Just about a year ago, on February 4th of last year, Leon posted the 12-page program from the first National Sports Collectors' Convention in 1980 in Anaheim, which he had won in a Leland's auction. It's very interesting reading. That post is here:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=217608
In the comments, somebody asked if there were pictures from that first National. I replied that there must be, but I wasn't sure if any of the hobby publications that were around at the time published any. The Trader Speaks didn't have anything significant, but Dan Dischley generally didn't cover shows. I subsequently looked through Sport Fan, whose editor Bob Jaspersen usually attended the big shows and published lots of pictures and detailed stories. He had planned to go to the 1980 Anaheim National, but had to cancel at the last minute for health reasons. I also dug through my boxes of Sports Collectors Digests from that time, but couldn't find any significant coverage of the National, though it's possible I missed something because my issues from 1980 are disorganized and split among several boxes.
The other hobby publication active in 1980 was Baseball Hobby News, but I don't think I had the relevant issues a year ago, so I couldn't check. Now I do, and while organizing my BHNs tonight I came across the October 1980 issue, which has a 4-page spread on the first National, with lots of pictures. The first picture below is of the front page of section 2, with a poster from the show signed by a bunch of the attendees. Then come page 47, 48, 49, a better picture of the two photos that are split between pages 48-49, and page 50. I also have the August 1981 BHN with lots of stories and photos of the second National in Detroit, which I can post later if people are interested.
