[kailes2872]

First National - great time. 2 days 10-6 both days with me and the boys (12&15).

Highlights:
With one or two minor exceptions, the exhibitors were super friendly to my kids. They gave them free stuff they talked to them about baseball (the 12 year old had a 1977 era Pirates pillbox hat and they would talk to him about it). I was expecting the worst and they went out of their way.

Incredible experience seeing all of the inventory. I felt like my 8 year old daughter when she went to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom or the American Girl Store in NYC. For the first hour on Friday, I was overwhelmed.

Biggest highlight was finally putting faces to names. I met Tony Schaefer of Monster Cards who has been a great friend and mentor online. I met Leon and got me Babe Ruth Net54 pin. I met Kit Young, Levi from 707 (what an inventory!) Probstein (he didn't give me the time of day). I enjoyed spending some time with Tim Carroll and watching him do his commission for the LBJ piece - cutting up the cards one by one.


Lowlights - Goodness the pricing was expensive. I have no problem paying a 10-20% premium to support the dealers and walk out with the card in hard. However, some of the prices were just ridiculous - 100-150% markup over the buy it now museum prices on Ebay.

Dealers would not price their cards. This was usually the indicator that they were astronomically priced. They would have 20%-30% off everything in the case. As an example, I am a set collector post war. I was upgrading my 57 and looking for an Ex Mint Tony Kubek 312. There is one in BST for $55 as a PSA 6. I have seen raw EX 35-45. So, a guy had an EX+ Kubek in his case - not priced with the 30% off note. I asked about it it. He said that it was $350 - but 30% off - so $245. I told him thanks, but I would pass. PSA 6 54 Aarons at 2400. PSA 6 55 Clementes at 2200. I felt like I was shopping at SAKs or Nordstroms. It was neat looking at the cards, however. If dealers didn't price their cards, I stopped asking after late Friday.


I really fell in love with Turkey Reds - I think that is what they are called - T3's. A really nice exhibitor told me the story about how they were acquired and how someone could order for a specific player. Leon gave some additional color to the methodology. At some point, I will begin buying pre-war. When I do, I have T3 fever. What a beautiful group of cards.

My friend Wayne from Shoebox cards told me that I was wasting time and money buying post war. He told me a story of how he stumbled upon a group of T3s in 1969 - where he bought them at an antique shop for $5 a card - over 100 of them. He sold them several years ago, but ranks it as his greatest find.

Good times. Great bonding with my boys. It was great that it was close to home - not sure if I will go to Chicago or AC as there were no deals to be found but I enjoyed the experience.

I am going to try to attach some pictures - if I can't attach mutiple, then it will be over a series of posts - apologies in advance for my lack of acumen - I swear that 10 years ago I was actually pretty good with the PC - now I have to ask my 15 year old how to do stuff... sigh