The National trip is now in the past, and it was a pretty wild ride. My brother and I got into Ohio on Wednesday, about 2 hours before the show opened for the first time on Wednesday night. We decided to head over...and it was a mistake. Wednesday was a disaster. Poorly run, with the worst part being the handicapped access blocked off. I, and many others, had to park in the back of the building and walk around the entire outside before getting to the one and only door. The doors on the side of the building with the vast majority of the parking lot is, they were blocked from both the inside with the Autograph pavilion and outside with metal barriers. I was physically exhausted before I even got into the show.
That's also not mentioning that we were sitting in traffic for an hour before we even got to the parking lot, where we were waved off from the handicap parking lot by the rent-a-cops the show hired, despite having visibly open spaces.
So it was not going great. I gutted it out as much as I could but I couldn't see all of the show in that time, and even though I did add some pretty amazing stuff to my collection, I vowed I would never be back to another National.
We took Thursday and Friday off from the National, going to the Cleveland Aquarium on Thursday and heading an hour south to a NASCAR store on Friday. I said I wasn't going to go back to the National, but there was that nagging thought of the fact that I didn't see nearly 1/3rd of the show.
I decided I had to go back, considering we had already traveled there to Ohio, and I'd always wonder what I hadn't seen.
It was 100% better. All the problems of the previous trip were addressed. My brother was able to drive me up and drop me off near the door. The rear doors, while still locked from the outside, were no longer blocked by the autograph pavilion. There were no rent-a-cops at all. It was overall better in every way. I don't know if my complaining on Twitter made a difference but the difference was noticable.
And, having had two days to rest, I was able to cover the entire rest of the show that I had missed the previous trip.
I can't really put it into perspective how much better it was. Wednesday I was miserable, vowing never to go back. Saturday was one of the best days I've ever had in my 36 years in the hobby. I hated for it to end, although the show was closing for the night and perhaps more importantly, I was out of money by that point. I know, now, that I WILL be back when they return to Cleveland.
A couple of thoughts on that- The general consensus is that Cleveland's I-X Center is too small to host the show and they couldn't fit all the vendors in....but there was so much wasted space. The main room had a huge empty area around the perimeter that could have had another row of tables. At least 50 tables could have fit in that spot. There was an entire second great hall that was visible but unused! The room where the tickets were taken had one small table for the tickets and the rest was empty. It could have easily accommodated 20 to 30 vendors. So many of the problems could have been avoided if they opened up both doors and set up ticket takers at each end.
Vintage was abundant. In fact, if you don't collect vintage or high dollar ultra modern, the show would likely be disappointing. I suspect you could have gotten every single Topps baseball card of the 1950s through 70s with enough time and money. I don't really know baseball but I know a little bit and I saw all of the key cards there- literally every one. I saw more 1930s Babe Ruth cards than cards from the 2000s. The 2000-09 years were the least represented, it was mostly vintage or ultra-modern.
Sealed box prices are insane. Even 1990-91 Fleer NBA is now priced into the triple digits which is insane, like I said. I was hoping to find a box of 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 2, as it's sold out from my usual sources. I did, but it was almost $300. I left without it, one of my bigger disappointments of the show.
One of my favorite portions of the show were the memorabilia on display at the auction house tables. See pictures below.
I am a collector of opportunity so I didn't set out looking to add any specific cards to my collection, but I had three goals. They were 1- get some regional promos. Successful in both NBA and NHL. 2- add at least one 1948-49 Bowman basketball card to my collection. I got two. 3- get a hockey card older than my previous oldest card, which is from the 1951-52 season. I was not successful there. In fact, I saw only one NHL card older than 1951-52 in the entire show, and it was graded, thus overpriced.
Baseball was the most represented, which is not surprising. Basketball is probably second most represented but Football is close to it. Hockey was 4th. NASCAR was represented but not as well as I would have hoped. Soccer, Wrestling and Boxing were all represented by a small portion but not a huge amount.
One of my big surprises from the show was how much Non-Sports cards were there. With it being the National Sport Collector's Convention, I didn't think there would be much non-sport. I was wrong...way off actually. I think there was more non-sport than hockey in fact. A large portion of my purchases were non-sports. I'll get to my purchases at the end. There were also more comics there than I expected, since I expected none, so that was a pleasant surprise.
I ended up taking more than 500 photos at the show, which I'm not going to share all of here...but I do have them on my website. You can see all of them there, and in a larger format than the blogger system allows.
Right after I get in the doors I spot a Shaquille O'Neal all-star jersey.
then I met Sal from Puck Junk- he becomes the first card blogger I've ever met in person!
Wayne Gretzky game used stick from his rookie season
Jackie Robinson game worn jersey
If you like Ike, you can buy his golf equipment shortly.
Me with the screen used Power Rangers- note that I broke out an NBA jersey for the first time in many years.
Screen used mask and ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz
Even model kits made an appearance at the show!
Ultra-modern, ultra-expensive NBA.
1933 Goudey Sport Kings contain the first professional basketball cards ever. There are two in the set, of which I had never seen either in person before. I saw both at the show. I could afford neither.
I met Sooz who used to blog at A Cardboard Problem, now known for hosting CardChat on Twitter every week
Presidential and other important people cut signatures
You can get some presidential hair or parts of Al Capone's tablecloth if you want to.
The line to leave on Wednesday night.
Now we begin Saturday...
and it starts with a bang as I see the George Mikan card from 1948-49 Bowman, which I have never seen in person before! 7 thousand is a good price for that card too, unless the back is bad.
Just a random view into the room, which I was too exhausted to remember to take on Wednesday.
Big name hockey autographs.
OK, so maybe the 86-87 Fleer Jordan WASN'T the most I saw of any one specific card!
Jimmy Hoffa cut signature. Never know what you will see there!
I wanted that Bubba card, but too expensive for me.
Die cut cards are not as new a concept as you may think
card/comic dealers in full cosplay
Remember when I did a post listing 2005-06 Topps Chrome as my most wanted to open hobby box, and my mom actually found one and got it for me? Yeah, that couldn't happen anymore.
That's the first Superfractor I've seen in person. I saw more at the same table.
There was even a coin/currency dealer there!
Olympic medal from 1896!
George Washington autograph! Ulysses Grant, too
Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln autographs!
Breaker's Bowl. I just went over to take the picture. The breaking concept is the antithesis of the hobby to me.
This is the autograph section.
Top left corner is the only pre-1951-52 hockey card I saw. This one is from 1933-34 O-Pee-Chee.
OK...now let's take a look at what I bought.
This is what I got on Wednesday. I got significantly more cards on Saturday than I did on Wednesday, although I got a lot more vintage cards on Wednesday, and those cost more.
I added one more card from the 1951-52 Parkhurst NHL Set, and it now is my oldest Rangers card. The Price Brookfield from 1948-49 Bowman, the card on the left, is a pretty key card. It's my first card of the Indianapolis Jets, a team in the league that would become the NBA that existed solely during the 1948-49 season, and the only team that had a mainstream card that was missing from my collection. The other two teams I'm missing from my collection are the Indianapolis Olympians and the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, both of which appear solely in the ultra-rare 1950-51 Bread for Health promo set- a set I've never seen a single card from in person. Not even at the National. Interestingly enough, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks are still around as the Atlanta Hawks.
On Saturday I had the time to go through some boxes, and I found a dealer that had a 250 cards for $20 deal, and even better...he had a NASCAR box! In retrospect I wish I had spent more time and money at his table, but by time I got to him I was almost out of cash. He had boxes for pretty much everything and provided chairs so that was great. Of the 250 cards I bought, all but about 10 were NASCAR...or other racing.
At the time of this writing I have not even opened the Ultra Update box yet. Fingers crossed that they haven't bricked up. The Stadium Club Members Only set did brick unfortunately, only the 5 Chrome cards are good. The car cards are from 1924 and the oldest cards I got at the show. The three cloth stickers were purchased from Dr. Strange above. The Karl Malone card from 1997-98 Upper Deck Diamond Vision is the first time I've added a card from that set since 2004, and it's only my 4th base card from the set.
Almost everything here came from the 250 for $20 guy. The hockey came from Sal at Puck Junk and the NBA cards at the bottom right came from a different dealer. A couple cards turned out to be duplicates but going off memory wasn't bad- only about 5 of them...and two that I purchased two copies of at the same table. Oops. I even ended up grabbing a football card from the Non-Sports aspect, like Allen & Ginter, that Topps did with the Magic brand in football. I actually reshot a version of this photo without my shirt in it but that came out blurry, go figure.
I don't know exactly how many new cards I added at the National yet. I need to type them into Excel first to get the number, and I still have the packs that need to be scanned before they are opened which will take me a little bit.
I'm pretty physically exhausted. The trip pushed me to my limits of what I can do physically. But overall it was worth it, and I want to do it again. I know I won't be able to get to Chicago, so I have to hope it returns to Cleveland sooner rather than later.