Desperately Seeking Pie: My 30 hour story of the National

[yanks87]

It's been almost 30 years since I have been to the National. The last one I went to was also in Chicago, but two experiences that couldn't be any more different.

Regarding the title of the thread, I was looking for a Diamond Stars #99 Pie Traynor to complete my set. I thought that it would be a home run, slam dunk and easy one to close out. Either I was minutes behind someone who was snatching them up, or it is a much harder card to find than I thought it would be. I spoke with 30+ dealers, maybe more, saw some great stuff, but never found it, so that was a bummer.

My observations of the event, overall, I have never seen so many amazing cards in one place. That said, I have never seen so many BIG numbers on cards either. I was horribly underfunded, not that I was going in to tear it up and roll in there like an rockstar, but the state of the industry has totally passed me by. I picked up a couple of small things, but just wasn't in the ballpark on the prices that people were looking to get for cards.

Second thing I noticed is the amount of cash changing hands, not small sums either and there are a lot of younger guys wheeling and dealing, literally everyone seems to have a rolling case of cards or a suitcase full of unopened boxes. The shiny new stuff seems to be king, easy to walk by, but there is a TON of it out there. Brave new world for sure, but again, I couldn't tell you what's good or bad in the new stuff, but there are guys swapping tens of thousands of dollars over cases. Interesting to see, but not the kind of collector that I am.

Overall, it was fun, not sure that I will need to go back any time soon. I stayed at the Hyatt Regency across the street, super convenient, they were not prepared for influx of hungry people, their restaurant had a 45 minute wait to order and about an hour wait to get food according to a couple people that I spoke to as I was walking out, down to their grab and go for the classic Gatorade and popcorn dinner.

One last thing, if you are concerned about Covid, Delta variants etc, you might steer clear of this. There are a ton of people there and a very small amount of masks (the show does provide free masks to those who want them). I wore mine the whole time, but in a crowd that big, I am not sure that it would have helped even though I am fully vaccinated. Going from working at home to jumping into that setting was a little uncomfortable, but I masked up, and tried to be as careful as I could. If I didn't have to be there for a work project, I would have passed.

Hats off to the vendors, organizers, and all the fans, it was one to remember. I'm still looking for a reasonably price, low grade Pie Traynor, the hunt will continue online.