reports from the 2017 National

[kmac32]

Originally Posted by MW1

TSA screenings are pretty much useless and only serve to delay and embarrass travelers.

For those who did not already know -- https://www.citylab.com/transportati...ective/394778/

And theft by TSA employees is commonplace -- https://www.rt.com/usa/tsa-stealing-from-travelers-358/

I was beginning to think going through the line at Ontario California that I would have been smarter to show up naked. Spending some time down state but will be there Friday and Saturday.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by kmac32

I was beginning to think going through the line at Ontario California that I would have been smarter to show up naked. Spending some time down state but will be there Friday and Saturday.

They have lines at Ontario?!

[LuckyLarry]

(Copied from the OBC site sorry)
Spikes flight landed about 1/2 hour after mine, so I waited for him at baggage area #9. Then Taylor picked us up, and we drove the ten minutes right to the show. Many dealers still setting up as it was six hours before the show actually opens up. But plenty dealers were ready for business too . Ran into many OBC members and also several OBC dealers.
Prices seem so cheap on the regular cards we all know and love. I found a ten cent box with 1972 Topps baseball hi numbers ten cents each? I went through six or eight monster boxes and bought all he had (I thought) 38 cards $3.80 also these 1975 Topps football checklists these are pretty scarce as you had to mail off to Topps for the uncut sheet and most kids cut them up. They have team schedule on front team checklist on the back I got 44 of them .10c each a good find for me. Later in the show I saw Ken M in the same bargain box and he found more '72 highs that I missed plus he pulled lots of '73 baseball hi numbers he said were costly all .10c I need to be more tenacious lol!
One of my first stops was Tim Newcomb who mentioned he was breaking up a set of '33 Goudey and I picked up several hits with a great discount including Rogers Hornsby with a thumbtack hole. Looks like I brought in 17 cards for my set and need around 25 more to complete.
'66 Fleer Weird Ohs, and lots of hits to my non sports sets '56 Bubbles Elvis especially but finished of '64 Munsters with the needed variation, also finished off '66 Thunderball on the cheap, and took '63 Popsicle Space cards down to just one needed. Found several needed '55 Rails and Sails hi numbers which are tough $3 each!
So it's 5:55 the show closes at six and I have spent my daily allotment. I visit William Chappells table and see a stack of '35 Goudey 4in1 I am trying for the master set four Babe Ruth cards in the master set. William has one of the two I need exept previous owner wrote "Kenny" on the back! So I was able to pay via PayPal F/F $415 for the Babe bundled with another needed '35 with Cochran and Gehringer. So I had to dig into the reserves but you make exceptions for Babe Ruth.
To bad more dealers dont accept PayPal cause I really hate to carry all this cash cash is king I guess.
Sorry for typos as I am on my phone. Up and ready for another long day!
Larry

Sent from my iPhone

[kmac32]

Originally Posted by thekingofclout

They have lines at Ontario?!

They do!

[Snapolit1]

Was there Thursday for a while. Leon, looked for you a few times where Scott and Mile High was. Sorry I missed you. Saw a number of board members and most of the famous/infamous sellers. Probstein, Levi, PWCC folks. Said hello to many of the dealers I've done business with. Ted Z., stopped by a few times and you were deep in conversation so didn't bug you.

My impression overall was that it looked exactly the same as Atlantic City last year. I'm sure the consensus of the majority of board members will be that it was far better than last year, particularly among people who didn't go east last year. To me there was no difference. Foot traffic was impressive but I'm sure Thursday is the slowest day. I heard from a number of dealers that Wed. night was crazy.

I great mix of old, new, memorabilia and of course cards. Same trends we talk about all the time. Photos have taken off in popularity and price. Older exhibits were few and far between. Just don't see many of the 4 on 1s anymore. Most everybody was friendly and accommodating, though most dealers are reconnecting with friends and buying themselves so a lot of rushing around.

I actually spent time monitoring a few ebay auctions.

Didn't spend a dollar which was a little odd. Found three great high ticket cards and considered them all. All overpriced. A 34 Gehrig Caramel PSA 6. A bunch of 21 Ruth Exhibits. And a Maple Crispette Ruth 5. All big ticket and came close to buying the Gehrig but the dealer (a nice guy) started dicking me around about taking a credit card and splitting fees and I bailed. No, I don't carry $7,000 in cash with me often. Nice guy and I guess I just wasn't in a high end buying mood.

The one dealer that blew my doors off was Card Country. The had a case of green Cobbs and a case of red Cobbs. Are you kidding me? They had 4 21 Ruth Exhibits and I considered their PSA 4. Card was beautiful.

Saw AL from LOTG and a lot of the cool stuff in his upcoming auction.

Saw the maven of Ruth photos himself Ben and met some of his friends.

Be nice if these convention centers had decent food. Had the worst slice of pizza I've ever eaten. Deep dish is bad enough. This would have worked as a door stop perhaps.

Probably won't be in a rush to get to next years. There really isn't a deal to be had, and if there is believe me it's been scarfed up before the doors open. It's an overwhelming experience and I didn't see a single really rare card that grabbed me. Coolest stuff there is being displayed by the auction houses for their upcoming auctions.

Over and out.

[arcadekrazy]

Nice summary Steve

[Snapolit1]

Our fellow board member with the Japanese related auction house had an awesome set up. Really cool stuff. And someone had a booth of all Cuban stuff which was nice to see. Not the usual stuff. Did not see a lot of Negro league or Women's league stuff, but I blew threw pretty quick and may have missed it.

Some dealers shoot themselves in the foot but just having way too much stuff shoved in piles and all over other stuff. Hard to see sometime what the heck people actually have. Most dealers are smart enough though to put their best stuff in the dead center of their display case.

One thing that seriously irked me yesterday on a few occasions is guys who show up with a bag of cards to try to sell and then proceed to dump all their stuff on top of one of the dealers cases and negotiate at length over why their cards are worth a lot. I realize this is some folks idea of fun, and more power to you, but why would a dealer let you take over one of his areas for 40 minutes to bicker over trades. Seems stupid from the dealer's perspective if people can't see what the hell you are selling.

[calvindog]

This is a pretty dead-on synopsis of what the National has become and why it's difficult to find cards to buy -- unless you want to overpay just to buy something at a National. Nevertheless, I've always found some decent stuff but very rarely a card that I had never seen before and bought. This was the one exception:

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Was there Thursday for a while. Leon, looked for you a few times where Scott and Mile High was. Sorry I missed you. Saw a number of board members and most of the famous/infamous sellers. Probstein, Levi, PWCC folks. Said hello to many of the dealers I've done business with. Ted Z., stopped by a few times and you were deep in conversation so didn't bug you.

My impression overall was that it looked exactly the same as Atlantic City last year. I'm sure the consensus of the majority of board members will be that it was far better than last year, particularly among people who didn't go east last year. To me there was no difference. Foot traffic was impressive but I'm sure Thursday is the slowest day. I heard from a number of dealers that Wed. night was crazy.

I great mix of old, new, memorabilia and of course cards. Same trends we talk about all the time. Photos have taken off in popularity and price. Older exhibits were few and far between. Just don't see many of the 4 on 1s anymore. Most everybody was friendly and accommodating, though most dealers are reconnecting with friends and buying themselves so a lot of rushing around.

I actually spent time monitoring a few ebay auctions.

Didn't spend a dollar which was a little odd. Found three great high ticket cards and considered them all. All overpriced. A 34 Gehrig Caramel PSA 6. A bunch of 21 Ruth Exhibits. And a Maple Crispette Ruth 5. All big ticket and came close to buying the Gehrig but the dealer (a nice guy) started dicking me around about taking a credit card and splitting fees and I bailed. No, I don't carry $7,000 in cash with me often. Nice guy and I guess I just wasn't in a high end buying mood.

The one dealer that blew my doors off was Card Country. The had a case of green Cobbs and a case of red Cobbs. Are you kidding me? They had 4 21 Ruth Exhibits and I considered their PSA 4. Card was beautiful.

Saw AL from LOTG and a lot of the cool stuff in his upcoming auction.

Saw the maven of Ruth photos himself Ben and met some of his friends.

Be nice if these convention centers had decent food. Had the worst slice of pizza I've ever eaten. Deep dish is bad enough. This would have worked as a door stop perhaps.

Probably won't be in a rush to get to next years. There really isn't a deal to be had, and if there is believe me it's been scarfed up before the doors open. It's an overwhelming experience and I didn't see a single really rare card that grabbed me. Coolest stuff there is being displayed by the auction houses for their upcoming auctions.

Over and out.

[hangman62]

love the updates and opinions guys..keep them coming !

[RTK]

Cash machines ran out of cash, so did I.


Some dealers don't accept credit cards, which is inconvenient, especially when there are only two machines available at the convention site....two that I saw and I asked the concierge desk.

I think it's worth the price of admission just to see the auction house displays. I tend to gravitate to the dealers that have a price on their cards, at least it's a starting point. The over crowded display cases are annoying, it's just too hard to go through things. Many of the less "corporate" dealers get my attention, they're easier to talk to and deal with although that's probably because of what I'm interested in and dollar level I'm playing.

Also, saw one patient mother with three young boys looking at cards, it made me smile. So much different than riding your bike to the corner store.

[rats60]

I'll second what Steve said. I brought plenty of cash plus some nice cards to trade or sell if I saw stuff to buy. I brought it all home. I just visited with dealers and auction houses. I will wait for future auctions, it seems like that is where the hobby is headed.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by rats60

I'll second what Steve said. I brought plenty of cash plus some nice cards to trade or sell if I saw stuff to buy. I brought it all home. I just visited with dealers and auction houses. I will wait for future auctions, it seems like that is where the hobby is headed.

Im sorry to say I did the same. I almost bought a card at the end just so I wouldn't leave empty handed. But it wasn't quite what I was looking for so I passed. I did see a few cards I would have tried to buy had they not been on display for an auction. Hopefully I will pick up one or two of them by bidding.

[mechanicalman]

I spent the better part of the day there Wednesday. I understand you can generally buy more cards at "reasonable" prices through eBay and auctions, but I just love the National. It's the one day a year I feel like a kid again. I learned a couple years ago not to bring a want list because I could never check any boxes and often bought stuff I never knew I wanted. So I went with a little bit of cash and an open mind.

I also went with the intention of meeting more board members and had a great time meeting dudes like Corey (Addie Joss) and Chris (the-Illini). I found the collector dudes like these to have nice cards at reasonable prices. I was fortunate Chris was willing to part with a nice Goudey Ruth 181.

At the Mile High booth, there was a case with 4-5 cards in it including a PSA 7 E-90-1 Cy Young that I swore I had seen before. Beautiful as it was, it was a bit out of my price range, so I ended up buying the card next to it, a 33 Ruth 144 PSA 2.5 that, again, was vaguely familiar to me. Bought it from some dude named Leon. Really good guy.

I agree with an earlier sentiment that one of the best booths with cards for sale is Luckiest Man and Card Country. Brady and Jeff have great eyes for cards so there is some really good quality stuff there.

All in all, just looking at the eye candy and meeting some good dudes was worth the trip. Bringing some extra cardboard home was icing on the cake.

[whitehse]

This may not be the place to ask and I might be a bit late but for the first time ever, I cannot make it to the Chicago National. UGH

My ask is that if anyone gets there early tomorrow and gets to the Baseball Card Exchange booth in the corporate area if yo could please pick me up two Don Mattingly 1984 Donruss rookies which they have them on sale while supplies last for five bucks. I know these are not pre war but I can use them for my sets. And if you get there early and happen to see that they have some Aparicio Perez Steele autos for 5 bucks (or was it ten..not sure) please pick one or two up for me. I Will paypal money right away.

Thank you!!