2017 Chicago National; a blog, log, and diary, all rolled into one

Sdub

Please PM me if you'd like photos or private information that i have disclosed below removed.

Before i get into the summary of our amazing time at the national, a couple of observations

--I meet a lot of adult disposable and discretionary income collectors (addicts). Addicts are generally spending money they can afford to lose, but seek returns nonetheless. If your in this hobby with money your can't afford to lose, you're a rare breed; which makes your either very good at what you do, or very dumb, but my guess is it's more of the former.

--Not sure we can compare card market to coins, cars and art much longer. Our market has matured, and it's time we put cards in thier rightful place within investment circles. With liquidity and ease of disposal, cards are climbing the investment credibility chart. If you look at the crap that the IRS allows your pension to be invested in (junk bonds, REITS, jelly beans), it's embarrassing that cards are not allowed. How long before you can invest in cards, without taking possession of them.

--The commodization of vintage cards continues, but the barriers are large: pop charts, limited supply, fragmented sales chain, spotty price history data, variation within the grade, alterations; but it is coming, though slowly. Modern cards are already commoditized, with a few large distribution bottlenecks in place. Could see small volume dealers and AH's getting squeezed significantly in the next two years. Mergers are your friends. Unless your brand is top shelf, you need to get big. Unless of course, you're just in it for fun.

--I vote for a group text among forum members for the next national. Very hard to communicate via IM on CU.

Maybe I missed the cards, but i saw over a dozen '52 mantles and not one PSA 9 '76 George Brett.

Our national experience began before we boarded a flight from Oakland on Wednesday AM. Fellow board members on CU posted pictures of BBCE's set up on Tuesday afternoon. By Tuesday night, Steve had this packaged up:

I had to confirm a few items because of blurry photos, but we closed the sale via e-mail. As it turns out, this would be most of our national purchases (I guess deals do get done on Tuesdays).

Deciding to bring my 12 year old son was the best decision I made all week, and something I recommend to anyone who has kids. More importantly, he has a great set of young eyes and knows the card lingo. He's reviewed thousands of cards in our collection and can spot 55/45 L/R or T/B like a hawk. Tilt? PD's? small fish eye's in the 75's? he's seen it all. And he can rip with the best of them. I was a little concerned about keeping him interested, but he hung in there every day

We bought VIP tickets for the Wednesday sneak peak. Spent a few hours getting our bearings, meeting BBCE folks, and trying to gauge our remaining budget. It was apparent early that the cards we are looking for (PSA 9's/high end raw in the early-mid 70's; like this)

were priced 20-40% over what we generally pay on e-bay. Certainly don't have a problem with that as I understand the cost of setting up.

After a few hours scanning jaw dropping displays, we can upon the modern village (Steel City, Blowout, DCA, Panini/Topps booths). My son and I collect modern together, but intermittently. We did Topps Chrome 2015 and pulled these:

Before that, 2013 topps then 2011 gypsy queen, and some other sets scattered about (bowman/sterling). However, we never collected basketball...until now.

Panini had a redemption program with the purchase of their products. We took the bait and swallowed the hook. One case of Panini Prestige basketball, 140 silver redemption backs, and a young kid on a ripping feast. We ripped everywhere, in the Upper Deck lounge (got asked to leaved after they saw the Panini box, sorry). The food court, made a great trade with Chuck from Louisiana, who happened to be eating his lunch next to our rip. PWCC's booth (thanks guys), at embassy suites grill and lounge, and of course, in the hotel room.

That was such blast, we came back for seconds. Another case of Panini Excalibur, and another 100 silver packs. Lots of hits, lots of sets, lots of stuff that is not worth much other than memories and organizing skills. If anyone is interested in any of this type of stuff, PM me, as we generally just want the GS Warriors hits. Did pull a few 1/1's from the redemption packs:

Thursday afternoon brough some more ripping, but this time with CU forum members.

Theres Mike pulling 12 commons worth .07 cents each from a $30 pack. The best pack turned out to be Mike (marsattacks) young daughter.

This guy BBC emporium was cool dude. Trying to find Montana and Rice, but settled for minty Joe Green.

And some really old gum for CPA Mike and his son:

Enjoyed meeting lots of CU members and talking cards. CPA Mike took me to school on unopened, so kudos to him.

We are big Warriors fans and they were certainly on our purchase list, but anything related to them was marked up 30%. Draymond, Klay, Steph, Kevin, all commanding premiums. We settled on a rookie that we both love to watch play:

Friday evening brought the net54 dinner and some amazing speakers. The unopened Bowman story was incredible. A local FBI Inspector spoke about fraud, the mastro case, and others nuggets. Very intriguing and informative. Wanted to talk to the FBI inspector about the massive fraud on e-bay and if any of these perpetrators have even served a sentence, but my son was hitting the wall and we had to run....back to the hotel.....and rip some more packs.

We didn't take part in the live breaks, but we are getting the bug. Looks like a fun part of our industry that could really take off:

We meet some great people. The "graders of depth": Brady and Jeff:

IMO, they had the most breadth and depth of all eras. I thought the Clemente in psa 8 was the most reasonably priced vintage card I saw in the whole floor. Not sure if that sold or not, but it looked sweet.

The hat that Brady commissioned was made by a friend of mine here in North Cal; small world:

Hung out at the PWCC booth while my son ripped. Down to earth folks who hire smart (Cal-Poly plug). Ryan is now head of consignments and I recommend his services highly. They let me son rip at their booth for a while and really appreciate their kindness.

Saw this 86/87 unopened box of Fleer Basketball. Could this be the largest price discrepancy between Frankenstein and FASC in the history of unopened:

Couldn't believe the prices for Panini National Treasures. Essentially, if a GS Warrior has a rookie card in that year, the unopened is 2x:

Sweet box of '71. Who has the mind to rip this bad boy:

Steve had some nice early 70's stuff:

I love this sort of thing. How can this not go up in value:

Rosemont seemed like a nice suburb of Chicago. This place was packed on a Thursday night for a Van Halen knock off band. About 5 minute walk from Convention Center:

Love Starbucks, but this one inside the convention center was very slow. Thank god Chicagoans are patient, this store wouldn't last a day in California:

I asked the dealer if these were authentic. He said the autos are real, he got them in person. I said I wasn't asking about the autographs:

Lastly, Saturday morning brought a beautiful Chicago sunrise and a flight home:

HighGradeLegends

Thank you for sharing

shu4040

Lol great review

belz

Enjoyed reading

Bosox1976

I think they may indeed be real. Thanks for the rundown.

davidlisa

I love the Chicago location. Coming from Ohio it's a pleasant drive but that Chicago traffic and tolls. I really enjoyed Baltimore. No complaints once inside the building though.

Stone193

Thanx for posting!

I had a great time this year and you brought back a bit of the "glow" if ya know what I mean?

I was at the park when the Van Halen tribute band was playing - I actually thought they were pretty good. Free entertainment - what the heck!

Great pics and perspective - I really enjoyed walking around during setup and getting pics for those who didn't attend. Will do it again next year!

It was good meeting you and your son at BBCEx!

edit: What did you think of the VH tribute band?

BillyKingsley

I really hope what you say about investors never comes true. Investors are the enemy of true collectors who collect because they love something. Enjoyed the report especially as you covered the NBA, which is my main collection. Prestige was a good choice if it was your first NBA box, it was the first set to have game action photos of Kevin Durant, JaVale McGee and Patrick McCaw. Previous releases this season all had studio photos for KD and McCaw. Didn't include JaVale at all. I did only one box of the set and still need a bunch of them but am saving for a trip so I don't think I can make a deal for your duplicates, unfortunately. I'm one of the only people left who's main goal is completing the base set, it seems.

Stone193

I really hope what you say about investors never comes true. Investors are the enemy of true collectors who collect because they love something.>

Can't argue with any of this.

There is a "growing" group of collectors referred to as "HYBRIDS" - they have a love for sports and the hobby but are also taking a segment of their collection and referring to it as a part of their 401K portfolio of sorts - with the idea that if it went south? It would not be a deathblow to their retirement account.

Some are my friend and I respect what they're trying to do.

I've always taken the strategy that as investors enter an area of the hobby? I move to another.

If I've missed out on something? Just have to let it go. I have some regrets because I didn't gauge the investors and there's cards I will never own because of it.

robert67

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KendallCat

Again awesome recap and was great meeting you at the National along with your son. Since our boys are the same age and share the same passion for ripping packs and boxes at the hotel every night of the National we probably had the same about of $$ damage buying wax

KC

flatfoot816

John--great recap and thanks for taking the time to post. Great meeting you and Wyatt--he and all the other kids that were there (and I was surprised to see how many there were) are the future of our hobby--and hopefully the purchasers of all of our collections!!

cpamike

John, awesome recap. It was great chatting with you at the National and sorry we couldn't connect more while we were there. Hopefully our kids can hang out more next year and rip some modern stuff together. Please note the emphasis on "modern".

Thanks for taking the time to post your National adventure!