Aloha from Chicago

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Posted By: Alan

Here's my National report.

I drove from the Washington, DC area to Chicago on Wed. I got into the Rosemont area about 8 pm. The trip took about 14 hours including stopping for lunch on the road. I had dinner at a local restaurant and then checked into the hotel.

On Thurs., I got to the show lobby about 9:30 am. It wasn’t that many people waiting to get in. They started letting everyone go in before 10 am. The layout of the convention center was really weird. At the National in Cleveland, all the dealers were in one huge room. Here, there were groups of dealers in separate alcoves (rooms), so it made it especially difficult to start at isle 100 and go to the end in order.

I was there all day Thurs. It was an absolutely incredible show !!! It had so much material from vintage stuff to the shiny stuff and everything in between. Cards, memorabilia, autographs, equipment, etc,... absolutely everything. It was great seeing collectors & dealers from Net54. It looked like there was a decent crowd. There seemed to be more kids there, probably since it was free admission for kids througout the entire weekend.

I absolutely loved the network54 dinner Thurs. night. It was easily the highlight of the entire Chicago National experience. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was great meeting/seeing EVERYONE from the message board. I'm not even going to try to name everyone I met that night. Great conversations with all.

The speakers were great, especially Josh Evans from Lelands. It was also especially nice that he sat down at our table for a while during the evening.

I went to the show again on Friday. I was invited to attend the PSA registry luncheon (thanks to a collector friend on the PSA registry) even though I don't have a single card graded. Still, it was really nice meeting/seeing the PSA registry guys. They all seem to enjoy the friendly competition of the registry. PSA's Joe Orlando did a Q & A session. Levi (707 Sportcards) brought up some excellent points regarding the new “.5” grades. The food wasn't half bad, either. Joe O. handed out an early edition of the Collecting Sports Legends: The Ultimate Hobby Guide book that all PSA collectors club members will receive.

It’s too bad that I could not afford the donation cost ($100) to attend the Mastro live auction Friday night, because my dinner meet-up idea at Shoeless Joe’s restaurant didn’t really work out too well. However, I did have dinner there with sports equipment collector extraordinaire Carlton H. from the the Net 54 Memorabilia Forum, so things worked out great nonetheless.

I left Chicago Saturday morning to drive back home to the Wash, DC area.

I thought this National was as good as Cleveland was last year. I prefer the open parking, like in Cleveland, but that’s just my own personal opinion. But, it was nice that everything was all together, so it was simple to get to the Net54 dinner, for example. The layout of the National tables took some time getting used to. Crowds seems to be similar, probably more kids. Many dealers that I talked to said that although the crowds were decent, sales were down.

Even though I bought almost nothing at this National, it was one of my most enjoyable, fun & rewarding experiences at a sports collectibles show that I've ever had. Period.

Alan