Another 2017 National post... My experience, in words and pictures!
epatmythes
Posts: 1,514 ✭✭✭
So, this was my 6th National, but my first since 2011. I've only ever been to the National in Chicago and Cleveland... going in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 & 2011 previously. It's been so long, I really forgot just how much fun it is and how easy it is to get wrapped up in the excitement of the event! This was also the first time I ever went for the entire show... Wednesday preview night through the weekend! In the past, I usually showed up on Thursday or Friday and stayed through the weekend.
By getting wrapped up in the excitement, I'm speaking specifically about buying boxes, and boxes, and boxes, and boxes of cards... to get the manufacturer wrapper redemptions. I'll start by saying I don't like Panini... I just don't! However, I had good luck with Donruss Optic boxes last year, so on Wednesday night I bought 3 boxes of 2017 Donruss Optic. Bought those three boxes, only to find out they wouldn't except Optic for redemptions, WTF??? Needless to say, other than having to stop by their booth on Thursday to pick up my VIP sets, I didn't spend another second in their area the rest of the show... F Panini!
Over the course of Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, I bought: 7 boxes of 2017 Stadium Club, 2 boxes of 2017 Topps Tier One, 1 box of 2017 Topps Museum Collection and 2 boxes of 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter. I bought all these, and continued to buy some of these each day solely for the wrapper redemption Silver Packs. I did this because on Wednesday night, I pulled this from a pack... the first picture of this post!
I didn't buy anymore boxes during the weekend because on Friday, my buddy and I got in line right away and we were 2 of the last 3 people to get packs on Friday morning before they ran out. We only got packs because the guy 2 people in front of us showed up at Topps booth with a 2016 case of Bowman hobby boxes, which did not qualify (had to be 2017 product, and we all called him out on it, loudly). There was still a massive line behind us and people were not happy. We got in line about 9:45 because we got in the show just after 9:30 as VIP's. The general public weren't admitted in until 10:00... and Topps was out of packs by 10:32 (I checked my phone after we got our packs). I didn't know this until last night, but I guess Topps changed it for Saturday and Sunday to start at noon (instead of 10AM) and cut the max boxes you could exchange for packs from 16 to 8. Over the 3 days, I got 4 other non-1/1 autographs (2 Rafael Devers, Aledmys Diaz & Gary Carter) and some decent Golds. I also ended up with a complete 50 card set that I'll keep for my PC.
Now, before I digest too many more words, let's get to some pictures!
To close out Wednesday night, I went to the Main Stage to get Nate Archibald's autograph on an 8x10 I brought with me. Great signature from a Hall of Famer!
On Thursday, I brought these 2 cards with me and got them signed by VIP free signer Bill Cartwright. Long story short, when I was younger I sent every 1989 Hoops Chicago Bulls card to each player via the Bulls mailing address. I think this was in 1991. I only got 3 responses back. Will Perdue and Craig Hodges sent me my cards back signed (I now have them in PSA holders). Scottie Pippen sent me back a letter saying he doesn't have time to respond to all his fan mail and sent a fascimile signed photo. I got nothing back from the others... so the opportunity to get Cartwright, I took it and got his sig on 1989 Hoops.
Friday... I wanted so badly to go to the PSA Set Registry luncheon. I had my invite and had been looking forward to it all year. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it. I'm known as a crazy Trout and Pujols collector, but above all, I AM A CUBS FAN. I've been working on this since they won the World Series, and unfortunately for me, they were both signing right during the luncheon.
Pedro Strop
David Ross
On Saturday, I got my last autograph of the show. I'm a Red Wings fan and I've always like Brett Hull. I started collecting cards in 1987-1988 and that 1988 Hull rookie is still one of my favorite cards of all time. I had to get his autograph!
Okay, so I opened a bunch of modern wax, so what did I get? For starters, I currently have 54 cards in Card Savers I plan to submit to PSA this week. A lot of Judge, Benintendi & Bellinger rookies and rookie parallels, and some other personal favorites. I also pulled some nice cards I sold back to dealers at the show... the best individual pull probably being the Dustin Pedroia bat nameplate 1/1 from Museum Collection. I sold it to a dealer for $300. I could have maybe gotten $500-600 on eBay for it, but I was happy! So, how about a couple more pics?
My two favorite hits from Stadium Club... and yes, they are in Card Savers because they are perfect and heading to Newport Beach. They are both SSP variations. I also pulled the Kershaw variation but saw they were only going for $20-25 on eBay, so I sold it to a dealer for $10!
My next best hit was probably this card, which is also headed to PSA. Gold parallel, numbered to 10!
I also brought this with me from my personal collection. I'm a PSA guy at heart, but I had to run this by BGS. I've seen these recently sell for $1400-1600. The high side being a BGS 9 with a 10 auto grade. I've had this in my collection for many years now, only have about $450 into it, and have always felt it should be a 9. To me, it was worth the gamble to get a graded card review for $50 from BGS to see what they thought. It also came back from them with an 8.5 grade and a 10 auto grade. It would have cost me $200 to have it same-day holdered by them... and as an 8.5/10, I decided to save the money and just keep it in the PSA holder. It was worth a shot!!!
All these words, all these pictures, didn't I buy any PSA slabbed stuff??? I did, but not much. I went to this National... the place you go to find ANYTHING you are looking for... specifically looking for 5 cards. Over the course of the entire week, I found only 2. I purchased one!
The one I purchased was a PSA 8 Billy Williams RC. The other card pictured? Well, did you not read my earlier comments about 1989 Hoops autographed Bulls cards. I picked up the Phil Jackson auto from BBCE!
I'll wrap this up with my disappointments in the show...
I went there looking for 5 different cards and only found 2. The 3 I couldn't find were modern Chicago Cubs cards. Not only was it the National, but it was the National in Chicago... and I couldn't find them! That was quite the disappointment and shock. I got the Williams RC though, so I was happy. The other card I was looking for was a 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle gray back in PSA 5 or PSA 6. As it was, as I ended up spending more on wax then I planned, I changed my mind on spending the $1200+ for a 6 and strictly looked for a PSA 5. There was no shortage of PSA graded 1956 Mantle's at the show, but I kid you not... I literally only found one dealer with a PSA 5 gray back... ONE!!!
I'm working on a PSA 5-6 graded 1956 set. This is my fun story of the show. Full disclosure, what I'm about to say about VCP, happened at least 4 times with dealers at the show as I looked at the 56's in their cases. I saw a card I might be interested in, so I pulled out my phone. This dealer, like the others, asked me if I was about to pull up VCP! A couple dealers seemed displeased I did this. This dealer did not, but upon me telling him yes, he immediately went into a speech about how all cards are not equal and you have to appreciate the strengths for the grade (as if I didn't already know that). If you can't immediately extoll the virtues that make yours superior, and be right, spare me the speech and just shut the F up... I'm at the National with a pocket full of cash, don't talk to me like I'm an idiot!
My real problem was, the card was priced $80 over the current VCP average and it was anything but strong for the grade. The speech was BS and pointless. I asked to look at it and pulled out my loupe. The centering, admittedly, was very strong. However, the corners were extremely weak for a 5. If I was submitting it raw myself, I would be thinking 3.5 (because of the good centering), 4.5 at best. It also had an ink spot right over the Mick's head. It looked like pen ink to me under the loupe, but I guess PSA disagreed, as they didn't give it an MK qualifier. The dealer didn't seem too interested in negotiating anyway, and I couldn't look past that spot that, to me, just killed the eye appeal and would haunt me if I bought it... so I just handed it back and said thanks for letting me look at it. I really can't believe I could not find another Mantle 5 in the entire place (DISCLAIMER: Maybe 707 had one, but I've successfully avoided even wasting my time at their over-priced booth for well over a decade now)!
My only other beef, honestly, was the PSA booth. I attempted to go there twice. The first was as-the-VIP-doors-opened on Thursday. I went to drop of 20 cards to pay $10 each for reholder. I stood in line for 45 minutes, at least 30 people back, and moved approximately 2 feet. I said screw it and left. The second time, I went to have my Hull photo PSA/DNA stickered. I've used PSA/DNA for authentication at numerous Chicago shows. At normal shows, they usually have a person (or two) at the booth just to take on-site signed autograph authentications and you're in-and-out in 10 minutes or less. No such luck at the National. Either that, or the PSA rep I spoke too outside of the line gave me bad info.. but he told me I had to wait in the normal submission line, which at the time was easily 75-100 people deep. Again, screw that!
Overall though, I had a blast. One of these days, maybe I'll make it a priority to meet members from here, but that just wasn't in the cards this year. I'll probably skip Cleveland next year, but looking forward to Chicago again in 2019.
Happy Collecting!
-Eric
Comments
Great post thanks. It's obviously the key card but I'm pretty sure at last years national bbce had an 89 hoops mj signed. So it's out there!
They had it there too, but it was $999. More than I'm currently comfortable paying for a signed 89 Hoops card... Someday, maybe!
Sounds like you had a blast -- congrats on the Carter -- would love to see a picture
I currently have it for sale on eBay, it's serial numbered out of 7. My eBay ID is 2000Explorer. Admittedly, I have a pretty high price tag on it because of the low production... but I'm 100% open to any reasonable offer!
Just a little post-National update. I said I had 54 cards in Card Savers from the show to send to PSA for grading. The majority of those are in a bulk submission that is currently on business day 35.
These 11 though, I felt were good enough to send on the August $10/30 day special... Got results a week ago (On exactly business day 30)...
1 1 27871594 GEM MINT 10 2017 Bowman Chrome National Convention Bnraj Aaron Judge Card
2 1 27871595 GEM MINT 10 2017 Bowman Chrome National Convention Bnrcb Cody Bellinger Card
3 1 27871596 MINT 9 2017 Panini Donruss Optic 38 Aaron Judge Holo Card
4 1 27871597 GEM MINT 10 2017 Panini Donruss Optic 65 Cody Bellinger Card
5 1 27871598 MINT 9 2017 Panini Donruss Optic 65 Cody Bellinger Orange Card
6 1 27871599 GEM MINT 10 2017 Panini Donruss Optic the Rookies TR15 Cody Bellinger Card
7 1 27871600 GEM MINT 10 2017 Stadium Club 41 Kris Bryant Holding WWE Belt Card
8 1 27871601 GEM MINT 10 2017 Stadium Club 64 Aaron Judge Card
8 2 27871602 GEM MINT 10 2017 Stadium Club 64 Aaron Judge Card
9 1 27871603 MINT 9 2017 Stadium Club 149 Andrew Benintendi w/Teammate Card
10 1 27871604 GEM MINT 10 2017 Stadium Club Chrome SCC77 Andrew Benintendi Refractor Card
Bummed that the Benintendi SC SSP didn't get the 10 I feel it deserves (maybe I'll crack and resubmit), but otherwise happy with the results!
Really nice Eric.
Would love to see the Judge and Bellinger BCN Cards.
The Judge and Bellinger are great!
^^^ yup!
Those are sweet looking cards - Congrats!