Hi Bob,
Somehow I missed you at the show - wanted to say hi. Lots of people there!
I guess I can't really say for certain what was hot or not at the National in terms of sets. Though I was there for pretty much every possible minute of the show. My observation - you'll love this pearl - is that fair prices were hot, but inflated prices were not.
I did not see many tough T207s at all (maybe someone beat me to them). I went through stacks and stacks in dealer inventories and every tough one I was after was not there.
Never saw anyone buy or sell a '33 or '34 Goudey.
It has been noted before that T3s are recently very cold in auctions. I found most dealers at the National were still asking the old prices (or more), which looked very silly given recent prices realized at auctions. I did not see anyone buy or sell a T3 at this show.
I think M101-4 and 5 in their various forms with various backs are buiding steam. Dealers seemed to have good stocks, which were getting collectors' attention.
Seems that T206 rare backs are still raging on.
Again, these are only comments based on what I saw...that is a very limited percentage of what happened at the show.
Haggling was hot
. Now I like a deal as much as the next guy, but some very fair dealers expressed to me on Sunday that they have never gotten such a hard time from customers as at this National. It seems some are walking into the show intending to tell each and every dealer they are "way too high". I agree that a good many dealers - perhaps the majority - deserve such comment (and often the biggest ones do). But certainly not everyone.
Cheers,
Blair