By Lou Modestino
The recent three day “Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club Presents The Big Event” was held at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA, celebrating the 26th anniversary of the Club and the 25th anniversary of the 1986 Red Sox Team. On hand for autographs were Cal Ripken, Jr., Vida Blue, Orlando Cepeda, Bruins players Tyler Sequin and Tim Thomas, Bruins coach Claude Julian, Gino Capelletti and Mickey Ward. Also on hand were Wade Boggs, former Red Sox player and Hall of Famer, and Jim Rice.
Show organizer Jeff Oxman, who also had a large display himself on the arena floor, explained, “We’ve been here for 25 of our 26 years. We started out in a hotel but the turnout forced us to find bigger quarters. We were able to cut a good deal with the Shriners, and that’s the end of the story. We probably put 4,400 to 4,600 collectors and fans through here this weekend, and with the recession taking hold, we were very surprised that we did so well.”
He went on to say, “No doubt, because we have a good reputation and good quality products, we get the real hard core collectors. This is also the only show we do. We have items here that you can’t find anywhere else. We’re here to stay because it’s a great location (Off Rt. 128 & I-95), and we have a good working relationship with the Shriners. This year they increased the parking capability in the upper lot just in time for our show.”
The show itself featured over 200 dealers showcasing world class sports collectables as well as non-sport items such as comics and toys. Door prizes and shopping sprees were given away. Collectables like a 1934 World Series Program along with tickets, jerseys and the like from that era were for sale. After touring the arena floor filled with thousands of wall-to-wall baseball, football, basketball and hockey collectables, fans could grab a bite to eat in the adjacent cafe.
A number of Boston area sports fans lamented about the high price of tickets for the Bruins, Red Sox and Patriot games. The consensus seemed to be that they were getting ripped off. Yet their complaints were tinged with acceptance that if they quit going to the games, there would only be other ticket buyers who would replace them. Concerning the NBA lockout, the general impression was “Who cares?”
There was much buzz about the Bruins taking the Stanley Cup. Fans bought their favorite Bruins players’ jerseys at the show, and afterwards waited patiently in line to have them autographed by the likes of Claude Julian and Tim Thomas. Some autographs went for as high as $79. Some of the fees were supposed to go charity.
Mike, originally from Whitman, MA, a huge Bruins fan, elaborated, “I’ve got a lot of Bruins items with autographs. That’s what makes the collectables valuable. I buy a lot of different stuff. I only collect and I don’t sell. It gets to be expensive. I try to get the more popular players, and that makes it worth the expense.” Mike will be headed for Las Vegas this week to see the fight between Manny Pacquoid and Juan Marquez as he’s also a boxing fan.
Everybody likes a winner, as the saying goes, and it was easy to see that the Bruins players and collectables were the most sought after items at the show. Mike waited for his lottery number to be called so that he could get his Bruins Stanley Cup poster autographed. Considering the large crowd of autograph hounds on hand, it was a good system to have been utilized.
After covering many sports shows over the years, only one case of collector cards of NASCAR Chase To The Nextel Cup contender Tony Stewart was seen at this particular show. While NASCAR has made some in-roads among New England and Northeast fans, the Boston area basically still has a hard core fan base who are interested in traditional stick-and-ball sports only. In order to get them to cross over into motorsports, it’s obvious that much hard work still needs to be done by venues such as the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH, which hosts a pair of NASCAR weekends during the summer months.