An Idea To Improve The National; An Open Letter To The Board

[Exhibitman]

One of the continual complaints about the show is that it is tremendously fatiguing for collectors, especially older ones, to cover an aircraft hangar-sized facility. I am 50 now and definitely not feeling as good about the show as I was when I was in my 30s. Plus, given what I collect, there are always many tables of 'shiny crap' and manufactured memorabilia that I bypass. Logging the miles between vintage outposts is simply getting old. Not to mention the corporate booths in the middle of the floor that have zero attraction for me and that now seem to host ever noisier events that make dealing with customers next to them very unpleasant. The Topps booth was especially obnoxious this year. So, with that in mind, I have a modest proposal for the show's organizers:

1. Relocate the corporate booths to a corner of the room rather than the middle: It would make a tremendous difference to attendees to have this sort of stuff off to the side. People who want to access the corporate offerings could do so but those of us with no interest in it could avoid having to cut across a football field of junk, or trying to hear a seller or customer over the shouts of the pack breakers.

2. Place dealers by specialties: Many trade shows with disparate subject matter group their vendors. It would be very helpful to attendees to have dealers who specialize in modern at one end of the room, and dealers who specialize in vintage at the other.

3. Place the manufactured memorabilia, framing, holders, etc., dealers over by the autograph area: These are the sorts of things people buy when they are getting stuff signed. How about putting the vendors for these items near the people who need them?

4. Put the Third Party Graders in one place. It was a real PITA having SGC, BVG, JSA and PSA spread all over the place with no rhyme or reason to it. I didn't even know that PSA was at the far end of the pack break pavilion until Thursday. It's not like they really compete with one another; each has its own niches and devotees.