My day and a half at The National

[ocjack]

Originally Posted by IndyDave

After paying for them, I noticed he had a few stacks of 1949 Bowman. I asked to go through them and he indicated his preference was to sell the full stack for $500. That set is about the only post war set where I need a large quantity of cards (other than 1952 Topps high numbers) and I haven’t bought a card lot in many years. We discussed what single pricing would be if I bought them and I started going through the stack. He said there were a lot of high numbers and there were. I went through them for five minutes counting how many cards I needed and realized that I needed enough of the cards to come close to spending the $500 ($4 lows, $8 highs). I bought the lot and put the box in my backpack. When I eventually sorted through the lot, there were 156 cards, 71 of which I needed, including 50 high numbers. I also think I will be able to upgrade a handful of my cards. I’ve not been particularly condition conscious with this set. I effectively got the extra cards for free – my brother gets a nice present.

156 1949 Bowman for a little over $3/card. That's a great score. Congratulations. And thanks for the write-up. Those of us that couldn't attend appreciate the detail.

[tbob]

Congrats on the great time you had at the Convention. I skipped this year because I’m 71 and fully vaccinated and still wear the mask indoors because Delta is ravaging the South with low rates of vaccination. I spoke to some collector friends who attended and they agreed with your assessment that only 5-10% were wearing masks 😷 I don’t know if I could have enjoyed the show with covid surging again.
I’m glad you had fun and picked up some cards you needed. Maybe next year for me, I’ve been going for many years even though it’s getting harder and harder to find pre WWI cards which I collect. I go for the camaraderie mostly now.

Stay safe.
Tbob

[jbsports33]

Thank you - some great pictures!!!

[bb66]

Thanks for the great report! Sure sounds like you had fun.

[IndyDave]

Originally Posted by vtgmsc

Nice recap!

My fave line was "I was getting grouchy".

Very nice read! Thank you!

Mike

Yeah - when I pulled some cards that had been priced in the binders, but was told I had to wait for the one guy to review everything against his Beckett price list, I just told them to forget it and walked away. He was going through a stack of a couple hundred cards pricing them out. I wasn't going to hang around and do that. Was ruder than I should have been. That was my clue that it might be time to leave.

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Sounds like fun. How were prices on the cards you collect?

Looking back, other than the 1961 Fleer Jim Brown ($80) the only card I paid more than $30 for was a 1954 Red Man Yogi Berra ($32 before the final discount given - can't remember what it was).

My opinion was that graded vintage seemed to be priced high - very high. I did not go with the intention to get graded cards, but the handful I saw were well beyond what I would pay. I generally don't buy graded cards except (1) it is a very high end card that is often reprinted or (2) it is a decent price - i.e. someone paid to grade a card that really shouldn't have been graded

I thought the ungraded vintage sports and the non-sports were fairly priced. There were a few tables that were just downright a great deal, but I walked away from very few tables saying the prices were out of hand.

Originally Posted by tonyo

Wow, thanks for writing all that!. I'm really impressed with the variety of cards you were able to find. No way I could keep all that straight

and congrats on that stack of 49 Bowman!

A five page want list helps. Being an accountant by trade helps too - I like order in what I do.

Originally Posted by RTK

One slight trick is buying your ticket over your phone, which I did on Friday as I was standing in the lobby. It may save some time standing in a line. The Covid elephant... I'm fully vaccinated and wore a mask the whole time I was there Friday. Considering many of the attendees are from all over the country has me a bit worried to be honest. I mentioned the crowd size to one vendor and he agreed it was much larger than previous Friday crowds...it actually seemed more chaotic to me and I had enough of it after six hours.

I'm not a set collector, nor a graded card geek. I did pick up a handful of '57 Topps, nothing special, just cards that make you feel like you're 10 years old again. The guys with a list and a plan seem to have the easiest time. Wandering through the tables is like a corn maze, you don't know which way to turn and become easily distracted by cool stuff. My little plan was negro league player autographed balls. I ended up with Double Duty and Buck O'Neil. I tend to gravitate to ephemera, like tickets - I did pick up a 67 Fenway WS ticket and a '41 Ebbets Field Game 4 ticket, as well as a 1939 Indy 500 program and a 1974 NHL All Star Game program. I had my eye on a 1928 WS ticket and scorecard but I'll be damned if I could locate it after I had passed by it earlier....someone may have bought it. One day was enough for me, 'til next time.

Sounds like you found a lot of cool stuff. I looked at a lot of neat stuff - but resisted buying. I was talking to the guys at Kevin Savage cards about the great ephemera they had out - I have stuff in cabinets that haven't seen the light of day for years, yet I keep buying things from them like Cleveland Barons programs. I need to be reducing the programs, yearbooks, etc that I have, not adding to it.

[IndyDave]

Just sat down and sorted out the purchases. In addition to the 156 1949 Bowman card lot, I bought another 132 cards over the 12 hours I was in the show. Guess I was busy

That is the most cards I've purchased at show in a long, long time. Probably need to go back to those card shows of the mid 1970's when I would buy 100 card lots of 1950's and 1960's cards. Still remember buying a lot of 100 1958 Topps with Hank Aaron on top at the Troy Hilton show. Had to be talked in to spending the money by the dealer. Was either $15 or $20 I think.......

Now the objective is to get them all put away by Labor Day.

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by IndyDave

Just sat down and sorted out the purchases. In addition to the 156 1949 Bowman card lot, I bought another 132 cards over the 12 hours I was in the show. Guess I was busy

That is the most cards I've purchased at show in a long, long time. Probably need to go back to those card shows of the mid 1970's when I would buy 100 card lots of 1950's and 1960's cards. Still remember buying a lot of 100 1958 Topps with Hank Aaron on top at the Troy Hilton show. Had to be talked in to spending the money by the dealer. Was either $15 or $20 I think.......

Now the objective is to get them all put away by Labor Day.

I remember buying those great lots of cards like that. I built many of my 50's and 60's sets back then by buying those lots.

[cannonballsun]

Originally Posted by tbob

Congrats on the great time you had at the Convention. I skipped this year because I’m 71 and fully vaccinated and still wear the mask indoors because Delta is ravaging the South with low rates of vaccination. I spoke to some collector friends who attended and they agreed with your assessment that only 5-10% were wearing masks 😷 I don’t know if I could have enjoyed the show with covid surging again.
I’m glad you had fun and picked up some cards you needed. Maybe next year for me, I’ve been going for many years even though it’s getting harder and harder to find pre WWI cards which I collect. I go for the camaraderie mostly now.

Stay safe.
Tbob

Unfortunately, here in Louisiana it's about the same as Arkansas.