Views and observations from AC - share your experience at the National!

[Jewish-collector]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

The two booths that were at the very front where general admission entered were Memory Lane (straight ahead) and Lelands (to the right).

Did Memory Lane have any young women in referee uniforms handing out catalogs as in previous Nationals ?

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

Ted how does that work only setting up three days at the National, Tuesday-Thursday ? I thought it was part of the contract that you had to stay through Sunday?

Hi Johnny

For many years, I have been sharing the booth at the Nationals with my California buddies, Sal and Mark. Sal is the owner of the booth, and he provides me a 6-foot table.
Therefore, I can come and go at my convenience. Last week was my wife's Birthday on Friday, so I left the Show at the end of Thursday.

Thanks for asking.

Originally Posted by tedzan

A little too much "complaining" about the Atlantic City show going on here.

I am happy to say I had a great show Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday. I only set-up three days at the National Shows, because that's when all the action occurs.

This Atlantic City show was as good as my best Chicago show (Chicago shows usually are my best). Either I was lucky, or I brought the right Goodies to this show.
You may ask....what were the "right Goodies" ?
They were a group of T206 cards with the tougher backs listed here. The BL 350 and the COUPON sold immediately. Plus, 16 of the cards in this group of 22 sold.


.

1910 COUPON
AMERICAN BEAUTY 350
BROAD LEAF 350
CYCLE 350
PIEDMONT 460/42
POLAR BEAR
Red HINDU
SOVEREIGN
TOLSTOI

Plus T206 HOFer's, T205's, GOUDEY's, BOWMAN's, and a couple of OLD JUDGE's.

This assortment proved to be the right stuff. At my age, I like to travel light


That was sweet.....and meeting up with Net54 guys was a real pleasure.

See you at the Philly Show in September in Oaks, Pennsylvania.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by Jewish-collector

Did Memory Lane have any young women in referee uniforms handing out catalogs as in previous Nationals ?

Think they did. Small amount of eye candy outside of cards. It's not the boat show.

[Johnny630]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Hi Johnny

For many years, I have been sharing the booth at the Nationals with my California buddies, Sal and Mark. Sal is the owner of the booth, and he provides me a 6-foot table.
Therefore, I can come and go at my convenience. Last week was my wife's Birthday on Friday, so I left the Show at the end of Thursday.

Thanks for asking.

That's Awesome thanks Ted.

[Spike]

On one hand, I enjoyed the show and was able to spend four solid days shopping for cards, finishing a few sets, and making progress on several others. The finishing line for my 1956 Topps set of white/grey backs is within sight, once I grit my teeth and buy a second Mantle.

On the other, you could hear many people coughing and gritting out subpar health for the sake of the significant money that changes hands. Had to cut my own show short after testing positive for COVID on Saturday and wish I'd been 100% masked starting Wednesday. Best wishes to anyone recovering from the show in both senses of the word.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Anyone who found AC run-down, seedy and/or scary, clearly didn't play a lot of poker there in the 90's and early 2000's. Frankly the city looks the nicest I can remember. That's not saying a ton as it has been VERY scary at times, but I thought things were looking better than in my many trips 15 - 20 years ago.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Anyone who found AC run-down, seedy and/or scary, clearly didn't play a lot of poker there in the 90's and early 2000's. Frankly the city looks the nicest I can remember. That's not saying a ton as it has been VERY scary at times, but I thought things were looking better than in my many trips 15 - 20 years ago.

My first trip to AC was about 1981 when I took the bus there to audition for the Trump Card gameshow. A long way to go for a very quick blow off. Was probably before Trump even had a casino there.

[Jersey City Giants]

I nabbed a really nice PSA 4 Matty White Cap and a beautiful 1966 Syracuse Chiefs home flannel #14.

[bigred1]

I helped out a friend for the most part. My take is the city seemed cleaner than I remembered from my last visit before the pandemic, however some restaurants and businesses did not make it, Buca Di Beppo, was a disappointment. Also seemed almost vacant in some areas while we looked for a restaurant. Stayed at Harrahs because I could not get into Caesars, drove to caesars and parked there or paid for Convention center garage if available, not a bad walk, never felt uncomfortable. Was surprised by the noise from the corporate booths, and the music volume. Picked up a Gibson rookie, 52 High, 62 Musial and 53 Spahn, overall a great trip for me.

[clamendo]

Originally Posted by bigred1

I helped out a friend for the most part. My take is the city seemed cleaner than I remembered from my last visit before the pandemic, however some restaurants and businesses did not make it, Buca Di Beppo, was a disappointment. Also seemed almost vacant in some areas while we looked for a restaurant. Stayed at Harrahs because I could not get into Caesars, drove to caesars and parked there or paid for Convention center garage if available, not a bad walk, never felt uncomfortable. Was surprised by the noise from the corporate booths, and the music volume. Picked up a Gibson rookie, 52 High, 62 Musial and 53 Spahn, overall a great trip for me.

This was in yesterday’s news. Sad to see this in the US. I had a large submission that why I was concerned walking 1.4M to the convention center from the Hard Rock besides safety, it was heavy. The outdoor parking is literally right next to the venue in Cleveland and Chicago has lots of nice hotels. The Toronto show (comparable size) has plenty of space. Why not have less dealers and a smaller venue 2x a year. Like they do in Toronto, That would open it up to more locations …

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...-pier/3804505/


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[tedzan]

I had a great show (selling and trading cards) at the National. I hope you guys did, too. Here is a question for you dealers.

I am curious - how friendly were you customers ? I was setup at a booth near the entrance, so I had a huge number of people stop and look at my stuff.
I can say that I was pleasantly surprised that every sale I made was done without a hint of "haggling". Of course, some of the customers pulled out their
I-Phones and did their comps on my prices. However, not a single customer disputed my asking price. They simply pulled out stacks of 100-dollar bills for
the card(s) they wanted....and thanked me with a happy

My prices for the HOFers and the tougher T206 backs were not cheap. I found this experience very unusual. In shows in the past, there always have been
some contentious wheeling-n dealing with some guys.

I'm beginning to think that the hobby is starting to get accustomed to these higher prices. Whatever.....so, tell us of your wheeling-n-dealing experiences
at Atlantic City ?


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[notfast]

Originally Posted by tedzan

I had a great show (selling and trading cards) at the National. I hope you guys did, too. Here is a question for you dealers.

I am curious - how friendly were you customers ? I was setup at a booth near the entrance, so I had a huge number of people stop and look at my stuff.
I can say that I was pleasantly surprised that every sale I made was done without a hint of "haggling". Of course, some of the customers pulled out their
I-Phones and did their comps on my prices. However, not a single customer disputed my asking price. They simply pulled out stacks of 100-dollar bills for
the card(s) they wanted....and thanked me with a happy

My prices for the HOFers and the tougher T206 backs were not cheap. I found this experience very unusual. In shows in the past, there always have been
some contentious wheeling-n dealing with some guys.

I'm beginning to think that the hobby is starting to get accustomed to these higher prices. Whatever.....so, tell us of your wheeling-n-dealing experiences
at Atlantic City ?


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

We were selling modern stuff but had mainly good interactions. Most of our stuff was priced around the most recent sale price so we knew we had a little room to give. There was a few things we over priced but the majority of people were nice in saying something about it.

Like any show, there are some dumb people who do dumb things but it was minimal.

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Originally Posted by Michael B

My observations on The National. Some will be very contrary to others post.
Full disclosure: I do not collect cards and have no interest in owning any. When I did TTM and hotel in person in Boston in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I would pick up some cards to get signed but did not buy any to collect. By default I now have about 50 as they were in a group of items I purchased (T218, Ardath Photocards and Sporting Champions, Geoffrey Phillips Olympic Champions of 1928, Senior Service Sporting Stars, Churchman Kings of Speed).

I never expect to find much in my area of collecting but I go anyway. It is not just the having, but the hunt. Additionally, there are a few friends that I meet up with who I only see a few times a year. Other than the 5 Spencer Haywood signatures I paid for my total outlay for two days was $40.00.

I tried to walk down every aisle except the ‘breakers pavillion’. In my opinion that is wasted space that could be better served by allowing more dealers. When the NSCC has a waiting list of legitimate dealers why on God’s green earth would they give the booths to them. Nothing but a bunch of glorified snake oil salesmen and fluffers. They open a pack and it is a relic card of the third string quarterback of (pick a team) and they act like they just found a 5 ounce gold bar.

I call bull on those who said parking as tough. I had pointed out in one of the other threads that there was a website that showed all of the parking along with prices. I parked at The Wave parking garage on Fairmount Ave which is the continuation of Baltic Ave. It is 6 stories and about two blocks from the convention center on the other side of the Sheraton. If you stood on the sidewalk in front of the convention center and looked at 2 o’clock you could see it. I parked from 8:50 am to 8 pm on Friday and it was $12.00. Saturday 8:30 am to about 6 and it was $8.00. I befriended one of the parking attendants and he gave me a prime first floor spot on Saturday while waving everyone else to higher floors. As a bonus, White House Subs is on the other side of the garage.

I do agree that internet and cell phone service was crap. Connections were spotty at best. I would suspect that if you set up your own wifi hotspot with a VPN it would have been no better. I called Jonathan Sterling on Friday so that we could meet up and talk old basketball. I found a good spot inside with service and got him on the phone. I could not hear him and could not get back in touch.

There were more slabs that Arlington National Cemetery.

Many, many, many cards were priced. Even though I don’t collect cards I still tried to look in many display cases to ensure I did not miss anything.

All of the youngers and a few olders carrying nuclear footballs looked silly, but that is what they do in the changing landscape. I did see a great percentage of them trying to sell rather than buy. They did have a tendency to gather in packs like lemurs and block the aisles. I saw more than a few groups put their cases down on a dealer’s table and start trading. If I was a dealer, that would not be happening. The only real annoying ones were those with rolling file cabinets. Most of them were oblivious. One person was rolling around one of those music amp size cases with two smaller cases on top.

As one other poster stated, the prices were across the spectrum. I saw a lot of $1 items, quite a few booths with 20%, 30% and even 50% off signs. One booth had a large amount of graded cards at $20 each.

As for the PAMS (Pissers and Moaners) who complain that everything is overpriced, glad you stayed away, it was crowded enough without you and your attitude. I used more colorful language with all of the Net54 dealers I talked to.

I don’t usually buy food inside convention centers. Generally not very good and a bit pricey. If you wanted to walk 10 minutes there were enough options. The lines for food did seem to stretch quite long.

Since I did not expect to find much I made a concerted effort to seek out every member who was a dealer and had listed their booths in one of the threads. I wrote my own list to follow. I made sure to say I was Net54 and that I was trying to meet everyone of them. I met the following:

Steve Sabow – He had a very nice booth with a wide variety of items.

Scott Russell – Mainly auction preview items including one item that fit into my collecting focus.

Tony Gordon

Glenn and Lisa Mechanick

Robert Klevens (Prestige) – impressive display of Japanese baseball. He tried to help me interpret a signature, but it turned out to be Chinese.

Chris Bland (Lutfa Sportscards) - We talked about photo collecting. He is getting into it.

Justin Burleson – He was subletting from Rhys Yeakley. When I got there on Friday Rhys had already left and gave the rest of his space to another dealer. From what I gathered Rhys did not set up at all.

Scott Brockelman - He had traded some t206’s for a Babe Ruth photo. We discussed the possible value of it.

Ed Hans - His booth, along with Gary Nuchereno, was an endcap along with Scott’s booth.

Bill Broadhead – big display of prewar (WWI) cards.

Al Crisafulli (Love of the Game)

Don Hontz (Dons Cards) – we got to talk about his city, Portland, Maine. One of my favorite small cities that has changed quite a bit over the years.

Andy Aaronstein – He is working for Al at LOTG. I had swung back by that booth as I thought A.J. Johnson, who I never met, was in that area. Andy and I had a long conversation about photography copyright and storage.

I tried to find Howard Chasser, but I could not find his booth. The numbers in the row did not seem to go as high as the number he listed.

I also got to meet Bob C., Paul P and Tyler. There were one or two others I met but neglected to write down their names. One person, possibly Paul P?, knew my full name. I was very impressed as I introduced myself with my screen name.

It was a pleasure to meet all of the members there. If I was a card collector I would have no problem purchasing from any of them.

My big $25 purchase:

Attachment 527529

Michael B! Sorry to have missed you. I was indeed set up at Love of the Game booth. I did get in a little late one day (can't remember which) after getting locked out of my room (key got demagnetized) at Caesars after a late night 3:30am poker game.

Can't remember who said it but the 15,000 nerds and 5 hot girlfriend comment made me spit out my drink. Have to hand it to the wives/girlfriends who brave the huddled masses. I did see one lady following her husband, dutifully managing a multi page want list with pencil in hand making checks as they walked. Thought that was pretty cool.

I felt bad for the people trying to park at the convention center. I walked down from Caesars and it was a total nightmare in the streets on Thurs/Fri with cars backed up for miles trying to get in. Like someone else said, there were tons of other parking options close by but maybe many out of towners didn't know about those.

I compare AC to downtown Vegas where you have some of the older hotels. As long as you stay in the vicinity of the hotel at night you're fine. Don't think you'd want to walk too far afield at night (but that's the case in most major cities). I ended up walking by myself on the boardwalk at night twice from Tropicana to Caesars and didn't feel unsafe at all.

I had a fantastic time just being around all the other card nerds like myself. I sold a couple things and ended up finding a card I'd been wanting for awhile (You da man Don Hontz!)

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

Michael B! Sorry to have missed you. I was indeed set up at Love of the Game booth. I did get in a little late one day (can't remember which) after getting locked out of my room (key got demagnetized) at Caesars after a late night 3:30am poker game.

Can't remember who said it but the 15,000 nerds and 5 hot girlfriend comment made me spit out my drink. Have to hand it to the wives/girlfriends who brave the huddled masses. I did see one lady following her husband, dutifully managing a multi page want list with pencil in hand making checks as they walked. Thought that was pretty cool.

I felt bad for the people trying to park at the convention center. I walked down from Caesars and it was a total nightmare in the streets on Thurs/Fri with cars backed up for miles trying to get in. Like someone else said, there were tons of other parking options close by but maybe many out of towners didn't know about those.

I compare AC to downtown Vegas where you have some of the older hotels. As long as you stay in the vicinity of the hotel at night you're fine. Don't think you'd want to walk too far afield at night (but that's the case in most major cities). I ended up walking by myself on the boardwalk at night twice from Tropicana to Caesars and didn't feel unsafe at all.

I had a fantastic time just being around all the other card nerds like myself. I sold a couple things and ended up finding a card I'd been wanting for awhile (You da man Don Hontz!)

A.J., Sorry I missed you. I had written out my Net54 dealer list on an index card and was crossing out the names as I went along. When I flipped over the card and saw you were with Al I walked back there. Andy Aaronstein said he did not know who you were. Maybe brain freeze on his part, but that led to an introduction to him. Perhaps in Chicago about 358 days from now.

[tschock]

A few post AC National thoughts.

• The worst thing was the cell/internet service on the floor. Oh, it was available, but you could never tell WHEN it was going to be available. Paper want lists ruled the day.
  
  
• The second worst thing. Hand dryers in the restrooms that didn't actually dry your hands. Cold air coming out with the force of a baby breathing does not do a good job. Long T-shirts were the preferred utilitarian fashion.
  
  
• AC dangerous? Really? Who walks around outside at night anyway? I mean if you have an energy left and your feet aren't killing you, you weren't spending enough time walking the floor.
  
  
• If you got there when the show opened, there was plenty of places to park. (And if you stayed until the show closed, you wouldn't have to worry about how dangerous it is to walk around AC because you'd be too beat to be able to.)

[Donscards]

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

Michael B! Sorry to have missed you. I was indeed set up at Love of the Game booth. I did get in a little late one day (can't remember which) after getting locked out of my room (key got demagnetized) at Caesars after a late night 3:30am poker game.

Can't remember who said it but the 15,000 nerds and 5 hot girlfriend comment made me spit out my drink. Have to hand it to the wives/girlfriends who brave the huddled masses. I did see one lady following her husband, dutifully managing a multi page want list with pencil in hand making checks as they walked. Thought that was pretty cool.

I felt bad for the people trying to park at the convention center. I walked down from Caesars and it was a total nightmare in the streets on Thurs/Fri with cars backed up for miles trying to get in. Like someone else said, there were tons of other parking options close by but maybe many out of towners didn't know about those.

I compare AC to downtown Vegas where you have some of the older hotels. As long as you stay in the vicinity of the hotel at night you're fine. Don't think you'd want to walk too far afield at night (but that's the case in most major cities). I ended up walking by myself on the boardwalk at night twice from Tropicana to Caesars and didn't feel unsafe at all.

I had a fantastic time just being around all the other card nerds like myself. I sold a couple things and ended up finding a card I'd been wanting for awhile (You da man Don Hontz!)

AJ Glad you like the Ryan RC -Good seeing you again and nice chat--see you in Chicago.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by clamendo

This was in yesterday’s news. Sad to see this in the US. I had a large submission that why I was concerned walking 1.4M to the convention center from the Hard Rock besides safety, it was heavy. The outdoor parking is literally right next to the venue in Cleveland and Chicago has lots of nice hotels. The Toronto show (comparable size) has plenty of space. Why not have less dealers and a smaller venue 2x a year. Like they do in Toronto, That would open it up to more locations …

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...-pier/3804505/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The most disturbing element of that story is that Pfish is having a concert

[Ray Van]

Originally Posted by clamendo

The outdoor parking is literally right next to the venue in Cleveland and Chicago has lots of nice hotels. The Toronto show (comparable size) has plenty of space. Why not have less dealers and a smaller venue 2x a year. Like they do in Toronto, That would open it up to more locations …

Because the powers that be simply don't want to take the show to more locations. Maybe the new ownership will change that, but I'm not holding my breath. The National has always been a show for the dealers not the customers. All excuses about not finding suitable venues in other locations - not large enough, tough to deal with unions, not enough hotel space, etc. - are just excuses. There are plenty of suitable venues all around the US, they just don't want to go there.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Ray Van

Because the powers that be simply don't want to take the show to more locations. Maybe the new ownership will change that, but I'm not holding my breath. The National has always been a show for the dealers not the customers. All excuses about not finding suitable venues in other locations - not large enough, tough to deal with unions, not enough hotel space, etc. - are just excuses. There are plenty of suitable venues all around the US, they just don't want to go there.

Yup, because these other venues actually want to get paid for the use of their space. Crazy notion, huh?

[cannonballsun]

I have a question, I guess this is primarily for the dealers.
I lived in Chicago for a short period of time in the 90's. In 1993, I was able to go to the National at McCormick place. Due to my job and other considerations, I was only able to go for one day, and only for 3 hours.
The show was unbelievably massive. I didn't come close to be able to look at every table.
At the show in AC, several goers mentioned they were able to cruise the whole show (at least the dealers tables) in 5 to 6 hours. From what I saw in 1993, that looked impossible at that show.
So here's my question. Were there more tables back in the 90's during the crazy boom of the junk wax era, or is it about the same now ? Or are there more tables now ? Thanks for any info you can provide.

[Exhibitman]

As I recall, earlier shows had more tables because they had little in the way of corporate areas and no breaking pavilions. There were even some tables available to local dealers who were not regular participants in the show. That has changed as the corporate ($$$) booths have grown. From what I've read, there will be the largest-ever corporate spread at the show next year, with dealers increasingly squeezed into the nooks and crannies and side galleries of the hall.

[cannonballsun]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

As I recall, earlier shows had more tables because they had little in the way of corporate areas and no breaking pavilions. There were even some tables available to local dealers who were not regular participants in the show. That has changed as the corporate ($$$) booths have grown. From what I've read, there will be the largest-ever corporate spread at the show next year, with dealers increasingly squeezed into the nooks and crannies and side galleries of the hall.

Thanks, Adam.

[Exhibitman]

I wish they'd put the entire corporate area, the autograph area, and the breaking pavilion on one end of the hall. Just cluster all the crud together so I don't have to keep walking around it to get to the tables that matter.

[puckpaul]

+1

[Belfast1933]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I wish they'd put the entire corporate area, the autograph area, and the breaking pavilion on one end of the hall. Just cluster all the crud together so I don't have to keep walking around it to get to the tables that matter.

I would agree - clearly the younger set find that stuff to be fun…. No problem at all. But let’s try and organize the rest of the show like they do for the pavilion experience.

I’d still like to lobby for some kind of:

1. High level, directional summary of what each table has to sell

2. Let’s give dealers and collectors a way to connect ahead of time (for those who want to) to exchange wish lists, etc. I’m guessing many of us here probably had a target list and would have loved to had 8-10 pre conversation dealer connections to go first to try and fill open wish list items.