The 2010 show Saturday, August 21, was a good one, despite some glitches. Here are some of the problems we confronted:

*Three days before the show, I turned 60 (no, I cannot be 60 years old, I'm actually younger than both of my sons). That was a psychological drag (not so much physical or mental, since I was only one day older than the day before), but the show-day energy quickly overcame that issue.

*Comic Whiz (Banks Robinson) was unable to come to the show because of a heavy schedule-he just ran out of time, his helpers were unable to help.. Didn't check my voice mail, so wasn't aware until the morning of the show, and had to shuffle things around on the fly.

*Chris Garbee of Untamed Worlds had to leave abruply midway through the show because of a family medical crisis. Haven't heard an update on his father as of this writing.

*Greg White had to back out of attending the show a few days before; there were enough on the waiting list to still have a sell-out.

*Nancy, the heart and soul of the show, had to work 6 hours overtime, so my son Chris and Alta filled in with her ticket sales and managerial duties until she arrived.

*A charitable effort, donating money to Floyd County Lady Buff Softball, and Feeding Southwest Virginia (formerly Second Harvest Food Bank), drew a minimal response, in part because we got such a late start in that effort. We'll have a much better charitable effort in 2011.

Despite all that, the show went well and sales were strong. I had one of the best shows ever at Salem. Rick Fortenberry (Capt. Comics) had one of his best one-day shows ever. Other vendors I heard from did well. Because I had such a good sales day, I was able in turn to make the largest purchases (dollar wise) ever at my show; didn't get any bargain box material but some good old material.

We lost 19 vendor tables due to Chicago Wizard and other conflicts and were still able to sell out the show, actually we had 52 tables, up from the previous record of 51. Among the new vendors was a collector of original comic art dating back to the 1930s, and a pulp dealer, with material dating back to the 1920s.

Notable sales (I didn't get to ask many dealers, so if you know of more spectacular sales, let me know):

*Western Bandits #1; Power Comics #2 (scarce, with Hitler-Tojo cover); scarce vintage paperbacks "World Without Men" and "Eastern Shame Girl", Artistic Comics #1 (R. Crumb); and a rare, unopened copy of the 1972 LP first album by the band Virgil Caine.

Although a contract has not been signed, the tenative date for the 2011 will be Saturday, July 23.