The significance of "The Nationals"
 

I was contacted by a board member a short while back asking me what it was like and the significance of it. I got to thinking what my response is but then thought what would Net 54 say?

To me it's my time for a vacation with friends and getting to share something I am passionate about with others that share the same sickness:).

Really wish I could this year as I've never been to a show. Flight and hotel alone would run $1500. Chicago is a go though.

Good luck hunting everyone!

Well, it is 20,000 or so card geeks hanging out, cracking jokes that no one who isn't a card geek would get, having fun. Sort of a rolling nerd party where the main objective is to live and breathe hobby for a week. You spend the whole day trolling the aisles of the show looking at all things card and card-related, then the evenings in the hotel bar visiting with hobby friends. You probably won't get bargains, especially when the cost of travel is factored in, but if you collect a hodge podge of bric a brac like I do, you may well find some rare to impossible pieces. Any 'serious' collector should try to make it to at least one.

I guess you could call it the World Serie of sports collecting.

It's where men (most nerds, some with poor hygiene) gather to buy and sell little pictures of other men, mostly dead.

Seriously, it's great fun and an absolute orgy of cards, memorabilia and other sports related collectibles. As mentioned bf the highlight for me is mostly meeting up annually with a great group of hobby friends.

About a year ago, I went to a small local show. About 20 vendors had a monthly gig at a local Boys Club. The show was uneventful save the fact that I renewed a friendship from 20 years ago. Sadly, the shows stopped shortly thereafter. Last week that vendor shot me an email saying that after a long search, the group of vendors had found a new spot. I went last Saturday. I DID score the three T206s that I recently posted about in the Monster Number thread but the highlight of the day was seeing 10 vendors squashed into a room no bigger than the average living room. One was sprawled out over a third of the room and the other nine were tripping over each other in the other two/thirds.There was zero room to move . Everyone was sidling like crabs. The afternoon was fantastic. We all shared a laugh over the things we do for this hobby, both as customers and vendors. We wound up spilling into the parking lot like teens at a high school dance. By the end of it all, we were all "buds" and some new friendships promise to grow. The National is a whole lot like this show, only in a slightly bigger room with a thousand times as many folks sidling about. The cards will be there, sure, but more importantly so will a sea of like-minded people. I can think of nothing better.

The National is one of the great experiences in this hobby. The Net54 dinner is the highlight of the National !!! There are dealers who only do the National. They bring their best stuff to this show !!! I encourage any collector to go to this show every year !!!

I treat this show as a vacation. There's always plenty of activities to do in the evenings after the show each day. And to save on costs, I always drive (instead of flying) & usually stay at a lower end motel away from the event facility.

Poor hygeine? Don't they have showers at these nationals?

Sure they do, but it requires a choice to use them.

This will be my 22nd National. I am not a dealer, but a small time collector like many of you. I went to Atlanta in 1991 for my first, and have really enjoyed every one of them. If you enjoy this board or collecting, I really believe this is something you must attend. I have gone to most with Tom Boblitt and many with HR Baker. We all stay at the same hotel, eat our meals together, poke fun and truly have a good time. The National is something I look forward to each year soon after the previous one has passed. I have always loved baseball and collecting, but I think it has become much more than that at this point. This is a passion that very few of my every day friends and my family understand. At the National you can start up a conversation about baseball, especially old baseball with almost everyone you meet. I really enjoy being around that atmosphere. Sounds kind of sappy, hope I don't lose my man card over this.:)

Mike

I have only attended 1 of the " New National Shows", it was in Cleveland. Anyway the original Nationals were held in the Detroit area years ago, Detroit, Troy and Plymouth Michigan. Great shows, nice drinks and snacks in suites in the hotel. I'm sure Leon's is party is much better, but these were great!!

Not sure if anyone on the Net54 site remembers these shows, but they were something else.

Joe

It's a great experience if you have never been before. The only negative I would point out is that once you've been to several Nationals, you start to see a lot of the same inventory with the same dealers over and over again. Obviously, there is always some new material, but there is no doubt that a pretty good percentage of the material at the National (or any of the good vintage card show) is just the same "stale" material from the same dealers that just kind of makes its way around the circuit year after year. Once you've been to enough of these shows, it starts to kind of get old that you have to sift through all of the stale material to try to find the good fresh stuff. That said, if you can put up with that and just continue to dig and dig for the fresh material, you are sure to come away with some great finds.

A quote sums it up best for me from that great Philanthropist Austin Powers:

"It's my happening baby and it freaks me out! Yeah man!"

Sure they do but you cannot flip through a box of 1939 Play Ball commons in the shower. What are you thinking man?

the national can do a promotion, hand out autographed bars of soap at the front door.

i suppose if some of these grungier participants just turned their shirt inside out they could go 2 days and be okay.

Most attendees are actually clean and do take showers. I always take one before I go and at least one before I come back. See.....you just need to be around me on the first day or the last day. It's the several days in between that could be an issue.

I always describe the National as somewhat of a 5 day frat party for card collectors. I can't wait.

I, too, went to several of the original Nationals held in Detroit/Troy/Plymouth Michigan, as well as many of the Jim Hawkin's sponsored shows too (no traditional Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping for me :D ). I miss those days. My count for new Nationals currently stands at five, but hoping to change that next year. Was just in Baltimore afew weeks ago. If only the Mrs. work conference at the Hyatt Regency had been held a month later, what a time I could have had.

Last year there was a Beatles convention in the hotel where the N54 dinner was held. Robert Silverman, Zach Rice and I crashed it. Talk about a crap fest...I've never seen such manufactured dreck for sale. But they did have lots of women--or woman-like creatures--in attendance, unlike the National, which looks like a gay pride parade for the awkward and unkempt. Except for the Olympic area last year, which you could instantly tell wasn't part of the main show because of the many women and thin people in there [the highlight of that pavilion for me was the elderly German dealer with all of the 1936 Nazi Olympics paraphernalia reminiscing in his movie villain accent about the good old days...]. Plus, the Beatles afficionadoes had a sing-along in the hotel lobby--you don't see that very often at the National. Zach, Robert and I ended up looking at some bootleg CDs sold by two dealers who were totally baked and who had boxes of Hostess product [Twinkies, cupcakes, etc.] stacked to the ceiling for the munchies to prove it. I haven't had to execute so many hippie thumb grip handshakes since I attended a party at a collective in Berkeley while I was in law school with this blonde co-ed I was trying to pick up. But I digress...

That Beatles thing definitely made last years national more interesting!!!!! Funny observations!!!!!

Can't wait for 2014 and the return the Cleveland!! 10 minutes away! Baltimore is out this year - family in town :(. 2013 is a road trip waiting to happen.

I was thinking of checking that Beatles show out too, but never did... The other section of the hotel was a religious convention of some sort....