I went on Saturday with my Brother and Nephew. This was my 2nd national. I had a good time. Bought a couple t206s for my HOF t206 collection. Most dealers I spoke with were very nice and helpful and always willing to negotiate. All in all from my personal standpoint it was a worthwhile trip.
As others have stated I did feel like it's as much as a place for auction houses to promote their next auction as much as it is a place for dealers to sell cards but hey that's part of the hobby as well and honestly I like looking at some of that stuff because 99.9% of it I'll never own so it's cool to atleast see it in person.
One thing I noticed that I didn't notice the last national in Chicago and I think is a positive thing for the hobby is the amount of kids and teenagers I seen buying cards, busting wax at the panini and topps booths and what not. Even seen some kids helping out running dealer booths. Seen plenty of parents both moms and dads helping their kids pick out cards or educating them on the hobby and I think that's great. There's always a lot of chatter about the hobby dying because kids can't afford to be involved or baseball cards don't interest them like they did us when we were kids but I think there's still a healthy amount of kids into the hobby. Sure most of them are more into the autograph cards and busting packs and stuff but hey gotta start somewhere.
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