning I packed up the car at 6AM and then went back for breakast. I picked up a few interesting world covers from Jerry Koepp at Stamps N Stuff. I said my goodbyes to the dealers that were on the floor by 9AM, and then made one last trip back to Sterling Stamps and picked up a few oddball world lots before heading out. There was some local shopping I wanted to do and still get home 2.5 hours away while it was still light.

Chicagopex was a great time, as usual. It was nowhere as financially painful as previous years, thanks to the material I brought for sale. I was proud of myself for not dipping into credit cards even once!