Nationals is open for business…. Quick updates
 

Early access is open at Nationals and PSa grading lines are already long and the place is getting more crowded. Not all vendors are set up

I have no regrets that I am not set up this year. Hope the vendors get set up in time to start tearing down on Sunday. It is a grind, and I am closing on 74, without help I doubt I can take the rigors of a full national convention.

Hey Jeff, if you see Mike Peich, Dan McKee, Jeff Prizner, or Ethan Ready will you please give them a nice pinch for me and tell them Hi!

Will do if I can find them in this madness

Love the onsite recon. Keep it coming. I'll be living vicariously through you all weekend :) Thanks!

One disappointment was a booth of Fantasy memorabilia. I will take a pic when I go back Friday. PSA line was long but my son came and I ended up 5th person in line. The PSA "Expedited" line was everything but expidated. Business looked brisk saw lots of cards being snached up. I was disappointed in amount of vintage available. Definitely outgunned by modern and gaming. Not many folks with masks on so plan accordingly. I was full n95 myself..

From the other side of the table
 

I'm at booth 861. I was set up and ready to roll when the doors opened. Sales were steady. I had a very good day 1. A broad range of items sold. Pretty good crowd for day 1 as well.

Walking the room there was (as usual) an incredible array of items. Didn't pay close attention to pricing. The SGC 9.5 Mantle is a sight to behold in person!

I invite all Net 54 members to stop by and introduce yourselves!

Howard

The hotels were an easy walk to the convention center.
The Lines on first day were long to get your pass. I had the basic VIP pass. The lines moved well.
They gave gift bag but it was mostly an eBay bag and a bunch of advertisements and the like for the various vendors and coupons to the autographs of some sports stars including Pat Listsch, milt Thompson, Steve Baker, Don Money, Mark Moseley, Rico Petrocelli.
The VIP area a lot of tables to sit and relax and regroup.

They let us in and the PSA line was very very long. The place was full and busy within 30 minutes
1. Most dealers were there but many were not fully set up
2. Fair amount of tables no one when at.
3. Many tables were shared by multiple dealers.
4. Only made it thru sections 100 thru 600 on the first evening and most of those tables were modern cards.
5. As I got into the 600’s vintage was starting.
6. So a lot of people coming in with card carriers looking to sell or trade cards. The people trying to sell the dealers the cards were looking to get full retail but the dealers were offering approx 70 cents on the dollar (and most were upfront about it and their need to make money by flipping it. People doing trades with dealers were getting closer to 100%. Value.
7. Trying to go thru to see what people have and making notes so I no where to go back. So far no must haves on my potential bigger purchase
8. Ran into a few people on this forum but more might be here but do not know them be sight so sadly may have missed many.
9. Picked up a few smaller items including 1914 B-18 blankets of Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson and a 1921 Mid Week Pictorial with Babe Ruth on cover

Today may be the only day I make it this year. I was into the show at 2pm thanks to an extra dealer badge, and the PSA line was an hour long then! I did manage to pick this up in the first 15 mins I was in the show - just too nice to pass up. It’s a 1.5 that looks like a 7 thanks to the spots of paperloss on the back.

Sweet Green Cobb Jon, enjoy

That Jackson B-18 has great color Jeff, nice pickup!

also, really nice Green Cobb Jon. I like to get the great display cards with back damage myself as I don't really mind. That looks great.

That’s one nice looking Cobb T206

[QUOTE=mrreality68;2246466]
6. So a lot of people coming in with card carriers looking to sell or trade cards.
What's a card carrier?

[QUOTE=Hankphenom;2246548]It is a suitcase type box that you can fit graded cards into to carry into shows and such. It is all the rage these days,,,,,cough..

Regards,

Butch

[QUOTE=butchie_t;2246549]Thanks, Butch, sounds like must-have equipment for the new generation of wheeler-dealers...cough... "Everything passes, everything changes, just do what you think you should do..."--Bob Dylan

There is a vendor set up at the show specializing in these cases.

[QUOTE=butchie_t;2246549]butch lol

Hint
 

..discount if you have a man-bun and really cool shades and the newest I-Phone

....and a slightly smaller friend who follows you around from a distance of 11 inches..

..

New card suitcase ? Hmm, sounds interesting. I always just did the shoebox in a duffle bag.

Jeff,

How is the Babe Ruth selection there? Mainly playing days stuff.
Nice pickups everyone!

Thanks for the updates y'all. Fun to hear a little about the National.

Actually the Ruth selection is not big except the Goudey’s however the Ruth’s that are here are higher end and really nice eye appeal. But the prices on some are competitive and 1 vendor was so so over priced on Ruth and Jackson even above a “Nationals Markup”. I mean they wanted $55k for a rookie Joe Jackson PSA 1 and a 1921 exhibit Ruth $20k for an SGC 1.5 as an example and also a 1922 e121 American caramel Ruth holding ball a 1.5 for $33k

Biggest issue of the Nationals
No Wi-Fi and very bad cellular coverage
Minimal food vendors so the lines are super super long
Not enough stations to get drinks and same issue with long lines

Great meeting a lot of the dealers here and seeing people and networking

Is there more than one National going on?

Hi everyone
I was speaking to a dealer today who said he was unable to park and had to leave . Has parking been an issue? What about before the show opens? I was thinking about driving over tomorrow morning (instead of taxi), but don’t want to waste my time.

LOL. The show is so great it warrants the s!

No first hand knowledge, but Blowout has a section just for the National in their forum. There are comments in that thread that parking is a major mess today. IIRC, one commenter decided to leave after driving around for an hour and try again tomorrow.

At the 2016 National in AC, parking in the main convention center garage was plentiful and always available.

Full before 10 AM if you believe posts on the Blowout forum.

Just went today,
Got in the show around 10:15.
Was really amazing for about 2 hours. Then got slammed. Hard to move around, the usual.
It’s crazy how much you can get through when you are on a hunt for certain very rare cards and the show isn’t busy yet. I probably got through 80% of the vintage baseball dealers in those first 2 hours. Slogged through the rest in the following hours.
Steered clear of the company booths. Unfortunately not a ton of what I was looking for but that is to be expected.

As for transportation, DON’T try to park at the event center unless you get there very early.
Park at a lot or parking garage and take a taxi. Skip the headache.

Both parking and traffic around the AC Convention Center was a mess today. Lots and garages filled up quickly, and there was no law enforcement on hand for traffic control. One of the great things about Chicago is you can leave the convention floor by foot to grab a bite or go to your hotel, then go back to the convention. The option, for the most part in AC, is to take your car or cab/Uber. Not nearly as convenient, and it creates traffic problems. From the time we got in our vehicle to away from the convention area, a good 30 minutes had passed. Hoping for attendees on the weekend that traffic police will be working the area.

Thanks, the problem for me is that I am staying at the marina side of AC…. $15 for an Uber to the convention. Then a cab charged me $30 to get back, takin advantage of the mob scene …

Like figure skating or gymnastics, I guess. But every year someone seems to use the plural.

Wow?! That is an insane price. Definitely need to bargain with them. Not sure they have fixed prices or much regulation..
I paid $13 for my taxi back.

Sounds like a logistical clusterf**k of National proportions.

Jon, incredible looking Green Cobb, congrats.

Parking
 

Went Wednesday evening, and the biggest problem by far (aside from no cellular reception) was finding a parking spot. I finally found a convenient garage on Club Ln for only $5 for 8 hours. It's a short 10 min walk to the convention center, if that, and it's an indoor garage and felt secure. I recommend the self park garage on Club Ln, directly across from the Caesars Self Parking garage entrance.

Some of the many issues with the venue and location. Not even cards could entice me to make the journey. The committee will stick to the location anyway.

Taxi everywhere. Strong advice. Park your car at a casino and leave it there.

Do any of you geezers have a cell phone?

Take it out and snap some pix and post.

Yes we need pictures, lots and lots of pictures. Some game used bats or even some cards.:)

Hi

I took lots of pictures and will post later.

The reception was so bad you could not even open the web unless you went outside the hall to get reception.

On the positive side there were lots of young kids with their dads and many had a list of things they wanted to buy, the fathers let the kids search, sometimes negotiate prices and pay.

Lots of activities to do and many vendors of products and services not just the card dealer.

Lots of both vintage and modern but modern was a lot more prevalent. There was many dealers selling Pokémon cards with 1 have 6 showcase lscof nothing but those cards.

Didn’t really take any pics unfortunately but I had to of this one.

My first National. Flew in for the day (Thursday) Was really happy to see a good amount of vintage. Plenty of T205/206/Goudey and many others out there. Local shows to be do not get that strong of vintage.

I came for 1914 Cracker Jacks but the selections were sparse (I’m told I should have come on Wed preview as most were bought then.

A fun experience for sure.

Staying at Claridge
 

Decent walk, glad I just parked at the hotel and missed the huge jam around the center. Thought vintage was okay tho maybe not quite what I hoped. My wife is with me and learned how to skip tables fast. Saw a nice 66 TOPPS FB checklist PSA 7 but 1500 was the ask. Looking at a few graded 52 Bowman’s.

I didn't make it this year. There's a lot of video of the show on YouTube by various people. It appears (as I expected) a lot of the shiny stuff and less vintage as pre-Covid Nationals and even less memorabilia. Next year the National is back in Chicago. It will be interesting to find out what locations they choose for 2024 and 2025. I wonder if they will eliminate Atlantic City for future shows due to lack of parking. We shall see. I think they vote tomorrow.

Vote tomorrow? That would be a a silly misguided thing to do, as opposed to waiting for the event to end, studying the data, getting feedback and making an informed educated decision. Hey, but what do I know...

This thread is starting to read a bit like all of the people who decided not to go three months ago will explain to you how awful it is this year …..

I got to AC as the show was letting out and the throng of people leaving by foot looked like the Rose Bowl was letting out after a football game.

Here are some pictures

Here are some more