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November 2007 Del Mar Antiques
Show Report
The fall Del Mar Antiques Show
featured at least four dealers with cigar box labels for sale. InStone, Inc. which
featured only cigar label art or (related material) seemed to have a pretty good buzz
around their booth during most of the show. Prominent names in cigar label
circles attending the show were Tandi and Carolyn Wiley, Nick Buzolich, Dr. Richard
Matsueda, Michael Rodriguez and Dr. Buzard.
Author of the best selling cigar
label book, Dr. Gerard Petrone was there and met Dr. Russel Buzard, an Escondido
collector at this show for the first time. And Michael Rodriguez, who just reviewd Dr.
Petrone's book in issue five of the Cigar Label Art Digest was able to meet the
author of his prized, new addition to his extensive library: Petrone's "Cigar Box
Labels-Portraits of Life, Mirrors of History."
There was a trend at this show
toward certified (graded by GCLGS) labels. The trend especially affected the
InStone 100 titles. GCLGS (Global Cigar Label Grading Service) has graded enough
InStone 100 labels, that the up grading process has started. Consensus sets
are starting to be formed.
June 2007 Long Beach Coin
& Collectibles Show Report
The Cigar Label section of the June, 2007 Long Beach Expos
Unlimited Coins and Collectibles Show was very busy. All the
label dealers were in agreement that it was the best show
for labels in the past seven or eight years. This extra
excitement can be attributed to a few factors: One could be
the world wide growing numbers of players in Cigar Box
Labels on the internet. Also, two other main factors at this
show were the presence of Dennis Celano and Dave and Elena
Beach. Dennis was representing Astral, Inc. and Global Cigar
Label Grading Service from Brighton, Michigan. Dave and
Elena are active dealers from Goldenrod, Florida. Dave is a
high energy buyer and seller of cigar labels and has been
for many years. Dave stirred up many thousands of dollars in
trades in the labels for the full three and one half days of
the show. Dave has promised to try to get out to every show
in the future. That says a lot about what he thought about
the label action at this show. Dave’s wife, Elena a
statuesque blonde Russian woman appears to be taking to the
labels.
Dennis accepted many labels destined for Michigan and the
grading, authentication and archival mounting process at
GCLGS. These labels will now have a pedigree as they are
entered into a permanent data bank. Many graded labels
traded hands at this show. Quite a few buyers expressed more
confidence in buying the labels graded and authenticated.
All the cigar label bourse dealers were very happy with the
action at this convention. Along with Dave and Elena Beach
behind the bourse tables were Si Bass, Mike Bianco, Nick
Buzolich, Side Emerson, Jordan Good and Ken Nichols. Long
time antique dealers who have handled cigar box labels were
John Camp and Gene and Vivian Pagel. Two of the most recent
inductees into the label fraternity are Tandi and Carolyn
Wiley. These two sisters-in-law are so enthusiastic they
pulled a friend, Steve into the web. When Steve first sat
down to look at labels, he commented that they were pretty
but "What are they?" A few hours later he was walking out
with Tandi and Carolyn with his new labels. At least one of
these was a GCLGS graded label. Have fun Steve! There is no
cure for "labelitis!"
Also at this show were coin/label dealers Dave Caciola from
Texas and Mike Sergeant from Orange County. Both of these
gentlemen added lots of excitement to our label section.
Rafael Gonzales, Bob Harris and Richard Matsueda all added
to their label collections. We also enjoyed visiting with
Tom Butler, John and Barbara Davis, Juliet el Sharif, Joe
Jan Lois, Kirk Harris, Judity Kagin, Jim McVie, Keith Poore,
Michael Rodriguez and Mike Bianco’s beautiful friend, Kathy
Matsumoto.
At our meeting on Thursday night, we were honored for the
first time with Ron Gillio’s presence. Ron, the head man of
the Expos Unlimited, arranged for the filming of a segment
of "The Seven Principles of Winnervators" to be filmed
during our meeting. This documentary is being produced by
eBay and should be shown in two to four months. This filming
was a lot of fun! We clapped on cue and sighed on cue. Stars
of this documentary included Andy Richter and Paul F.
Tompkins/ Andy and Paul appeared on television from time to
time on "The Late Night with Conan O’Brien Show" along with
other shows.
The next Long Beach Coin & Collectibles Expo will be
September 27-29, 2007. Our meeting will be on Thursday,
September 27th at 6 p.m. in Room 102-A in the
Long Beach Convention Center in downtown Long Beach. If
there are any changes we will post them on our site listed
in the "Shows" section.
April 2007 Del Mar Antiques Show
The Del Mar Antiques Show is becoming a great venue for
cigar box labels. Many new faces are now looking at the
labels; asking the right questions and showing a genuine
interest in acquiring some of their own. Many are interested
in acquiring images of a particular subject such as pretty
women, buildings, horses, etc. Others are finding comfort in
buying the GCLGS (Global Cigar Label Grading Service) graded
labels which are not only authenticated but are mounted in
an archival holder.
Along with many new faces at the show were veteran labelers
Nick Buzolich and Judy Hill from Orange County, Bill and
Donna Houser who own "The Cave" antiques mall in Escondido,
and Mr. And Mrs. Robert Cox. Maybe you’ve read one of the
many books on antiques that Mrs. Cox has written. Dr. Gerard
Petrone, who has written a very comprehensive book on
tobacco advertising and cigar box labels (Cigar Box Labels),
signed a special copy of his book for an appreciative fan
when he and Mrs. Petrone stopped by the InStone, Inc. booth.
Dr. Russell Buzard, along with his wife, Trish, seemed to
enjoy looking at and talking about labels. Bob Payne of
Payne-Mason Private Brand Cigar Makers visited the label
booths. Tandi and Carolyn Wiley, sisters-in-law who have a
great appreciation for labels, were also present. The
enthusiasm Tandi and Carolyn have has led them to
independently seek out as much information on cigar box
labels as they can. We’re looking forward to gaining
knowledge of this growing field from them!
The staff here at InStone, Inc. will be showing 5,000 labels
at our booth at the November 15-18, 2007 Del Mar Antiques
Show. We are looking forward to seeing you there.
February 2007 Long Beach Report
Set up day for the first Long Beach Show of 2007 was on
Valentine’s Day, February 14th. Two subjects
dominated the three days and three nights of label chatter.
Those two subjects were the third party grading of labels
and the upcoming Feb. 26th and 27th
Heritage Americana Auction (HA.com). The Cigar Label Art
section of this auction will be in Session One closing on
February 26th. You will be getting updates on
this site periodically.
Heritage Auction Galleries was kind enough to provide us
with an ample amount of hard copies of the catalog to be
given to the cigar label folks who came to our booth during
the show. Everybody was impressed by the classy catalogs and
the wide range of material being offered. Our thanks go to
long time cigar label patron, David Lisot of Heritage
Galleries for bringing the catalogs for distribution at the
show. David has helped greatly to facilitate our
participation in the Americana Auction. We are confident
that the activity level in the cigar label section will
warrant the inclusion of labels in future Heritage Auctions.
Our booth displayed eight large binders of third party
graded cigar labels (that are encapsulated in archival
sleeves) for the first time. Global Cigar Label Grading
Service (GCLGS) in Brighton, Michigan has provided a great
service for raising the level of cigar box label trading.
The eight binders were looked at and studied by the regular
cigar label crowd as well as some newcomers. Over ninety
percent of the comments were very favorable. David Caciola
of Dallas, a veteran coin dealer with a critical eye for
third party graded coins, was impressed. As Dave went
through the binders he kept saying how professionally GCLGS
presented their product. Ralph Bowman of San Diego, one of
the top post card dealers in the world, confirmed this
opinion.
Wheeling and dealing in the cigar label booths were Si Bass,
Jordan Good, Ken Nichols, Mike Bianco, Nick Buzolich and Sid
Emerson. Along with lots of familiar faces that were
visiting: John Camp, Mr. And Mrs. Gene Pagel, Chip Brooks,
Rob Eiseman, Roger and Mary Stolberg, Mr. And Mrs. John
Davis, Phil Iverson, Wally Butts, John Butler, Rafael
Gonzales, Bob Purdue, Jeni and Mel Zuber and Kelly and
Carolyn Swanson. Thanks to Rafael we hungry dealers had
wonderful Mexican pastries to hold us over until dinner
time.
January 2007 Del Mar Antique Show
The January Del Mar (California) Antique Show was a
successful three-day event for InStone, Inc. Traffic past
the booth with the InStone banner was fairly brisk. Staffed
by Mike, Mury and Kathy with some assistance from Richard,
Rupert and Sid, the group handed out lots of cigar label
literature. Many of the visitors to the booth already had an
awareness of the growing field of cigar box labels. However,
may people were seeing the cigar box labels for the first
time. With these people we started with the very beginning
of the cigar box label story telling them all about the
process of stone lithography. It is always gratifying when
they respond positively to what they are seeing and hearing.
The patrons of this show have a real appreciation for the
fine art of the cigar labels.
The booth displayed several binders of labels by subject
matter. Many first time label buyers are people with a
passion for a specific subject. Sometimes this passion is
for cigar smoking itself. Other times it may be for cats,
dogs, birds, etc. This show was a first for a collector of
ice skating related material. Although this isn’t the
easiest category for a cigar box label, we had one! It was a
great feeling sending home a happy customer with a prize
that probably no other ice skating fan has. Perhaps this
lady will frame hers and display it in a prominent place,
which means we may get others asking for that kind of label.
Whoops! Now we have to figure our where to get another ice
skating label!
We also displayed several framed labels to show how well
these mini-masterpeces frame up. They would be a great
addition to any room. And since there are an endless variety
of themes, there is sure to be one for EVERYbody. Some of
the greatest images were shown in glass cases on the bourse
tables which caught a lot of people's attention.
Quite a few sales were made from the binders of GCLGS graded
labels. The Global Cigar Label Grading Service in Brighton,
Michigan is speeding up the momentum, which the cigar label
art world is experiencing.
The next Del Mar Antique Show will be on
April 20th -22nd, 2007
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