Expectations from the upcoming National in Chi Town

I'm pretty excited about about the upcoming national conventional this weekend...I'm excited to see old friends and new...and especially to see the breadth of material for sale.

I really have no expectations that I will find anything on my want list...or that most prices will even be reasonable...BUT...I am really excited, still.

What about you all...what are your expectations for the national this weekend?

pete

I don't expect much because I can't go. But I have a good buddy attending with my want list in mind. I dont have my hopes up, but he usually does pretty well at the nationals.

Hope everyone keeps us homebodies updated on the goings on during the show!

Hi guys,

Just arrived at my hotel (gotta love free wi-fi) in Chicago...actually Rosemont right by the convention center where the National is being held.

I'm a first-timer here, but I'd be happy to post and share my impressions...just don't expect any frame of reference type comments (ie. better than 2010...worse than 2009, etc.)

I'm stoked to be here for the whole thing. Tomorrow it begins...

Good Luck Blair...I'm jealous you're there already. I won't be getting in til Fri afternoon...I hope u find some great stuff early on!

Mona and I are going to be in Milwaukee Friday morning. Going to hit the Harley Museum first before heading into Chicago. I need to find an interesting DDD joint along the way to stop at for lunch. Fieri been to a lot of places in north Chicago so should be able to find something.

Just finished my first few hours at my first National.

Prices are high. Some are downright crazy. I was offered a graded T202 for $850. Recently 2 in the same grade sold on eBay...one for $405 and the other for $425. Dealers asking double the real world price is not unusual. Though I am happy to say it is not the "rule".

I talked to a few dealers who were willing to come close to the prices realized in recent auctions...close...maybe 10% higher .

Undoubtedly, some people will walk away saying confidently they got a "steal" on something. I saw no steals anywhere.

There are many, many autograph hunters. Managed to snag my free Bill Madlock auto before the show opened (a reception for VIP pass holders), but had to give up on getting a free Lee Smith auto...line was at least 300 people during the show. Too bad...I even brought along a nice Bosox card of him to get signed, but it was not to be.

Lines are the word of the day. I dropped some cards at PSA and had to wait about 45 minutes in line to get served. On the other hand, SGC was hardly any wait...maybe 5 minutes...nice!

This event is huge. I'm glad I'm here for the full thing. Tonight I just felt a bit overwhelmed. I did snag a few Collins-McCarthy Red sox that all look real nice, and a Neilson's Chocolate card I didn't have yet.

Mostly I'm just taking notes of who has what and for how much. Hope it is there when I come back for it. Generally I'm not chasing "hot" cards, so I expect they should still be there.

Interesting how some people complain dealers ignore them, or couldn't be bothered to talk to them. That certainly was not the case for me tonight. Very customer friendly folks at every single booth. Quite interested in chatting/selling. Maybe several days of this will wear on them...? But I'd even say people seem "chipper" .

Cutie of the day award goes to Chris Buckler's wife. Sweet as pie and an enchanting Southern accent to boot!

I have lots more booths to visit tomorrow!

Thx for the update, Blair...sounds like a typical nat'l!!!!! Still looking forward to it!!!

Blair, were missing the update. Too much time at the bar?

Lee

Overall, this was quite a good and happy day for me!

Started the day by finding a familiar eBay dealer, whose prices were pretty good on some items. Saw that he had with him the Croft's Cocoa Hughie Jennings he was offering on eBay for quite awhile. It is a PSA 2, but one of the nicer 2s you would see. Asked if he was flexible on pricing, and he was happy to deal. Got the card for about 20% less than the eBay sticker. Good start!

I'd been chatting with another dealer/collector about getting a W600 Red Sox card from him. The card was raw...real nice. He knew me from the forums, so he came down 30% on his asking price. After the discount, I felt it was fair for a "3", but we both agreed it had a shot at a "4'. Brought the card straight to SGC and by the end of the day (and $50...oversized card same-day price) I was thrilled to see the card receive a "4". Nice work SGC!

Bought a card off one dealer who has one of the biggest pre-war inventories at the show. Maybe paid a shade on the high side. Then went back to try to do a bigger deal with him. When I made my offer (in line with VCP), he was none too receptive, picking up the cards and walking away from me while I was still standing there. In fairness, I should say that he offered me 10% off...but on this group of cards, my math was that they were 20% overpriced to start (and all commons, though a bit tough). Needless to say, I bought nothing more from him and won't be a repeat customer. Too bad. Strange because up to that point we were chatty and quite friendly. I can live with the "no deal", but I can't tolerate the rudeness.

Met up with Brian of Sterling to pick up my last auction winnings. Nice guy, who delivered the cards to me so that I had no shipping fees on that invoice. He has no booth so he met me at an agreed area and time. Again, great service!!!

Comments on autographs from guests at the show. This is not really my bag, so what I have to say comes from that bias. But IMO the autograph thing is crazy. As a VIP pass holder, I got tickets for autos from 6 named athletes and 6 "wildcards". So today I had Jack Clark as a named athlete. Stood in line for about 2 hours before Jack signed my card (BTW, Jack was great - cheery and willing to add a special touch to the sig - on mine he added his career HR total as I requested). But 2 hours!!!!! The whole time I was thinking about the card shopping I could have been doing. As for the "wildcards", it seems to be agreed among collectors that these are pretty worthless. These can only be used if the signer has extra time after absolutely everyone else has gone through. The whole time I was there only one athlete had "wildcard" openings. I sort of pity people who collect autographs in person at events like this.

Attended the live Heritage auction tonight. They generously provided dinner and drinks beforehand. The auction was filled with insane stuff, some lots were from Lou Gehrig's own possessions. Prices were huge, in general. Some heavy hitters came to play (not me).

The offered FrankenWagner (restored and then unrestored) failed to sell.

Back for more again tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and you may have heard a dealer got arrested at the show today and taken out in handcuffs. He is alleged to have sold a fake ARod "gamer" to a guy, who was not taking it lying down. (The sale happened a long time ago, but apparently there was a long investigation.)

Day 3 of the National. This was a good shopping day for me. Also got 4 free VIP autographs from Rick and Paul Reuschel, Leon Durham, and Buddy Bell (these 4 autos required a total of about 2.5 hours standing in lines).

Picked up the last 2 Cracker Jacks I needed for my Red Sox team set. Met up with a Board poster who sold me a Colgan's Eddie Collins. Visited Rhett Yeakley's booth to say hi and ended up buying 3 Red Sox items and a tough hockey card of Newsy Lalonde.

The pinnacle of my Bosox collecting came when I found a friendly dealer with an M116 Speaker in PSA 6. We worked out a fair deal, and the card is now mine! This one was very high on my wantlist, so I feel great about my purchases here.

I'm pretty much out of cash, so my spending will scale back for Saturday/Sunday (except for dealers who take credit cards ).

I continue to encounter some dealers who are just not in touch with the real world prices of their cards. I asked a dealer his price on a Tattoo Orbit Andrews in a PSA 5. This is a tough card, but one sold just a few months ago on eBay in this grade for $189. Guy says $375...again, almost double. Ummmm...no thanks.

To the best of my knowledge nobody got arrested at the show today...

Tomorrow is the Full Count dinner, which should be lots of fun!

great reports blair!

I typed a report for Saturday, but before I could send it, my internet connection dropped!

I'll try again.

According to many dealers Saturday was atypically slow. But Friday was busier than usual, in terms of sales. In fact I talked to one dealer with very high-end pre-war material and reasonable prices, who said he would be happy to leave as of Saturday AM because he did great sales on Friday.

On Saturday, I lined up and got a Bill Gadsby auto. This hockey Hall-of-Famer (who turns 84 tomorrow) was really nice, and added the "HOF 1970" inscription I asked for. Total 1.5 hours in line.

I was running low on cash by Saturday, so asked dealers about other payment. Some offered either credit card payment, or Paypal on the spot (using their computer). Though I did not ultimately use either, the option was cool to have.

Snagged one unique card - a 1921 Herpolsheimers card of a Red Sox player. Cool and mega-rare card only one of each subject known).

I fear that I may have a new interest...at the show the Rogers Archive of press photos wound up getting a lot of my attention on Saturday afternoon (and Sunday AM too). There are some beautiful old original photos in there...you have to invest the time to dig through. The prices are really good - Hall-of-Famers for $30 and other photos for $20 (these are the prices for the bulk of items...there are some that are more). I understand from other collectors that these have been picked over for a couple years by collectors, yet there are still some goodies. I snagged a 1946 photo of Joe Cronin shaking hands with Tris Speaker before a 1946 World Series game in Boston. They only charged me $25 - very happy!

I also had a great chat with Hank Thomas, who is a descendant of Walter Johnson (Hank wrote the great biography of The Big Train). He had a big stash of photos with him from Johnson's family scrapbook...very cool to look through them. He also was selling some photos. I bought a very cool 1938 press photo of Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin goofing around in the Boston dugout with Charles Comiskey II (as a 12 year old wearing his White Sox uni).

I love both photos I scored, but I fear taking this road towards photo collecting...

For the evening, met Jay and attended the Full Count dinner. Got to meet a bunch more people and had a great time! Thanks to Jay (and anyone else who helped) for organizing and throwing this dinner - nice .

By Sunday, I was ready to wrap it up. No real bargain hunting for me...I was down to $19 cash left.

So I went in and got my free Jody Davis auto.

Then I went to chat with the Yeakley brothers. I told them I'd been into the Rogers Archive the day before, and they asked me if I had gone through the hockey. I had not even seen hockey. So I went back in and found a very cool photo of Hall-of-Famer Clarence "Happy" Day posing in his New York Americans uniform (this was 1937-38...his only year with that club). The photo is great, and I was able to purchase it for my remaining $19.

As I was fully out of money, I went around and said goodbye to some of the great folks I met and then left...no point in subjecting oneself to torture by looking when you can't purchase.

That's it for my National - had a great time and will do it again in the future (but it won't be an annual event for me).

Just made it home after a long road trip from Chicago. Had a great time at the show. Got to meet a lot of old friends, met new friends and got the steal of the show with wonderful wife in tow putting up with it all.

My lone purchase was a SGC40 Delong Gomez for $100. The card did not start out in that slab. I found it in a PSA Authentic slab with $125 price. I looked the card over figuring it was trimmed. After measuring it and seeing it was full size I started to look for coloration or other doctoring. All I found was a some light erasing marks on the back. Talked the dealer down to $100 and cracked it out. I then walked over to SGC and gave it to them to get back at the end of the day. When I went to pick it up, the guy gave the card and said that it would have gotten a 60 or 70 if not the erasures on the back. I told him no problem, I figured it would get 40 and was hoping for maybe a 50.

It looks like 1938 Goudey set will be next on my list as my wife said she would fully condone spending money on those cards.

A lot of people, dealers a collectors left on Saturday. For those that haven't heard yet, Josh Evans of Leland's is not in very good health. I ran into a number of old friends from my California days, so that made for a lot of great conversations.

As Blair mentioned, the Rogers Archive was very cool. Walking around the show, you'd never guess that Red Sun cards were rare. I saw at least 6 or 7 dealers with one or more examples on their table. Not sure who had all the t210 Old Mills, but spotted a cool pose of a player sitting down and asked to see it. Sadly, it was a Series 8 in high grade with a price to match. Otherwise, I pretty much spent all my time walking around talking and talking to all the people I knew and drooling over all the cool stuff at tables of TIK & TIK, Dan McKee, Dave Levin and Ryan Christoph and Yeakley brothers.

I'll do a separate thread about the dinner later.

Thanks Blair for the updates, they were fun to read, especially coming from a first timers perspective. I guy forgets what an eye opener and vast experience it is.

Was there anyone else on the board there, I want to see the purchases.

I definately have Baltimore on next years list, too much fun last year.

Lee

I was disappointed I didn't get to meet you, Blair...and that I couldn't make the dinner sat night! I was able to cross my e90-2 wagner from SGC A to PSA 1...which pretty much made my show!!!! I also dropped off some cards w/SGC for grading. Aside from that...it was great meeting some new people...seeing Jay and Mona for Lunch...talking to Rhett...my fellow dental compadre! It was cool seeing lots of material...cards, memorabilia...all of the upcoming Auction stuff! Prices for cards I was interested in were way too high to consider buying...$2000 for an e98 jennings in g condition...c'mon!!!!!

It was cool to see a T206 Brown Hindu, front and back depicted, from the ATC journal back in 1909 or so...that I last saw for sale by Tik and Tik at the 95 national...upcoming in one of the auctions. There are tons of Louisiana issues coming up for auction in Goodwin I believe...should be quite interesting.

I will never attend a national again with any aspirations of buying anything, though!

Jay & Blair,

It was a pleasure meeting you both at the Forum dinner. I had a fantastic time as I always do at a National.

See you next year in Baltimore !!!

Alan
(Jewish-collector)

Jewish-collector wrote:Jay & Blair,

It was a pleasure meeting you both at the Forum dinner. I had a fantastic time as I always do at a National.

See you next year in Baltimore !!!

Alan
(Jewish-collector)

Pleasure meeting you too, Alan!!!

ullmandds wrote:I was disappointed I didn't get to meet you, Blair...

Hi Pete,

I heard you were there, but sorry our paths did not cross. Sad to say that happened with a few other people as well...more reason for me to do another National in the near future!

Some results of standing in long lines:

Next year in Baltimore I think it is going to be Full Count at the ballpark if the Orioles are in town. Should be great fun.

Lee