Any reports on the National and what you picked up?

CDC4

Any big finds for their sets/collections?

Brick

I went Friday. Was there from opening to closing. Enjoyed just looking at cards I will never own, like going to a museum. I did pick up 10 PSA 8s in 1960 Topps Baseball including Clemente and Snider. I bought the Snider from Levi at 707. He made me a great deal and threw in free shipping at my request. At closing I was kind of determined to pick up a nice high end card and came upon the Clemente, however I did not have enough cash left and the dealer was not equipped to take credit cards. When we were leaving I told my wife I really would have liked to make that purchase at which time she asked how much I needed and gave me what cash she had. I went back to the dealer who was packing up for the day and asked if the Clemente was packed yet. He said it was not and we made the deal. (Actually if it was already packed I think he would have been happy to dig it out). I also picked up a 55 Topps Ed Mathews PSA 7 to upgrade that set. We had $10 left at the end of the day.
My wife is not at all into card collecting but at the PSA Luncheon she picked up a copy of Joe Orlandos book and asked Joe to autograph it for our great-grandson Orion. She also had a couple of the PSA girls sign it. She will give it to Orions grandparents to keep for him until he grows up. I do have a sense of humor and thought of going to the PSA booth and have it authenticated, but I didn't.
I had planned on going back Saturday but having already spent my monthly card budget in one day we headed home. I hope we can make Baltimore next year.

Lothar52

One word.............JEALOUS



while u were there brick, i was shoveling S@#! in Louisiana!! HAHAH!!!!

Galveston

Basically no gradable 1971 kelloggs in the entire building.... did find some 1933 goudeys for my giants team set.... but the hilite was seeing so many 1955 topps all americans... several new 10's surfaced out of rack packs... most appeared to be eights with several nines. i decided to start putting together the set in 6-7... bought all they had at that grade

baseballfan

Galveston
pm sent

baseballfan

boy the money goes fast at the national doesn't it?

cardbender

<< <i>I went Friday. Was there from opening to closing. Enjoyed just looking at cards I will never own, like going to a museum. I did pick up 10 PSA 8s in 1960 Topps Baseball including Clemente and Snider. I bought the Snider from Levi at 707. He made me a great deal and threw in free shipping at my request. At closing I was kind of determined to pick up a nice high end card and came upon the Clemente, however I did not have enough cash left and the dealer was not equipped to take credit cards. When we were leaving I told my wife I really would have liked to make that purchase at which time she asked how much I needed and gave me what cash she had. I went back to the dealer who was packing up for the day and asked if the Clemente was packed yet. He said it was not and we made the deal. (Actually if it was already packed I think he would have been happy to dig it out). I also picked up a 55 Topps Ed Mathews PSA 7 to upgrade that set. We had $10 left at the end of the day.
My wife is not at all into card collecting but at the PSA Luncheon she picked up a copy of Joe Orlandos book and asked Joe to autograph it for our great-grandson Orion. She also had a couple of the PSA girls sign it. She will give it to Orions grandparents to keep for him until he grows up. I do have a sense of humor and thought of going to the PSA booth and have it authenticated, but I didn't.
I had planned on going back Saturday but having already spent my monthly card budget in one day we headed home. I hope we can make Baltimore next year. >>



That's a great story Ralph. You sound like you have a nice wife who understands your card collecting passion. Also the fact she's carrying some extra dough around if the right card is available for sale, doesn't hurt either.

I wasn't at this year National but my buddy was and he picked me up this card:

PSARich

I was there from Wednesday evening through Saturday morning. This was my 8th National. I put together baseball sets from 1953 to 1975 in centered NM to NM-MINT condition. Most of the 1970's sets are complete now. In Cleveland I found about 50 cards that met my criteria to add to my sets. 1 1954, 1 1955, 1 1956, 2 1957's, 6 1958's 6 1959's and about 35 for my 1960 sets. I can remember not too many years ago that I would return with 150-200 1950-1960 cards for my sets. There is just not much nice vintage material left that hasn't been graded. And many of the NM-MINT cards you do find are off-center, hence not graded. However, I found a couple dealers with some nice raw cards that would be 7's or 8's if graded and those are the ones I bought.

Made a couple trades, giving about 250 NM-Mint 1970 and 1971 semi high number commons (Beckett @ $4 each) for a 1959 Mantle Thrills card (EX), 1968 Mantle (VG-EX) and a 1960 Mantle that looks beautiful, centered with NM corners, great gloss, but a very tiny crease on the left side. The seller pointed it out and said that's why he didn't grade it. Also got a 1959 Snider (NM) and a couple 1967 Stargels (EX-NM) in the deals. I don't plan on grading any of them but I'd rather enjoy the Mantles than own the commons that I got in a vending deal many years ago. I still have about 1000 more of these cards left. Over time the dealers should get their money. I sent in about 50 of these cards to PSA several years ago and received mostly 9's from the 1970's and all 7-8's on the 1971's.

I also put together PSA 9 sets from 1959 to 1975. However, I don't normally buy graded cards at the National because they are priced high. Didn't see any I couldn't get cheaper on ebay if I am patient. I had a great time looking at the many mint and gem mint vintage cards that were in many dealor cases and at the PSA booth. Dropped off about 50 cards at PSA for grading, thereby saving some S/I costs. The PSA set Registry Luncheon was great as usual. If you ever get to the National be sure to go to it.

I took $800 to spend and came home with $400. My wife said that I must have not found that ONE big card to spend big money on. Solved that problem as I just won a 1959 PSA 9 "Kaline Becomes Youngest Batting Champion" on ebay...so there is my big purchase.

Finally, from Wednesday through Friday the attendance was very light and you could go anywhere on the floor and nver feel crowded. It picked up Saturday morning while I was there and hopefully got better over the weekend. Gave you a chance to talk with a lot of dealers and other collectors, so that was great.

Sheamaster

Was there Friday and Saturday. The show didn't seem to have the same "buzz" as Chicago, but possibly due to being more spacious. Here was my biggest purchase.