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Posted By: jackgoodman

Was at the National Wednesday during setup, and all day Friday and Saturday. Legs are gone so Sunday is not going to happen. Besides have to do real world work to play catch-up.

Had the opportunity to finally meet our fearless moderator dude and his table partner Scott,John Billingsley, Dave McDonald, Bob Binder and several others. Would be proud to call all of them "friend." Probably passed several other Net54'ers in the aisles but alas, there were no Net54 bumper stickers to wear this year. Unfortunately didn't make the dinner.

Crowds did seem sparse compared to my memories of past Nationals - good for the attendees, not so good for the dealers. Someone above mentioned and I agree, the National has evolved (devolved?) into a corporate sponsor, auction house, grading company and autograph venue with the dealers thrown in as an aside. (The autograph area was one of the few areas of the convention that was crowded.)

With several tables unmanned, I felt sorry for the dealers in the far back corners of the room. Could have driven a tractor thru the aisles in back and not hit anyone.

But did I have a good time? Yes I did. Will I go out of my way to travel next year or the year after to go to a National out-of-state? - No.

And on a grading note, had several cards graded by SGC. Always nice people and great service mentality. They indicate that their Santa Monica on-site visit was successful and they plan to repeat again in a few months. They will probably post something on the board. Jim Spence mentioned that he may consider joining them in their visits.

And finally, I have a set of T212-3 that were obtained from the original collector that have about a quarter of the cards with a stamp on the back (factory stamp?). SGC indicated that they would no longer grade down for the stamp as a "MK" but would instead indicate on the flip that the card had a "stamped back" or something of the sort - but not grade down for it. I thought that was good news, at least for me.

Anyway, gotta go do some real work now. Will post scans of some of the cards I got graded in the other thread later, just to be able to participate in that thread too.