The National

[GasHouseGang]

Ralph P. posted this over on the non-sport side. But I thought everyone over on this side would enjoy the photos and comments.

Awesome photographic tour of the Cleveland National -- with humor -- from Bill Simmons, ESPNs 'The Sports Guy'.
He even has a decent amount of nonsport material here!

Enjoy!

http://preview.tinyurl.com/kmkguy

And a write up:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/lxy8rk

[GasHouseGang]

If you took the time to look through the photos and accompanying write up on the national convention by Bill Simmons, there were some memorable quotes.

Some humorous:

Put it this way: There are sausage fests, there are mega-sausage fests and then there's the National Sports Collectors Convention. You have a better chance of meeting your future wife in an all-male penitentiary during a Gay Pride parade.

The collector's convention is a great place to see old guys dressed like Morty Seinfeld.

When they have throwback games in baseball, shouldn't they make the players play with the old equipment? How funny would that be? I say MLB experiments with the remaining 2009 Pirates-Padres games to see if it works.


Some thought provoking:

(Time for a tangent: One of my favorite rules of collecting is "never buy from a dealer who's an a-hole." It's just not worth it. You'll always have the stink of the jerk who sold whatever you bought on it. Unfortunately, many of these guys are unfriendly; it's a relatively lonely business filled with unhappy people who act like they have more power than they do and don't mind spitting chicken fingers on you as you're trying to negotiate a price with them. The way to combat these people is by not giving these people money. I know, crazy. What's amazes me is their willingness to throw away any rules for selling that work in any other walk of life: being friendly and reasonable; having a sense of humor; avoiding any condescending or derisive remarks; not keeping a customer waiting because you're busy telling another dealer a stupid story about your personal life; engaging the customer immediately instead of appearing put out because they've interrupted your lunch or your phone call; etc., etc. It's one of those professions in which, when you deal with someone normal and friendly, you feel obligated to thank them for being normal and friendly. Sad but true.)

[perezfan]

Those are some brilliant observations. I have often thought the same things, and wonder why so many of the dealers have to be so rude, abraisive, gross and disrespectful to their potential customers. They act like they're doing you a big favor by selling you something at an inflated price (typically double what they paid for said item).

I wish the hobby attracted a few more "professional" types and better-mannered salespeople, but guess we are stuck with what we've got. He really did nail it, and provided a good laugh in doing so!

[HRBAKER]

I always find one of the highlights of the National is gazing upon the bad toupes in the room.