My National experience

Dusto

I was at the National on Friday and Saturday and was pretty blown away by the experience. Never had I seen so many high grade vintage assembled under one roof before. While I went to this one without a purchasing plan or checklist of things I wanted, I can say I will be much more focused and bring a higher budget for next year to start knocking things off my want list. I'm normally a sucker for low priced junk wax and I was not disappointed in that regard. I mean seriously, I will buy you out of 1987 Donruss Factory sets at $10, bought a case of 1987 Topps Vending for $40, 1990 Topps Vending for $30, 1987 Fleer Update Glossy sets for $3, plus much more delicious update/traded sets for $1 apiece. My most expensive purchase was a 1981 Topps Baseball box from BBCE for $270. I've already opened it and sent a few of them to PSA yesterday under the August special. I also bought some nice raw 1971 Topps and 1974 Topps baseball raw cards. Typically, my collection is high-grade rookies (1974 -1985) and HOFers (1974-1979), but I am having a serious man crush on the 1971 baseball set after seeing some beautiful PSA 9 cards with that tough black border. Thank you for everyone else who have posted and shown their great pickups. I also want people to know that if you are on a tight budget, you can easily go to the show and have a blast on less than 1k spending cash. It is definitely not just for the high roller collector. Also, I did not have an unpleasant experience with an dealer and found most were absolutely willing to make a deal (especially on multiple purchases).

I made it to the BBCE booth on Friday and met some of the board members (I was the guy that ripped two 1988 Fleer Basketball packs). I apologize I've forgotten who all was there, the day was kind of a blur, but I seem to recall CPAMIKE ripping a 1979 Topps baseball pack and when he was done, we had to hold him back from wanting to bust open a case. Plans are already in the works for Chicago and I will post my National poppage of the raw buys when I get it.

Bosox1976

Fine write-up -- glad to see that there were deals at both ends of the price spectrum.

cpamike

<< <i>I apologize I've forgotten who all was there, the day was kind of a blur, but I seem to recall CPAMIKE ripping a 1979 Topps baseball pack and when he was done, we had to hold him back from wanting to bust open a case. >>



Pictures or it didn't happen.

It was great meeting you and watching you bust those packs. They were basketball after all, so it is o.k. to bust those in my book. Your post made me think of a great point in that the cost to ship a lot of what we call junk wax makes it not worthwhile to do this on eBay or online but if you drive to the show, you can load up on it much more cheaply.

Glad you had a good time and looking forward to seeing you again next year in Chicago.

ThoseBackPages

Great write up!

kingnascar

<< <i>Great write up! >>



+1

esquiresports

+2. A real joy to read, especially since I went through the first round when those late 80s products broke out of their "junk" status back in the late 90s. I love a good bargain like you. It's all in the percentages.