We have returned from a great weekend at SOS. The people I met face-to-face were the highlight of collecting. We all had a great time. I’ll try to give a rundown of what happened and what we saw.
Some of the diehards arrived Wednesday night to set up the table on Thursday morning. A bunch of us went out to eat and we planned for the next morning. Most of us stayed in the Executive Inn East. Chas and Donna stayed in the La Quinta, Bill, Sean and Cindy Thiemann stayed in the Residence Inn. The executive inn sucked. The rooms were lousy the service poor and the dining opportunities, rotten. I will try to find another venue for next year.
Thursday was supposed to be a dealer set up day. In reality, it was a cooking deal. People zoomed around looking out for what was offered and the buying started right away. OVMS members were allowed in by noon, but the clear lesson is to be there first thing Thursday morning. We set up our tables and by noon, our group began to grow. Other imperial collectors were scattered around the hall. Dave Mosher and Randy Trawnik had tables on not the city and its of the hall, as did George Anderson. Next year, we are going to try to put all of the imperial tables together. That way we will have more helmets there and someone to watch the tables all the time. Both brothers bought a helmet, and Randy Trawnik and Tony Cowan were joined by a German gentleman named Sebastian. He had many helmets, and I fell in love with his 94th . It was too expensive for me, and even though it was perfect, I elected not to buy.
After the show closed Thursday night we had a beer and pizza party in the Robinson room. It was one of the highlights of the show. We are blessed with a great group of folks. The girls got along famously and the next thing you know, they were out shopping. They alternated between the tables and going out on the town.
Friday was very busy also. There was a huge line to get in the door. It was a large hall with 1600 tables and a bathroom that was “overflowing”. Otto attracted huge attention and brought many people to our table. The chicks dug him. Tony Cowan helped me get the plate off the 94th helmet. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH…..it was a fake! You absolutely could not tell from the front. The back of the plate was a poor galvano copy. It wasn’t even close. The solder with shiny, and there was zero detail back there. The edges were thick and there was no trace of any gilding. The front of the plate had us all fooled. It was a good lesson for checking the back of the plate and worrying about the future of fakes. I was dumb struck.
18 of us went to dinner at a German restaurant. Life was super good.
Saturday people started to leave the show. I mean dealers were closing up exhibits. There was a large gun show in the hall next door and that attracted mass attention and several of our members bought guns. 18 of us one out to eat and it was like these people had been together for 10 years.
I would like to thank everyone who came in especially those who helped me with my disability get from point A to point B.
King Weasel sent some pictures and when Janet gets home from goofing off I will try to download some of those I took. Janet and I both want to come next year. We had that good of the time. In my opinion is not a guy only thing.
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