2018 Cleveland National Report - Sneak Peak, Round 2 and Round 3 is LIVE

[bounce]

OKAY GANG! Saturday was my last day at the show, so this will cover that and an overall wrap up.

By Saturday morning, I have to be honest - I was pretty sick of baseball cards and memorabilia. I don't know if it's just my age, or possibly coming down off the high of acquiring the T204 Ramly Walter Johnson and thinking no way there's an encore to that, but upon entering the show Saturday there was literally nothing else I was particularly interested in chasing. As it was, that actually worked out pretty well for me because one of my buddies was at the show and had several autograph guests that he wanted to me to help him with.

Here are a few pictures, in all I got to meet Roger Clemens, Rickey Henderson, Daryl Strawberry and Cal Ripken Jr.






Thanks to my efforts, my buddy gave me one of the Clemens autograph tickets. On short notice, I had to find something to get signed. Being from Houston, I actually have several items signed by him already but there was one in particular I've always wanted and this seemed to be the perfect setup to get it. The other one I've had in my collection for awhile, but this is the perfect complement to it. 1986 MLB All Star Programs - played right here in Houston, and Rocket was the MVP.


I did manage to look around some more, and ultimately decided I just couldn't pass up on a couple more items for my Presidential autograph collection. I got these from a dealer I've bought from now for the past four Nationals and done a couple other deals in between. He is someone I really have enjoyed getting to know because of these shows, and I can honestly say in the non-card and really non-sport space, he is one of the absolute best. He even said to me that he was disappointed that we hadn't actually done any business yet and was wondering if something was wrong. I told him of course not, I'd simply been noodling on several of the items trying to decide my course of action. We settled on prices on for these, and we will soon be discussing another couple items as well.

These are signed by Grover and Frances Cleveland, and Zachary Taylor.



As was the case Friday, I was even more of a wanderer on Saturday especially considering I was wearing down. But my eye was still pretty sharp, and I saw this sitting on one dealer's table who obviously didn't deal in unopened. Pretty sure he took as part of a trade, and I got what I felt like was a smoking hot deal on it. 1981 Topps Football wax box, BBCE wrapped.


Shortly before heading to the airport, I took one last run by the BBCE booth. I wanted to see the results of the 86 Fleer box break, and also just wanted to see what might be left in the cases. This one caught my eye. Just WOW!


And finally, dumbest thing I saw today. My buddy and I literally stood here for AT LEAST 5 minutes, but to no avail. No one ever showed up, no one yelled from a short space away to say "coming". An empty booth, with a free phone and lunch. I could say a lot of different things here, but I'm just going to be quiet and let you decide the word or phrase you'd use to describe this scene.

[bounce]

And now for the wrap up.

THE LAND and THE SHOW
I had never been to Cleveland before. In terms of the actual space and layout, I actually do prefer it over Chicago. The food choices are far superior inside the show, and I really preferred this layout versus Chicago where there are dealer tables on the side with all the corporate stuff in the middle. However, as others have noted the internet service was atrocious. Luckily for me, I didn't really experience the same issues as others (maybe my carrier was THE ONE that worked), but mine was still slow at times and in 2018 there's just no excuse for it being so bad. My hotel was a short Uber away, and there were some decent places to eat near me, but from the hotels and outside of show perspective I do prefer Chicago. I have a few more flight options to Chicago, Cleveland was somewhat limited but not terrible. Again, slight nod to Chicago if I had to choose. I have to believe Cleveland keeps it spot in the lineup because of economics somehow. I've heard that they give the space for free to get the show (and thus the hotels, etc.) - that would make sense to me if true but sounds almost too good to be true. Give me a choice, and I would vote Chicago, but that's mainly because of the non-show factors.

THE DEALERS and THE DOUGH
I've discussed the dealers a bit already, but I'll recap. Wednesday and Thursday felt like the dealers were trying to set a new record price for every graded card they had out to sell. That tactic is extremely irritating and I think very short sighted. As a guy who walks around with a fair amount of money to spend, and seemingly unlimited opportunities to spend it, pricing your cards more than 15-20% higher than going market as a starting ask costs you my business most of the time, because there's so much to see and I really don't want to waste time haggling when it's that far away. My REAL want list is pretty limited and those are the only things I'd even consider paying up that much for. However, I will buy just about anything that catches my eye and has a fair price. It took a couple days for dealers to loosen up IMO, but seemed like by Friday dealers were coming down to earth. Rare modern cards of Trout were the only real exception I saw, those were being feverishly sought and many were selling despite the jaw dropping prices. I do think money was flowing pretty freely every day I was there, although by Saturday it did feel like it had slowed down. I also haven't mentioned it in this post, but it's been discussed here before. I know there are a lot of people who feel like collecting is and will do very well, and I wouldn't necessarily dispute that. However, if you attend this show it's easy to see that there is a real lack of diversity in the attendees. I think there is definitely a demographic problem that will hold some of these markets back over time, but until the economy slows down I doubt we will see that impact.

WHAT TO KNOW and TIME TO GO
I didn't book this trip until late this year, but obviously I was very pleased I went. Probably my 2nd favorite of the past four Nationals, but it's close. Getting your #1 wish list card obviously plays a big factor, but I was able to stay pretty steadily engaged this time which wasn't necessarily the case in previous Nationals. Maybe the experience of going to several is helping. This is really the ONLY PLACE you have the opportunity to see things you can't other places and might not ever again. If you've ever thought about going, I'm hopeful that my write-ups will help push you over the edge to attend. As far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier. I really did enjoy the people this time, and I'm looking forward to developing more of these relationships, and ultimately hoping to do more connecting with those folks in person next time around. Working the tables at the show is certainly fun, but I'm that much more interested in talking to folks I primarily know electronically, and I'd really like to be able to do more meet ups for trading outside the show, when the time pressure and surroundings aren't as distracting. Inevitably, there's a sense and element of "competition" inside the arena, but that's not really there after the show ends each day. So to Ryan, James, Kurt, Adam, Mike, a couple Keiths, Patrick, a couple more Joes, and everyone else I'm forgetting - thanks for a great time and another great experience. I hope everyone can enjoy their collecting as much as I have been, and here's to hopefully another bright future of it between now and National 2019.

And thanks everyone for putting up with me this week. I'll try to behave as we move forward. :smile:

[Rhotchkiss]

David, thanks for all the posts - I really enjoyed all reading your updates. I am glad we finally got to meet in person and a huge congratulations on roping that T204 Johnson - it is an awesome example of an awesome card!! Stay in touch and remind me that I owe you a primer on mobile home parks. Talk soon.

Ryan