reports from the 2017 National

[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.

[SMPEP]

Yup. Ebay and auction houses trump the Nationals. Airfare, hotel, admission and hassle of dealers/travel ... or just bid and get it sent to you. And honestly in the course of a year ... more is offered in the other venues at better prices.

Of course this is just the bitter point of view of a West Coaster who's annoyed that the Nationals won't set up out West anymore.

Here's a hint to the people who run Nationals ... if you just set up in the same three cities ... you're just going to have the same darn show year after year. If you rotate North South East and West, you attract different dealers (who have different stuff) and different buyers (in addition to the loyal ones). You expand the hobby with a rotation. You kill the hobby with a 3 city loop.

The Nationals is in the early stages of dying ... because it's being managed poorly.

Cheers,
Patrick Prickett (Leon will probably make me put my name on this anyways! ; -)

[RTK]

I think it may be slightly smaller than the last one in Chicago...not sure, but it had a curtain across the far end of the hall. It seemed the last time the entire room was used.

[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!!

[LuckyLarry]

It seemed like the show was crowded all day today. Mostly I shopped for bargain cards to re supply my doubles box, but I did purchase the final (of four) Babe Ruth card 1935 Goudey (master set) from Net 54 member Don Hotz at a good price. '62 Topps football bucks, more hits 33 and 34 Goudey baseball, also more non sports hits today as well.
I got one free autograph Ron Dayne but the autograph area was really too busy today to attempt more.
We all had a great time after the show at the OBC Swap session.
The plan is a 1/2 day at the show tomorrow and fly home with a 6pm departure!
Larry

Sent from my iPhone

[kmac32]

Just got to mom and dad's home from the National. Had an awesome time hunting. Bumped 1 card off of my T205 Cubs reverse list in a trade, traded for. Minor league T205, bought a Minor league T205 card to start my next project, go my T205 AB slabbed by SGC after they failed to do what I requested when I sent in and had explained to them that an A grade is fine for my needs, consigned my W572 strip set to Heritage, and met lots of board members at the banquet and on the show floor.

Went with 9 Slabbed T205 cards for Trade bait and am returning with only 2 of the original group. Who says you can't trade at the National? I did well and the dealers did well so it was a win win deal for me. Wish I could have done that well with Ebay. LOL

This was my 4th National and probably my best National. The friday and Saturday trip worked well for me and it helped break up a week long trip seeing family. Also caught up with some old friends on the way up, had dinner with a fantasy camp friend this afternoon, and having breakfast with another fantasy camp friend in the morning.

I hope everyone had as good of a week as me.

Ken