I took my 12-year-old son with me to the show, which was the first time going for both of us. Overall, we had a good time, but not a great time. I know not everyone will agree with my assessment, but that’s fine. This is just my opinion.
The Good
Parking at the convention: I knew there’d be thousands attending and driving to get to the garage would be hectic but considering the amount of traffic and people walking around I thought getting into the garage was pretty good. It helped having several police on hand to direct traffic and allow pedestrians to cross. The cost to park was a flat fee of $15, which was pretty good considering what I paid to park at Navy Pier.
Dealer/card selection: Was there something for everyone? Most definitely. Of course, if you were targeting very specific, harder-to-find stuff that isn’t always going to generate a ton of interest then you were probably disappointed (like me, to an extent). I couldn’t find any of the cards from the 2011 or 2012 sets I’m trying complete – and not just the cards I need but any cards from the set I was hoping to upgrade. However, I was able to find some beautiful cards I didn’t know existed or that I hadn’t considered before. Some cards look so much better in person. There was so much memorabilia to be seen too. Game used footballs, hockey pucks, catcher masks, old jerseys, chance to purchase for $23 Michael Jordan’s Mercedes from the 90s (with the title that has his signature on it), and plenty of non-sport stuff too. GPK and ET cards from the 80s? Star Wars stuff? Harry Potter and Pokémon? Yup, it's all there.
Promos: Tons of free stuff to find. It’s all relative on if it’s worth anything to you. My kid was happy to get free cinch sacks, squishy balls, and t-shirts, while plenty of other people would just throw their freebies in the trash. Some dealers had tables of free base for the taking. We didn’t get anything super exciting for free, but I did witness a dealer hand a box filled with random loose packs (maybe 12 or so) to a kid. Decent stuff as well. Very cool gesture by the dealer – I made sure to buy a card from him for his generosity. We never stood in line for any of the promo packs/redemption stuff since I wasn’t sure if a purchase had to be made or not. From what I saw many people were genuinely happy with the actual packs, whether they were opening them there, saving them for later, or talking about how much they’re going to sell them for on eBay.
Dealers and most all attendees: Every dealer I spoke to (usually by sticking in their face the piece of paper with the images of cards I’m looking for) was patient and willing to listen/talk. It’s hard work for these dealers to manage their booths with several people gathered all at once. I have an appreciation for the work they put into this. Sure, some dealers were priced a little high, but there’s really nothing wrong with that. These guys know what they must do if they really want/need to move something. I mostly had great encounters with other attendees. If I was in the way of a case someone wanted to look at and vice versa, we simply swapped places with a friendly smile. Yeah, I got bumped countless times, but it’s crowded; I never felt like it was malicious. Except for the teenagers. Everything they do is with evil intent (j/k!). The show is also a terrific place to see old faces or meet new ones. It was great see Mike from Jacksonville Sports Cards again, who I hadn’t seen since I moved to Ohio. It was wonderful meeting John in person (if you’re reading this, sorry we couldn’t meet up after the show on Saturday – I got too chatty and lost track of time – let’s plan to meet again next year). And to all the wonderful people I spoke with, it was great chatting!
Focus on kids: I was very happy to see an emphasis on including kids into the hobby. The kids trading area looks like a hit. Panini did a great job with the Kids Crate. My kid was eyeing one of these the first time we passed the booth so I made sure to swing by just before leaving for the day to grab him one. It's all retail stuff, but for $70 it's a nice treat. Apparently they've been doing this for a few years - excellent concept.
Smells: I read a lot of how stinky it could be at the show in summer and I imagined the worst. However, I think most people were very conscious about their hygiene. I didn’t encounter many offensive smells. Even when I was stuck in some very crowded areas, I didn’t notice too many odors. Maybe the worst smells came from the vintage tables that had trinkets; ya know, when things have that smell of “oldness” to them. Oh yeah, and there was a musty weed smell coming from some folks, especially just outside the convention doors in the drop-off/pick-up area (where the cigarette smoke was bad too). Hmm, maybe the smells were more offensive than I initially remembered.
Chicago: What a fun city! And there’s so much more than just the convention/Rosemont area. Sure, Navy Pier is expensive and touristy, but it is FUN! We had a blast in that fun house/mirror maze in the garage, which took us several times going in circles to figure out. The wheel is expensive but has amazing views. They also had smaller, carnival-type rides there. We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry and had a great time too (which we got in for free, since we have memberships to the Great Lakes Science Center). It's a huge museum with first-class attractions, including an actual WWII U-Boat which can be toured (this thing is HUUUUUGE! Like a football field long!). My son also wanted to check out Chinatown and I’m glad we did – Ken Kee was delicious and another highlight (the Chinatown Parking Lot costs only $2 for 3 hours with a validated ticket!)
The small stuff: Well, this could apply anywhere. Towards the end of the second day, I played an impromptu scavenger hunt game with Nicholas (my son). I could tell he was getting tired and didn’t want to sit on the floor, so I gave him a couple cards to search for (a card with a Blue Jays logo on it, for John; a game used Bobby Mitchell card; etc) He had fun going around to the dealers looking through the cases and asking if they had those cards. I’ll always remember the look of excitement he had when he found one of the cards and came running back to show me. And another instance: To the dealer who let Nicholas sit on your chair when we were all clearly tired – that meant a lot. And to the nice lady with the Tootsie Rolls who gave Nicholas a handful. He was tired of eating my granola bars and mixed nuts. All of these small events and gestures added up and really gave great memories of the show.
The Bad
Driving on Chicago Freeways, especially with heavy traffic: Good gawd, what horror. Anyone who enjoys driving on I55, 90, 290, 294, is a masochist. I don’t think driving laws exist on the freeways – they’re suggestions at best. Not exactly sure what shoulders are used for, but it’s definitely not the place to pull over for a flat tire. TIP: Take public transit or find routes that avoid the freeways; it might take longer but you’ll save years of your life.
Convention Center HVAC: Yeah, it’s been mentioned thousands of times by now, but it needs to be repeated so it gets fixed. Is this an issue for all National shows at this venue? I hope not. It’s a physically exhausting affair so having to deal with the warm air made it even more uncomfortable. We didn’t stand in line for anything really, but for those who did (autograph/redemption/food lines) the warmth in the building probably made waiting in line even more miserable. I'm sorry anyone had to deal with that.
Theft: It happens, and not just to the attendees but to the dealers too. C’mon, don’t steal. Yes, it’s easy to do with all the crowds, but have some integrity. And to the young guy wearing the white t-shirt reading “Dope” on the front I saw you quietly walk off with whatever card you asked to see – I told the dealer and gave him your description. I hope you got caught. For everyone else, please be careful. Especially during trading. I didn’t see anything happen but it’s really chaotic with the amount of people on the floors and everyone with their cards spread out all trying to make trades, which was especially true at the kids trade area. Also, be subtle with your cash. Yeah, I guess some people like to flex cards and cash, so whatever.
Size: Is too much of a good thing possible? In this case for me, yes. I get it, most everyone is going to disagree with me on this one. And yes, it's true, I put "card selection" as a positive for the show but there's a downside to having such a great selection. Even ignoring everything except dealer tables, there were just too many. I was able to only look through a couple value boxes while most of my time was spent focused on the display tables or talking to the dealers. And I still didn’t get to all the tables. Sure, I didn’t spend all five days there, but I don’t think I could have made it 5 days either without falling over. There’s a point when it’s no longer enjoyable since you become just so worn out. You'll feel like you’re missing out on something if you don't keep pushing through and you'll still not see it all. It gnaws at the back of my head what else was there that I didn’t get to see. How big is too big? This must be it.
Media: On two separate days I had encounters with people wearing media badges. First, show some humility, your media badge doesn’t make you a better person than me or my son because we’re wearing GA wrist bands. Accidents happen. Nicholas asked me if there was real money in the cash grab machine so I went to investigate. Sorry for getting in your shot – I didn’t see you were filming 15 feet away from the machine. I realized my mistake after you loudly complained and I apologized, then you, with your recognizable beard (but otherwise will remain nameless), shaking your head in disgust at me and refusing to shake my hand all the while I’m uncomfortably processing why your gaggle of media bros continues to stare at me with looks of contempt. And finally, whoever you were with your condescending “just fkn with you bro” comment to my and my 12-year-old, show some real empathy. I feel like you made that comment because you saw Nicholas was embarrassed and I was humiliated. And how about refraining from dropping the f-bombs in front of my kid. This interaction ruined our first day there, and ultimately made us decide to skip going to the show on Friday and check out Chicago instead. In the end this ordeal did have a silver lining: going to the museum, Navy Pier, and Chinatown was very much a highlight for me and my son. The second media encounter on Saturday wasn’t as intense as the first one, but again involved me accidentally walking into a shot. I do, however, want to clarify my encounters were with media types with their badges and not with any of the live breakers filming (which I also crashed one, not realizing one guy was live, but he didn’t seem bothered by me at all).
The Sad
My ultimate goal for the convention was bonding with Nicholas and hoping he gets a little more interested in collecting. I think collecting has evolved into something different, and it’s less about collecting anymore. Cards feel more like a type of currency without any passion or emotion to the actual chase. They’ve become transactional. For me, I am most certainly a collector at heart, but I seem to be in the minority now. Adding to that a relatively small budget coming into the show, I felt like a fish out of water at times. This part of the review focuses more on Nicholas and how the show impacted him (or how I perceived it) and it's impact on me, as a father.
I could tell Nicholas was watching other fathers dropping several hundred dollars for a single card for their kids (some younger than him). He never said anything, other than “wow, nice card!” and he never asked me for anything more than $20 or so, which still stung since I wanted to get him something more than a kids crate. I’m being very honest about how I feel here – I understand it’s not about what other people are doing nor should I care – but the fact is that it still stung. This is especially true when Nicholas found a reasonably priced Justin Jefferson card he very much liked, which was, unfortunately, well outside our entire budget (he never asked me if we could get it, but I could tell he loved the card and I wished I could have bought it for him). Nicholas never begged or pleaded or acted in any way that a father wouldn’t have been proud of. This part of the show was a painful experience. This isn't about gratitude or being thankful for what you have. This is about me wanting to connect with my kid without feeling like I need to drop thousands to do so and my kid having a genuinely healthy and positive reaction to the overall experience. This was the part of the show I wish I didn't have Nicholas with me; I feel like part of his innocence was lost.
Nicholas doesn’t have a large collection; his highlight card is a Brock Purdy auto from Illusions he pulled from a blaster a few months back. He brought this card to the show in hopes of trading it for something, but there wasn’t much interest. Nicholas can be shy and it was difficult for him to find someone to talk to, especially in the Kids Trading area. All the kids seemed to have their pelican cases filled with high-dollar graded cards. One kid brutally asked, “that’s
all you have?” which seemed to suck any interest Nicholas had of hanging out there.
Nicholas didn’t get chosen for anything, nor did he win anything, nor meet anyone famous – if any of this bothered him, he never let on. Towards the end of the day he was asking when we could leave. His feet were tired and I kept going table to table asking dealers if they saw my two chase cards like a frantic mother looking for her lost toddler. Other than that Nicholas soldiered on and acted as my side kick. The toughest part of the trip was when it was over and I asked him if he enjoyed himself and he responded, “Yeah, it was fun hanging out with you, dad. Can we do another trip together soon?” God, that still chokes me up having to type it. In the end I struggled with managing expectations, especially since Nicholas came with me. While the convention did have many fun parts there was always a ‘dog-eat-dog’-like atmosphere that hung over our heads and trickled all the way down to the kids; being “fair” was not and is not a priority for some. I think the show was great if you have an alpha personality. For those of us a bit more reserved, it’s a bit of a challenge to navigate.
In the end I’m glad I went. Being able to spend time with Nicholas was the best part (he has 3 brothers, so it’s hard for me to spend one-on-one time). I’ll certainly check out next year’s show since I live in the greater Cleveland area. But I’m not yet decided if I’d go to another show out of town. Or at least not until the hobby changes from what it is currently. I’m not sure if Nicholas will want to attend another show again, but we most certainly will be coming back to Chicago.
Here are my National pick-ups:
I don’t do much basketball, but I couldn’t pass up the deal for the Artis Gilmore (I moved away from Jacksonville a couple years ago, but it was about time I picked up this great HOFer who went to JU). I love Kelly Tripucka’s signature and with that 80s grey game-worn jersey, I couldn’t resist.
I think these Immaculate cards look so great. I’ve always been hesitant to buy them because they’re player worn (not game worn) but seeing them in person changed my mind.
I haven’t been able to find a Gene Upshaw laundry tag ever and finding multi-color prime patches of his is almost as difficult. Super happy to have found this card with a great piece of the nameplate as well. I several cool cards of Cris Collinsworth, including another one of these from the Limited Jumbo set, but I couldn’t pass up the chance at getting this great piece of nameplate. Too bad that signature falls off the sticker and too bad it’s a sticker to begin with.
And quite possibly my favorite pickup of the show: A game worn/used piece of Bill Parcell’s sweater from Super Bowl XXI. A rare, low numbered piece (10/10) of the Hall of Fame Giants coach. This wasn’t even on my radar – super happy to have found it!
And finally, a picture of Nicholas at the GPK sticker machine, where we had a few great laughs:
