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It seems remarkable that the weather is always exemplary on the morning of the show and so one is thrust from the stunning brightness of a clear winter morning sky into what seems like a greenly-light murky cave. The Phys. Ed. Center is actually an ideal venue for a show like this and while the architecture can hardly be described as ground-breaking, the bones of the domed, circular ceiling make for an impressive cover. But the room is illuminated by a circular array of spartan industrial fixtures that give off a olive-green cast. The sudden shock of the gloomy lighting is exacerbated by the fact that the bulbs appear to be nearing the end of their 5-year cycle and there are many that have given up the ghost. The remainder struggle to make the rows of glass below sparkle convincingly, an issue that apparently is a major source of complaint among the vendors. |
| But eyes adjust rapidly and soon the hunt is on! Regular show-goers develop their own unique entrance strategies. I always start out with the paranoid belief that shot-collecting colleagues are already scouring the tables ahead of me, and there is a sense of urgency that drives me into the fray. I guard my own show tactics as carefully as my eBay searches (as if that does any good!), but sufficient to say that I pay little attention to anything except the contents of tables as I systematically prowl the rows. |
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| My first trawl yielded little except for a Truog novelty glass that I have in my collection already. Not that there weren't shots to be had, it's just that they were priced so high that even with maximal show discount, they weren't worth a second look. Notable among them were a pair of R. W. Wrights that has been taped together for a lot price of $65. Pulling the tape off the labels would have been more painful that pulling a band-aid off my chest! There was a thinned Lord Fairfax - $65 on eBay, $85 here. I passed. There was a more common variant of the Bowler's Club - I hesitated and then passed at $45 but someone grabbed it minutes later. |  |
