Brimfield revisited

[crackofthebat]

After a 4 or 5 year hiatus I returned to the Brimfield Flea Market to find that things haven't changed much. All fields were full with the exception of the 1:00 pm show which had a lot fewer dealers. As in the past, there are a number of sports memoriblia dealers (who shall go nameless!) who do a token set up on each field so they can pick over the goods before the general public is admitted. It was nice to meet Liam O"Bannion and Bruce Wiley who were set up on one of the smaller fields. Terry Carrothers (a true gentleman to do business with) and his son were shopping, but did not set up this year. Besides Liam's nice display of bats there weren't many bats to look at. Did see a surprising number of gloves here and there. My big purchase was a Walter Johnson D&M model G40. I bought it from Charlie Holden who had it in his personal collection for over 20 years. Very strange looking web on the glove. All in all it was a nice two days spent with my son, Brett. When he was a little kid he use to tag along with me when I went hunting for gloves. Now it was my turn to tag along with him - boy does he move along fast! Dad doesn't move as fast as he use to!!!!

[mjkm90]

Fred. It's dissapointing that much of the picking takes place before the shows open. Happens most of the time. I was under the impression that some of the shows there did not allow for pre-shopping. Did either of you see people walking around with exceptional pieces they had picked up (I'm particularly interested in bats and trophies)?

[vintagebrett]

Hey Mike - welcome aboard!

The shows say they do not allow pre-shopping but it is a bunch of crap. We were watching people buy stuff at least an hour before the gates opened up. We've always wondered why dealers sell to other dealers because the general public would probably pay more. Some of the shows at Brimfield open at daybreak and the dealers are little slow getting open - this is when you have the best chance to find things.

I literally ran into one dealer as he was getting a box of sports stuff handed over the fence to him. He had two bats - a nice D&M and a Yogi Berra coaches bat - nothing I would call extroadinary. There was a gentleman set up who had some nice trophies from the 1920's - I know there was two baseball ones but he wanted close to $900 for each of them.

[mjkm90]

A buddy of mine from California went out for four days. He picked up some nice items, but no significant bargains. I've heard a lot of big name dealers buy many of the top items prior to Brimfield. In fact, he met two who named some of the big boys they sell to regularly.

[vintagebrett]

Here are some of the gloves that we got and I just cleaned up. From left to right are the Wilson Top Notch for a lefty, Rawlings Bill White HOH XFB1, Rawlings catchers mitt, D&M Chas. Ruffing, Hank Aaron professional model, Wilson 615 splitfinger and a MacGregor Big Klu.