Thoughts, observations and opinions on the National

[Leon]

My take on the show, as a dealer, collector, friend etc.....

As a dealer- I sold about a medium amount of stuff. The show did in fact start slowly the first day or so, sales-wise, but picked up nicely the following days. I managed to pick up a very nice "walk in" group of cards. I know other dealers that picked up really, really nice walk ins. I would say the walk ins were better at this show than most previous ones I have been to. (I have been to 8-10 Nationals.. in a row) My first two significant buys were from my two table partners. To not break protocol I will be posting those in the National pickup thread, sometime today. Be forewarned that I am teetering on one of the cards either being an upgrade for me or a resale item. It will NOT be for sale real soon though. I thought the venue was fine, but I am easy. Everybody talks about all of the surrounding things to do etc... For me, it's all about the show. It could be in the Mojave Desert and I would be fine with it as long as there is air conditioning, tables and a roof over my head.

As a collector- I thought it was a good show.....see pick up thread sometime today. One thing though....I was so busy doing a multitude of things that, for the first time, I didn't get a chance to go and walk to every single table. I thought there was a lot of vintage and haggling was the word of the day. I would usually start my offers at 50% of asking price and made some deals in that range. Some dealers would only come off of their high prices by a few bucks and those are probably the ones that didn't have a good show.

As a friend - I want to thank everyone that was so nice and came up to me and introduced themselves. I literally must have had over 100 forum members, many I didn't know or hadn't met before, come up and thank me for putting up with moderating . As I told them....I can handle the bit of antagonism, sarcasm and idiocy as long as I still enjoy doing it. When I don't enjoy it anymore then I will not do it anymore. Everyone I met was gracious and nice. I did go to the 2 live auctions and they went off without a hitch. I won something for myself (mostly for resale) in the Heritage Platinum auction and won something for a friend in the Legendary Live Auction. For some reason, at both auctions, someone should have told maintenance to turn on the air conditioners. It was either hot in the rooms or I am just getting fat and can't maintain. I hope it's the former!!! ALL of the Net54 pins were given out and everyone seemed to appreciate them. Thanks again to our member, Chris Lamb, for doing that. It really was a nice gesture. (insert sarcasm if you would like to, I choose to keep it friendlier)

I decided not to attend the 2nd "Clean up the hobby with an Association" meeting, though I was heavily persuaded to. I question the motives of the members organizing it. I forget the very famous person who said it but the phrase "I would never want to be part of an organization that would let me be a member" seemed to ring true. I predict a loud thud from all of that. I understood there to be about 25 attendees in the first meeting. Everyone there, I was told, was instructed to bring back as many people/dealers/auctioneers as they could for the next one. The total attendence for the second one (I am told) was an underwhelming (approx) 30 people. I think that number is very telling.

I might think of more later but to sum it up I had a great time and am looking forward to next year already. It was great NOT to be on the board for 5 days, not have a computer with me and not even return a few phone calls. I was in my own collecting world. I will be returning calls today. Thanks again for all of the hospitality and warmth. The hobby is still a very fun and exciting place and, imo, thriving very much.

[barrysloate]

Groucho Marx said it.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Great line. Similar logic to one of the great passages from Catch-22.

I wan't to marry you, but I can't.
Why not?
Because you're crazy.
Why am I crazy?
Because you want to marry me.

[Leon]

On the "friend" side of the above equation I forgot to mention that I met Jim Crandall (previously had never really spoken with him in person) and we had a few very nice conversations. He really is a nice guy but just collects differently than many of us. His passion and enthusiasm for the hobby is very refreshing. I hope to get to know him better in the future and I DO think he will make his way to this board again.

ON a similar note, and sort of funny/ironic was my first conversation with him. I had only met Jim once before, at a National and a few years ago. IN that respect I really didn't even remember what he looked like. So he walks up to my table...was talking with a few folks and I heard he was Jim Crandall. I introduced myself and we really had a very pleasant conversation. After a few minutes he asked if I had seen David Akatz at the show. I had never met David before, and certainly not that day, so said "no". Right then David walked up and introduced himself to me. I think I introduced them to each other...they were pleasant to each other and Jim walked away 2 seconds later. Needless to say there was a tiny bit of tension in the air for a few seconds. It was all ok and both gentelmen (Hi David) are nice guys, in my book.

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by Leon

On the "friend" side of the above equation I forgot to mention that I met Jim Crandall (previously had never really spoken with him in person) and we had a few very nice conversations. He really is a nice guy but just collects differently than many of us. His passion and enthusiasm for the hobby is very refreshing. I hope to get to know him better in the future and I DO think he will make his way to this board again.

is there a reason Jim no longer posts here?...I have missed his contributions and wondered why I no longer see him on here...
JasonL

[Leon]

Originally Posted by JasonL

is there a reason Jim no longer posts here?...I have missed his contributions and wondered why I no longer see him on here...
JasonL

Jim told me he couldn't figure out how to register or post on the new board. I told him I would register for him. I think he will come back in due time.....Like his collecting ways or not, he is a passionate collector and a very nice gentleman when speaking with him. regards

[bcbgcbrcb]

As many have stated already, Baltimore is the venue that offers the most entertainment for the entire family and all within walking distance of the show. Can't say that about Cleveland, Chicago or Anaheim.

[Matthew H]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

As many have stated already, Baltimore is the venue that offers the most entertainment for the entire family and all within walking distance of the show. Can't say that about Cleveland, Chicago or Anaheim.

Yes but the Los Angeles Convention Center is close to entertainment

[timzcardz]

As a father, husband and collector, I absolutely LOVED The National. It had everything that I needed.

We, my wife, 16YO son and I, got to Baltimore on Sunday and spent the entire week there, leaving again on Sunday. My truck was parked for 7 days straight, as once we arrived there was no need for it. Everything necessary for a family vacation was within a couple of blocks or a water taxi ride away.

We spent Monday through Wednseday doing the touristy things, like the National Aquarium and the whole Inner Harobor waterfornt thing. we took the water taxi around the harbor for a leisurely afternoon, spending a little time at the shops in Fells Point.

Hit an O's game? Again, just a walk of a couple of blocks.

When it came time for The National, staying at the Sheraton, it was just a very short walk to the convetnion center. If my 16YO wanted to sleep in, he simply met up with me later. Come lunch time, a couple of minutes back to the hotel to meet my wife for lunch. Want a few beers with lunch? Not a problem becaue I wasn't going to be driving anywhere anyway, but rather walking a few minutes back to the convention center. I bet my hotel room was closer than I would have parked at some other venues. It was just real convenient.

I really did enjoy parking the truck once and not driving the rest of the week.

It reminded me of a song from The Lion King. Hakuna Matata! It means no worries for the rest of your days.

The only negative thing about the actual convention center is that the food choices were a little limited if you didn't want to leaed the center, and no tables and chairs near the food.

There were some dealers that I thought had ridiculous prices on cards, but I found several that had reasonable prices MARKED and reduced from there before even asking, and when asked you could negotiate an even better deal, particulalry once they knew it would be a cash deal. FYI, my focus was primarily towards completing my '58 Topps set.

I hope to make 1 or 2 before then, but if 2014 is a Baltimore again, then it is a DEFINITE for me and my wife, and probably my son too (who would be 20 then). He had a really good time.

[calvindog]

I agree that Baltimore was a great place for the National for all the reasons Rob brought up. I think the purpose of any Natioanl location should be the proximity to the airport and trains, which Baltimore had. As noted above as well, however, in some instances such a location leaves visitors far from the decent parts of the host city. This is not the case in Baltimore.

As for the material presented, I was a bit disappointed. I found a bunch of stuff I liked enough to buy but I felt that there was not a plethora of unusual, one-of-a-kind cards to be had. Perhaps I was too optimistic.

I've only been to two shows so I'm clearly not used to the deceptive practices of dealers and there was plenty to be had at the National. Lies about cost of cards to the dealers abounded; and it wasn't like I would ask a dealer for this information as it's really not relevant. Instead, they would offer it in an attempt to explain why the prices were so high. Many of the prices were just insanely high. For example, I saw a Dietsche Cobb batting in PSA 6; I bought this card for $1100 (admittedly low) on ebay about a year or so ago. It was 4K at the National. You can obviously haggle on any price but when the starting price is 400% more than the card is worth, there's no point to even start a discussion.

What I did learn which worked very well with dealers is to literally take the Benjamins out and show them to the dealers while haggling. For what it's worth, I never seek to get a price on a card below market value so perhaps this is why my method worked well. But three times I got shot down on more than fair offers for cards; a few hours later I walked back literally waving the Benjys in the dealers' faces. They are apparently physically unable to let customers walk away with a stack of hundreds waving in their face and each time gave me the card (faux grudgingly, of course) at the price they previously refused.

I had some nice discussions with people there, especially Terrible Ted, Bill Latzko and Dan McKee and some Net 54 members. And it's great to be immersed in cards for a couple days.

My funniest interraction at the National, however, had to be meeting this one skinny bald dude who was looking all over the place for a 1976 Kurt Bevacqua Topps card (blowing that huge bubble) in PSA 9. I hope he had some backup plans at the show because I don't think he had much luck.