Some National Thoughts

[Reginald Marsh]

Am i at the National...........ZZZZZZZZZZZ.............

[Rich Klein]

Mike:

TY for answering some of my concerns. As you are aware; this is not a I hate the National post; but a true post with my concerns and with my suggested solutions. After all those years I thought that was a fair way to post.

Notice the only issue I asked to be reduced was the daily admission fee. I realize that parking and concessions are beyond your realm. Just trying to assuage the pain for daily collectors a tiny bit. Just remember; the National Promoters and board members have to pay the concession prices as well. I'm also hoping; as Chris points out a few posts down; that we can attract newer people into our fold with reduced attendance.

Obviously MVP badges are better and I'm all in favor of you selling as many of those as you can. If you noted within my post; I put in my hours suggestions extra times for MVP's and Super MVP's to be on the floor. I would assume those people would spend more. I liken those type of badges to seating at "premium" baseball games. I expect more to pay for walk-up tickets when the Yankees come to Texas than I do for a mid-season mid-week series with the Kansas City Royals. For those complaining about the MVP badge price; remember under my plan AND the current plan; the people get to come in earlier; get priority (or a few free) autos and get a better chance at better cards. MVP badges actually protects those collectors who want more chances at better cards.

As a note to most posters; one of the reasons SportsFest in Philly had so much trouble was that it was a downtown show. Trust me on this; very few card shows work in a downtown venue. They need to be where cars can come to them. Downtown shows stopped working for the most part by 1982. Al Rosen's 1988 MSG show was a rare exception and frankly one of the reasons for the big success of that show was that Richard Nader, the famed Rock Music Show Promoter had a big part in promotion for that show.

The GR Brown convention center in Houston is a very nice facility for a show. I'm also a big fan (perhaps the only one) of Market Hall in Dallas.

I appreciate those who are keeping this thread in the manner to which it was intended. For those going after E-Man; etc. please take your postings to PM's.

Regards
Rich

[ChrisStufflestreet]

Rich,

First of all...glad to meet you this year. Had a great time chewing the fat with you and Alan after the Net54 dinner.

Great points. But I'd like to add something the two of us discussed then: even though the majority of Net54 people are concerned with prewar vintage stuff, there's the fact that none of us is getting any younger. What about the future collectors?

My daughter Melissa (10 years old, she stopped in for the dinner and was wearing a Red Sox jersey) had a blast this year because I decided to make the trip as much hers as I did mine. In fact, this year my wife did the yeoman's work of adding to my collection while Melissa and I looked around for stuff, got autographs and enjoyed our time together. It was a major win/win for me: Ellen didn't get to give me her usual "you spent how much?" speech and my daughter got some valuable time with her Daddy (especially since we're nearing those dreaded teenage years and my window of opportunity for Daddy/daughter time is going to close just as soon as she realizes I'm "uncool") that will be a great memory even after the collection becomes a thing of the past.

I've said it in another thread and I'll say it again here: my daughter had a better show than I did (and I had a great time). Several fellow hobbyists commented to me that it was great to see a kid getting involved, and that began a discussion with my wife as we drove back home. Had I been able to attend a National at the same age (in my case, that would have been '83 Chicago), would I have had the same great time?

Sadly, I think it wouldn't have happened the same way for me. That's because when I attended my first show (in 1985 at the State Office Building in Watertown, NY) I sensed that the dealers were a little reluctant to deal with kids. In a way, the most important thing about kids was the wallets their parents were carrying so dealing with those little snot-nosed cardbenders was a means to the end result of earning money. In my case, I was well-versed on 1950s baseball by then and was able to get through to some dealers by talking with them. However, looking at 1985 vs. 2009 may be an apples/oranges comparison; then, 30-year old cards were from 1955 and were valuable enough to make my mother admonish me to be very careful if I picked them up, but today, 1979 Topps commons are tossed without a second thought into 25-cent boxes.

It made me think...when several people stopped by to commend me for simply bringing my little girl along to the show, it made me realize that I don't see the father/son pairs searching for cards as frequently as I did when I was a "weekend warrior" seller from 1989-'92.

Not so much a question as a stray thought I've had since leaving the show...