[Oscar_Stanage]

I thought this is the right thread to share my overall experience as a first timer...

First of all, the event is awesome.. well worth it and there is plenty of everything for everyone. I know many are annoyed the commercialization and crowds but that did not get in my way - it was a great venue to meet people, talk cards, and buy cards. I went Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

- Definitely smart to go the first day. It was the least frantic and got a chance to get a feel for the layout and note the tables I wanted to go back to. I bought a few cards on Day 1 as that was suggested as where to find the best deals... but I was happy with the supply all through Saturday.
- Definitely most productive early - I had early access so I found 930-1130 to be the best time to avoid crowds.
- Had a chance to sort through piles of T206 commons with my checklist, you just don't get to do that anywhere else. if you like to go through boxes of cards, you can lose track of time and find a lot of really good stuff.
- Autos: I got 5 autos over 2 days. The autograph process was time consuming, and the Saturday auto crowds were brutal - I probably would not do more than 1 or 2 in the future. That said, it was exciting to get up close with the players. And, you can even interact with the players you didn't pay to see. Emmitt Smith was 5 feet from me and he was at the tail end of his time with no line, and just sitting there, chatting it up with other fans... At one point, Allen Iverson, Chris Mullin, Ricky Henderson, Paul Pierce were all just a few feet from each other..
- Education: I talked to Al from LOTG for a while about some other tobacco sets, really nice guy and I learned a lot about M116s and Caramels. And spoke to a number of dealers/net54ers.... Just a lot of knowledge floating around, it is nice not to have to type questions.
- Tons and tons of cards - One table had 50-100 Mantles. Whatever you need, its there.

Maybe I will add some more later, but first, every thread needs some cards: