By Rich Klein
Sometimes we’re lucky in life to be able to work in our chosen field. The other day I was talking to my wife and mentioned that I had spent 28 out of the last 35 years working in a sports or sports card related field. That truly makes me feel blessed.
A few years ago we were in an Adat Chaverim Brotherhood (Men’s Club) meeting and having our typical discussion about how to raise money. I mentioned, as I had a few times in the past, that I would run a card show and raise $500 for the brotherhood. My instincts said that if I could not sell 20 tables at $25 then I needed to get into a new field.
Within an hour, I had permission to use our social hall and we were off and running. At the time I was writing for Sports Collectors Daily, and through the genesis of how a show comes together, we were off and running for show promotion. We were blessed that we received help from many people, and the first show was such a success that we immediately decided to do two shows a year.
The first show is always the first Sunday of the Plano (Texas) Independent School District’s spring break, and the second show is now Sunday/Monday of Labor Day weekend. These dates were selected so we could use the social hall and not interfere with Adat business.
Ever since the first show, we’ve always met the goal of $500 per show, and usually exceed that figure. One of the great joys was how we turned what could have been lemons into lemonade. For the first few shows, we were running 10-12 door prizes a show, which was fairly easy for me to manage. We were informed that Texas state law prohibits non-profits from running more than two lotteries per year. Yes, each door prizes counted as a lottery. So, the Brotherhood President remembered a former card dealer named Myron who would wheel in a TV to all the big shows and then sell grab bags with that as his big prize. Luckily,. giving away bags with a prize slip inside is legal since collectors are already receiving an item of value for their money. Of course that meant that were were always in need of cards. This led to having to move in nearly 200k cards to my office the Monday after Thanksgiving 2017.
But as I mentioned, we have several wonderful advantages at this show, including the great cooperation of the Brotherhood members. This is an “in-action” photo of Brotherhood members stuffing bags for a recent show. That was one of three tables we used that day for stuffing purposes:
I always stress that although I sometimes tend to use the “I” word for this show, there is no way I could run this show without Brotherhood members and some hobby friends. We’ve been very lucky as we approach our sixth year of this year to have raised over $15,000 for our charitable causes. We also have no administrative costs, so whatever we take in goes right back to the community. In addition, we’ve probably given out more than a half-million cards as well as countless prizes. One of our most popular prizes are from the “Island of Misfit Toys”. When I thought of that name it must have come from my subconscious mind with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We always seed the “Island” with some surprises, so collectors who enjoy digging can find items they really enjoy.
But no matter how much work we do, we can always use more cards and prizes! We can provide all needed documentation, so that you can write off not only the donation, but also the postage to ship it our way. While hard work, it’s been a blessing to run this show, and the best part is running this show such is a perfect adjunct to my COMC work. You can always reach me at RichKlein@comc.com if you are interested in donating cards or prizes to our cause which helps the Dallas-Fort Worth Community,.
Our 2019 shows at Adat Chaverim, which is located at 6300 Independence Parkway in Plano, TX (Northeast Corner of Spring Creek and Independence In the shopping center) are scheduled for:
Sunday; March 10 from 10 AM to 4 PM
Sunday; September 1 from 10AM to 4PM
Monday September 2 from 11AM to 3 PM
You must be logged in to post a comment.