Quick National Recap

fenwaykid · 07-28-2024, 03:07 PM

Flew in Friday night and spent Saturday and Sunday at the show. Here’s my quick recap!

IX Center Facility: 3/10

Building is awful, space was tight and I felt there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to where everyone was set up. In prior years the “corp” booths were all together, this year they were spread all over the place. The breakers section felt like a walk down shakedown street, trash everywhere, tight lanes, people yelllng, BO. Really felt like this was the worst national I’ve been too in the last 10 years - space and layout wise.

Food Options: 4/10

Minimal food, long lines. I was starving today at lunch and ate a bratwurst for $10. As I was eating it I gave myself a 50/50 chance of getting food poisoning. Still doing ok so thats good. The pizza was flop city, Portnoy would not approve. All that said, if it wasn’t for the $8 lemonade with $4 refills this would have been a 1/10 rating - loved that lemonade!

Dealers/Inventory: 2/10

This was the year that the national cut back / kicked out booth renters. Many long time dealers were cut out this year as booth owners weren’t allowing sublets for fear of losing their table in the future. Boy, did it really hurt. Inventory this year seemed awful - mostly impacting modern error cards. All the long time dealers just bring vintage and ridiculous stuff that nobody wants. I’m talking used baseball gloves, $2 signed baseballs of nobody’s, insurance companies, used trophies, and just utter garbage from the early 90’s, 5-row shoeboxes filled with $1 packs (1991 leaf, etc). Turd Durso, JBJ whomever needs to get a grip on this as I feel the quality and content of the long time dealers is moving in the wrong direction. With Fanatics Fest around the corner, I would be concerned how this impacts the future of the National. I did find that dealers were very willing to haggle - which was nice. One dealer even had a QR code scan at his table which brought up an excel file prices for all his cards. Really liked this, avoid the annoying back and forth with grumpy ass dealers! Both days I was there in the food court area people were set up with signs that read “buying” or spread out their own cards on the tables and held their own mini-card shows. It was a lot of fun and honestly saw better stuff there than with many of the dealers.

Cleveland: 1/10

This is just not an ideal location for a National. Chicago is 100x better. Just the proximity of the hotels to the show, restaurants across the street, casino down the road - it just makes it so much more enjoyable to attend in Chicago. Everybody was staying all over the place, Ubers were expensive and very slow which made getting around a bit of a pain.

Corporate: 6/10

Topps/Fanatics were set up and did a nice job keeping the excitement and buzz going. I was excited about the wrapper redemptions as the last few years these have been amazing, but a combination of high prices and limited products that are eligible for packs ruined it this year. I bought a couple boxes of Bowman U ‘22 for $175 each (meanwhile $124.99 on fanatics.com) to get a few silver packs - didn’t hit anything and it left a bad taste in my mouth - really overpaying just to get silver packs from topps. Heritage has a great set up with tons of eye candy including the Babe Ruth jersey that he called his shot with, pretty awesome to see. eBay was a bit boring this year, they didn’t give out cards like in prior years, just mag holders and a magnifying glass. Alt was pretty cool, nice set up and had a bank like set up where you could get money upfront for stuff that you consigned. Used them for the first time and was pleased with the experience. Panini delivered again, I had an appointment for redemption replacements and they hit it out of the park there. This has been a highlight for me the last few years.

Overall: 3.2/10

Looking forward to next year!

07-28-2024, 03:07 PM	#1
fenwaykid Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: NJ Posts: 5,319 fenwaykid	Quick National Recap Flew in Friday night and spent Saturday and Sunday at the show. Here’s my quick recap! IX Center Facility: 3/10 Building is awful, space was tight and I felt there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to where everyone was set up. In prior years the “corp” booths were all together, this year they were spread all over the place. The breakers section felt like a walk down shakedown street, trash everywhere, tight lanes, people yelllng, BO. Really felt like this was the worst national I’ve been too in the last 10 years - space and layout wise. Food Options: 4/10 Minimal food, long lines. I was starving today at lunch and ate a bratwurst for $10. As I was eating it I gave myself a 50/50 chance of getting food poisoning. Still doing ok so thats good. The pizza was flop city, Portnoy would not approve. All that said, if it wasn’t for the $8 lemonade with $4 refills this would have been a 1/10 rating - loved that lemonade! Dealers/Inventory: 2/10 This was the year that the national cut back / kicked out booth renters. Many long time dealers were cut out this year as booth owners weren’t allowing sublets for fear of losing their table in the future. Boy, did it really hurt. Inventory this year seemed awful - mostly impacting modern error cards. All the long time dealers just bring vintage and ridiculous stuff that nobody wants. I’m talking used baseball gloves, $2 signed baseballs of nobody’s, insurance companies, used trophies, and just utter garbage from the early 90’s, 5-row shoeboxes filled with $1 packs (1991 leaf, etc). Turd Durso, JBJ whomever needs to get a grip on this as I feel the quality and content of the long time dealers is moving in the wrong direction. With Fanatics Fest around the corner, I would be concerned how this impacts the future of the National. I did find that dealers were very willing to haggle - which was nice. One dealer even had a QR code scan at his table which brought up an excel file prices for all his cards. Really liked this, avoid the annoying back and forth with grumpy ass dealers! Both days I was there in the food court area people were set up with signs that read “buying” or spread out their own cards on the tables and held their own mini-card shows. It was a lot of fun and honestly saw better stuff there than with many of the dealers. Cleveland: 1/10 This is just not an ideal location for a National. Chicago is 100x better. Just the proximity of the hotels to the show, restaurants across the street, casino down the road - it just makes it so much more enjoyable to attend in Chicago. Everybody was staying all over the place, Ubers were expensive and very slow which made getting around a bit of a pain. Corporate: 6/10 Topps/Fanatics were set up and did a nice job keeping the excitement and buzz going. I was excited about the wrapper redemptions as the last few years these have been amazing, but a combination of high prices and limited products that are eligible for packs ruined it this year. I bought a couple boxes of Bowman U ‘22 for $175 each (meanwhile $124.99 on fanatics.com) to get a few silver packs - didn’t hit anything and it left a bad taste in my mouth - really overpaying just to get silver packs from topps. Heritage has a great set up with tons of eye candy including the Babe Ruth jersey that he called his shot with, pretty awesome to see. eBay was a bit boring this year, they didn’t give out cards like in prior years, just mag holders and a magnifying glass. Alt was pretty cool, nice set up and had a bank like set up where you could get money upfront for stuff that you consigned. Used them for the first time and was pleased with the experience. Panini delivered again, I had an appointment for redemption replacements and they hit it out of the park there. This has been a highlight for me the last few years. Overall: 3.2/10 Looking forward to next year!