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08-08-2017 
(Image courtesy of The National Facebook page) Ahhh The National. It's like being warmly embraced in a fluffy cloud of sportscards for five days, except for the concrete floors. After my recent string of posts, I would classify my expectations for this show as pretty low. My goals were to move out inventory that was neither selling on eBay nor at shows, and also to chat up dealers I know from around the country to see how sales were for them on eBay and in their local markets. Setting goals is important for shows. I know it sounded odd to me at first. I figured "I can't make anyone do anything," but the truth is that you can tune in to certain language people use to sense if they're looking to buy or sell, and you can gear yourself to do the same. For me, it was as easy as making two signs for two groups of cards saying that I would take $1500 for one entire showcase, and $5000 for another group displayed in two showcases. Boom! I had a taker on the first day (Wednesday...we missed Tuesday's action) and the first group sold for $1300, which ended up being around 7-8% of book. Granted, these were my bargain beater vintage stars, but they were picked through and weren't moving on eBay or shows. In that regard, it was a good deal. Note: The $5000 lot didn't move. I was offered $3200, but that didn't entice me. These are Ex/Ex+ stars, which I still think are currently overlooked. For a quick tangent, I believe this is because so many eBay sellers over-grade their cards. Vg and lower cards are easy to calculate; they're worth roughly 10% of book. Anything that is a nice VgEx to ExMt seems to be getting beat down in price, when in reality, there aren't a ton of vintage cards that have survived in that condition. Anyway, Wednesday was the longest day of the marathon. After a quick in-room oatmeal (hotel hack: hot water from the in-room coffee maker can be used to make instant oatmeal packets, which I did every day), I headed over to the show at 8AM. We loaded in and got everythig set up pretty quickly, and then it was time to scout the enormous room. At least this National, I feel like I saw pretty much everything. I, along with others I talked to, tried to knock out the room in a methodical row-by-row fashion, but it's nearly impossible. One thing I appreciated this year was not getting called back to the table very often. In years past, I would be knee-deep in a deal and a tablemate would call saying, "This guy wants to know your best price on this card. Can you help him?" Not this year. I told my bros that I didn't care about selling anything (hyperbole, but that was my actual quote), so they let me roam and also let some customers stew because I was away so long. Sorry. Priorities. If I could be two places at once.... well, then both of me would be scouring the room for deals to buy. As I mentioned in my newsletter, Wednesday and Thursday were the big selling days for me. That is to be expected. Dealers are out roaming, and they're full of energy. As happened to me, it doesn't take many days of walking on concrete and many nights out until you're exhausted. And I was even prepared for this. My tablemates - Joe's Vintage Sportscards and BCD Sportscards/Auctions - featured one National veteran team and one team of newbies, respectively. I warned James/Jason to expect a marathon, rest, hydrate, and sleep. However, despite comfy shoes, my dogs were barking on Thursday after a 12-hour workday Wednesday. Thursday was a "normal" day: 8:30-6. The hours would remain the same for the rest of the weekend, except for Sunday, when the show ended at 5. Thursday I happened to remember that there were rooms in the convention center with coffee and donuts every morning - one for dealers and one for VIPs. I'm not sure how early one must arrive to being the throngs to the free food/drink, but every day the pickings were progressively worse. Thursday saw me score the exact donuts everyone at my table wanted. Friday, all that were left were three jelly donuts. Saturday/Sunday, the coffee and everything had been raided by the time I arrive. Yikes! Thursday night involved a quick trip out for dinner at a local pub (walking distance) called Five Roses. I met a cool BCD customer and had a good time. I was already starting to tucker out though, as evidenced by my first drink order being a throwback: Red Bull and vodka. If you're dragging, as I often am, but have a whole night of partying to endure, start with one of these live wires and then progress with your normal drinking schedule; promise it'll help you out. Friday, the slow part of the show started. And by this time, amazingly, I had had no Chicago pizza yet. I mean, you could have won tons of money from Vegas making that bet. By the time the weekend was over, I had only consumed two pieces of pizza, both from the concession stand at the show. Horrible showing by me, and I promise I'll do better next time. That night was the unofficial BCD party, where I put faces to names of about 8 dudes in various stages of sobriety (in the adjacent hotel bar...again, just walking, not driving). Friday was a double feature. Also happening was the Net54 Message Board dinner/symposium. This was in the same hotel, but I only caught the tail end of the final speaker, an FBI agent who mostly discussed the Mastro case. If you aren't familiar with the Net54 boards, do yourself a favor and sign up. This is a great utility for all sorts of card questions, whether the sets are mainstream or obscure. I hit a wall on Saturday. And trust me, it was from the lack of sleep. I was a good boy on the drinks. In my nearly 20 years of doing shows, there have only been a couple memorable hangovers. As a rule, shows are limited-time opportunities for buying/selling, and I push myself to make the most of them. But after another slow day at the show, which didn't help, I had dinner with a good friend and customer of mine, along with his wife. I had to stay awake, and just barely accomplished that. After a quick wardrobe change, we lit out on the Blue Line to downtown Chicago to a very nice place called Catch 35. Too nice for me, for sure! But I enjoyed it. Another 30-40 minute Blue Line trip got me back to the hotel around 10:30-11, and I was ready to crash. Luckily, Sunday carried low expectations. I roamed around the room again, hoping against hope that I could scare up some last-minute deals, but that rarely happens. Most of these dealers have more shows coming up again in the very near future; they don't need to blow anything out. Overall, mission accomplished. I moved out at least part of the inventory I wanted to. I also continued on my trend of only buying cards that are in-demand (ie. Mantle, Hi# commons, HOF rookies, vintage basketball). Click to see a few pics. It only took me a week+ to finally price everything. And obviously, that same amount of time to finally put together this little recap. What can I say? Life has been busy lately, but it's starting to allow some time to actually work on cards again. Other quick notes: JLo was at the show on Saturday because A-Rod was signing autographs. Thought that might be of interest to a few people. National schedule for the next few years: 2018 - Cleveland 2019 - Chicago 2020 - Atlantic City AC was decided upon at this National, and no one is happy about it. Have fun! -T |
Inside My Brain