Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman
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.
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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.