2012 national convention pickups/pictures

[Hankphenom]

Aw shucks, guys. I'd had that Hubbell for several shows and for most of the National. I picked it up cheap and had it priced to sell, an original photo of a young Carl with a gorgeous sig. Figured it would fly off the table, but it waited there long enough for Scott to find it. And it took the dedication to make to our end-of-the-world setup in the room, or I should say "sort of" in the room. There've been several posts about what a wasteland the room with the autograph pavilion was, all supplies and shiny stuff. I'd walk up into the main building to see tremendous crowds (I thought attendance was terrific all week) around the tables, then come back to where Keating and I were set up and it looked like a leper colony. Here he's got the best autograph material at the show and I've got a table full of old interesting stuff, and not a single one of the numerous auction houses and few dealers and collectors ever even made it by to look at what we had. After several frustating days like that, I more or less gave up and loaded up a famous eBay seller with tons of my best stuff--this with half the show left to go. I've never done that before. I ended up having a great show in the end, but only because several of those intrepid collectors who did make it got to discover my "private stock" of smaller Johnson estate photos, some of which Beckett had beautifully slabbed, and made some deals that made it worthwhile being there. Otherwise, it was a frustrating experience being in that part of the universe "where no man has gone before." I've learned the hard way what it means to be in the "smaller room" at a show, but I thought, wrongly as it turned out, that most people taking the trouble to go to a National would at least check out the whole thing while they were there. Having vented about all that, however, it was still wonderful--never been to a National that wasn't. Picked up some fabulous items like this spectacular 1924 World Series ticket strip, had many great encounters with other collectors, put some money in my pocket, and just had a great time all week long.