See me at the National - Net54/OBC specials!

[polakoff]

I'm fortunate to be setting up this year with my friends and will be at either booth 205 or 304 (they are together -- just go over there and I'll be at one of the sides of that section!). I'll be wearing a different Topps t-shirt every day.

I will have nothing but raw vintage baseball. Everything from tobacco to pre-war to 50s-70s Topps. I love to traffic in high numbers, short prints, variations, oddballs, etc. as much as possible.

A little about me. I run a pretty small operation. This is fun for me and I have a full-time job and just do this for kicks. I buy cheap and sell cheap. I firmly believe that you will not find the stuff I have cheaper anywhere at the National and I really do mean that. Whether it's high grade commons or beat up stars or anything in between, I price aggressively. Most importantly (to me) every single card on my table is priced. No wondering what I'm going to charge, no looking up Beckett values or ebay comps (in fact, please do not say the word comp to me as I find it triggering).

My setup is very straightforward and simple. In addition to cards that are priced as marked, I have boxes ranging from 50 cents a card to $5 a card. Each box has quantity discounts associated with it -- $.50 (50 for $20), $1 (24 for $20), $2 (12 for $20), $3 (15 for $40), and $5 (9 for $40).

My favorite part of going to the National is meeting other diehard collectors and talking about cards and baseball, and since Net54 and OBC members are the best at doing that I like to meet as many as possible at my table. What I typically do for folks from Net54 and OBC is that my 50 cent boxes become quarter boxes with the quantity discount changing to 100 for $20. It's a true treasure hunt in there. Because my prices on other cards are already low I do not have a set discount for everything else, except to say that I will work with you and generally discount larger purchases on a sliding scale based on how friendly you are.

I hope that this post does not come across as disingenuous. While I do make money selling cards I am a true collector and my card sales go to funding other card purchases (in fact, if you don't see me at my table, it's because I'm walking around looking for oddball Brooklyn Dodgers items). Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have several Net54 guys as my customers at local shows, ranging from Taylor Schock when I lived in North Carolina from 2013-2015 to Larry Tipton at the Jacksonville shows since. While this is my first Chicago National, I have set up at Cleveland in 2018 and Atlantic City in 2016. I've met lots of folks in person and each has made an impression on me (meeting Richard Dingman was like meeting Elvis for me given how often I reference his variations site!).

I hope to meet you later this month, even if you don't buy anything from me. Please do come by and say hi, and let's talk cards and baseball.

David