Antique Row was teeming with bottle collectors. There were several good-sized malls and I didn't have time to run through them all, but the only shot glass to be found was a Royal Purple Grape Juice from Harrisburg, PA. The store owner told me how pleased she was to have bought it when offered to her. It had a price tag of $95 on - I didn't have the heart to tell her what it was really worth or how many I have in my sales-and-trader stash!
By the time I made it back to the Fairplex for the start of the show, a fair-size crowd had built up inside the entrance. The tables below show some of the FOHBC "stuff" on offer: hats, T-shirts, and a selection of souvenir shirts from last year's show in York, PA. In fact there was so much left over from 2008 that the Fed had decided not to have a special shirt printed up for this year's event. I consoled myself with one from last year; at only $2 apiece, it was my cheapest purchase of the entire trip!!
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1:05 pm and
they're off!
Wayne Lowry gave the OK for the early buyers to enter and the pent-up crowd surged in through the gate. Since there was nothing on the tables at this juncture, being front of the line seemed pointless so I hung back and snapped a pic for this report. Once inside, I started down the row of tables on the right of the building. About three tables down, there was an almighty crash behind me and there were bottles and shards of clear and colored glass spinning through the aisles in all directions. |
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One doesn't have to be a bottle collector to feel the anguish of this unlucky dealer (Larry Shope from Oklahoma: left). The table upon which he was setting his sales glass had given way, sending twenty or so bottles crashing onto the concrete floor. Some survived; many didn't. I felt somewhat guilty about taking a picture - rather like the reporter who reaches for a camera to take an image of a shooting victim rather than rushing to the unfortunate's help. But a story's a story after all! Heart-stopping crashes and bangs seemed to be the theme of the show, although I believe this was the only major breakage. |
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