Margate Mini-Meet
Jim Kitchell and Bob Dinkin
Charlie Lowry
Display Table
Sorting Tables
Margate Mini-Meet
by Jim Kitchell
Friday, July 25, 2003, I had the good fortune to participate in the first South Florida Business Card mini-meet in Margate, FL. Doug Cool organized this on short notice (less than six weeks) which is why it was not widely advertised on IBCC. Participants besides Doug & myself were Bob Dinkin & Charles Lowry. I had previously met Bob so it was good to see him again. It was also great to finally meet Doug & Charlie.
The meeting took place in the activities room of Doug's condo. He made up a neat sign for the door & also provided refreshments. We each had our own sorting table. We spent about three & a half hours sifting thru cards & exchanging BC stories. Doug is trying to downsize his collection so the other three of us all came away with more cards than we brought. I picked up several hundred new cards from my want list. Also got a hundred or so for my traders, including some Carols, some music-related, some horse, globe, animal, & balloon logos, to list just a few.
Doug also brought some correspondence that he's received over the years from BC traders. One letter that was especially funny went something like this. Doug was in Michigan about 10 years ago & dropped off a box of cards to one of his traders, who wasn't home that day. A while later he got this letter which said "sorry I missed you & thanks for the cards." At the end of the letter she said "it was nice meeting you." The best part was in the middle of the letter where she offered to pay the postage if he would send her 25,000 BCs from her want list. Can you imagine sorting & counting that many cards? At the end of the letter was "PS - I am single." The whole thing was hilarious, especially the way Doug read the letter to us out loud.
Fair warning to scavenger hunt participants, Bob traded me a Statue of Liberty & a KY State trooper card for my extra golf cart & nut/bolt card. We also found some teepee cards while sorting, so we both are closer to having all the categories.
This was a great experience which further enhanced my enjoyment of our hobby. We talked about another South Florida mini-meet next January. Once we agree on a date we will try to give some advance notice in hopes of drawing more participants.