What a great week.
It was awesome to see so many of the Net54 crew, both at the dinner and "out and about" during the evenings, as well as at the show. I met a few of you for the first time, which is always great, and it was awesome (as always) to see the "regulars" throughout the course of the week. Thanks to all those who stopped by the Love Of The Game/Cubanbaseballcards.com booths during the week.
Five highlights, for me:
1) A middle-aged woman from Chicago, who walked into the show with a pretty significant team-signed baseball that had been in her family for years. She was beside herself when she learned that it had been authenticated. Her happiness was awesome.
2) My friend Abe brought his son to the show, a really intelligent pre-teen who could barely mask his excitement over some Mickey Mantle and Pete Maravich cards he'd bought with his own money. Great to see kids buying cards.
3) A fellow collector who grew up in Brooklyn and is filled with fantastic stories spent about an hour in our booth, just talking. He drew a small crowd with his stories (as he usually does). I could sit and listen to him all day, telling stories about the Brooklyn Dodgers, and specifically Jackie Robinson.
4) A really nice panoramic illustration of the White Sox (maybe 1916? can't recall the date) from the Stephen Wong Collection on display at the MEARS booth.
5) Meeting Tom and Ellen Zappalla, who were gracious and professional, and happy over the publication of their Cracker Jack book, which looks fantastic.
Overall a fantastic show, can't wait to get to Cleveland next year (did I actually just write that!).
-Al
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