Brimfield - May 2009

[vintagebrett]

Ah yes, my favorite time of year has arrived and I'm ready to go. crackofthebat and I will be strolling tomorrow looking for some nice leather. We are setting up at Brimfield Acres North next to mghpro - should be some nice equipment between booths 56 and 57 for those of you attending. I'll be an attendee all week so if you are heading up any days, drop me an email at vintagebrett@yahoo.com and I'll give you my cell number.

[MGHProductions]

Like Brett said, we will be set up next to each other. Make sure to come by and say hi if you are up there.
Matt

[Rickybulldog]

Sounds neat guys. Too far for me.

Take some pictures of the festivities. Best of luck in your hunting and selling!

[vintagebrett]

Going to try and do better than pictures - my wife bought Flip HD video camera a little while back - thing is really cool. Hoping to get some good video footage to make a "vintagebrett" documentary.

[GloveCrazy]

Brett, as we have discussed I am totally envious as Brimfield is high on my list of things I've always wanted to do. I really am looking forward to the updates and video. Good luck!

As a Brimfield-clueless person who will go one day I am interested in anyone's tips, from logistical to strategic. Where is the best place to fly and stay? Is there one field better than another, or early versus late approach? I'd love to hear some success stories.

[vintagebrett]

Day one is over and boy am I tired. We arrived around 5 am and hit the fields running. crackofthebat picked up an interesting ball first thing - it is a ONL ball on one side with O'Toole's signature and then the other side it is an Official International League ball. Pretty neat - it has been used but you can see the stampings and the stitching is nice. I didn't pick up much of anything all morning - I did pick up a nice Rawlings TG12 Musial HOH trapeeze and a MacGregor Goldsmith model JH Frank Justine. Pickings were slim! We were set up in the show the opens last on Tuesday. I didn't buy anything on the field except for a MacGregor Goldsmith baseball box for rickybulldog. I traded a bat to mgphpro for a Spalding full web with a neat cranberry color and a Bon Tober sewn web with great tag. That was it for pickups today. I did manage to sell quite a few uniforms - there wasn't anyone else buying gloves or bats as far as we could tell.

Overall it was a fun day - got to see fellow collectors mghpro, Number9, MVALZ and glove-works. Now onto day two.

[vintagebrett]

As a Brimfield-clueless person who will go one day I am interested in anyone's tips, from logistical to strategic. Where is the best place to fly and stay? Is there one field better than another, or early versus late approach? I'd love to hear some success stories.

The best place to fly into is Bradley Airport, just north of Hartford, CT. The best hotel to stay at is Casa De Lowman, just minutes from the airport with chaufeur service to and from Brimfield.

Brimfield Acres North field has proved to be the best throughout the the years for me and my dad. I've also had good finds at New England Motel, May's and J&J.

[Rickybulldog]

I'm excited! Was the Spalding full web for me as well?

[BretMan]

I would love to visit this show sometime. Since I'm umpiring baseball or fastpitch softball tournaments most weekends, it has really cut into my summer antique show and flea market visits.

For you Ohio and nearby points guys, there is a big show in Springfield this weeked (5/15 - 5/17). 2200 dealers expected. There is one guy that is usually there that brings a couple of hundred gloves, but nothing all too special. Another dealer has had the same display of three or four split fingers and a 1" web or two for the past several years I've been going to this show.

Besides that, you never know what other odd or end glove you might find. There are always a few dealers there with sports-related items and many, many great and unusual antiques in general.

Within a one mile area around this show are several large antique malls and you never know what you might find among those collections of, literally, thousands of booths.

To see it all would definitely take a full day, probably two if you don't want to be rushed. Maybe I'll get to do a little glove hunting this weekend after all!

[Number9]

Nice to see some familiar faces yesterday in Brimfield. Also nice to put a couple new faces to names. The Lowman's always seem to find the good stuff!

For those not in the know, Brimfield is largely a furniture market. The sports items are a very small percentage of the total. Still, the offerings are usually pretty good. Saw lots of early football helmets. Not my thing, but they stood out. Probably saw a dozen or so, which is surprising. Brimfield compares very favorably to the Springfield OH show. Both are huge and the offerings are vast. I give Brimfield the edge in terms of size and volume. You can't really do Brimfield in a day. You need at least three to see everything.

I wasn't really there to buy, though, of course, I did pick up a few things. Matt and Brett both had some nice gloves for sale. I wanted to pull the trigger a couple times.

I did pick up a large 1900-1910 team cabinet photo on a whim. I got it because it has lots of gloves and neat equipment in the shot. Didn't even pay attention to the team once I determined I didn't recognize the logo on the jersey. As it turns out there is an African American player front and center. Apparently, that's a bit more historically/culturally significant than an inflatable chest protector and a spider man mask! Now I just need to find out who he is.

[vintagebrett]

Tons of shoppers and dealers on day two. Not tons of sports equipment though. Pretty much nothing on the new fields that opened today. My only purchases today were two nice early bats - a Cayuga Amateur model and a D&M with acorn knob. The only other thing I bought was a 1911 Victor, Wright & Ditson catalog that has some great glove info - JD, you are going to love the Fielder Mitt section - now, you just have to get your library running so I can upload it.

[vintagebrett]

A rarity today for me at Brimfield - I didn't buy one thing! Tomorrow is the last day for new shows - hoping that I find something.

[vintagebrett]

Day 4 turned out to be pretty decent - I got a nice Hanna Batrite bat with the flying logo and it says "Grand Prize" in the label. A couple gloves - a very nice black leather D&M sewn web with nice tag, a full web with an unusual tag from a sporting goods store in Indiana - the glove is crappy but the tag is rare and I figured maybe JD would want it. I also bought a Ken-Wel Babe Herman 1B mitt that I've been looking at all week and the price finally came down to where I needed it to be. My biggest purchase was a 5 stacker Globe Wernicke bookcase. I'd been looking for another stacker all week but I couldn't find one I liked at the price I wanted to pay. This one was perfect!

Overall, not a great week but the weather was nice and I had fun. Here are some pictures of the items. Video of the show to come sometime soon - I need to edit all the clips together and narrate them - hopefully a week or two.

[awarsoca]

damn! i'm really jealous of that bookcase

[GloveCrazy]

I waited until after you got back to comment (but it wasn't easy). First off, let me just state that when we all talk about our beloved local antique flea markets (Long Beach, Rosebowl), we very rarely find anything that is old, and then it is usually beat-up, inked, or expensive. To see the group picture of what you got in four days is pretty tremendous, and it sounds like this may have been a slightly less bountiful trip based on your comments. Anyway, looks pretty amazing to me, especially if you spent time at your booth selling as well. From the first day all I got is one of the greatest models ever produced to the four sewn webs in four days+++ is pretty eye-openeing. By the way, great case. I'm there next year! Of course, I say this knowing I'll be the one to see others get the good stuff, but it's all good ... the hunt is most of the fun.