Friday, August 1, 2025, National Sports Collectors Convention, Rosemont, IL
I have been incredibly busy since the National ended and have just not had the time to blog. One day I'll catch up....
So, Friday was the third day of the National but actually my fourth day, since I was there much of the day Tuesday setting up.
The smartest thing I did this year was to find people to help me at my booth each day because I was much busier than usual. On Wednesday I had Al help out. Thursday was Bronko. For Friday, I convinced my daughter Tabitha to help.
Tabitha, like her dad, is not an early riser. We were both tired Friday morning. Tabitha went to find us some caffein while I filled the holes in my display cases.
Tabitha has never helped me at a card show before so I was not sure how she would do -- she was great. Thankfully, she has a lot of retail experience and took to it immediately. The thing I liked most was that she really kept her eye out for thieves -- unfortunately, the National, like most card shows is filled with thieves. You really have to be on your toes.
Turned out that Friday was my busiest day of the show. We were mobbed. I couldn't really check up on Tabitha, we just had our heads down and were selling, selling, selling! Tabitha would check with me when guys wanted discounts.
At one point, she came to get me because she did not want to deal with some customers who were very aggressive and pushy, so we traded customers. I took over and did not mind these customers who were stereotypical New Yorkers. They were a middle-aged couple. The guy told me he runs some kind of auctions and needs inventory. They both went through my display cases with a vacuum. I pulled tons of cards for them including just about all of my pre-War. This turned out to be my largest sale ever, making this my best one day at the National, and making this my best National ever, and it was only Friday! I was ready to pack up and go home at this point but had two more days to go. Oh my!
On the buying front, one of the nearby dealers came by with a box of commons from the 1960's and sold them to me for a song. Woot!
While selling and buying has been great, there was one on-going problem at the show, which was especially bad on Friday, and it was people standing around blocking my booth. They all seemed to come from the Texas guys next door. They would start there and float into my booth, blocking my display cases and blocking entry into my "U" section. I had to repeatedly ask them to move.
Anyway, my display cases were super empty after Friday. I was going to have a tough time refilling them on Saturday.
I have been incredibly busy since the National ended and have just not had the time to blog. One day I'll catch up....
So, Friday was the third day of the National but actually my fourth day, since I was there much of the day Tuesday setting up.
The smartest thing I did this year was to find people to help me at my booth each day because I was much busier than usual. On Wednesday I had Al help out. Thursday was Bronko. For Friday, I convinced my daughter Tabitha to help.
Tabitha, like her dad, is not an early riser. We were both tired Friday morning. Tabitha went to find us some caffein while I filled the holes in my display cases.
Tabitha has never helped me at a card show before so I was not sure how she would do -- she was great. Thankfully, she has a lot of retail experience and took to it immediately. The thing I liked most was that she really kept her eye out for thieves -- unfortunately, the National, like most card shows is filled with thieves. You really have to be on your toes.
Turned out that Friday was my busiest day of the show. We were mobbed. I couldn't really check up on Tabitha, we just had our heads down and were selling, selling, selling! Tabitha would check with me when guys wanted discounts.
At one point, she came to get me because she did not want to deal with some customers who were very aggressive and pushy, so we traded customers. I took over and did not mind these customers who were stereotypical New Yorkers. They were a middle-aged couple. The guy told me he runs some kind of auctions and needs inventory. They both went through my display cases with a vacuum. I pulled tons of cards for them including just about all of my pre-War. This turned out to be my largest sale ever, making this my best one day at the National, and making this my best National ever, and it was only Friday! I was ready to pack up and go home at this point but had two more days to go. Oh my!
On the buying front, one of the nearby dealers came by with a box of commons from the 1960's and sold them to me for a song. Woot!
While selling and buying has been great, there was one on-going problem at the show, which was especially bad on Friday, and it was people standing around blocking my booth. They all seemed to come from the Texas guys next door. They would start there and float into my booth, blocking my display cases and blocking entry into my "U" section. I had to repeatedly ask them to move.
Anyway, my display cases were super empty after Friday. I was going to have a tough time refilling them on Saturday.
Tabitha must have snuck and grabbed my phone for this photo. Looks like Scott and I are having an intense discussion on how to solve the world's problems... one sports card at a time.
I think Mike S. purchased this Mantle at the show and was sharing it with me on Friday. Mike, this is yours, right? Anyway, it is always awesome to see a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle, the true Mantle rookie.
Of course, I can't remember who showed me this 1958 World Series complete ticket that they purchased at the show on Friday. Very cool, though.
RSS Feed