What a weekend spent in Chicago at The 2021 National. One of my bucket list items for quite a while...I was actually on my way to The National 10 years ago when a family emergency forced me to turn around and miss the event. Didn't miss it this time and had a great and amazing experience. There are dozens and dozens of other collector reports of The National and I thought I'd also post my thoughts here of my Saturday and Sunday experience.
1. The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center is huge. It took my brother and I 12 hours to walk and look at every single booth while stopping at about 10-20% of them to look through boxes. If I was to do it again 3 days would have been perfect. We walked 9 miles around the convention floor weaving in and out.
2. The modern-card hobby is in a boom right now for sure as there were a ton of people. I can't help think the modern cards market is going to collapse in on itself soon with the prices being thrown around.
3. There is plenty of vintage at The National...don't let the modern-card YouTubers lead you to believe otherwise.
4. 1986-1987 Fleer Jordan rookie cards are not rare, however, they are rare in the PSA 9 and PSA 10. I could have walked away with 2-3 dozen graded examples PSA8 and below.
5. Likewise, 1951 Bowman Mantle and Mays rookie cards are not rare either. Surprising how many The National brings out of the woodworks.
6. After plenty of research, we ate a big breakfast and brought sandwiches and power bars for lunch and snacks so we didn't have to wait in line and pay the crazy vendor prices. People always seem to be complaining, but with a little preparation we were just fine and saved all that time. They did need more tables and chairs around the perimeters though.
7. I have a good sense of smell and I didn't smell nasty BO until the last day with one of the venders. Thanks to all the collectors out there for showering.
8. Absolutely bring good shoes. My hip flexors were really sore after two days of shuffling on the concrete floor and bending over looking at cases.
9. The aisleways did get crowded and I did run in a fellow sumo card collector so I was probably guilty of clogging the aisles. The convention center needs about 15% more space to spread out and give people a bit more room to maneuver in the aisles.
10. People were really polite as well as the dealers. I didn't have one negative interaction!
11. I asked about 6 dealers and they all said they had an amazing show as far as sales. Money was flying around no doubt.
12. The modern-card YouTubers were out and about, but I very rarely saw them...I only saw their videos afterwards.
13. People say there were a bunch of kids there and they definitely were, but this hobby and industry really isn't for them anymore.
14. People carrying lock boxes around with tens of thousands of dollars in slabbed cards is a site to behold. When it is a 10-year old kid it makes me sad though.
15. There is plenty of stuff to do: autographs, memorabilia, box breaking, card shopping, dime boxes, dollar boxes, corporate booth festivities. There is not a shortage of fun.
16. There were good deals abound, but you had to search. I was surprised how much inventory was still sitting around at the end of the show leading me to believe the prices were a bit high for most buyers.
17. Beer at The National. A brilliant idea designed to pry more dollars out of people's hands.
18. NASCAR card collecting is dead at the moment. I saw maybe one or two booths with unopened, but no one was selling any singles. Soccer, Wrestling, MMA, and F1 have all overtaken NASCAR at this point. Again it's pretty sad to see how far NASCAR has fallen.
19. I'm not sure we'd do the VIP Passes again. Unless you are going to be there all 5 days, it really wasn't worth the price for what we did.
20. I bought 5 items there...yes only 5 items:
a) An unopened taba pack of late 1950 sumo bromide cards!
b) A box of 1987 Donruss to rip back at the hotel and relive my youth!
c) A 1990 Donruss Nolan Ryan Learning Series Card
d) A SGC 7.5 2018 Topps Chrome Ohtani - I wanted to own an SGC slab to have in my collection, but didn't want to spend a ton of money so I rescued this one.
e) A full set of 1991 Kicks American Taekwondo Association Cards
Well, there you have it. Would I go to The 2022 National in Atlantic City? You bet!
It's on my bucket list as well...my brother and I had planned to go to the one in Atlantic City last year but of course it didn't happen. Not sure if I will go next year or not yet.
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope you can make next year! We had a really good time.
DeleteGreat review of the show! Sounds like the experience of a lifetime. Glad that you only had to smell BO once. I'm kinda curious as to what kind of cards a kid has in one of those cases. A lot of guys had them at the show I set up at. I actually went down to Harbor Freight, but didn't end up buying one. I'm not really the type of guy who walks around a card show with a fancy case of cards... although I'm not hating on anyone who does. That unopened pack of sumo cards is really cool. Did you pull any gem mint copies of Greg Maddux or Barry Bonds out of your box of 87D?
ReplyDeleteI did snag a good Maddux out of the box. All in all it was a great show.
DeleteI was curious about the potential for rude people. I don't know if it was the lockdown or what, but it seems like a lot of people don't know how to act in public all of sudden. It's good to hear that everything went well for you though. Was there a lot SumoMenkoMan type stuff there, or did just so happen to find the one dealer with Bromide cards? I briefly thought about trying to go next year, as I'd much rather see AC than Chicago, but I think that the drive would kill me!
ReplyDeleteWe had a really positive experience. I bumped into people and people bumped into me and we all said our apologies and moved on. I’m curious how AC is as well and think I could make it happens. There is one dealer there with Japanese baseball whom I have purchased from before so he usually has o e or two sumo items. No other Japanese stuff around except for Ichiro and Ohtani of course. I’m sure you’d enjoy the show!
DeleteGreat summary! Helpful tips, too. I haven't been to a card show of any kind in a couple of decades, not to mention one as big as The National. But those tips apply to any card show.
ReplyDeleteAlso: "Thanks to all the collectors out there for showering." Hah!!
There are a lot of blogger out there offering their tips so a lot of good resources. I probably could have come up with a dozen or two more. I was really waiting for the BO though. Ha, glad it didn’t happen except for that one time!
DeleteI’ve always wanted to go to The National but never made it. I’m hoping that maybe they hit Cleveland or Columbus sometime. Looks like you had a good time though!
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a blast and looking forward to AC next!
DeleteWow, what a great report. I've always wanted to go, and I had a media pass to attend the show in Chicago in 2015, but I had an emergency come up and was unable to attend. Looks like a great show and some really nice cards.
ReplyDeleteThe show was definitely worth it. We had such a good time with so many things to see!
DeleteI have 5 vintage sumo cards that I am trying to find out about. They are about 1 and 3/8 inches wide by about 2 and 9/16 wide. Heavy stock cardboard. In color. Is it possible to send you a picture so you could identify?
ReplyDeleteI think you found me over on the Facebook page correct? Those are some cool menko you have!
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