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Brian H I went to the national here in Chicago (ok its actually in Rosemont, IL near the airport) for part of the last 2 days. I enjoying actually meeting several of the other characters from teh Board and a bunch of us had dinner on Thursday Night -- someone else has photos and can provide commentary about this historic caucus.
The national was different than the other 2 I have been to here in Chicago. First of all there was virtually no free stuff and no real lines for anything but still decent attendance. I will leave it to someone else to describe from the dealers' perspective whether it was "a good show" and how our fledgling economy may or may not have effected the event.
The "Big Four" grading companies (PSA, SGC, Beckett and now GAI) each had a pressence both in terms of submissions and cards on the tables. SCD was also there but their cards were relatively few and far between. None of the other alphabet soup of grading companies had much of a pressence at all. It seems that the long forecast shakeout has finally occurred in this market. Although I only really submitted to SGC at this one (as usual) I did talk to PSA and GAI directors who were both informative and helpful about some of my concerns about grading vintage cards (primarily T202s). The grading business seems to be finally becoming more consumer (non-dealer) friendly.
Generally there was less vintage stuff there than I had hoped (so if you missed it you didn't miss that much). As I expected there were no (vintage, not El Duque) Cuban cards and very few high quality T202s or T205s either graded or raw. Old Judges (and even Mayos) were, however, relatively prevalent -- and not just at the TIK table. Alot the other big vintage dealers had graded (SGC, PSA or GAI) Old Judges priced very high in all grades (GAI has even more lower half-grades than SGC I learned). In fact, surprisingly, some of the most affordble Old Judges were at the TIK table along with Terry's usual assortment of mouth watering rarities and one of a kinds from the 19th Century. Terry also still has a bevy of the one of a kind Alleghanys including some nice HOFers -- but I held off becoming a type collector and getting one even though getting Bresnahans ultimate Rookie was tempting.
As far as sight seeing the most interesting cards I got to look at were the Mastro cards for the current auction, the TIK table, some of Scott B's stuff (I have never seen so many T204s or Breisch-William cards in one place in my life), some of the stuff Sportcards Plus is putting in its next auction and horde of very rare types Leon had brought with him from his collection....
As Pink Floyd said "wish you were here"