First time National Attendee here (More Photos Added)
Vagabond
Posts: 552 ✭✭✭✭
So after reading about the National from so many here who have gone over the years, I finally attended my first yesterday here in Chicago. Lets just say it was long over due but that everything happens for a reason and in good time, I felt very prepared going into this however. As everyone mentions, it can be overwhelming. Its basically a card show on steroids. Just rows and rows of tables and you can easily get confused walking around and not knowing if you already visited a table or not. My wife and I went and we scoured the floor looking for two cards in particular. We came with a printed floor layout and every time we came across a table with one of the two items we were looking for, we would circle that table number down on the map and add their asking price and I would also give the graded card my own personal grade to determine how strongly I felt about that particular card (since I was looking for them in a particular grade).
I recently watched someone's YouTube video where the guy said that him and his son went looking for specific cards and they got caught up in the awesomeness of it all and they were only able to make it through four rows on their first day. I made sure that wouldn't happen to us and had to continuously remind myself to just keep moving. Especially since it was easy to spot if a table had one of the two cards I wanted. We were able to make it through the whole floor in just four hours.
The good news is that we did leave with both exact cards we wanted. The bad news is that it almost didn't happen. There's a saying I heard once and it was "If you don't see it at the National, then it probably doesn't exist". I don't find that saying to be true honestly. I was actually surprised at how much regular stuff I didn't see. For example, there was not one single PSA 10 Don Mattingly Donruss out on the floor. I didn't see things like 1985 Topps Roger Clemens in a 10. There was probably about less than fifteen 1952 Topps Mantles that I recall seeing, most which were in the grade of 4 and under. I saw once 6 and then an auction house had one PSA 7 and PWCC Vault had two 8's and that was just about it. No Jeter SP in a 10. I saw two Honus Wagner cards which was pretty cool to finally see in person also. I really thought I would see more higher end stuff but even the easier stuff I didn't see a lot in PSA 10's.
As far as what people were selling, there really is a lot of everything. From cards to magazines. Bobbleheads, card cases, team pennants to hang up on the walls. Everything. If you're looking for old vintage raw cards, you'll definitely find a lot. 10 and quarter boxes everywhere. While that cool, I certainly didn't jump on a plane to get lost in those boxes. Someone could honestly spend their whole trip just staying at one table and looking through a dealers box. Lots of shiny and auto cards everywhere. I also heard that prices were always ridiculous. Sure, some do but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Most dealers will go down in price and as they say - cash is king - here at the National. Never met a dealer or anyone who wouldn't take cash so if you plan on attending, I would recommend you bringing cash. You would just be doing yourself a solid. My recommendation would be to place it on a book bag and place a small lock on I. I did this and felt completely at piece of mind. Never once checking to see if our money was there or now.
Another thing I noticed pretty much well within two hours into the show was the lack of high end vintage. It's becoming more rare at these shows. Either that or you can mainly find them at the auction house but the issue with that is that they arent selling at the National but simply are in attendance to promote so you cant buy anything from them. With the regular dealers, I saw one 56 Mantle PSA 8.5. I don't recall seeing a 56 in a PSA 9. Saw plenty of 7's and below. I'm thinking that perhaps more and more people are holding on to their high grade vintage.
As far as food, Cheeseburger and fries will run you $13. A beer is $10 (still better than some of the prices at a ball park I think). The folks behind the booths were actually really friendly. Especially the ones behind the auction houses which they would let me take photos of extremely valuable cards without any problem what so ever. The lines at PSA wasn't too bad to be honest. Just depends what time you submit but at least they had about four team members assisting folks and filing out their forms which helped the lines move quicker. I finally was able to meet Matt and Bobby after interacting with them on the boards which was certainly one of my highlights. They were both super kind. Nicer than what I expected to be honest. They treated my wife and I really nice as well and we certainly felt the love from those two.
This was my first day and as I previously mentioned, we were on a mission to find two cards. Mission was just barely accomplished and it wasn't till toward the end of the day, we were able to slow down, grab some beers finally and just scour the floor at our own pace and simply enjoy it. Big thanks again to Matt, Bobby and the YouTube card collecting community who made a first timer like me feel very welcomed. At the end of the evening, many of the YouTube card community folks met up at a bar of a hotel and we all shared purchases from that day, ripped packs, some were posting live videos on ripping packs even. Everyone just truly seemed to have had a great time. No weird vibes. No egos. Just your standard collectors all brought together simply because of the love of collecting sports cards.
Marc
Comments
What were the 2 cards?
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
Great pics! Thanks for posting! The card collecting community is really great. Those pics made me feel like I was there for a while. Thanks.
That Nirvana cd! 🤯
Wrestling - Danielson - Storm - Tajiri
Great pics - oh, those packs!!!
Wow! Best pictures so far. Some of the best of the show. The table with the unopened packs is unbelievable. Thanks from all of us that did not make it to the show !
Great report, especially with the photos.
Can we get an "ID" of the people here?
Just finished reading and viewing.
Thanx for the report. My apology - I don't know your first name.
I know what you mean about the size.
As I said before, every year I tell myself I'll do a better job of seeing everything? I usually don't.
I do miss that I'm not there this year.
I'm guessing no one is ripping anything at BBCEx this year?
Great recap. Thanks for sharing with those who could not attend.
Chicago 2017 was my first National and I hope to be in Atlantic City in 2020.
That Maris cello pack! Outstanding!
Awesome! Thanks for the pics!
Agreed. Awesome pics from the OP though 🍻
Is this Evan Mathis' Mantle?
Great job and post - well done. Nice to see still pics rather than a "moving blurr".
NICE thank you for posting I didn't make it this year,
Marc it was a pleasure hanging out with you and your wife. Let's do this again some time. BTW outstanding pickups as well as a nice recap of your day.
Marc, so what were the 2 cards??
Absolute.Monsters.
Marc, It was really nice finally meeting you and Sandi. I am glad you both had fun and were able to go home with exactly you were hoping to go home with! Next time I will come to Miami!
I collect: 80’s Rookies and 86 Fleer Basketball
Hey Mike. Yup, that's Evans 53 Mantle 10. As for naming the people in the group photo, too many to list but I did take individual photos with Matt Miller and Bobby Porter which are in the first batch of photos in the original post for this thread.
Bobby and Matt, I just cant express how much it meant to me to finally meet you both. I wish we could do that more often. Remember what I said Bobby about sending me a Donnie baseball card. I'll get it done for you. Just hurry cause his contract is up after this season and who knows if he can take any more punishment managing his team.
As for everyone else who still didn't get enough of this years Nationals photos, I took a few more on Saturday. All the high end stuff that you'll see is pretty much the Auction Houses. VERY rare does a regular dealer carry something that is unique. Sure, you'll see Aaron Rookie and even 52 Mantle but there beat up. So if you see Ruth items or anything like that, they are probably just for display until they go live.
Since I already got my cards on Friday, Saturday I just took it real easy and looked around more, drank beers and simply walked the show. Spoke to some folks who I knew and overall I just really had a good time. I had a flight to catch so I left the show around 3pm so I can grab some food and catch a flight (which ended up being 3 hours delayed - yay!). As for the cards I purchased, I would rather not say on this board at this moment and I hope you guys respect my decision. I'm sure I'll show them at some point. Thanks for (hopefully) understanding.
Hope you guys enjoy
Wow. A 1948 bkb wax pack.
What was the price on that gem?
Thanx Marc.
Matt and Bobby are really good guys.
I'm going to put those pics in with the others that you took as part of the 2019 collated thread.
While the pics of your guys are really nice - it sure makes me feel old.