[Spike]

As a low grade and type collector, Nationals provide more stuff to sift though than other shows, even if walking on all that concrete takes a lasting toll. This year, I found an above-average amount of lower-grade material and saw it at tables earlier in the week than other years. That gets a thumbs-up from me. (Based on reports so far, that didn't mean people were having bad weeks and not selling anything, as I've heard as a "sign" at some other Nationals.)

Prices for the bigger names felt 20-25% higher than you'd pay online, despite a high number of dealers showing big-name cards and arguably competing against each other. My one significant buy, a low-grade Sports Kings Cobb, cost $240 from a dealer who didn't have a great table location, which might've helped me in that deal. I came ready to buy a similar condition Sport Kings Ruth and didn't find many to choose from, so left without that hit.

I appreciated that you can retreat to carpeted promoter areas and rested my legs several times near eBay's booth. Cleveland's layout is OK, since you can see almost everything in straight lines. It does seem beholden to big booths needing to use the aircraft doors for load-in and load-out. As a visitor, I'd like to see Topps, Panini, and so forth as a side-to-side presence in the middle of the show surrounding the ferris wheel. Having them end-to-end along one edge feels like two shows that happen to be in one building.