I was there for a couple hours yesterday, and found it to be a ton of fun and very exciting. It's been four years since I've been there and eight since I set up, and it struck me as almost a completely different show now. In 20 years of doing the Chantilly show, I never remember a Friday with this kind of crowd and buzz. There are also more dealers, with entire sections of the floor that never had tables before. As for vintage, I saw a fair amount in the limited time I spent checking out the room. But mostly it seemed as though the generational shift underway is almost complete, with a new definition of "vintage" cards, autographs, etc., sought after by younger cohorts than me and my fellow dinosaurs. And that's great, just as it should be. From now on the really old stuff will be found almost entirely in auctions and premier shows like the National and Philly, I think. It was great to run into one of the small group of fellow Senators/Nationals collectors from the good old days of the 90s, Charlie Descalzi, and we spent an hour or so alternating between laughing at our antics from the wonderful times we had to reminiscing and grieving over the many dear friends we've lost. So it goes. For some specifics that grabbed my attention, stalwart Net54er Howard Chasser is keeping the prewar and postwar vintage lamp lit with several tables of terrific early stuff of all kinds, including some really beautiful old cards. He had the nicest WaJo "1" I've ever seen, with beautiful deep rich colors and perfect registration in the image, everything I'd want in a card with a very reasonable price tag. If I wasn't downsizing, that card would have been going home with me! Tom Spiker from Baltimore, one of the reliably great dealers doing the Chantilly show for decades had the prettiest Walter Johnson For Congress primary pin I've ever seen--it would grade a 9 or 10, I'll bet--at a ridiculously fair price, which is how Tom has always rolled. His gorgeous Baltimore Bullets dishware set made me wish I was a fan of that franchise so I could put those on display in my "office." Sooner than I would have liked, my Winchester buddy reminded me it was time to test out what I had been telling him about Willard's B-B-Q and we were off to have what he described later as "The best sandwich I've ever had in my life." He had the brisket, and I had the open turkey, the best of that kind I've ever eaten. What a great day, then it was back into the mountains until the next show.
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