Finally, I got a chance to finish my report on the Marx Convention in Wheeling West Virginia.
We left for Wheeling West Virginia early on Thursday so we would have plenty of time to reach our destination. After taking the boys over to their vacation villa, we headed out for Wheeling. The trip was fine except for one heavy downpour which did not bother me as I have been trained to drive in all kinds of weather. We arrived at our hotel and checked in. Once that was done we headed to a restaurant we like called Cheddars. Cheddars is a chain restaurant which we do not have at home. The food is very good and reasonable priced. Once that was done we headed back to the room and got ready the next day.
We got up the next morning and headed down for breakfast. We met some people who were setting up at the show. I do not set up as I do not relax beside a table and I want to do some other things beside the show. We talked to the people told them about the show as it was their first time and then headed over to the show. The show is not far from the hotel we stay at. We parked and walked into the show. We were greeted by the Allan Miller the head of the Kruger toy and Train Museum and got our badges. First person we saw was Allan Ford who has two tables as you come in. Alan had selection of playsets, reissue Jescan and original Marx figures. We said hello and I gave him a photo I took of him at MFCA. From there we went into the main room where the majority of the dealers were. We first said hello to Mike Hanley and David Pittman. As we turned around to the other side Fred Bauer and his wife were there and picked up some airport parts that have sold well for me. From there we said hello to Rick Eber, who had a selection of Marx playsets and Marx parts. One of the playsets he had for sale was the Marx Daktari Playset with a nice drawing of Marshall Thompson and Judy the chimp. Just as we were going to turn the corner we found Bob DeAngelo. This was the first time for Bob to be at the show. Bob had decided to try the show and we advise him to check out the exhibits at the Kruger museum and go over to the Marx Museum in Moundsville as it was free for the weekend. Bob has a nice selection of dinosaurs and comic character figures. I was able to pick up some character figures from him including several from Linde of Austria.
We turned the corner and saw Carey from Maryland and then further down saw our friend John Reichle from back home. John had driven in the night before and had missed the rain. John had various items for sale and we talked how poor the selection had been at the flea markets this year. Mark Hegeman who was across from John was not set up at the time. Mark gets about 5 tables and has a wide range of items from Ideal Battleground pieces to foreign plastic with Marx his forte including a rare Louis Marx as Mao.
From John we went into one of the smaller rooms. This room had three dealers Tim Stein, Pat Crowin and Steve Connell. Tim had been at a flea market the week before where we had kidded him if he had anything for the show. His wife said he will have stuff for sale. His wife gave that stare all men dread. Tom had a number of items including a find from the flea market where we saw him and his wife. At that flea market there had been an indoor toy show. Tom had gotten a Marx large Fort Apache and Marx Civil War playsets out of the box. The person had brought the flea market to sell. The bad news is a dealer at the inside toy show that was being held with the flea market got it first. Worse news the dealer looked it up on the internet before he would sell it. Tom bought it to the show to sell as a lot or pieces. Pat had a nice selection of Marx and other companies for sale which I am to find a few items. Steve had a selection of Marx WOW for sale without the box.
A new room had been opened which had all the Marx train people. There was a nice display of Marx train cars. The party with the display said he had an example of almost all the Marx cars. From there we went to final room on the lower level which I call the Johnny West area. This room has the Johnny West collectors it also had several non- Johnny West collectors including Joe Falce and Calvin Plowman. Joe is an old customer from my lists and I always find items from him for the list and the collection. This year he had a wide selection of plastic and I bought from him some Timpo plus some U.S. plastic figures. Calvin had not set up which usually happens at this show I bought him from next day some Rado 60mm Marx reissues.
Once we were done on the first floor, we when up to the third floor. There were only three dealers: John Boykod, Todd Nace and Robert Fetco. John had a very good selection of figures and toys. Likewise Robert has plastic figures. I was able to get off of him some Peco and Lido knights. Todd was selling Marx items, nothing I could use for the collection or resale. Once we had done the second floor we headed back down. Mark had set up and we looked over his items and did a second circuit of the lower level. After the second circuit we will relax a little and talk to people we know at the show. We catch up on how they are doing and answer any questions on plastic figures. Laurie is always talking to people about the dogs. We stopped at John Stengel and I told him that he had a collector from Brazil at the Gettysburg show and the collector had put up pictures and story about the show on his web site. John is known as the Marxman and has a wide selection of new and old pieces. He did not have any of the new Paragon figures so we went back to the other rooms looking.
We circled around a number of times making sure we did not miss something. A dealer might put something out that was not there the first time or I might hold off buying an item. If it is there on next trip I may purchase it. After several hours we decided on a break and headed to our favorite restaurant in Wheeling Later Alligator.
We found the restaurant on our second time in Wheeling and enjoyed the soups and sandwiches so we try to get there at least once on our trip. The food is very good and afterwards Laurie checked out boutique but did not find anything. From the lunch we did a second go round of the show. We ran in to Norm who is always finding great stuff at his thrift shops. We finally connected with Eric Johns and talked to him for a few minutes before he went to a panel. We walked the rooms and did some nice deals before calling it a day. We headed back to the hotel to relax as we did not sleep well.
After a rest we headed back to Cheddars for dinner. We had enjoyed our meal the previous night and we wanted to try it again. The food was good as previous night. We also did two stores in the shopping center. They have a book store called Books a Million which we do not have back in our area. I did not find anything outstanding, but I did get two watches for Laurie. She later discovered that they had a bible verse on inside band that touches the wrist that had been used at our wedding. We also went to Petco to pick up biscuits for the boys. The biscuits they like are being dropped by Petco so we had been visiting any Petco we can find to stock up on their biscuits. We passed on the meeting at the Marx Museum as we had been there last year. I got a report later which I will post separate. We head back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.
We got a good night’s sleep and packed up for the trip home. After filling the car up we went back to the museum to make one last go around. There two good times to go to a show when it just starting or near the end. If you go early you can find good buys or the end when some dealers are willing to make deals so they do not have to take it home. We did a little of both on Saturday; several dealers had buys which I purchased. I also found from Don Mclean some Tetley Tea premium figures which I got for myself and resale. Calvin Plowman had two sets of Marx 60mm reissues which I could use. Mark Hegeman was doing deals which I had to take. After an hour of final purchases we headed home.
On the way home we made two stops. The first was at Giant Eagle Supermarket which we had gotten Heinz pickles. In our area we can get Heinz ketchup, mustard and relish but not Heinz pickles. This year we were disappointed as they did not have Heinz pickles so we cross that spot off our list. The other stop was at a Bob Evans for lunch. We lost our Bob Evans restaurant last year due to poor sales so it has been a treat when we find them. After getting a meal we headed back on the road and were home without any problems.
The Marx meet was very subdued. The prices were up, quality was down. One dealer that I had bought well from in the past I only bought one item this year. I did make some very good deals which made the trip worthwhile; I am concern for the future. The crowd was down and I heard later that most of the dealers left around 12 on Saturday. For myself I did not get many items. I did get some Marx doll house figures which were made in the U.S. but painted in Hong Kong. I was wondering if Marx was planning on shipping the figures over to be painted and then ship the figures back. I got a Tetley Tea figure I do not have, it is damaged on the base (a piece is missing) and a few foreign figures including some Russian flats representing the Napoleonic Wars. We will go back and hope it was off year.