Quote:
Originally Posted by calvindog
Glenn Mechanick and his wife have the most interesting table at the National and have plenty of presidential and historic memorabilia, along with 19th century cards.
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Glenn (and his wonderful, weird, rare stuff) is awesome.
My two cents, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, is forget you made this post.
It seems like everyone is looking for a "hack" now-a-days. A trick to make things quicker or more convenient. Hell it seems like half of social media is dedicated to the idea.
Maybe in some cases it's a great idea, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice in this instance.
Wander the show, see EVERYTHING, it only takes a second to walk past a table with nothing appealing, and I guarantee you, no matter how many names get listed in this thread, you will find someone who has awesome stuff that didn't get mentioned if you "rough it."
People (many of whom are never happy unless they're tearing something down) grouse about the National. "Same Dealers. High Prices. Lousy Food. No Air Conditioning (OK that one sucked). The counter to these complaints is usually about the experience. Meeting with friends, the atmosphere of thousands of people who love the same thing (in broad strokes) that you do, and mixed in with that is the fact that, even now with dealers being shouldered aside for corporations and "breaker pavilions" there's still a good chance you will see something at the National that you would never see anywhere else.
Last year I saw a nearly complete recreation of a Buchner Gold Coin Advertising Uncut Sheet with only a few cards missing. I heard that before the end of the show he had actually filled in one of the missing cards. That's beyond a needle in a haystack because they just don't line up perfectly unless it is literally the exact same card from 135 years ago.
So my point is, don't deprive yourself of the joy and frustration of doing it the hard way. Unless this is truly just a mercenary mission, or you're on a strict time budget (if you only have one day, ignore everything I said) the frustration makes the successes all the more memorable, and the opportunity to stumble on something amazing that thousands of people have walked past truly does exist.
Anyway I'll be over here:
