General Forum

Notice the play there? The National being home again in Chicagoland and me using the lyrics from one of the most under-appreciated rock bands of all time Chicago.  I'm so clever.  LOL. so my life long friend and I make the trek to the National Saturday.  It as his first time there ever and he wanted to get his Topps Gretzky RC graded. It was a very good looking card I thought would fetch a 6 or 7. Here are my Top 10 takeaways from the National.

10. NEED MORE AIR-CONDITIONING.

9. Seeing my buddy's face as he walked in to the hall made my day and brought back childhood feelings.

8. NEED MORE AIR-CONDITIONING.

7. The best part of the day is talking to the old time vendors and just sharing stories of the hobby we love.

6. They serve beer there. YAY. And let you walk around with it. 

5. The price boom has slowed for selling stuff to vendors but their pricing hasn't adjusted yet. ??? IE Topps Kobe RC guy is selling for $375 but will only vive me $100 for mine which was in better shape. 

4.  The Big Boys control the game.  PSA, BECKETT Dave's World, Topps, Panini etc.. had displays that cost more to put together than my first 2 cards I owned.  PSA charging $250 for one card to be graded or auto authenticated. Pick up next day. WOW.

3.NEED MORE AIRCONDITIONING.

2. For the 6th time touring this great event I failed to make it down every aisle. Just too much stuff.  Lots of Father and Son combos looking at stuff was very cool to see. 

1.  The Flippers are alive and unfortunately well.  Can't tell you how many rude, crude and ignorant people bumped into you, cut you off, interrupted you while talking to vendors.  People, who just by looking at them, you can tell care nothing or know next to nothing about sports walking around with cases of graded cards just looking to sell and being very aggressive about it. 

And to crush my friends heart PSA ruled the RC of the Great One that he's owned since it came out the pack came back un-gradable because it didn't meet the size requirements.  He didn't understand any of this which made for an interesting car ride home. 

Joe

Joe, 1st question that comes to mind....how was the temperature? lol. More importantly, how was the availability of ND cards? (i have it in my head I missed out on a treasure trove of cards from my wantlist, just because of the national being so close to SB.

It was cool in the mornings but as time went on it became warmer. I overheard someone say they were expecting 25k people on Saturday, not sure if that was true, but it gets warmer with that amount of people. But yes, certain parts of the convention center seemed to have no circulation. 

You'd be hard pressed to find any ND cards, 95% of sellers don't have boxes sorted by team let alone sport. You'd waste a lot of time looking.

Joe, I hope you at least filled your needs with Blackhawks or ChiSox despite the lack of AC.

As an aside, I've always appreciated Chicago as Terry Kath has always been one of my all-time favorite guitarists. I used to have all the posters that came with their albums on my walls as a high schooler. Just last week I watched a full concert on YouTube of them in the early 70s. I did, however, start losing interest after their 8th album as the Kath influence ended with his untimely death. 

You had me at beer!

Did you observe the autograph pavilion? How were the signings handled? What do you feel is the immediate future of that aspect of the hobby?

I suppose that makes sense as 90% of my pc (college uni) is found in commons boxes. Maybe one day Ill find a guy that knows a guy that has more than 5,lol

I had sweat rolling off my face on Wednesday & Thursday.  It was a bit better on Friday & not an issue on Saturday or Sunday.  Good thing they loaded me up with free t-shirts since I wasn't planning on needing to shower and change clothes multiple times a day.

For as much as I would like to experience one of these huge shows, some of the things you listed (and one you didn't which is the price of admission) are why I probably never will. The greed in the hobby highlighted by you in points 1, 4, & 5 are the biggest reasons I would not attend such a large show.  The bigger they are, the more greed shows up. I rather attend the smaller monthly shows where you get to know some of the vendors and know which will have what you are looking for (because they remembered what you bought last time), give you a deal, and wish you well. 

It is a shame that most vendors can't help someone who is looking for something specific other than some of the top wanted cards in the hobby (for all the wrong reasons) all because they really don't know what they have for sale. Just like going into the LCS when they existed, I enjoy going through random boxes of cards that are not often asked for, hoping to find those cards I never knew I wanted. I just don't see being able to do that at these crowded shows.

Yes talking to the true hobbyists is one of the pleasures of the hobby and attending card shows and some of the older vendors are exactly that.  But I can do that at the small shows much more easily than at such shows as the National where the "many rude, crude and ignorant people bumped into you, cut you off, interrupted you while talking to vendors" are much fewer.  Other than the heat, it sounds like you enjoyed yourself and yes, I imagine the look on your friend's face was of awe (as was the one of disappointment and confusion when told by the "PSA experts" that his card was possibly altered when he knows it wasn't; I hope they didn't charge him $250 to tell him that). As for you, I hope you did find some treasures for your Chicago teams collections.

Thanks for the chatter guys.  I did pick up about 150 vintage Hawks cards and some hard size to get top loaders. Also took a chance on a few modern Hawks i thought I needed. Only got burned twice.  Had my surface pro with tcdb all cued up but the wifi sucked and my mobile hot spot was sketchy.  

Dave, I looked for Irish stuff but never saw much. There used to be a guy there from South Bend who had an awesome Notre Dame memorabilia table but I never found him. 

Bruno the admission was $19 prepaid and $22 on site for a one day pass.  In my dream world I wanted to be able to grab the microphone to the paging system and say anyone that has Doug Wilson cards, Notre Dame cards or Jim Hughes 1949 Hollywood Stars cards please meet me by beer stand number 2 in the corner. But my dreams rarely come true. 

Joshua, Terry Kath was amazing. Jimi called him the greatest guitarist he ever saw play.   I watch everything i can about Chicago. I think they're so under-rated musically. More number one hits in the last 40 years than anyone I believe. 

Mike I walked by the Auto section but since I'm not into that I didn't pay much attention. There were lots of big names and the lines were filled up but those prices kinda turn me off. 

I really want to go to the National Card Show one day...it would be fun, but the cost of getting there, staying there and getting in the door along with the crowds has kept me away.  I really enjoy the smaller card shows where I can find stuff without feeling rushed or pressed to buy it now because there are 25K people that are attending.  I will say this...this was the slowest weekend I have expereinced on TCDB since I joined several months ago...in comparision to most weeks, the trade deals were almost next to none last weekend! (I wonder how much of this was due to the National Card Show.)