Alright, so here is a brief (i mean long) summary of tonight and what I saw in a quick 2 hour tour (new baby, so getting out was a homerun from the wife). I usually spend nearly 2 full days browsing, this was 2 hours:
1). I collect 1933 Goudeys and 1934 Goudey Gehrig's, but have learned so much from you all the past year, so I was more up to speed on stuff I saw. Overall, very disappointed with the overall 1933 selection. One guy, though, had the market cornered on the medium end 1933 and 1934 Ruth/Gehrig, with a few higher end ones as well. I bought a 1934 Gehrig from him. Aside from him and the auction houses of course, i saw one 1933 yellow Goudey Ruth 7 for sale and that was it. Last year I saw 1 Gehrig sgc 7/84 1934 which I bought on the last day. Outside of auction houses, this higher end stuff harder to Find, I have to be honest, in 1933/1934 Goudey.
2). I saw one guy who just owned the Caramel Cards. The red ones. He had a lot of them, so if you are looking for those, they will be there. Same with the 206 stuff. I saw those a lot. I sort of feel like an outsider not collecting those on this forum.
3). There is a very big dealer who has a very big table every year. I was very disappointed with his Gehrig/Ruth selection from my 2 years to now. He must have sold most of his stuff and is unwilling to replenish at current prices. Also it seems like the 1933 Gehrig isn't appreciating at the lower-mid range like some other cards. I dont love this card, hence my move to 1934 ones.
4). Lots of chatter--remember I was there for 2 hours so it's relative-- about the increase in price of some Koufax and Clmente and Mantles. Like the guys that have been around a long time --not me obviously-- are sort of dumbfounded. Not sure how many of those guys are you guys on the board. (I was wearing an obnoxiously bright orange Rafael Nadal shirt today, in case I met some of you. ). So i am not sure if they echo your sentiment, or it was your sentiment expressed in person.
5). I wanted to pull the trigger on some modern wax boxes: 1983 topps baseball and maybe 1985 fleer baseball. Because 83 was one year before I started to collect, and I always liked 1983 and 1984 topps cards. It seemed that that early to mid-80s stuff is sort of getting into a sweet spot. It wasn't cheap, but not expensive either. But i would venture to guess it has appreciated as well recently. I was surprised how much I wanted this stuff, but I didn't buy any of it. You could convince me to spend like $10,000 on this stuff and vault it for 7 years and double or triple your money as guys like me get nostalgic.
6). I don't know how the modern guys do it. My eyes glaze over, and there is just no way to easily display everything. As a Cubs fan, I wanted a Contreras and a Baez card, but I was so confused as to why something was $15 vs $60 vs $100 and didn't even grt into the 4-figure stuff. Its also so damn hard to display that I cant find anything easily. It's like a supermarket where the beer is shelved next to the swiffers and then the next aisle has the swiffer next to the pet food with the beer on the farthest aisle. None of it makes sense, and it's never in the same place twice. It gives me a headache to try to get to the bottom of it all and get organized. One guy has an awesome assortment of 2010-2016 baseball unopend boxes which I love, but I need someone to explain which one to buy to get a shot at my favorite Cubs best cards. Kris Bryant. Kris Bryant. Kris Bryant. It almost makes me want to barf how much stuff people have of his, except he's not a Yankee.......yet. So I will keep my food down for the time being.
7). People were dragging, wondering how they were going to make it to 8 pm I heard this on multiple tables. So not sure what their day looked like before 4 pm when it opened to public, but multiple people were tired by 7:30-ish.
8). Random story of the day: some dudes seemed to be travelling with a bunch of Joe Namath rookies. Not sure why. Only told this second hand, then I saw them and confirmed it.
9). This is my third national. Two years ago I saw so much of my dad's 1950s-1960s cards that I figured they'd never go up. So take these comments with a grain of salt. I will say that the third time around, I have gone from overwhelmed and bright eyed to a bit more of a steely assassin, and I don't know how I feel about that. I didn't buy a vintage Cubs pennant or a Northwestern University mini silk thingy and I would have in prior years.
10). There seem to be a ton of like 1978/1979 Topps baseball boxes. The white ones with red and blue. Was there some sort of case break in that in last few years? Lotsa authenticated boxes going from $1200 to $1600. I saw two 1986 Fleer Basketball unopened boxes.
11). Garbage Pail Kids are sort of my dirty little secret, and I only saw one Series 2 authenticated box about 10% premium to ebay prices. There was the occasional pack of Series 3 and 14, but not much else. I bet none of you give a flying you knw what about that.
Ok, sorry if this rambled. This is just my view from the cheap seats.
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