[Golfcollector]

Wednesday-

Got on the plane early and left Lincoln, NE at 6:07 am. Lincoln is a very small regional airport, so I do enjoy flying out of there when it makes sense financially, as it takes about 5 total minutes to get through TSA. Short flight to Chicago was made a bit longer as we had to circumvent the large line of thunderstorms that moved through the area in the overnight hours, and were now in Iowa.

Arrived at O’Hare and figured might as well just head to the hotel lobby. The hotel shuttle van was pulling up right as I go to the hotel transportation spot in the terminal ( Win #1 for Wednesday) Arrived at the hotel, found a comfortable spot in the corner of the main lobby, enjoyed watching the various Marvel movies that they had on FX on the hotel lobby Televisions, and pulled up my phone to read if any action on the NeT 54 boards. I chose to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn. It is about 2 miles directly down the road from the Donald E. Stephens convention Center.

Around 11:30 a.m. I asked if they happened to have any rooms that were available, “why yes we do” (Win #2 on Wednesday!) So I was able to get my belongings upstairs and freshen up a bit before heading to the National to pick up my VIP package/pass.

Caught an uber (as the walk was just at 2 miles, figured I would be getting plenty of steps in already) and arrived to get my VIP credentials. The line was not too long. I had to wait maybe 5-8 minutes or so to pick up my badge, Upper Deck, Panini, and Leaf promo sets. My VeeFriends sticker, and some other package which I did not look at too closely. Also had 12 autographs. Craig Hodges was likely the headliner on my sheet.

Sat in the VIP Lounge to await the show opening. The available seating was about 70% full with a never ending spread of Zion cases with cards for sale/trade taking up most of the table space. I found a table with a couple of early 20’s collectors who were there to “level up” and also sell a bunch of Downtown’s. Also at my table was a father and his two sons from the south side of Chicago, a gentleman who was more into non sport and presidential autos and another father and son who were Detroit fans. I stuck up great conversations with each of the collect, why they collect, who they collect. How many National’s they had been to, etc. I did chat with many folks over the course of my time at the show that were attending their first NSCC.

VIP allowed me to get in an hour early. So first stopped to visit the COLLECTOR CONNECTION to drop off a consignment for a non sports auction they have scheduled later this fall (Thanks Scott). Started traversing what I will call the “Main” area which is where the primary entrance is for the public. Noticed right away the temperature was almost cool in the building (win #3 as the prior National in Chicago and the A/C issues are well documented) and the early crowd was pretty large. A tremendous selection of vintage in this area in particular. Saw a few faces that I recognize from some other shows I have attended. While asking about Sam Crawford Cards, I was asked if I was “The Crawford guy” from Net 54. First time I have been noticed in that regard but it is always cool to meet other collectors and also know that apparently my Crawford posts get read by a few folks 😊

I am down to just a few things that I can realistically add to my Crawford Collection. I am missing only 3- T206 backs (UZIT, Hindu, Lennox) and those are not in my budget. This show I was looking to see if I could catch a flier and maybe find a Ferguson Bakery, a D304 back variety I don’t have, a Helmar Stamp, maybe a caramel varietal I still need but mostly hoping to land T202 Crawford about to Smash one, as surprisingly I have not acquired that for my collection as of yet.

I was surprised by the number of Dietsche, HM Taylor, Novelty Cutlery, and Wolverine News postcards of Crawford I came across. The Wolverine News Portrait is really the only one I would try and upgrade but no such luck. I did end up making a deal on a fantastic PSA 5 1907 Dietsche Crawford (I have a number of them but am a sucker for nice examples) This one was also one of the lower priced graded ones I saw at the show (and the highest graded example I personally saw as well) So this ended up coming home with me.

Headed back to the hotel a bit early to beat the outflow of folks that would all be heading home at the same time. Had dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn O’Hare. I am not a paid endorsement but I will say that if you are looking for a place to stay close but not right next door in future years for the NSCC, the food at their restaurant was quite excellent and affordable. The bar selections were also quite nice…and lastly the service from all folks at the hotel - top to bottom - was 7 stars out of 5! I would recommend staying here.

Thursday-

Took the uber to the show a bit early and arrived at about 8:15. Traffic to the show was light. Today goal #1 was to drop off a couple of orders at PSA (long lines yesterday so did not want to bother) I waited in the very short line by the Starbucks in the main Lobby. They opened the show about 15 minutes before they were scheduled to do so, and I walked right over to the PSA show drop off line and was 2nd in line. Had all my paperwork in order so my entire time at the PSA Booth was maybe 5 minutes and very seamless for me. I then directed my shopping attention to the “middle area” between PSA and the breakers pavilion area. This was moderately busy. Two different tables have an enormous amount of vintage baseball, football, basketball singles. This was a set collectors dream find, and their prices seemed reasonable too. LOT of traffic at these two booths. Both dealers had recently sold caramel Crawford cards. So now I am wondering “who the heck is out to grab Wahoo Sam?

Not being used to competing for Crawfords with other collectors at a show, I headed to the “back” are of the 1st floor to resume my search. There was a bunch of traffic back here with ben franklins being thrown around on showcases tops right and left. Good mix of vintage and newer here. I have also noticed a LOT of Pokémon at this show - Mostly graded but quite a bit could be found if that was something you were looking for.

At around 12:30 I headed upstairs for a break in the VIP lounge. Met some more great people who joined me at the table I was at. Once again the VIP lounge area was like it’s own card show taking place. The volume of trades/sales taking place significant in these venues. Sadly I have also been reading a lot of Facebook or other Social media posts about people leaving their cards behind, people getting things stolen etc. from these and other similar settings (like trade nights)

After a rest break I decided to hit the “expanded upstairs area” Wow…absolutely nuts. The aisles here were about ½ as wide as the rest of the 1st floor of the show….which was interesting as they have a LOT of room up in this area to make the isles about 5x wider with no issues. So navigating the mass of humanity, roller cases, backpacks, etc. was difficult. There were some great dealers here too, including some folks with some nice vintage and non sport. I made a few connections for some possible future buying opportunities here even though I did not purchase any items in this area.

Walked back to the main floor. Checked out the Bo Jackson Battle arena area (got my son a T-shirt) sat and watched some things being opened on an E-bay Live show, and picked up 2 Jayson Tatum Basketball RC’s for my son who is a Celtics fan at a solid price. Then again headed to the hotel a bit early to avoid the mass exodus.

Friday –
One last stop today before catching my flight back to Nebraska. I dropped off some items at the SGC booth for my personal collection. This is my first time submitting with SGC. They were exceedingly helpful with my submission and the process was quick and easy. They were not overly busy but I would say they had steady traffic of folks dropping off submissions on site at their corporate booth.

I picked up a PSA 4.5 of Crawford About to Smash one from Clean Sweep. Great price and an easy deal. I had found it early in the show but wanted to see what else was on the floor, and I wasn’t really concerned this would be gone. There was quite a few T202 on the show floor as a number of dealers had them on display.

Walked around another hour or so and figured might was well head to the airport and see about catching an earlier flight (which I was lucky enough to do) As a bonus I still had my VIP autograph sheet. My Uber driver was very talkative about the convention and indicated he did not know it was going on, so was going tomorrow (Saturday) I gave him my autograph sheet – which I still had - and he was going to try to get that Craig Hodges autograph.

Overall this was a great trip! Met many other great people both at the show and at the hotel bar…and to me it is meeting and connecting with the other folks that enjoy the hobby, regardless of what they collect, who they collect or how they collect that really makes the experience what it is.

Hope all of you that attended also had a fantastic time at the National.