I've done daily write-ups for the National on another site for the past couple years, thought folks who couldn't make it might enjoy reading/seeing what's going on so thought I'd post here this year as well.
And here...we...go.
I booked my trip to the National this year pretty late - literally just less than two weeks ago. I have to confess, Cleveland just didn't sound or feel like a great place to attend. I've never been here before, so I had no real basis for the feeling, but the thought of Cleveland did absolutely nothing to get me excited about the show this year. However, a couple consecutive rough weeks at work and it was clear I needed a break. I really enjoy the cards and memorabilia, even if just looking, so I decided to book the trip.
I arrived early Tuesday night so I could get settled in, and saw this at the airport.
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Gotta be a great sign of how awesome and lucky this show is going to be, right? I mean this was at a freaking AIRPORT!
I goofed around Wednesday morning and early afternoon, as the show was officially open 4-8pm today so no real hurry to start standing in line for no good reason. VIPs get in 30 minutes early each day. Speaking of VIPs...I was fortunate this year to get a VIP pass from a friend of mine who ended up not being able to attend. I've gotten the VIP pass myself the past three years, but at this point I have to completely honest with you - I doubt there are many other times when you'd feel like LESS of a VIP than at the National. When you break it down, the daily admission is $19 in advance, so $95 for the week. I think the VIP passes start at $140 or so. Primary benefits appear to me to be the 30 minute early admission, and access to some free autographs and the VIP lounge. While those are nice, in four years I've never gotten a single one of the autographs and I've visited the lounge sparingly. That 30 minutes is about enough to visit maybe a couple rows of tables, so unless you know there's something that you've got to get to (I'm sure many would say the BBCE booth), I don't really think it's worth the extra money. My view is that the VIP tickets are just a way to squeeze an extra $50 out of you to attend the show - there is no real tangible benefit. Yes, I got some cards, too, but there's nothing in there that's rare and the free autographs are not anyone you'd much care about. I guess I can post pictures of the cards tomorrow.
Here's the view of the front of the show and the VIP lounge access. It was so packed in the VIP lounge, only a few tables to sit at (which were all filled) and long lines for the autographs (I think most people were there for Mike Hargrove?), I walked in and turned and walked back out.
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The hall itself is nice and big and spacious. Seems to me it is actually nicer than Chicago, and food/drink amenities are definitely better which should come in handy tomorrow. The layout seems a little different than Chicago, but I only made it halfway through today so don't that for a fact just yet. Unlike Chicago, there weren't stairs anywhere I saw to get more of an aerial view of the show, so these will just have to do.
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I did not make it to the BBCE booth until right before show close, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that share today.
The bit I did see looked pretty good, though, and I'm sure there are plenty of great items still available so check back in tomorrow for that. There was an $80,000 case of something, and looks like they were running daily specials as well.