Live National Report Thread....

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by atx840

The ultimate in irony!

[jp1216]

Just got back from 2 days. Had a great time. First day was 100% about the floor. Hitting every table. 8 hours and sore feet. Met Leon (hi Leon) and a few other members. I too noticed the ridiculous prices, but there were deals out there.
Day 2 was a last minute decision. Brought my 8 year-old son for the experience. He (we) did great. Dealers were great with kids and I'm surprised he lasted the whole day. His quote as we walked out was ' wow, that went by fast'. I was shocked. Spent the day looking through 25 cent - $1 boxes. Hours of fun. One autograph purchase - Jason Kipnis. Had to do it. My son's favorite.

[LincolnVT]

What is the report on Ruth items at the National?...I heard from a reliable source that the early Ruth stuff is very, very scarce and that the few items that are being made available are being sold for a steep premium. Can people confirm?

Thanks.

Ethan

[kailes2872]

First National - great time. 2 days 10-6 both days with me and the boys (12&15).

Highlights:
With one or two minor exceptions, the exhibitors were super friendly to my kids. They gave them free stuff they talked to them about baseball (the 12 year old had a 1977 era Pirates pillbox hat and they would talk to him about it). I was expecting the worst and they went out of their way.

Incredible experience seeing all of the inventory. I felt like my 8 year old daughter when she went to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom or the American Girl Store in NYC. For the first hour on Friday, I was overwhelmed.

Biggest highlight was finally putting faces to names. I met Tony Schaefer of Monster Cards who has been a great friend and mentor online. I met Leon and got me Babe Ruth Net54 pin. I met Kit Young, Levi from 707 (what an inventory!) Probstein (he didn't give me the time of day). I enjoyed spending some time with Tim Carroll and watching him do his commission for the LBJ piece - cutting up the cards one by one.


Lowlights - Goodness the pricing was expensive. I have no problem paying a 10-20% premium to support the dealers and walk out with the card in hard. However, some of the prices were just ridiculous - 100-150% markup over the buy it now museum prices on Ebay.

Dealers would not price their cards. This was usually the indicator that they were astronomically priced. They would have 20%-30% off everything in the case. As an example, I am a set collector post war. I was upgrading my 57 and looking for an Ex Mint Tony Kubek 312. There is one in BST for $55 as a PSA 6. I have seen raw EX 35-45. So, a guy had an EX+ Kubek in his case - not priced with the 30% off note. I asked about it it. He said that it was $350 - but 30% off - so $245. I told him thanks, but I would pass. PSA 6 54 Aarons at 2400. PSA 6 55 Clementes at 2200. I felt like I was shopping at SAKs or Nordstroms. It was neat looking at the cards, however. If dealers didn't price their cards, I stopped asking after late Friday.


I really fell in love with Turkey Reds - I think that is what they are called - T3's. A really nice exhibitor told me the story about how they were acquired and how someone could order for a specific player. Leon gave some additional color to the methodology. At some point, I will begin buying pre-war. When I do, I have T3 fever. What a beautiful group of cards.

My friend Wayne from Shoebox cards told me that I was wasting time and money buying post war. He told me a story of how he stumbled upon a group of T3s in 1969 - where he bought them at an antique shop for $5 a card - over 100 of them. He sold them several years ago, but ranks it as his greatest find.

Good times. Great bonding with my boys. It was great that it was close to home - not sure if I will go to Chicago or AC as there were no deals to be found but I enjoyed the experience.

I am going to try to attach some pictures - if I can't attach mutiple, then it will be over a series of posts - apologies in advance for my lack of acumen - I swear that 10 years ago I was actually pretty good with the PC - now I have to ask my 15 year old how to do stuff... sigh

[kailes2872]

Here is a second round of pictures

[Pat R]

Just got home after a 9 hour drive ( 2 hours sitting in traffic on I90 because
some geniuses in Ohio decide to merge six lanes down to one on the busiest
weekend of the year with the National, NFL hall of fame inductions and PGA
tour event).

Picked up a few T206's but the best part was meeting up with Jantz, Chris B
and other members.

Patrick

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by LincolnVT

What is the report on Ruth items at the National?...I heard from a reliable source that the early Ruth stuff is very, very scarce and that the few items that are being made available are being sold for a steep premium. Can people confirm?

Thanks.

Ethan

I saw several early Ruth cards.

[Exhibitman]

I am on my way home now after four days. Great trip as usual.

I did not see ridiculous prices but I wasn't looking for the hottest prewar sets in high grade slabs either. I bought over 200 cards for my collection. I dug and dug on messy tables, sifted through hundreds of commons looking for the right cards, and worked over every buck negotiating prices. That's how you gotta work the show--relentlessly. And be flexible. I got some great prewar photos of the cubs training on Catalina and a ton of postwar Topps cards. Even got a nice Morrell Koufax and a Koufax rookie. All those were on my list but I could not count on them. They were targets of opportunity. If you approach the show looking for one narrow thing you will probably leave disappointed, especially if you are after a hot set.

[Northviewcats]

I spent two days at the show.

Overwhelming experience. After a few rows of looking the merchandise seemed to blend together, each table seemed to be filled with the same stuff.

Only spent 1/4 of what I intended to spend. Ironically I spent the most on a 1924 Diaz card that I think I was the under-bidder on a few weeks ago on eBay. Impulse buy. Yes, I did pay a lot more for it at the show.

The best part was watching dads and sons shopping together for treasures. The excited kids reminded me of how great collecting cards was when I was little.

I did take advantage of the Net54 SGC special. (Thanks Leon for arranging it.) I also enjoyed meeting Earl from SGC and putting a face to someone that I have dealt with over the phone. He was very helpful.

Thing I disliked the most: Unless they knew you most of the dealers seemed bothered and not interested in selling. I stopped and looked at almost every booth, but only a few dealers even asked what I was collecting. Maybe I have an ugly mug. Today most dealers just looked beat. I'm sure that they were.

The real excitement was at the rear of the room where all of the pack ripping was going on. I still don't understand the glamour of spending $70 hoping to get an autograph of someone who may not be in the Big Leagues in a few years. Gambling is not for me.

I hope everyone that went had a great time and found what they were looking for.

Best regards,

Joe

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by Northviewcats

I spent two days at the show.

Overwhelming experience. After a few rows of looking the merchandise seemed to blend together, each table seemed to be filled with the same stuff.

Only spent 1/4 of what I intended to spend. Ironically I spent the most on a 1924 Diaz card that I think I was the under-bidder on a few weeks ago on eBay. Impulse buy. Yes, I did pay a lot more for it at the show.

The best part was watching dads and sons shopping together for treasures. The excited kids reminded me of how great collecting cards was when I was little.

I did take advantage of the Net54 SGC special. (Thanks Leon for arranging it.) I also enjoyed meeting Earl from SGC and putting a face to someone that I have dealt with over the phone. He was very helpful.

Thing I disliked the most: Unless they knew you most of the dealers seemed bothered and not interested in selling. I stopped and looked at almost every booth, but only a few dealers even asked what I was collecting. Maybe I have an ugly mug. Today most dealers just looked beat. I'm sure that they were.

The real excitement was at the rear of the room where all of the pack ripping was going on. I still don't understand the glamour of spending $70 hoping to get an autograph of someone who may not be in the Big Leagues in a few years. Gambling is not for me.

I hope everyone that went had a great time and found what they were looking for.

Best regards,

Joe

I agree 100% with the lack of friendliness. I walked away several dealer tables that had things I was interested in because they wouldn't acknowledge that I was there.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I am on my way home now after four days. Great trip as usual.

I did not see ridiculous prices but I wasn't looking for the hottest prewar sers on high grade slabs either. I bought over 200 cards for my collection. I dug and dug on messy tables, sifted through hundreds of commons looking for the right cards, and worked over every buck negotiating prices. That's how you gotta work the show--relentlessly. And be flexible. I got some great prewar photos of the cubs training on Catalina and a ton of postwar Topps cards. Even got a nice Morrell Koufax and a Koufax rookie. All those were on my list but I could not count on them. They were targets of opportunity. If you approach the show looking for one narrow thing you will probably leave disappointed, especially if you are after a hot set.

+1

Floating around the show looking at the overpriced eye candy of those with the biggest booths seemed to be what a lot of people were doing. The deals were in the smaller booths where you could strike up a conversation, build a common understanding about an item, and then negotiate a fair price. I got more deals at this Natty than the past two combined. Sometimes I had to walk away and come back the next day to get prices to fall. In general I didn't feel like if I passed up something it would be gone later so I did this consistently as a negotiating tactic.

Also stumbled into a few items that the dealer did not really seem to know what it was and/or it's true rarity. I guess that's the benefit of looking for things that are less mainstream.

jeff

[Exhibitman]

Definitely, Jeff. There are always astounding items hidden in piles of stuff that you just have to dig out and retrieve. I am a bit of a maniac at the show because I know that. I try to save the socializing for the evenings and when I am too tired to keep walking and searching. I will post some 'picks' later this week.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by LincolnVT

What is the report on Ruth items at the National?...I heard from a reliable source that the early Ruth stuff is very, very scarce and that the few items that are being made available are being sold for a steep premium. Can people confirm?

Thanks.

Ethan

coming soon...

[Bicem]

[glynparson]

I got so tired of selling things that I did not really want to that I packed up early and gave my tables to the people behind me. The market is rather strong and tougher cards and tougher T cards sell very well right now and often over Ebay which many here seem to quote as market price.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by glynparson

I got so tired of selling things that I did not really want to that I packed up early and gave my tables to the people behind me. The market is rather strong and tougher cards and tougher T cards sell very well right now and often over Ebay which many here seem to quote as market price.

I can't help but wonder if sales at the national are a true indicator of anything. Yes, people are paying inflated premiums over "market" price, but I would bet that that's just the psyche of the collector spending all that time and money to go to the national and just not wanting to walk away empty handed. Just my theory, anyway.

[dstudeba]

The people are the best part of the National. Go to see and meet a lot of folks, and unfortunately also missed a ton of people I wanted to see. I posted some pictures from my phone on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/bidbrain

Pleasure to finally meet Ted and always a pleasure to talk to the fountain of knowledge that is Mark Macrae.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by LincolnVT

What is the report on Ruth items at the National?...I heard from a reliable source that the early Ruth stuff is very, very scarce and that the few items that are being made available are being sold for a steep premium. Can people confirm?

Thanks.

Ethan

Even with my "museum" strategy of pricing of my personal collection I sold an early Ruth card. The buyer is ecstatic and I am happy so that is all that matters. Early Ruth items are still hot.

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by Leon

Even with my "museum" strategy of pricing of my personal collection I sold an early Ruth card. The buyer is ecstatic and I am happy so that is all that matters. Early Ruth items are still hot.

You bet I'm ecstatic Leon. I may never see that one again!

Joe

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Vintageclout

You bet I'm ecstatic Leon. I may never see that one again!

Joe

Pics?

[soxinseven]

Joe does love his Ruth cards. Congrats on your pickup!

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Pics?

On vacation Daryl, will post a pic when I return.

Joe

[MikeGarcia]

[QUOTE=Vintageclout;1306606]On vacation Daryl, will post a pic when I return.



....you just bought a Babe Ruth card.....you just bought a Babe Ruth card at The National...You just bought a Babe Ruth card at The National from Leon's booth.....and you can still afford to take a vacation ? Serious props , Bro.