Thoughts, observations and opinions on the National

[Leon]

My take on the show, as a dealer, collector, friend etc.....

As a dealer- I sold about a medium amount of stuff. The show did in fact start slowly the first day or so, sales-wise, but picked up nicely the following days. I managed to pick up a very nice "walk in" group of cards. I know other dealers that picked up really, really nice walk ins. I would say the walk ins were better at this show than most previous ones I have been to. (I have been to 8-10 Nationals.. in a row) My first two significant buys were from my two table partners. To not break protocol I will be posting those in the National pickup thread, sometime today. Be forewarned that I am teetering on one of the cards either being an upgrade for me or a resale item. It will NOT be for sale real soon though. I thought the venue was fine, but I am easy. Everybody talks about all of the surrounding things to do etc... For me, it's all about the show. It could be in the Mojave Desert and I would be fine with it as long as there is air conditioning, tables and a roof over my head.

As a collector- I thought it was a good show.....see pick up thread sometime today. One thing though....I was so busy doing a multitude of things that, for the first time, I didn't get a chance to go and walk to every single table. I thought there was a lot of vintage and haggling was the word of the day. I would usually start my offers at 50% of asking price and made some deals in that range. Some dealers would only come off of their high prices by a few bucks and those are probably the ones that didn't have a good show.

As a friend - I want to thank everyone that was so nice and came up to me and introduced themselves. I literally must have had over 100 forum members, many I didn't know or hadn't met before, come up and thank me for putting up with moderating . As I told them....I can handle the bit of antagonism, sarcasm and idiocy as long as I still enjoy doing it. When I don't enjoy it anymore then I will not do it anymore. Everyone I met was gracious and nice. I did go to the 2 live auctions and they went off without a hitch. I won something for myself (mostly for resale) in the Heritage Platinum auction and won something for a friend in the Legendary Live Auction. For some reason, at both auctions, someone should have told maintenance to turn on the air conditioners. It was either hot in the rooms or I am just getting fat and can't maintain. I hope it's the former!!! ALL of the Net54 pins were given out and everyone seemed to appreciate them. Thanks again to our member, Chris Lamb, for doing that. It really was a nice gesture. (insert sarcasm if you would like to, I choose to keep it friendlier)

I decided not to attend the 2nd "Clean up the hobby with an Association" meeting, though I was heavily persuaded to. I question the motives of the members organizing it. I forget the very famous person who said it but the phrase "I would never want to be part of an organization that would let me be a member" seemed to ring true. I predict a loud thud from all of that. I understood there to be about 25 attendees in the first meeting. Everyone there, I was told, was instructed to bring back as many people/dealers/auctioneers as they could for the next one. The total attendence for the second one (I am told) was an underwhelming (approx) 30 people. I think that number is very telling.

I might think of more later but to sum it up I had a great time and am looking forward to next year already. It was great NOT to be on the board for 5 days, not have a computer with me and not even return a few phone calls. I was in my own collecting world. I will be returning calls today. Thanks again for all of the hospitality and warmth. The hobby is still a very fun and exciting place and, imo, thriving very much.