[hcv123]

I was there with my kids Wednesday and Thursday. We were at A/C 2 years ago and Cleveland 3 years ago. At the 2 prior shows I/we were frantically hunting for rare Roberto Clemente cards from a very short want list - came up empty both times. Kids had fun - custom baseball cards and some boxes of new cards (baseball, basketball and pokemon). Both the earlier shows were big disappointments for me.
This year was different - I expected to find no new Clemente items (didn't stop us from asking though) - I decided this year was about my kids and getting them more involved (we have been collecting Pittsburgh Pirates team sets) - This year was great! The kids picked out A LOT of cards for our team sets and had a lot of fun interacting with dealers and learning the art of negotiation. Got some great Pokemon cards (at least that's what they tell me as I do not speak fluent Pokemon). We rode the ferris wheel a few times. Go figure, the year I go in expecting to find nothing Clemente - I find 2 great items!!
It seemed like there was more foot traffic than I recall seeing last 2 shows - anyone notice this?
I went in with very low expectations and just a desire to have a great time with my kids - we had a great show and experience and picked up some great stuff.
I do concur regarding the "museum pricing" on stuff - I was looking for a few graded Clemente cards to add to my registry set and while I did find probably a couple dozen that fit the bill - every single one of them was priced between 15% and 50% over current market price (that is after attempted negotiation) - None of them were that special that I could justify paying that much more. That I couldn't find one negotiable to market price was just a little bit frustrating.