My first NSCC experience

bravesfan#1 · 08-07-2018, 11:15 AM

This was my 1st ever NSCC in about 20 years of collecting and I was luckily able to experience it with my dad. He has collected/bought/sold cards since the early 90’s and this has always been on our bucket list. Just wanted to share our experience below, as well as some of my observations at the show.

On the way up on Tuesday, we stopped at the NFL Hall of Fame. This was just the right size to be able to see everything in about 3 hours. Loved the exhibits and the small films that were shown there. My dad shared some stories on the guys that played in the 70’s and 80’s before I was born. Cool to see all the work it takes to setup for the HOF Game and the induction ceremony. My only complaint here would be the massive amounts of construction going on. Looked like they were building a hotel, restaurants, and other buildings. The end product of all this construction looked awesome though in the designs I saw. I would recommend all NFL fans check out the HOF once all new facilities are completed.

Day 1 (Wednesday):
After the HOF, we drove on to Cleveland for the show the next day. I was able to secure some dealer badges from one of my friends which I will definitely do again. This got us in at 8am on Wednesday and 8:30am the remainder of the days. Walking in and I was blown away. I had never seen so many tables of sports cards and memorabilia in my life (the largest show I had ever been to previously was the one in Chantilly). I literally had no clue where to start and aimlessly wandered around for about 1 hour. We quickly realized we needed a plan and decided to start with the BGS/PSA lines first before the general public and VIP’s starting showing up.

BGS line was not too bad on Wednesday. Got my Mike Trout and Bryce Harper rookie chrome autos graded and back in my hand within 24 hours (awesome!). Both graded a 9.5/10 which made my trip. Next line was PSA which did not go as smoothly. Waited about 2 hours in the Express line for a crossover attempt and encapsulation on some IP autos I had. PSA had these back in my hands within 24 hours though and I was happy with the results. My Aaron Rodgers Topps Chrome BGS 9.5 rookie crossed over to a PSA 10 and 19/22 of my IP autos were slabbed. My one gripe with PSA would be that I dropped off (4) 2013 Bowman Draft Aaron Judge IP autos. They slabbed 3 and gave me back another unslabbed even though they were all clearly signed with the same marker and were almost all identical. Not sure what drew the red flag but the guy I bought it from already gave me my money back and he was going to try it with JSA.

We were done with the PSA and JSA lines around lunch time. While I waited at PSA, my dad hit up the singlesclub table along with over a dozen other people. He grabbed over 200 cards for his PC which he was happy with. We then started on the first row of the floor next to the Tristar autograph area to look at every table. By 8pm, we had made it to about row 1700, which did not seem like a ton of progress to us. My favorite dealer on Day 1 was the guy with a couple boxes of Tom Brady base/inserts and some other pieces. Cannot remember his name but he gave out some nice deals and was pleasant to talk to. Ended up selling him a Brady Exquisite patch later on in the week.

Left the show on Day 1 around 8pm. We stayed in the Westlake area which was roughly 15-20 minutes away. If you have not stayed here, I would highly recommend it. Pretty safe area from what I could tell and tons of food options for us. Hit the bed super tired but ready for the next day.

Day 2 (Thursday):
Was there bright and early at 8:30am and picked right back up at row 1700. Picked up A TON of stuff on Thursday. Grabbed some Chipper Jones autos for the PC and found my favorite dealer of the show on this day. If you did not have the chance to stop and chat with Eric of Hit And Run Sports, then you missed out. I almost filled up an entire box of stuff from him and the deals were great. Finished up the day by submitting my Ozzie Albies signed ticket to SGC for encapsulation. This started my worst experience of the NSCC. More details on my Day 3 write up below. Left the show around 6pm on Thursday to grab some much needed grub and sleep.

Day 3 (Friday):
We started the day right at the Ferris Wheel which is about the mid-point of the show floor. Grabbed a few more things from Eric and went to get my Blowout Mega Mix boxes. I knew the gamble going in but was disappointed with what I received. My two tickets yielded (3) Prizm basketball blasters and (3) hobby boxes of a 2013 football product. Busted all and luckily hit a Leveon Bell rookie auto in the football boxes. Almost everything else got tossed.

Around 12pm I went back to SGC to pick up my Albies ticket (they said come back around lunch and it should be done). The CS guy I started talking to immediately told me they would not be encapsulating my ticket at this show and they would mail it back in a few weeks after the show. I paid $25 for on-site encapsulation and he at first did not offer any kind of credit for me. I grabbed the guy that helped me the previous afternoon and he explained the situation a little better. They evidently started taking oddball orders for encapsulation (tickets, letters, etc.) but forgot to bring the supplies and machine that would do this encapsulation. They did not catch this until about 10am on Friday!!!! He then offered a credit to me and free return shipping in a few weeks. I agreed and then asked them to confirm my return shipping address. The return address on the documentation they had for my order was the address of the person that submitted an order before me. I have no idea how this happened as I entered my address on their online submission form on their computer, not only on the submission form but also on the credit card online form. I will consider myself lucky if I ever get this back. All of the CS guys had no clue what they were talking about and kept contradicting each other when explaining things to me. One guy whispered the entire time I talked to him and I could not understand anything he told me. This was my first experience with SGC and it is for sure my last. I was not at all happy with my experience and I will consider myself lucky if I get my ticket back.

Finished up the final row on this day and doubled back on a couple other rows. Checked out all of the high-end items on display at the auction house booths and took tons of pictures. I had never seen so many high-end cards in my life. Left around 6pm again for the Indians game. Was very impressed with Progressive Field but I will buy tickets in advance next time as we got stuck with Standing Room Only tickets. Excited to see Ohtani hit 2 HR’s that night!

Day 4 (Saturday):
Stayed until 11am this morning. Hit up a final few dealers and grabbed a few more resale and PC items. Also grabbed a few more pictures before hitting the road. Next time, I will try and stay until end of day on Saturday as I think I could have found some deals with the guys leaving later that afternoon. Got back to Raleigh, NC around 10pm that night and was already missing Cleveland.

That’s my recap of my 4 days there. Wanted to also drop a few more observations/comments below:
• Dealers, price your damn cards. There were multiple dealers that had zero cards priced and looked everything up on their phones or laptops. This is an absolute waste of a buyer’s time that is trying to see hundreds of tables in a limited amount of time. I walked away from multiple dealers if they took longer than a few minutes to come up with a price.
• Make sure you eat and drink. I did little of both on Wednesday because I was too excited to see everything at once and eventually got a migraine. I paced myself the remainder of the days and felt a lot better.
• Buyers, don’t be afraid to dig in those bargain boxes and haggle a little. I ended up spending nearly $7k by digging through those bargain boxes with only a few of my purchases coming from showcases. I heard so many people complaining that they found no deals, either for resale or for PC, but I came to find out they were only looking in showcases for the most part.
• Everyone else in attendance, please take a shower every day. SO. MUCH. BODY. ODOR.
• Last thought.. what is the purpose of loading showcases with Jordans, Trouts, and Bradys and put outlandish prices on them? Was anyone even selling these? I saw the same cards on Wednesday when I arrived and then on Saturday when leaving. Was this just to show off or am I missing something?

That’s it. Who knows when I can attend again but would love to go to Chicago next year!

byronscott4ever · 08-07-2018, 11:54 AM

Great write up

Big35Hurt · 08-07-2018, 11:56 AM

Nice write-up! I am glad you got to experience this. Hopefully it's the first of many Nationals for you. $7K on bargain boxes alone? WOW!

The SGC fiasco is quite scary. If they screwed up your address, the thought that many others were screwed up as well is alarming to say the least. What a disorganized mess they seem to be. I actually considered giving them a try while at the show, but really glad I passed.

Your recap is spot on. I won't beat a dead horse about the dealers pricing the cards. Eating and drinking is easy to forget about due to the sheer level of stimuli going on. I was quite dehydrated after Wednesday to the point that it felt like one of my kidneys was starting to hurt, lol. I did a much better job of that the rest of the way. I actually didn't experience as much body odor smells as I thought I would, but too many people seemed to have gas problems (unless I thought it was gas and it was just really bad BO). Finally, I wonder if some dealers just bring certain cards to show off with no care if they sell it or if they are really that out of touch with pricing.

griffan15 · 08-07-2018, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big35Hurt

Nice write-up! I am glad you got to experience this. Hopefully it's the first of many Nationals for you. $7K on bargain boxes alone? WOW!

The SGC fiasco is quite scary. If they screwed up your address, the thought that many others were screwed up as well is alarming to say the least. What a disorganized mess they seem to be. I actually considered giving them a try while at the show, but really glad I passed.

Your recap is spot on. I won't beat a dead horse about the dealers pricing the cards. Eating and drinking is easy to forget about due to the sheer level of stimuli going on. I was quite dehydrated after Wednesday to the point that it felt like one of my kidneys was starting to hurt, lol. I did a much better job of that the rest of the way. I actually didn't experience as much body odor smells as I thought I would, but too many people seemed to have gas problems (unless I thought it was gas and it was just really bad BO). Finally, I wonder if some dealers just bring certain cards to show off with no care if they sell it or if they are really that out of touch with pricing.

Having the high priced showcase cards is the same reason every Ford dealer has a $150k GTO sitting out front. It's a talking piece and draws people to your table. If someone buys it great, but it's mostly there to draw attention to the table.

bravesfan#1 · 08-07-2018, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffan15

Having the high priced showcase cards is the same reason every Ford dealer has a $150k GTO sitting out front. It's a talking piece and draws people to your table. If someone buys it great, but it's mostly there to draw attention to the table.

I get that point. I guess they were trying to draw people in that were looking to sell/trade. Hope it worked out for them because I saw none of that stuff getting sold.

Bowman1951 · 08-07-2018, 01:08 PM

We had a terrible experience with SGC also. They were late in getting us back our order on Sunday, then checked it on the way home and it was already falling out of the new holder. The kicker is this was a new encapsulation because of issues the first time around. I have a feeling they just rushed the order when they realized they messed up Sunday morning when if they had done it right the first time, we wouldn't have any issues. This was my friend's so he is currently dealing with working it out with them, I'll be upset if he doesn't get free shipping and a credit with SGC as well.

Thank you for sharing!

AlabamaSlamma · 08-07-2018, 04:00 PM

Excellent write-up, and your point about drinking water is so, so, so true.

bravesfan#1 · 08-17-2018, 03:08 PM

Been two weeks since I dropped my Albies ticket off at SGC and no word from them on when I will receive it back. No response to my email so far. Will call when I have time next week. Hope others are not waiting on items to be returned like I am.

ThoseBackPages · 08-17-2018, 03:47 PM

Great write up!

shame about SGC, this was probably their only shot at getting back into the game

08-07-2018, 04:00 PM	#7
AlabamaSlamma Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 7,326	Excellent write-up, and your point about drinking water is so, so, so true. __________________ "You stand out as crazy on the internet. Do you know how hard that is?" https://610sportscards.smugmug.com/The-Collection IG: @610sportscards

08-17-2018, 03:08 PM	#8
bravesfan#1 Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 5,925 jarobin7	Been two weeks since I dropped my Albies ticket off at SGC and no word from them on when I will receive it back. No response to my email so far. Will call when I have time next week. Hope others are not waiting on items to be returned like I am. __________________ No international shipping!

08-17-2018, 03:47 PM	#9
ThoseBackPages Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Long Island Posts: 90,256 ThoseBackPages	Great write up! shame about SGC, this was probably their only shot at getting back into the game __________________ Pumpers Paradise #YouCryIBuy Four things that we cannot change each others minds about: Politics, Religion, Third Party Grading, and 2021 Bowman's Best Rookie Cards

08-07-2018, 11:15 AM	#1
bravesfan#1 Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 5,925 jarobin7	My first NSCC experience This was my 1st ever NSCC in about 20 years of collecting and I was luckily able to experience it with my dad. He has collected/bought/sold cards since the early 90’s and this has always been on our bucket list. Just wanted to share our experience below, as well as some of my observations at the show. On the way up on Tuesday, we stopped at the NFL Hall of Fame. This was just the right size to be able to see everything in about 3 hours. Loved the exhibits and the small films that were shown there. My dad shared some stories on the guys that played in the 70’s and 80’s before I was born. Cool to see all the work it takes to setup for the HOF Game and the induction ceremony. My only complaint here would be the massive amounts of construction going on. Looked like they were building a hotel, restaurants, and other buildings. The end product of all this construction looked awesome though in the designs I saw. I would recommend all NFL fans check out the HOF once all new facilities are completed. Day 1 (Wednesday): After the HOF, we drove on to Cleveland for the show the next day. I was able to secure some dealer badges from one of my friends which I will definitely do again. This got us in at 8am on Wednesday and 8:30am the remainder of the days. Walking in and I was blown away. I had never seen so many tables of sports cards and memorabilia in my life (the largest show I had ever been to previously was the one in Chantilly). I literally had no clue where to start and aimlessly wandered around for about 1 hour. We quickly realized we needed a plan and decided to start with the BGS/PSA lines first before the general public and VIP’s starting showing up. BGS line was not too bad on Wednesday. Got my Mike Trout and Bryce Harper rookie chrome autos graded and back in my hand within 24 hours (awesome!). Both graded a 9.5/10 which made my trip. Next line was PSA which did not go as smoothly. Waited about 2 hours in the Express line for a crossover attempt and encapsulation on some IP autos I had. PSA had these back in my hands within 24 hours though and I was happy with the results. My Aaron Rodgers Topps Chrome BGS 9.5 rookie crossed over to a PSA 10 and 19/22 of my IP autos were slabbed. My one gripe with PSA would be that I dropped off (4) 2013 Bowman Draft Aaron Judge IP autos. They slabbed 3 and gave me back another unslabbed even though they were all clearly signed with the same marker and were almost all identical. Not sure what drew the red flag but the guy I bought it from already gave me my money back and he was going to try it with JSA. We were done with the PSA and JSA lines around lunch time. While I waited at PSA, my dad hit up the singlesclub table along with over a dozen other people. He grabbed over 200 cards for his PC which he was happy with. We then started on the first row of the floor next to the Tristar autograph area to look at every table. By 8pm, we had made it to about row 1700, which did not seem like a ton of progress to us. My favorite dealer on Day 1 was the guy with a couple boxes of Tom Brady base/inserts and some other pieces. Cannot remember his name but he gave out some nice deals and was pleasant to talk to. Ended up selling him a Brady Exquisite patch later on in the week. Left the show on Day 1 around 8pm. We stayed in the Westlake area which was roughly 15-20 minutes away. If you have not stayed here, I would highly recommend it. Pretty safe area from what I could tell and tons of food options for us. Hit the bed super tired but ready for the next day. Day 2 (Thursday): Was there bright and early at 8:30am and picked right back up at row 1700. Picked up A TON of stuff on Thursday. Grabbed some Chipper Jones autos for the PC and found my favorite dealer of the show on this day. If you did not have the chance to stop and chat with Eric of Hit And Run Sports, then you missed out. I almost filled up an entire box of stuff from him and the deals were great. Finished up the day by submitting my Ozzie Albies signed ticket to SGC for encapsulation. This started my worst experience of the NSCC. More details on my Day 3 write up below. Left the show around 6pm on Thursday to grab some much needed grub and sleep. Day 3 (Friday): We started the day right at the Ferris Wheel which is about the mid-point of the show floor. Grabbed a few more things from Eric and went to get my Blowout Mega Mix boxes. I knew the gamble going in but was disappointed with what I received. My two tickets yielded (3) Prizm basketball blasters and (3) hobby boxes of a 2013 football product. Busted all and luckily hit a Leveon Bell rookie auto in the football boxes. Almost everything else got tossed. Around 12pm I went back to SGC to pick up my Albies ticket (they said come back around lunch and it should be done). The CS guy I started talking to immediately told me they would not be encapsulating my ticket at this show and they would mail it back in a few weeks after the show. I paid $25 for on-site encapsulation and he at first did not offer any kind of credit for me. I grabbed the guy that helped me the previous afternoon and he explained the situation a little better. They evidently started taking oddball orders for encapsulation (tickets, letters, etc.) but forgot to bring the supplies and machine that would do this encapsulation. They did not catch this until about 10am on Friday!!!! He then offered a credit to me and free return shipping in a few weeks. I agreed and then asked them to confirm my return shipping address. The return address on the documentation they had for my order was the address of the person that submitted an order before me. I have no idea how this happened as I entered my address on their online submission form on their computer, not only on the submission form but also on the credit card online form. I will consider myself lucky if I ever get this back. All of the CS guys had no clue what they were talking about and kept contradicting each other when explaining things to me. One guy whispered the entire time I talked to him and I could not understand anything he told me. This was my first experience with SGC and it is for sure my last. I was not at all happy with my experience and I will consider myself lucky if I get my ticket back. Finished up the final row on this day and doubled back on a couple other rows. Checked out all of the high-end items on display at the auction house booths and took tons of pictures. I had never seen so many high-end cards in my life. Left around 6pm again for the Indians game. Was very impressed with Progressive Field but I will buy tickets in advance next time as we got stuck with Standing Room Only tickets. Excited to see Ohtani hit 2 HR’s that night! Day 4 (Saturday): Stayed until 11am this morning. Hit up a final few dealers and grabbed a few more resale and PC items. Also grabbed a few more pictures before hitting the road. Next time, I will try and stay until end of day on Saturday as I think I could have found some deals with the guys leaving later that afternoon. Got back to Raleigh, NC around 10pm that night and was already missing Cleveland. That’s my recap of my 4 days there. Wanted to also drop a few more observations/comments below: • Dealers, price your damn cards. There were multiple dealers that had zero cards priced and looked everything up on their phones or laptops. This is an absolute waste of a buyer’s time that is trying to see hundreds of tables in a limited amount of time. I walked away from multiple dealers if they took longer than a few minutes to come up with a price. • Make sure you eat and drink. I did little of both on Wednesday because I was too excited to see everything at once and eventually got a migraine. I paced myself the remainder of the days and felt a lot better. • Buyers, don’t be afraid to dig in those bargain boxes and haggle a little. I ended up spending nearly $7k by digging through those bargain boxes with only a few of my purchases coming from showcases. I heard so many people complaining that they found no deals, either for resale or for PC, but I came to find out they were only looking in showcases for the most part. • Everyone else in attendance, please take a shower every day. SO. MUCH. BODY. ODOR. • Last thought.. what is the purpose of loading showcases with Jordans, Trouts, and Bradys and put outlandish prices on them? Was anyone even selling these? I saw the same cards on Wednesday when I arrived and then on Saturday when leaving. Was this just to show off or am I missing something? That’s it. Who knows when I can attend again but would love to go to Chicago next year! __________________ No international shipping! Last edited by bravesfan#1; 08-07-2018 at 05:13 PM.

08-07-2018, 11:54 AM	#2
byronscott4ever Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 11,402	Great write up

08-07-2018, 11:56 AM	#3
Big35Hurt Member Join Date: Aug 2015 Posts: 9,584	Nice write-up! I am glad you got to experience this. Hopefully it's the first of many Nationals for you. $7K on bargain boxes alone? WOW! The SGC fiasco is quite scary. If they screwed up your address, the thought that many others were screwed up as well is alarming to say the least. What a disorganized mess they seem to be. I actually considered giving them a try while at the show, but really glad I passed. Your recap is spot on. I won't beat a dead horse about the dealers pricing the cards. Eating and drinking is easy to forget about due to the sheer level of stimuli going on. I was quite dehydrated after Wednesday to the point that it felt like one of my kidneys was starting to hurt, lol. I did a much better job of that the rest of the way. I actually didn't experience as much body odor smells as I thought I would, but too many people seemed to have gas problems (unless I thought it was gas and it was just really bad BO). Finally, I wonder if some dealers just bring certain cards to show off with no care if they sell it or if they are really that out of touch with pricing.

08-07-2018, 01:08 PM	#6
Bowman1951 Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Boston 'Burbs Posts: 4,717 djblitz Bowman1951	We had a terrible experience with SGC also. They were late in getting us back our order on Sunday, then checked it on the way home and it was already falling out of the new holder. The kicker is this was a new encapsulation because of issues the first time around. I have a feeling they just rushed the order when they realized they messed up Sunday morning when if they had done it right the first time, we wouldn't have any issues. This was my friend's so he is currently dealing with working it out with them, I'll be upset if he doesn't get free shipping and a credit with SGC as well. Thank you for sharing!