-So that bothered you, but the apostrophes on "wants" you decided to let go?

Agree the good stuff if it really want's to be sold it goes to the big houses. If it want's to be on display for show and tell it sits in showcases for eye candy.

Card interest
 

My experience at the National is that interest is through the roof. This observation is reinforced by activity I’ve seen on other venues. SAllen25- even when your grammar policing is correct, it’s still not on point. Is there a comment in your future that actually hits on the topic? Or can we expect more anally retentive, spotty red ink marks with no substance? Asking for a friend. Trent King

Well as a collector, I am hoping for prices to go down - a lot.

My heirs will want prices to go up - a lot.

The investor wants prices to go up on cards they own and go down (just for a short time) on new cards they invest in.

Or something like that. I guess it's kinda complicated. :)

I've often wondered how many dealers accurately track things like COGS, net sales, expenses, and inventory to get a truly accurate financial picture. Anecdotally I'd guess the number is pretty low but I've never been on that side of the table.

Greg, those dealers who actually report their sales activity for income tax purposes do this when they prepare (or have their tax accountants prepare) their Schedule Cs to their Form 1040s.

Card Interest Down? Not at the National.
 

This was my first National. Went with my card buddy from N54 (Hi Robert!) and we had a blast. My impressions, in no particular order:

*Crowds both days we were there (Thursday and Friday) were huge as expected, and likely too big on the whole for the realistic capacity size of the venue. Restroom situation was a joke, but also long lines for food and refreshments. It was nice however to have food trucks inside, and though expensive - more food options than just a crappy cheeseburger and soda from the corner stand in one place in the building. Not that that would have been possible anyway given the crowd size. Traffic seemed like a nightmare, but we had flown in and Ubered both days and so it was not a super big deal just getting dropped off even if it took a while. The Uber rates on the whole from our hotel 15 mins away were very reasonable.

*Communication around how to get in, what the deal was with VIP people vs. the peons was shoddy at best. On Thursday, they just opened up the floodgates even before GA time at 10 am. I walked right in, no wristband, nobody scanned my ticket or anything. The next morning, despite getting to the venue about 45 mins earlier - we stood in the wrong line for half an hour, and that day they were requiring everyone to get a wristband, whether or not you intended to leave and come back or not. The lack of organization and communication here for such a large event just struck me as odd. Event staff when asked specifically at least in my experience were either clueless, or close.

*I was super pleased at the large amount of vintage available, and within reason, the prices. Most dealers had no problem negotiating, and in many cases of course due to the selection if you didn’t like the price - you could just move on to the next table and find the same thing. There were of course some fairly overpriced vintage dealers there (i.e. 707 Levi…) and I just kept moving, despite the temptation of their massive inventories.

*Poor inside WiFi and cell reception was an unexpected burden. Really, how many years have they had to know this was a potential problem and fix it? At times could not get online for long enough to look up a comp, and I couldn’t get a PP transaction to go through at all on Friday - and since I had blown my cash of course the previous day, I had to resort to the ATM in the foyer along with a not insignificant fee for using it. Just seems like there should be no excuse for this in 2024. is this just a problem at every expensive trade show? I doubt it.

*Highlights of the trip for me were seeing Memory Lane’s T206 Wagner, the Ruth cap and all the historical stuff at Heritage, meeting finally in-person my childhood supplier Kit Young, and finally chasing down my grail Banks RC, which I got in a perfectly centered PSA 4 from Ash. Not to mention long overdue time well spent with my card buddy Robert.

On the whole the experience met my expectations and I will be back, if not every year. The National for what I do is overkill, and not just a little overkill, but it was also a lot of fun despite the issues. I doubt I will return if it goes back to Cleveland anytime soon, but I hear the logistics - if not the layout itself in Chicago / Rosemont is a lot better.


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Yep, I understand the tax situation. I just wonder how many people there are who's accuracy would withstand an audit ;). It was clear when walking the show who would stop after a transaction and take notes on paper or digitally and who moved from transaction to transaction way too fast to record anything.

This was more of a random musing than anything and is OT to this thread so I won't bog the thread down with it moving forward.

I suspect there's an almost direct proportion between how big or small a dealer is to how much of their activity gets reported to the tax people. Big guys with sizeable bank accounts, etc., will get audited, and they'd better have some decent records of income, expenses, inventory, et al. Little guys, part-time guys, not so much.

Wrote up my Cleveland National thoughts, photos, and advice for next time, should NSCC return there. Did I miss any of the VIP benefits? :-)

https://www.number5typecollection.co...ow-report.html