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July 2024 
Sunday, July 21: At the moment, I'm taking a break from packing. Packing heavy, packing light... As I look at the boxes and boxes starting to fill tubs and tubs...cards, sets, autographs...I keep asking myself, "Am I packing too much?" And then I quickly answer, "You fool! There is no 'too much' at The National!" It's that manner of thinking that has me planning to display (300) graded T206 cards at my booth. (Remember - visit me at #626!) That'll be an eye-catcher, right? Few dealers, if any, will be able to compete with that outlandish spread. And heck, that's something I take pride in! Going through the whole of my inventory and deciding "Should he stay or should he go" has an element of fun to it. I think back to myself as a young collector 35 years ago, or as a fresh-faced dealer 25 years ago, and there's no way I would have ever envisioned having such a cool inventory. No chance. There's no way I would have dreamed of attaining the status and respect I hold in this hobby/business, and that's also something I take pride in. All you readers know how difficult/lucky it was for me to obtain a booth this year, so I'm not taking it for granted. But that's the case with any show I set up at recently. Maybe appreciating life is simply a part of getting older. Hard to say, but my mental state is such at the moment. Continuing with that theme of getting older, the packing is lighter as well... when it comes to calories. This year Kate and I have less pop and more water; fewer chips and more nuts; no Pop Tarts and instead popcorn; less beer and ... haha, I almost fooled you on that one. There will still be plenty of beer! The other swaps are still true though. A week of go-go-go with non-ideal sleeping conditions is tough enough on a body without feeding it a bunch of garbage. We'll do our best to stay in shape and eat semi-decently this week. *whispers* But still stay tuned for donut pics! Day 1 (set-up+): Tuesday, July 23: 
Welcome to Ohio! I don't know why I love that arch so much, but I do. It is welcoming...so, mission accomplished to whoever designed it. Let's talk about last night. Kate and I had some freakin delicious pizza from a place called Pies and Pints (carryout, so we didn't indulge in the pints): 
We stayed in Columbus, which would just leave us two hours of driving to arrive at the I-X Center this morning. The days leading up to The National are usually a frenzy of activity and a big rush, but not so this time. I priced basically all the cards and sets and autographs I wanted to price, and we planned the trip to be as stress-free as possible. I think that's all beneficial to our mental state once we arrive. This morning was a blast. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was on while we stretched, packed, and got ready to leave. What a treat to start your day out like that. Righteous, dude!! So we checked out, swung by Tim Horton's (donuts!), and hit the road around 8AM or a shade before. Upon checking out of the Doubletree, I did mention to the front desk clerk that our smoke detector was covered with a plastic grocery bag by the last travelers, which didn't faze her, because she sighed and responded, "of course they did." 
It was a humid, slightly hazy morning. For the first half of the trip, cops absoluted dotted the journey up Interstate 71. I'm sure we saw at least 20 over that stretch of road, and then sightings tailed off. I guess they all cluster there, because I've traveled I-75 numerous times between Cinci and Dayton, and drivers absolutely fly along that corridor. It's a wonderfully fun and quick drive! Going with the theme here, everything continued to go smoothly with load-in and set-up. We have wonderful neighbors from New York and chatted with them a few times during the day. But after setting up, most of my day consisted of walking around trying to buy. I'm counting on being glued to the booth once the public is let in. I didn't sell anything today, and that was the case with most dealers I talked to (except one). Most were likewise busy setting up their displays and didn't have a chance to walk around. There is another big difference this year: dealer badges were more strictly limited to just dealers. Usually, masses of buyers were allowed to siphon badges from dealers, but management cracked down on that this time around. That means we'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to start our serious selling. As far as my buying was concerned, I didn't spend too much. Maybe I need to raise my prices...haha. No, my prices are basically market prices, save for some items I feel are undervalued. I still feel most dealers are priced way way too high, a trend that shows no signs of stopping. Can't say I understand it, but I'm just here to report the facts. Tomorrow we'll be at the show from 8am-8pm, so it's not as likely that I'll be posting an update. Thanks for reading along! Day 3: Thursday, July 25: Sooooo... Where have the last two days gone? I'll try to piece together Wednesday from the notes I have in my phone. Let's start with the "Tuesday night tacos" note. Kate and I found a nearby Mexican restaurant for some much-needed margaritas. The food was above average and the margaritas... well, Kate liked them better than I did. She had a pomegranate that I thought tasted like an odd, fake grape flavor, and I had a watermelon that tasted like lime + umm, mystery flavor. My next note reads "quickest 8-8 ever." As I referenced above, dealers could arrive at 8am (which we did), the show opened to VIPs at 3:30, and then closed at 8pm. While busy, sales were mediocre. I moved some big cards (T200s, a pre-arranged E253 Grover C Alexander sale). Other than that, the crowd was a little hit and miss. It still seemed like the big players were absent. A lot of the crowd feedback/vibe was "I'm getting the lay of the land today before I decide what to buy." Customer feedback was wild. I heard about everything from car accidents on the roads around the I-X Center to plane delays to people waiting two hours in the lobby to get into the show. It sounded like a nightmare. I was thankful for how easy our load-in went. But to pile on, I will say that leaving the convention center Wednesday and entering on Thursday involved waiting in massive car lines. I think there's more traffic than that building can handle. Stay tuned for more on that topic! Before the show opened to the public, I did make a very few pickups, the highlight being a '69 Mantle PSA 8 (Yellow Letter). I nearly sold it today...came close. Skip forward to today. I told myself if I woke up around 5, I'd have time to get in a quick jog (on the hotel treadmill). Our alarms weren't set to go off until 6, so I was strictly relying on the universe to decide for me. Sure enough, one of the many times I woke up during the night (damn hotel room A/C unit!!), I opened my eyes and found it to be 5:08. I'm not one to break a promise to myself, so I suited up, stretched, and knocked out a 5K worth of 'treadmiles.' Pardon the conversion. I'm still trying to figure out if that was a wise idea, because by early afternoon I was frazzled and tired. Potentially hangry as well. There was a lot going on, internally and externally. I'll have to explain, because the glass was decidedly more than half-full today. I think a combo of hunger and my introverted nature nearly took me down. First of all, the booth was busy as F*** all day long. That's awesome. And I should cut to the chase by saying it was a massive sales day. Maybe all the people really were surveying the room yesterday so they could make their purchases today. I sold a handful of T206s, including a Cobb and Mathewson, along with a baker's dozen PSA 6s. A Turkey Red PSA 5 said bye-bye. And a youngster (13ish?), who eyed a few of my Mantle autographs pulled the trigger on an oversized Sports Impressions in a Beckett slab. After getting me to knock a final $25 off the price, he said, "That's how you do it" to himself in a very congratulatory manner. Gotta love that moxie. Sometime around 12:30-1pm is when I started failing. I'll attribute at least 25% of my frustration and mood to the internet also failing. When neither I nor customers can look up "comps," that slows business almost to a halt. And it almost nearly killed two sales. My phone and credit card terminal wouldn't communicate, so I had to muddle through a transaction and eventually take a check. And then the customer who bought my Matty and T3 couldn't connect to Venmo or PayPal. It took literally over an hour of him leaving the table, walking to various parts of the convention center, coming back, trying again, walking around some more... until it finally worked. By that time, it was likely only successful because some people were leaving. Crazy! But the sheer quantity of people at the booth was overwhelming. Dealers and customers and friends were hanging out behind the table, which is awesome. Multiple customers were asking questions and wanting to see cards, which is also awesome. But I couldn't give anyone my full attention. That part sucked. It's like your wedding reception, how everyone wants to talk to you and everything goes by in a blur, but x2...because you're also watching out to make sure no one steals from you. Kate knew I needed to eat when she relayed that a customer was asking if I had any Stan Coveleski cards. My mind flashed to his name being misspelled, but I couldn't remember if it was a Caramel card (and I don't have more than a couple Caramels right now) or a T206, so I sputtered, "I..I...I...Idontknow!" So when I considered this a glass half-full vs half-empty day, I was weighing the following: My feet are in great shape, but my head was pounding to where no food or alcohol could clear it up. And believe me, I hit both. I also had amazing sales today. Killer sales. But on my mind is the buy I passed on in the afternoon. A gentleman walked up with a great-looking Green T206 Cobb at a nice price, and I let it go for some reason. Now I'm kicking myself. It would have stood out as the most expensive card in my inventory, the upward trajectory that I want Monster Cards take. And I just wasn't thinking clearly enough to lay out the substantial amount of cash for it. That's currently haunting me. Live and learn. Next time I'll slow down won't pressure myself to make such a quick decision. For a little bit of an insider's look, tonight after the show was a meeting with the dealers and the National's Board of Directors. There was a vote for four of the twelve board members (all four incumbents won). Also, ownership talked about the challenges this year ("logistics" was uttered about 15 times more than you'd expect from a bunch of card dealers) while integrating problem solving to next year's National in Chicago. Thanks again for reading along. I've had no time to snap any decent pics; not sure that'll change with the frenzied pace of the show. I also didn't take any time to proofread. Lastly, for all you donut fans out there, a hospitality room was promised for tomorrow morning! Stay tuned! Day 4: Friday, July 26: With (very minor) apologies to the kids out there, today was another fu**ing wild day of sales. I didn't think yesterday's sales total was attainable, buuuut lo and behold, it was matched! I'd say today was way better for the simple fact that I wasn't frazzled and didn't have a headache (after 9 or so). Yesterday, I was ready to leave at 6; today I wanted to keep the party going. And today didn't even start very well. I woke up with a headache and was kinda dragging. Then, when we got to the show, I wound my way through the catacombs of the building to find the so-called Hospitality Room, only to find it total devoid of donuts!! Arg! 
Hot water and fruit...thaaaaaanks! After the "nonuts" disappointment, the day was filled with banger moment after moment. I bought a Jordan rookie PSA 7, and then sold it just a couple hours later. I took a flyer and bought a 1971 Zelmo Beaty PSA 9 and then sold it a couple hours later. Sold a super-rare Lincoln Publishing Chief Bender, sold my Babe Ruth signed ball, sold a pair of T206 EPDG backs, sold a 33 Goudey Ruth and Gehrig... The hits kept on coming. Oh, and the wifi seemed to be fixed too, at least for my phone. Maybe all the good luck was due to the shirts! 
And then toward the end of the day, I met more friends from Instagram, and a variety of folks hung out behind the table when we actually had a chance to chat a bit. It was a great time. Can't believe there are still two days left! Tomorrow I'm eligible to select my booth space for Chicago's 2025 National. I feel likely to be waitlisted again, but I'll keep the faith. Day 5: Saturday, July 27: This scenic trip we have between the show and hotel is growing on me, especially in the morning. In the evening, I kinda just wanna quickly throw down some food so I can start in on bookwork and writing. But anyway, I've been admiring this one particular view of from a tiny aluminum-looking bridge over the West Branch of the Rocky River. One direction is just your normal tree-lined riverline, but the other has a crazy beautiful carved out rock formation. Looks like we're halfway down the freakin Grand Canyon! (Side note: I've never been to the Grand Canyon, so half is probably a terrible estimate. lol) 
Thanks to Kate for snapping this pic for me (and you). We arrived at the I-X Center a little early today because it was "Booth Selection" day for me. That means I was going to potentially pick my booth's location for the 2025 National in Chicago. I'm way down on the totem pole of selectees, which I won't go into here. But if you're a new reader, here is my National Diary from last year that has some of that saga at the end. Anyway, good fortune smiled on me, and I was able to select a booth! That's a big deal. I'm working my way into consistently setting up and not having to wonder about it, annoy National employees, etc. It won't do any good to disclose my booth location, because I'm currently in one of the few 10x10' booths at the very, very back of the room. Like, where the teacher sends you when you've disrupted class several times that week. I'll almost certainly be able to upgrade to a 10x15' space as soon as another booth-holder dies or drops out or whathaveyou. Although that process was slow and tied me up until about 10am, sales did not skip a beat today. In fact, totals today blew Thurs and Fri out of the water! It's hard to explain how great of a show every dealer is having. My goal was to sell a bunch and buying be darned, and that's exactly what's happening. A gentleman, his son, and a friend who were working on a T206 set unexpectedly pulled the trigger on the Demmitt St Louis variation (SGC 2) that I had...(8) more T206 PSA 6s sold... and then I got tired and slightly frazzled again. A little bit of 'request overload' happened with the volume of customers and questions. However, I pulled through. On the tail of that feeling was another hard-to-explain thought/feeling that usually accompanies some exhaustion. The best description I can give is having a voice in my head repeat "I've sold enough." It takes a second to realize that's happening, and then I can fight it. The key is to stay crisp and engaging with customers...continually getting to know people and their collecting goals. No breaks. Eye of the tiger. And what happened after that? Well, I'm glad you asked. Only me selling out my $3 cards and all of my commons to a guy who works for Greg Morris Cards. I'll credit this to my attitude, of course, and also to something I did before the show: creating a sign encouraging people to buy out entire sections of my inventory. I had categories for graded T206s, signed Mantles (hey, I have over a dozen of them), ungraded stars, graded stars, and of course, my common inventory. A great bit of preparation on my part. You have to let other dealers and buyers know you're willing to make something happen. So, overall a great day on a couple levels, cementing this as a show of a lifetime, which I suspect it is for many dealers in the room. To cap everything off, Kate and I stopped at Mission BBQ and had a tasty dinner. 
Hard to believe we pack up and swing back home tomorrow! Who knows what will transpire at the show before we hit the road... Day 6 + Aftermath: Wednesday, July 31: So it's been a few days since we returned home, and there's only one place to begin. On Tuesday, I tested positive for Covid. I saw a couple Instagram posts of others who were positive too. Ugh, I'm sure between the show and trade night there were nearly 100,000 people attending again like in Chicago in '23. Super-spreader event! As I've likely written in every other National recap, I always say, "If you don't come home sick from a National, you didn't do it right" because of the long hours and lack of sleep. But this is extreme. I am feeling a little better today than yesterday though, so let's hope that trend continues. Because heck, I have a lot of buys to price, e-mails to catch up on, and National recaps to write! While I'm suffering from what feels like a kangaroo kicking my forehead from the inside every time I cough, you'll have to deal with a lack of chronology from this wrap-up post. I had a lot of hope for the crowd and sales on Sunday because the final day of the previous National was fairly bangin and not a ghost town. What happened was a crowd that was at about half-strength. Kinda like Normandy on June 8th.... "You wouldn't have believed what this place was like a couple days ago." Bathrooms didn't have long lines and the energy was mostly gone from the room. Still, I had a nice sale as a gentleman squared up with me from the day before on an autographed '66 Topps Mantle. I later saw he posted it on Instagram, which is always a thrill. Other than that, with extra space now that my $3 cards and commons were gone, I featured a pyramid of 1989 Topps Traded (baseball) sets that were sealed by Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE) as "From a Sealed Case" (FASC). Zero had sold Tues-Sat, but now that they were better in front of people's eyes, a handful of them sold. Speaking of, I'm going to show you the quantity deal signs I mentioned above, which were on display at the table: 
You can also see how they evolved during the show as I sold some items... They helped move my commons, and also nearly sold all of my Mantle autographs. I've lamented over the past few years about one of the ways the industry has changed: fewer bulk deals flying around. The landscape now is filled with people selling graded cards one at a time, or maybe a small stack. Add that to the fact that it's a seller's market with people (on both sides of the table!) very proud of their cards and looking for top dollar. I walked pretty much the entire show floor and didn't find anyone else offering up the opportunity to "buy it all." But like Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) said in Caddyshack..."They're all selling, then BUY BUY! They're all buying, then SELL SELL!" I had enough free time on Sunday to walk around the room for the first time since Wednesday. I bought a little bit and chatted with dealers. I'm personally collecting the 1934 Chicle Sky Birds set in yet undetermined condition. I just love the artwork and stories on the back. I did find one dealer with a handful in his case. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go through the "hundred more" he had behind the table. With my ears now trained, around 1PM or so, I finally heard it... the sound of packing tape. Dealers were starting to ready their wares for the trip home. I told Kate, "I've heard packing tape; the show is over." lol Knowing it would be a quick and simple move-out, I wasn't stressing our load-out in the least. Dealers can park fairly close to the show floor and I estimated (correctly) that it would only take three trips to get everything loaded into the van. At 4PM (actual closing time), we started packing the cards and cases. By now, I don't recall what time we actually got onto the road (had to be slightly past 5PM Eastern), but we were back home by 10:30 Central. A couple stops, some gas station cappuccino, and a good selection of music fueled our smooth trip home. A quick rain shower in the heart of Indianapolis was the only downside as we marveled at the sales totals from the show. -- Kate was energetic and super-helpful again this year. Everyone who meets her, loves her. Duh! :) And again after the show, I asked for her thoughts: *I was amazed by the volume of people, and I loved the energy! We were so busy all the time, and the customers' passion for the hobby showed through in how happy they were to be here. *My shirts were well-received! *I liked that I had multiple people tell me that Tony's prices were fair. (Editor's note: How am I not going to include that?!?) *I keep learning about sets: Goudeys and Topps. *I was more comfortable helping customers this year. I could usually find what they were asking for, even though it took me some time. That was nice! *Loved how Tony was able to anticipate what so many people wanted! *The T206s were on fire! And the Mantle sigs were so pretty! *Toward the end of the show, I was able to identify the people who looked at the inventory just to admire it *When I did have a chance to walk around, it was really tough for me to tell what booth I was at. *So many dealers didn't have their cards marked, or the prices were on the back, so you had to ask to get it out of the case to see the price. Boo. *Just like last year, I'm excited for next year! I'm also excited to be at Rosemont because I can get a good breakfast (Editor's note: Sorry, Hampton Inn). -- I also asked Kate on Sunday, "Which goes by quicker: The National or one of our vacations?" lol Her silence spoke volumes. It was a great week, but cards is no Cancun. I don't know that I have much more for thoughts. Lately, more people are asking about the origin of my business name, so this year I brought pics of the original Monster, my cat from years and years ago, and put them on my sign. He must have been a good luck charm! 
Have fun! -T |
Inside My Brain