[Exhibitman]

All this stuff is a product of the sold-out showroom. I saw the overflow upstairs; there is plenty of space to expand the show in Rosemont. Maybe break the logjam on dealers and the bigger informal stuff gets folded back into the main show.

FWIW, I have called for trade nights to be age-gated for quite some time now. Keep the adults from commercializing a fun kids' event. The VIP lounge had people set up selling even before the show opened on Wednesday. There was even a bit of a scrum in the morning when the lounge opened. Bunches of dealers lurching into the space to open up shop. I even saw vintage there.

There have been ancillary events for specialized collectors that have parasitically run with the NSCC for some time. In Cleveland, there was a postcard show. This year in CHi there was the soccer show; that would be fun to hit next year, maybe if it happens again.

Informal selling has always been a feature of memorabilia conventions; it is relatively new to this thing of ours because tables at the National used to be available.I have a fun story on parasite shows and informal sales events, gonna run it in my column next week.