Nationals is open for business…. Quick updates

[mrreality68]

Early access is open at Nationals and PSa grading lines are already long and the place is getting more crowded. Not all vendors are set up

[CurtisFlood]

I have no regrets that I am not set up this year. Hope the vendors get set up in time to start tearing down on Sunday. It is a grind, and I am closing on 74, without help I doubt I can take the rigors of a full national convention.

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

Early access is open at Nationals and PSa grading lines are already long and the place is getting more crowded. Not all vendors are set up

Hey Jeff, if you see Mike Peich, Dan McKee, Jeff Prizner, or Ethan Ready will you please give them a nice pinch for me and tell them Hi!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

Hey Jeff, if you see Mike Peich, Dan McKee, Jeff Prizner, or Ethan Ready will you please give them a nice pinch for me and tell them Hi!

Will do if I can find them in this madness

[chadeast]

Love the onsite recon. Keep it coming. I'll be living vicariously through you all weekend Thanks!

[bigfanNY]

One disappointment was a booth of Fantasy memorabilia. I will take a pic when I go back Friday. PSA line was long but my son came and I ended up 5th person in line. The PSA "Expedited" line was everything but expidated. Business looked brisk saw lots of cards being snached up. I was disappointed in amount of vintage available. Definitely outgunned by modern and gaming. Not many folks with masks on so plan accordingly. I was full n95 myself..

[hcv123]

I'm at booth 861. I was set up and ready to roll when the doors opened. Sales were steady. I had a very good day 1. A broad range of items sold. Pretty good crowd for day 1 as well.

Walking the room there was (as usual) an incredible array of items. Didn't pay close attention to pricing. The SGC 9.5 Mantle is a sight to behold in person!

I invite all Net 54 members to stop by and introduce yourselves!

Howard

[mrreality68]

The hotels were an easy walk to the convention center.
The Lines on first day were long to get your pass. I had the basic VIP pass. The lines moved well.
They gave gift bag but it was mostly an eBay bag and a bunch of advertisements and the like for the various vendors and coupons to the autographs of some sports stars including Pat Listsch, milt Thompson, Steve Baker, Don Money, Mark Moseley, Rico Petrocelli.
The VIP area a lot of tables to sit and relax and regroup.

They let us in and the PSA line was very very long. The place was full and busy within 30 minutes
1. Most dealers were there but many were not fully set up
2. Fair amount of tables no one when at.
3. Many tables were shared by multiple dealers.
4. Only made it thru sections 100 thru 600 on the first evening and most of those tables were modern cards.
5. As I got into the 600’s vintage was starting.
6. So a lot of people coming in with card carriers looking to sell or trade cards. The people trying to sell the dealers the cards were looking to get full retail but the dealers were offering approx 70 cents on the dollar (and most were upfront about it and their need to make money by flipping it. People doing trades with dealers were getting closer to 100%. Value.
7. Trying to go thru to see what people have and making notes so I no where to go back. So far no must haves on my potential bigger purchase
8. Ran into a few people on this forum but more might be here but do not know them be sight so sadly may have missed many.
9. Picked up a few smaller items including 1914 B-18 blankets of Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson and a 1921 Mid Week Pictorial with Babe Ruth on cover

[Lucas00]

Just went today,
Got in the show around 10:15.
Was really amazing for about 2 hours. Then got slammed. Hard to move around, the usual.
It’s crazy how much you can get through when you are on a hunt for certain very rare cards and the show isn’t busy yet. I probably got through 80% of the vintage baseball dealers in those first 2 hours. Slogged through the rest in the following hours.
Steered clear of the company booths. Unfortunately not a ton of what I was looking for but that is to be expected.

As for transportation, DON’T try to park at the event center unless you get there very early.
Park at a lot or parking garage and take a taxi. Skip the headache.

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Park at a lot or parking garage and take a taxi. Skip the headache.

Thanks, the problem for me is that I am staying at the marina side of AC…. $15 for an Uber to the convention. Then a cab charged me $30 to get back, takin advantage of the mob scene …

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Oscar_Stanage

Thanks, the problem for me is that I am staying at the marina side of AC…. $15 for an Uber to the convention. Then a cab charged me $30 to get back, takin advantage of the mob scene …

Wow?! That is an insane price. Definitely need to bargain with them. Not sure they have fixed prices or much regulation..
I paid $13 for my taxi back.

[vintagesportscollector]

Went Wednesday evening, and the biggest problem by far (aside from no cellular reception) was finding a parking spot. I finally found a convenient garage on Club Ln for only $5 for 8 hours. It's a short 10 min walk to the convention center, if that, and it's an indoor garage and felt secure. I recommend the self park garage on Club Ln, directly across from the Caesars Self Parking garage entrance.

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by chadeast

No first hand knowledge, but Blowout has a section just for the National in their forum. There are comments in that thread that parking is a major mess today. IIRC, one commenter decided to leave after driving around for an hour and try again tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Jewish-collector

At the 2016 National in AC, parking in the main convention center garage was plentiful and always available.

Originally Posted by chadeast

Full before 10 AM if you believe posts on the Blowout forum.

My wife and I were a couple of blocks away from the convention center a little after 10 am, just shy of the entrance to the parking garage there was a cop coming up to the vehicles telling everyone that the parking garage was full and it was closed. When I asked him where we could park he told me good luck it's every man for himself and added that it was a major mess because of a lack of preparation. We drove around looking for a place to park for at least another hour before I gave up and parked across town at the Golden Nugget.

Originally Posted by Oscar_Stanage

Thanks, the problem for me is that I am staying at the marina side of AC…. $15 for an Uber to the convention. Then a cab charged me $30 to get back, takin advantage of the mob scene …

If it was a city cab they're regulated to a maximum charge of $13 unless you're going to the airport which is $35.

After we parked at the Golden Nugget we asked about a getting a cab, the guy in the valet parking called one for us but he said he had been calling all morning and most of the time no one showed up or it was a long time before they did. After a minute or two a guy pulled up in a stretch limo and asked if we needed a ride, my wife told him we did need a ride to the convention center but we didn't want to pay for a limo to get there, he said he would take us there for $20 and after driving around for over an hour and seeing several people there still waiting for a cab it seemed like a bargain.

[Exhibitman]

Sounds like a logistical clusterf**k of National proportions.

[MVSNYC]

Jon, incredible looking Green Cobb, congrats.

[Lucas00]

Didn’t really take any pics unfortunately but I had to of this one.

[brikks]

My first National. Flew in for the day (Thursday) Was really happy to see a good amount of vintage. Plenty of T205/206/Goudey and many others out there. Local shows to be do not get that strong of vintage.

I came for 1914 Cracker Jacks but the selections were sparse (I’m told I should have come on Wed preview as most were bought then.

A fun experience for sure.

[nwfsteve]

Decent walk, glad I just parked at the hotel and missed the huge jam around the center. Thought vintage was okay tho maybe not quite what I hoped. My wife is with me and learned how to skip tables fast. Saw a nice 66 TOPPS FB checklist PSA 7 but 1500 was the ask. Looking at a few graded 52 Bowman’s.

[Jewish-collector]

I didn't make it this year. There's a lot of video of the show on YouTube by various people. It appears (as I expected) a lot of the shiny stuff and less vintage as pre-Covid Nationals and even less memorabilia. Next year the National is back in Chicago. It will be interesting to find out what locations they choose for 2024 and 2025. I wonder if they will eliminate Atlantic City for future shows due to lack of parking. We shall see. I think they vote tomorrow.

[Casey2296]

Vote tomorrow? That would be a a silly misguided thing to do, as opposed to waiting for the event to end, studying the data, getting feedback and making an informed educated decision. Hey, but what do I know...

[Snapolit1]

This thread is starting to read a bit like all of the people who decided not to go three months ago will explain to you how awful it is this year …..

I got to AC as the show was letting out and the throng of people leaving by foot looked like the Rose Bowl was letting out after a football game.

[Deertick]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Didn’t really take any pics unfortunately but I had to of this one.

Is that a grimace after the price, lol?

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Deertick

Is that a grimace after the price, lol?

More so never seen a Venezuelan graded that high.

[ejstel]

My son turned a handful of Pokémon cards into a few k at the SGC 10$ a card quick grade station. I was shaking my head both before and after...Ike really (going to spend 100$ on this...to wow that was profitable...)

I'm lost on these and the new basketball/football premium cards. They could be 1.00 or 1m and I would not know...

We'll maybe this one - son said was a legend...(see pic) for 10m...or a Seinfeld auto!
...

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