Any favorite National stories to share?

TheCARDKid

Did any of you guys go the the National in Anaheim in '91? That had to be the wildest card show I've ever seen. It set the all time attendance record (a reported 90,000). Judging from the huge line to get in, I'd agree. This was at the height of the promo card mania. People would stand in line for hours to get their precious promo's, then sell them to dealers waiting by the exit. In '96, I remember when Dennis Rodman (he was also at the height of his popularity then) came onto the main floor to sign some lithographs at a dealers table. That created quite a stir. Then he went down to the basement to sign autographs with a huge amount of people surrounding him the entire way. The most exciting part is probably around Mark Murphy's large display when people start opening up expensive packs. The number of onlookers (me included) can get to be 30+ people.

I have to say the Anaheim shows have always been fun.

Josher416

you going to the nationals this year?
-josh

69topps8

CardKid, I was at that show too. I was in the autograph area when Rodman made his appearance. I couldn't see who it was at first and I remember seeing all the beautiful women snapping photos chasing after him (why I don't know). I liked Mark Murphy's unopened pack display and bought a '64 nickle wax pack from him at the show. Also bought a 1969 Clemente for the princely sum of $100 that came back PSA 9 when I graded it a few years later.

I also remember seeing a dealer (don't recall who it was) that had cracked 1952 wax pack cello bricks of 10 packs and was selling them for $1500 each or two for $2500. You could buy a whole brick for something like $8000 or $10000. He also was selling commons from a few packs that were opened. Too bad I didn't pick those up.

TheCARDKid

No, I'm not going this year. I'll be stuck on the West coast

A '69 Clemente PSA 9 for $100? Oh, you poor soul

I also think at that '96 show, Superior Sports had their David Hall auction on display. Included was the famous '52 Topps Mantle PSA 10. Did you go the one in 2000? I didn't make it there.

69topps8

Yes I was there in '96 as well. They also had the T206 Wagner PSA 8 on display. They had most of the highest grade Mantle cards on display (lots of 10's and 9's from 1951 all the way up to 1969). It was pretty impressive.

Josher416

wow thats awesome!


and your saying being on the west coast is bad ,, lol

-Josh

Basilone

The Wagner PSA 8 and the Mantle collection were displayed last year in Cleveland as well.

nnpopp

2000 Anaheim: one dealer, who I think was connected to PSA (he had PSA-labeled card savers) was selling literally tons of 50s-70s raw cards, in all conditions, at a small fraction of book. I spent about six hours at his table, hunched over boxes (none of the cards were in any particular order). My back still hurts from that! But it was worth it; most of the stars in my 1970 registered set came from him.

2001 Cleveland: kind of depressing; I was only there on Saturday, and the crowds were very small. I brought $1000 in cash, but only spent about $200 (2 T-206 Ed Walshes, each of which graded a disappointing PSA 4).

2002 Chicago: I find hundreds of raw 1970 baseball and 1972 football, all of which eventually grade PSA 8 or PSA 9 (a guy can dream, can't he?)

robr1967

Here is my National story. I have only been to one before, I think it was 1984 when it was in Atlantic City, when I was a whole 17 years old.

At the show I bought my 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers yearbook for a whole $100.

But that is nto my story. It is what I still kick myself about today that I passed on as walking down the last rown and walking out of the convention hall.

There was a dealer there that was sey up, with an empty table, except for 1 thing.

That thing happened to be a 1949 leaf uncut sheet. It had the entire set on it if I remember right, and he had a price tag on it of ONLY $5000....

So that is my national story...

Rob

carkim

My favorite National story happened last year in Cleveland. I had 4 Wild Card Autograph tickets left and was going to use them all on Jimmy Piersall. I had 4 baseballs that I wanted him to sign for me. I approach the table and asked if it was OK for him to sign all four balls for me. He said "OK" so I set the first two balls on the table and was taking the other two out of their box. While I start to set the other two baseballs on the table he started rolling the signed baseballs off the end of the table. I had to lunge to catch them before they hit the floor. I caught 3 out of the 4 and everyone behind me in line started laughing. When I gathered everything up and started to head out I went to shake his hand to say thanks for the autographs. He pull his hand back and said "Learn how to catch first." People in line started asking me if I was mad because he did that. I said no because I thought it was pretty funny.

Jimmy is one crazy DUDE

Carlos

helionaut

My favorite story will be when the National is held here in Austin (dare to dream), or even anywhere within 500 miles. It was up in Arlington (D/FW) that one time, but I was living in NY at the time and they said attendance was so lousy it'll never return. I'd love to go, but the $ for plane fair, hotels, etc. would be a good chunk of whatever money I'd have budgeted if it's not within driving distance. Oh, well. Anyone know where it'll be next year, or is that not decided yet?

NickM

carlos - I got Jimmy to sign his second book at the 2000 National (he was one of the VIP guests then too). Before signing it, he held it up and said so everyone nearby could hear "This is a really good book, and most of the stuff in it is true."

Nick

dude

I've been to four Nationals:

1990 Arlington. I only went on a Saturday driving from Houston. The building was too small and it was packed. The thing I recall about that show is Score made a limited run of a Nolan Ryan commemerative cards (I believe they only printed 1000). Ryan came in person and broke the plates in front of the crowd. I'm not sure how they distributed the cards (if it was promo bags or door prizes) but I recall dealers and some collectors wanting them and were willing to pay $1,000 each for them. That's still a crazy price even today.

1994 Houston. This was in the town that I'm living, so I was there everyday including the Wednesday evening preview. The preview was OK. They gave away an Action Packed uncut sheet of all the starting QBs in the NFL to each guest. A nice item and suitable for framing. After giving out some giveaways, it was pretty much dead. I remember TJ Schwartz (of Tuff Stuff) walking around the VIP area with these two absolutely gorgeous models/escort service employees/hookers on each arm. Easily the most pretentious thing my friends and I ever saw in our lives and it was fodder for countless jokes among ourselves the remainder of the evening.

The show itself was great. I ran out of money the first two days there. I recall coming up to Al Rosen's table the first day around noon and he was already complaining about how bad the show was. He had some things on display for an upcoming auction including a complete 1966 set in individual card Saver 1's in a nice wooden box. Long story short, he acted like he didn't want to be bothered so I walked away. On the last day, I came to the show with my professional camera outfit to take same pictures of my best friend with some autograph guests. When I walked by Mr. Mint, he waived me over and wondered who I was with. My buddy and I realized that he thought we were with the press or a magazine and we strung him along for a good while and had a good laugh when that was all over.

It was at this show I made one of the worst decisions in recent memory. Sportscards Plus had some PSA cards on display. They were beautiful and one that caught my eye was a 1963 Topps Warren Spahn Gem Mint PSA 10. I asked what they wanted for it and they said $100 firm. I looked at my Beckett and the Beckett high price was $25 or something like that and I passed.


2000 Anaheim. There was nothing collecting-wise memorable about this show, except the there were still a lot of nice raw cards still available. The great thing was that I did meet dozens of people that I had dealt with on eBay including Skylaneflyer, Ron Sanders, Bob Earhart, and all the dealers face-to-face, many of whom I never met before like Andy Madec, Joe Delgrippo, Dom Terranova, and countless others. That was worth the trip in itself.

2001 Cleveland. This show was OK. I was only there for all of Thursday and Friday morning and didn't get to see all the dealers. I clearly noticed that the quality of raw cards dropped off considerably from the year before. This makes me wonder if the Chicago show will even have less to offer. I guess we'll see.

Vargha

I've only been to the 2000 National in Anaheim. I was able to get several cards for my 1951 Bowman set (all PSA graded). My experience was much the same as Dude's as I was able to put some faces with the names of people I had dealt with on eBay, the Internet and over the phone.

Mitochondria

I have been to 3 nationals. The first was sometime in the late 70's or early 80's in Detroit, Michigan. The show was memorable because it was the most massive gathering of collectors/dealers I had ever saw. In addition, many of the dealers appeared to come from various places in the country. I was young with no money at the time, but I did bring about 1500 to 2000 duplicates of 1975 minis. My buddies did the same and we all made about $10-$15 each (a sizeable sum back then). My next national was about 20 years later in Anaheim where I met Dan Markel, Bob Earhart, Joe Delgrippo as well as many other favorite dealers (Madec, Checkovich, Lalos, Marcy to name a few). A rememberable experience there was finding 4 PSA 8 1969 WL variations at the Levi Bleam table. I was also at the national last year in Cleveland and that was an enjoyable visit. I picked up some nice ungraded NM/MT 1969 cards from a few dealers. I also remember walking down to the Riverfront Rock and Roll museum and finding out it was closed and not being able to get tickets to the Cleveland Indians game. I won't make that mistake again.

Ron