Since the original poster asked what to expect, I thought I would offer a couple of my experiences:
It's a whole lot of walking and standing, with very few places to sit. Wear comfortable clothes, and very comfortable shoes!
Take a backpack. I took mine and had it prepped in a couple of ways. Mine had several pockets. So one of the outer pockets only had snacks. Another had a couple of bottles of water, because I'm cheap and I get thirsty. The main deep pocket had a couple of empty 660 or 800 count boxes. I like unopened stuff, and so those were a great size to stick racks into or cellos. My backpack was big enough that if I bought a box of cards, I could slide the box into there no problem. I also had a smaller inner pocket where I kept my largest stash of cash, that way it wasn't out in my pocket and if I dropped some or if someone got into my pocket, I wasn't losing more than 60 bucks or so that was always in my pocket for an easy, low-priced, and quick sale.
Be willing to take a break. You will get tired. And if you are there for the whole week, you will get overwhelmed by it. Take a day off. Go to a Cubs game. Go have some Chicago pizza. Sit and catch your breath. It will make going back in lots more fun. And if you stay at a nearby hotel, you can take some of your treasures back to your room, unpack your bag, and then go back fresh.
Cash is king. Some guys will take PayPal or Venmo etc., but everybody likes cash. Nobody likes checks. The bigger guys are set up for debit/credit cards, but cash is always fastest and easiest.
When you get there, have some goals in mind- what you are looking for, what you would like to get, what you are willing to pay. Then make a tour of the entire floor. Get a handle on which booths have the stuff you are after. Some booths have nothing but uber-modern stuff. Some have nothing but pre-war graded cards. A few are mostly memorabilia, with jerseys and hats and signed balls and bobble heads etc. Some are primarily unopened. With an hour or so investment, you can pretty quickly survey the floor to see what booths you need to focus on.
If you see a deal early, buy it. Don't hesitate. If you were looking for an item at $100, and you see it for $75, pull the trigger. If you pass it up and move on, and change your mind later, someone else will have already swooped in and bought it. I made this mistake a couple of times. Saw something that I knew was a good deal, hesitated, thought about it, and went back to see it sold. Don't get goofy about this principle, but pay attention to it. There will be deals to find. And when you get lucky enough to find one, grab it.
The longer the show goes on, the more willing some dealers will be to make deals. If they have had a bad show, or if they haven't sold as much as they were hoping, by Saturday afternoon a number of them will start being more willing to negotiate. Sunday provides a great opportunity to find deals, as some of the dealers will want to make a number of quick, last minute sales to make their bottom line work out better. Again, here, cash is king. Standing there with $200 in your hand, willing to buy that item that didn't sell all week for $300, you can sometimes push the dealer over the edge. You're there, he's there, the item is there, and there's no shipping, no ebay fees, no PayPal fees, and for some of the dealers, no taxes being reported. So if you can afford to linger on Sunday, make another sweep around the floor back to see if some of the things you want are still sitting there. This won't work on some of the dealers, who seem to enjoy coming to the National, setting up, listing insanely high prices, and sitting back to watch everyone admire their collection without selling much. Those guys will never budge, and you shouldn't waste your time with them.
Here's the absolute, most important advice of all..... HAVE FUN!!! This is supposed to be a fun hobby. It's not supposed to be painful. You will see more cool stuff in one place than you have ever seen in your entire collecting career. You will see stuff you will never see again, you will have the chance to meet some neat people who are just as nutty as you are about cards, and you will probably be able to track down some gems that you have always wanted. Don't let the crowd or your tired feet or some grumpy dealers detract from the fact that you are an adult in the middle of a huge convention center where everyone there is obsessing over little cardboard pictures of baseball players. Embrace the absurdity and have a blast.
I went to my first National 2 years ago, and it was a hoot. I hope you have fun too.
kevin
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