My day and a half at The National
 

Back home in Indy tonight after a day and a half at the National. Figured I would join the crowd with a quick recap of my experiences.

Left home around 7:20 Thursday morning and made a quick detour to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and had just one quick rest area stop on the way to Chicago. I was parking right around 10:00 a.m. with the hour pickup when changing time zones.

I parked in the East garage and made a quick run across the skybridge to the Hyatt Regency to use their restroom. I got to the convention center about 10:15 and found a long line in the lobby snaking around 3 times to get to the ticket scanning station. After getting my ticket scanned, they were directing us in to the queue area to get a wristband, but after getting the wristband was sent back out to go enter the show. About 10-15 minutes from when I got in line, I entered the show.

My first 3 stops were the dealers at the show I do most of my business with. Chatted briefly with the guys at Kevin Savage Cards, then went to see JD Heckathorn. He had brought his inventory of Hostess panels at my request, but didn’t have anything I needed. I then went to the back of the hall to see the guys from local card shop, Indy Card Exchange. I had gone in the shop last week for their National preview to see what they were brining, but still wanted to say hi.

I started trying to logically look at the tables, but my discipline was not always the greatest. I concentrated on searching for my wants on Hostess panels and Red Man Tobacco. They aren’t the easiest to ship so I wanted to see what I can find. I made good progress on both during the show.

I had finished going to through a few boxes of oddball items on a dealer’s table. After paying for them, I noticed he had a few stacks of 1949 Bowman. I asked to go through them and he indicated his preference was to sell the full stack for $500. That set is about the only post war set where I need a large quantity of cards (other than 1952 Topps high numbers) and I haven’t bought a card lot in many years. We discussed what single pricing would be if I bought them and I started going through the stack. He said there were a lot of high numbers and there were. I went through them for five minutes counting how many cards I needed and realized that I needed enough of the cards to come close to spending the $500 ($4 lows, $8 highs). I bought the lot and put the box in my backpack. When I eventually sorted through the lot, there were 156 cards, 71 of which I needed, including 50 high numbers. I also think I will be able to upgrade a handful of my cards. I’ve not been particularly condition conscious with this set. I effectively got the extra cards for free – my brother gets a nice present.

Spent the rest of Thursday on smaller purchases – 3 1952 Topps, including 2 semi-highs, a couple of 1963 Fleer football and quite a few non-sports purchases, including 1972 Topps Presidents and Topps Man on the Moon cards. I finished off my Topps basketball trio stickers and bought a handful of 1970-71 Topps basketball posters, getting me with four of completion, with Earl Monroe being the priciest.

I stayed until closing, went to the Hyatt for a restroom stop before going back to my car. I wasn’t sure when I left home if I would come back Friday, so I needed to find a hotel for Thursday night. I used Marriott points to book a room out by Woodfield Mall, about 20 minutes west of the show. Checked in the hotel, ordered a pizza to go pickup and sorted through my cards.

Friday morning I got to the parking garage around 9:30 and after another Hyatt restroom stop, I was in the line around 9:45. Walked up immediately to get my ticket scanned and get a wristband. Then in to the huge queue to get in. Even Wimbledon, with their famous queue would be impressed at the size of the National queue. Once it started moving we kept moving and I was inside at 10:10

I bought some more Hostess panels, more Post Cereal baseball and a few 1957-58 basketball before continuing the search for the 3 cards on my hit list. I ended up buying one. 1961 Fleer Jim Brown was the success. Bought a nice raw card for $80. 1952 Topps Billy Martin was consistently priced higher than I wanted to pay – Yankee cards are always tough at shows. There weren’t that many around – I was looking to get the best copy I could in the $125-150 range and that answer was none. The third card on my hit list was 1951 Topps Redback Tommy Holmes, Boston variation. I found quite a few Hartford variations, but only one Boston – that was a graded version on one of the tables that seems to have cards priced to show and not sell.

The crowd Friday felt larger to me than Thursday’s crowd. One dealer told me the Thursday crowd was 18,000. No idea if that was accurate. The areas farthest from the front door seemed more crowded than the areas near the front. I suspect that was because there is a lot more vintage near the front door from the long tenured dealers and the back of the room was where you found most of the modern cards at the show. I did stop and introduce myself to Scott Brockelman and we chatted for about five minutes.

I had planned to leave no later than 3:00 and by 2:00 I was ready. I was getting grouchy and really didn’t feel like looking at anything else. I think I saw every table, but I’m sure I missed several. I didn’t bother with the corporate area, the autographs or the case break area. My last purchase on the way out the door was a box of horizontal three pocket sheets that I hope work for my Hostess panels.

To acknowledge the Covid elephant in the room. I’m 62, have some risk factors and am fully Pfizer vaccinated. I was one of the 5% - 10% wearing a mask. I have been very cautious throughout the pandemic – still have not eaten inside a restaurant, wear a mask in stores and in the restrooms and elevators at work. I went to the show with a great deal of trepidation, ready to walk out soon after I got there if I didn’t feel comfortable.

I never felt uncomfortable in the show. I’m not sure why. I probably trust the masks and vaccines more than I should have. I generally kept moving but there were a few tables where I lingered. I probably should’ve ordered some N95 masks, but I’m also not sure how well to trust anything that you can get online. Going was somewhat out of character for me.

The ride home was a giant PITA. Traffic on the Tri-State Tollway and Highway (294 & 80) was brutal. The ride home took 4:30 and that included the easiest I-65 drive in Indiana that I can remember. Getting to 65 was the problem. I had a good time, glad to be home and looking forward to getting all my purchases put away over the next few weeks.

I finished off a handful of sets: 1970 Topps Scratchoffs, 1970 Fleer World Series, 1971 Fleer World Series, 1971-72 Topps Basketball Trio Stickers, 1961 Fleer Football and 1969 Topps Football 4-in-1 booklets. I'm down to less than 20 in 4 Red Man baseball sets and got those two non-sport sets (US Presidents and Man on the Moon) to a handful of cards.

truly enjoyed your report. glad you decided to go and enjoyed yourself

Let’s try a few Thursday pictures

The queue to get tickets scanned, the Clemente Collection and a general view

Thanks!
 

Nice recap!

My fave line was "I was getting grouchy". :)

Very nice read! Thank you!

Mike

The Friday queue and my purchases

Thanks for posting some pictures and thanks for taking the time for the detailed recap

Hi, I see you buying many different cards & sets. So you collect all those different cards or is a lot of this for resale?

All for my collection. I keep saying I need to start thinning it out but I keep buying. Lol

Sounds like fun. How were prices on the cards you collect?

National
 

nice recap,..inclding numerous bathroom breaks ! ...join the club !

Wow, thanks for writing all that!. I'm really impressed with the variety of cards you were able to find. No way I could keep all that straight :)

and congrats on that stack of 49 Bowman!

Thanks
 

Thanks for sharing.

Haven’t been to a National in 25 years. Should zip on down to finally find those 1967 hi numbers in NM I need.

One slight trick is buying your ticket over your phone, which I did on Friday as I was standing in the lobby. It may save some time standing in a line. The Covid elephant... I'm fully vaccinated and wore a mask the whole time I was there Friday. Considering many of the attendees are from all over the country has me a bit worried to be honest. I mentioned the crowd size to one vendor and he agreed it was much larger than previous Friday crowds...it actually seemed more chaotic to me and I had enough of it after six hours.

I'm not a set collector, nor a graded card geek. I did pick up a handful of '57 Topps, nothing special, just cards that make you feel like you're 10 years old again. The guys with a list and a plan seem to have the easiest time. Wandering through the tables is like a corn maze, you don't know which way to turn and become easily distracted by cool stuff. My little plan was negro league player autographed balls. I ended up with Double Duty and Buck O'Neil. I tend to gravitate to ephemera, like tickets - I did pick up a 67 Fenway WS ticket and a '41 Ebbets Field Game 4 ticket, as well as a 1939 Indy 500 program and a 1974 NHL All Star Game program. I had my eye on a 1928 WS ticket and scorecard but I'll be damned if I could locate it after I had passed by it earlier....someone may have bought it. One day was enough for me, 'til next time.

156 1949 Bowman for a little over $3/card. That's a great score. Congratulations. And thanks for the write-up. Those of us that couldn't attend appreciate the detail.

Congrats on the great time you had at the Convention. I skipped this year because I’m 71 and fully vaccinated and still wear the mask indoors because Delta is ravaging the South with low rates of vaccination. I spoke to some collector friends who attended and they agreed with your assessment that only 5-10% were wearing masks 😷 I don’t know if I could have enjoyed the show with covid surging again.
I’m glad you had fun and picked up some cards you needed. Maybe next year for me, I’ve been going for many years even though it’s getting harder and harder to find pre WWI cards which I collect. I go for the camaraderie mostly now.

Stay safe.
Tbob

Thank you - some great pictures!!!

Thanks for the great report! Sure sounds like you had fun.

Yeah - when I pulled some cards that had been priced in the binders, but was told I had to wait for the one guy to review everything against his Beckett price list, I just told them to forget it and walked away. He was going through a stack of a couple hundred cards pricing them out. I wasn't going to hang around and do that. Was ruder than I should have been. That was my clue that it might be time to leave.

Looking back, other than the 1961 Fleer Jim Brown ($80) the only card I paid more than $30 for was a 1954 Red Man Yogi Berra ($32 before the final discount given - can't remember what it was).

My opinion was that graded vintage seemed to be priced high - very high. I did not go with the intention to get graded cards, but the handful I saw were well beyond what I would pay. I generally don't buy graded cards except (1) it is a very high end card that is often reprinted or (2) it is a decent price - i.e. someone paid to grade a card that really shouldn't have been graded

I thought the ungraded vintage sports and the non-sports were fairly priced. There were a few tables that were just downright a great deal, but I walked away from very few tables saying the prices were out of hand.

A five page want list helps. Being an accountant by trade helps too - I like order in what I do. :)

Sounds like you found a lot of cool stuff. I looked at a lot of neat stuff - but resisted buying. I was talking to the guys at Kevin Savage cards about the great ephemera they had out - I have stuff in cabinets that haven't seen the light of day for years, yet I keep buying things from them like Cleveland Barons programs. I need to be reducing the programs, yearbooks, etc that I have, not adding to it. :)

Just sat down and sorted out the purchases. In addition to the 156 1949 Bowman card lot, I bought another 132 cards over the 12 hours I was in the show. Guess I was busy :)

That is the most cards I've purchased at show in a long, long time. Probably need to go back to those card shows of the mid 1970's when I would buy 100 card lots of 1950's and 1960's cards. Still remember buying a lot of 100 1958 Topps with Hank Aaron on top at the Troy Hilton show. Had to be talked in to spending the money by the dealer. Was either $15 or $20 I think.......

Now the objective is to get them all put away by Labor Day. :)

I remember buying those great lots of cards like that. I built many of my 50's and 60's sets back then by buying those lots.

Sounds like my type card collecting foray.

Thanks for the write ups and pictures. Nice haul too!
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Hey Bob
 

Unfortunately, here in Louisiana it's about the same as Arkansas.