Interesting article and fun pictures but he spent about 2% of his time looking at and snapping pictures of prewar baseball cards. He mentions next year in Baltimore he will spend more time with "our" part of the hobby and less with football, basketball and hockey.
For those who don't want to read the whole article or view all the pictures (worth a look), Bill Simmons does make this comment that I know some of us have uttered at one time or another at a National:
"Time for a tangent: One of my favorite rules of collecting is "never buy from a dealer who's an a-hole." It's just not worth it. You'll always have the stink of the jerk who sold whatever you bought on it. Unfortunately, many of these guys are unfriendly; it's a relatively lonely business filled with unhappy people who act like they have more power than they do and don't mind spitting chicken fingers on you as you're trying to negotiate a price with them. The way to combat these people is by not giving these people money. I know, crazy. What's amazes me is their willingness to throw away any rules for selling that work in any other walk of life: Being friendly and reasonable; having a sense of humor; avoiding any condescending or derisive remarks; not keeping a customer waiting because you're busy telling another dealer a stupid story about your personal life; engaging the customer immediately instead of appearing put-out because they've interrupted your lunch or your phone call; etc., etc. It's one of those professions in which, when you deal with someone normal and friendly, you feel obligated to thank them for being normal and friendly. Sad but true."
Luckily there are a lot of pre-war sellers who are the flip side- courteous, friendly, helpful and nice. But if you read the above and close your eyes, I bet some faces pop up in your mind.
