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The 2015 National Sports Collectors Convention
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Well, it's that time of year again! Yup! It's time for the 2015 NSCC in Chicago. This year I thought I would try something new. Rather than writing about the show after its glory, I decided I would try and add content to my website as the show progresses. So here we go.
Day One (Wednesday July 29th) VIP Sneak Peek
In my opinion this is always one of the hardest days of the show. I always want to see it all, but if you have ever attended this show, you know that is impossible. Personally, I always try to find the Corporate Pavilion and see what all of the "Big Dawgs" are doing. As usual Panini had their silver foil packs for their wrapper redemption, and as usual I stood in line to get some. This year I purchased two wax boxes of 2015 Clear Vision Football from Blowout Cards for the Panini redemption.
From the Panini booth I headed over to the Topps booth. I knew going into this show that Topps was not hosting a huge wrapper redemption so my expectations were not high. However, after reading some of the Topps signs and speaking to a Topps representative I realized that the wrapper redemption sucked. In order to participate in the redemption you had to buy a Topps Gypsy Queen Box or a Topps Allen and Ginger box to receive a show exclusive pack of four cards. I thought this was lame, mainly because both of those products are trash this year. Furthermore, I suffered extreme disappointment when I found out that Topps wasn't selling boxes of their Topps Mini baseball at the show this year. I didn't attend the show in Cleveland last year, so this might not be new news, but its a tragedy in my opinion. As I left the Topps booth I felt very unsatisfied and couldn't help having the thought that Topps is getting lazy. Maybe they can because they are the biggest name in sports cards. Who knows?
After visiting the large manufacturers, I started on the tables. Man ALIVE, is there some good stuff out there! I spent most of my time sorting through dollar boxes, but I had to pause every now and then to see some amazing cards.
I did take a few pictures of day one. So take a look, and expect more to come!
In my opinion this is always one of the hardest days of the show. I always want to see it all, but if you have ever attended this show, you know that is impossible. Personally, I always try to find the Corporate Pavilion and see what all of the "Big Dawgs" are doing. As usual Panini had their silver foil packs for their wrapper redemption, and as usual I stood in line to get some. This year I purchased two wax boxes of 2015 Clear Vision Football from Blowout Cards for the Panini redemption.
From the Panini booth I headed over to the Topps booth. I knew going into this show that Topps was not hosting a huge wrapper redemption so my expectations were not high. However, after reading some of the Topps signs and speaking to a Topps representative I realized that the wrapper redemption sucked. In order to participate in the redemption you had to buy a Topps Gypsy Queen Box or a Topps Allen and Ginger box to receive a show exclusive pack of four cards. I thought this was lame, mainly because both of those products are trash this year. Furthermore, I suffered extreme disappointment when I found out that Topps wasn't selling boxes of their Topps Mini baseball at the show this year. I didn't attend the show in Cleveland last year, so this might not be new news, but its a tragedy in my opinion. As I left the Topps booth I felt very unsatisfied and couldn't help having the thought that Topps is getting lazy. Maybe they can because they are the biggest name in sports cards. Who knows?
After visiting the large manufacturers, I started on the tables. Man ALIVE, is there some good stuff out there! I spent most of my time sorting through dollar boxes, but I had to pause every now and then to see some amazing cards.
I did take a few pictures of day one. So take a look, and expect more to come!
The entrance banner to the NSCC.
A monster combo! 1992 Pro Line Portraits Muhammad Ali and Cassius Clay Autographs. What's real nice about these is that you can actually read the signatures. Most Ali stuff I see now, doesn't really look like an auto, but more so some squiggly lines. These are just beautiful. I might go back for them.
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Standing in line at the Panini wrapper redemption. They had some huge wall art. Very cool!
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Day Two (Thursday July 30th) First Full Day
What a great collecting and show day! In the first hour I participated in the Upper Deck wrapper redemption and had a blast. Just like Panini, UD has a strong wrapper promotion and it moved along seamlessly (Topps really needs to reevaluate their show procedures, because they are not collector friendly). The people at UD were super friendly, not to mention one of the UD employees hooked me up with an extra redemption pack.
After the UD experience, I went out to the show floor and hit the barging bins hard. Hours of sifting through $1 or less cards looking for those hidden gems. Needles to say it was tons of fun. During my pursuits however, I did take time to look at all of the cool stuff that only the Nationals brings out. Bellow are some of the sweet cards I was able to admire on this day.
What a great collecting and show day! In the first hour I participated in the Upper Deck wrapper redemption and had a blast. Just like Panini, UD has a strong wrapper promotion and it moved along seamlessly (Topps really needs to reevaluate their show procedures, because they are not collector friendly). The people at UD were super friendly, not to mention one of the UD employees hooked me up with an extra redemption pack.
After the UD experience, I went out to the show floor and hit the barging bins hard. Hours of sifting through $1 or less cards looking for those hidden gems. Needles to say it was tons of fun. During my pursuits however, I did take time to look at all of the cool stuff that only the Nationals brings out. Bellow are some of the sweet cards I was able to admire on this day.
Very few people knew this card was at the show. I so happen to know its escort, and was given a five minute window to take some pictures for this SportSecurities.com. It is an unbelievable piece. The last high grade of this card (PSA 8) brought in close to $42,000. Because this is an GSC 88, it probably has a more modest value of $30,000 at auction.
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Here is a close up of the SGC tag.
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Here is another show monster. Although it is modern vintage, this card is exquisite as a raw copy, and this one is a gem mint PSA 10! This is almost unheard of in these foil front cards.
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Here is the back of the Ruth memorabilia card. Its surprising that six copies of this card exist, but I can promise that this one is the best of the six.
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This is a close up of the PSA tag. Notice the new PSA anti-counterfeit hologram.
Day Three (Friday July 31st)
What a strong day. I spent most of the day hustling the bargain bins looking for resale items and Mark McGwire cards. It was strong. Additionally, I hit-up Upper Deck again for their wrapper redemption where I had a monster pull from a box of 2015 Goodwin Champions (I'll show it off in a later article). But, to my dismay, I did not complete my 2015 Prominent Cuts set with my promotional packs. The good news however, is that Rob Ford from UD Product Development told me to bring my doubles back and he would trade out for the cards that I was missing.
At about lunch time, I hooked up with my good buddy Patrick Greenough from Radicards.com and we walked into the Casebreakers Pavilion to chill. Funny story... Pat went to get some free food and in the process met up with a couple of Panini bigwigs who invited us to sit and eat with them. Shortly after that we were joined by a few Beckett bigwigs. So, needles to say I had lunch with some very important hobby people. It was fantastic. We, asked tons of questions, and they were more than happy to answer. Below is a photo shot from the lunch meeting.
What a strong day. I spent most of the day hustling the bargain bins looking for resale items and Mark McGwire cards. It was strong. Additionally, I hit-up Upper Deck again for their wrapper redemption where I had a monster pull from a box of 2015 Goodwin Champions (I'll show it off in a later article). But, to my dismay, I did not complete my 2015 Prominent Cuts set with my promotional packs. The good news however, is that Rob Ford from UD Product Development told me to bring my doubles back and he would trade out for the cards that I was missing.
At about lunch time, I hooked up with my good buddy Patrick Greenough from Radicards.com and we walked into the Casebreakers Pavilion to chill. Funny story... Pat went to get some free food and in the process met up with a couple of Panini bigwigs who invited us to sit and eat with them. Shortly after that we were joined by a few Beckett bigwigs. So, needles to say I had lunch with some very important hobby people. It was fantastic. We, asked tons of questions, and they were more than happy to answer. Below is a photo shot from the lunch meeting.
From left to right Priscilla: Torres, Ad Sales, Beckett; Bill Dumas, Ad Sales Director, Beckett; David Porter, Product Director of Basketball, Panini America; Nick Matijevich, Product Director of Football, Panini America; Not shown in the photo, but present: Chris Olds, Editor of Beckett Media; and Patrick Greenough, Radicards.com.
Day Four (Saturday August 1)
Day four was work, but I was able to pick-up some strong cards. Pat from Radicards.com and I found a table in total dismay. It was really bad. It almost looked like a tornado had set up at this booth. Cards were everywhere and there was no rhyme or reason as to how the cards were sorted, and the condition of the cards was just as hopeless. Many of this vendors cards were on life-support and a good portion were on their way to a better place in that great dumpster in the back. But, amidst all of the cardboard carnage, I found some true gems. A quick highlight of what I found includes two cherry vintage cards. One was a 1890 Goodwin N163 Dogs of the World card, and the second was 1889 Allen & Ginger N5 Birds of the Tropics card. Neither of these cards depict athletes, but for $2 a piece, age and condition made these a no-brainer. In addition to these cards I found a huge modern card of Tim Duncan. I won't spoil the surprise however, because I want to showcase this card in my Barging Bins Finds section of my website, so details and scans will have to wait.
From their, I took a stroll to Upper Deck to try and switch out my dups from the Prominent Cuts set. When I got there, I was very disappointed when Rob Ford showed me what he had to trade. In his huge stack of doubles, I was only able to find one of the seven cards I needed. It began to make me think that there could possibly be short printed packs, either that or its just coincidence that nobody is trading in those cards. The collector in me, however, thinks it is an SP conspiracy.
After that, the rest of the day I was hustling the tables. I did buy some really nice stuff, but because I lack a scanner I will post about my purchases later. So for now, enjoy some more pictures of cool show stuff.
Day four was work, but I was able to pick-up some strong cards. Pat from Radicards.com and I found a table in total dismay. It was really bad. It almost looked like a tornado had set up at this booth. Cards were everywhere and there was no rhyme or reason as to how the cards were sorted, and the condition of the cards was just as hopeless. Many of this vendors cards were on life-support and a good portion were on their way to a better place in that great dumpster in the back. But, amidst all of the cardboard carnage, I found some true gems. A quick highlight of what I found includes two cherry vintage cards. One was a 1890 Goodwin N163 Dogs of the World card, and the second was 1889 Allen & Ginger N5 Birds of the Tropics card. Neither of these cards depict athletes, but for $2 a piece, age and condition made these a no-brainer. In addition to these cards I found a huge modern card of Tim Duncan. I won't spoil the surprise however, because I want to showcase this card in my Barging Bins Finds section of my website, so details and scans will have to wait.
From their, I took a stroll to Upper Deck to try and switch out my dups from the Prominent Cuts set. When I got there, I was very disappointed when Rob Ford showed me what he had to trade. In his huge stack of doubles, I was only able to find one of the seven cards I needed. It began to make me think that there could possibly be short printed packs, either that or its just coincidence that nobody is trading in those cards. The collector in me, however, thinks it is an SP conspiracy.
After that, the rest of the day I was hustling the tables. I did buy some really nice stuff, but because I lack a scanner I will post about my purchases later. So for now, enjoy some more pictures of cool show stuff.
What I would do to own this card... It has autos of the Bambino, Mantle, DiMaggio, Sosa, Griffey JR. and my favorite... Mark McGwire! The guy selling this card had unbelievable stuff. If you look at the picture you can see another Ruth cut sig above. He currently had six Ruth cut autos, but told us he had eighteen at on time.
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This card blew my mind. Not because of the tag, but because another copy used to sit in my local card shop with a sticker price of $4,000. Granted it was a BGS 9/9 and this one is a BGS 10/9, but it has probably appreciated to a $20,000 card (don't quote me on this though, I'm purely speculating).
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Day Five (Sunday August 2nd) Last Day of the Show
My show shopping ended early on this day. I was running on fumes to begin with, but I tapped out in the first two hours. This was due to an early purchase that drained every green dollar that I owned. The story in short, is that I began scanning the barging bins early. At one point, I overheard a collector haggling with a dealer on some cards that the collector had for sale. Included in the negotiations was a sweet LeBron James card, but the dealer was holding hard at his lowball offer. Frustrated, the seller walked away. Quickly, I left the table and asked the seller if I could take a look at what he had for sale. He obliged, and we came to an agreement for the LeBron card. And, with that my 2015 NSCC buying days were finished.
The rest of the day was spent looking at the auction houses and all of the amazing memorabilia that they had for sale. Heritage Auctions was the best, but it was amazing how many other places had unbelievable stuff. Here are some pictures of the things that I saw.
My show shopping ended early on this day. I was running on fumes to begin with, but I tapped out in the first two hours. This was due to an early purchase that drained every green dollar that I owned. The story in short, is that I began scanning the barging bins early. At one point, I overheard a collector haggling with a dealer on some cards that the collector had for sale. Included in the negotiations was a sweet LeBron James card, but the dealer was holding hard at his lowball offer. Frustrated, the seller walked away. Quickly, I left the table and asked the seller if I could take a look at what he had for sale. He obliged, and we came to an agreement for the LeBron card. And, with that my 2015 NSCC buying days were finished.
The rest of the day was spent looking at the auction houses and all of the amazing memorabilia that they had for sale. Heritage Auctions was the best, but it was amazing how many other places had unbelievable stuff. Here are some pictures of the things that I saw.
This card was so cool. It is the 97 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Michael Jordan Green number 1/100. The first ten of these cards are printed on green foil, the remaining ninety are printed on red foil, so technically this card is 1/10. Shortly after I took this picture this exact card sold on ebay for $91,000. Very strong piece.
It is mindboggling that there are T206's that grade this high. Furthermore, to find one of the bigger cards in the set in PSA 9 condition surpasses logic. This Walter Johnson is so sweet that it looks fake. If I had an extra $78,000, I probably would have bid on this card.
I thought this was a sweet display. The two signed baseballs are Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. The bat is a Babe Ruth bat, and to the left in the darker area of the barrel, you can see that the Bambino himself signed this piece.
It doesn't look like much, but his is a sealed vending case of 79 80 Topps Hockey. It sold at auction for $100,000+. Imagine how the Gretzky rookies will grade? Or, will the owner just sit on it?
This isn't just another amazing signed baseball. This is a piece of baseball history. One day this might be in Cooperstown. This is the actual baseball that Pete Rose recorded his first MLB career hit.
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This is a bad picture of this car, but it is a cool card. The show theme this year was Kris Bryant. I think every Kris Bryant card in the world was under the convention center roof. This piece in particular is 2014 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Auto #ed /150, but what maxes it special is the grading. BGS Black Label 10/10! If you are not familiar with the black label, it signifies that all of the subcategories are 10's as well. Based on the BGS grading parameter it is possible to receive a 10 on a card with a subcategory only getting a 9.5. The black label means that everything on this card is perfect!
What are these two clowns doing? The answer is... getting schooled by MJ in the UD Shadowbox Photo Station. That's me on the left with Patrick Greenough from Radicards.com on the right.
Every baseball in this display case is a Babe Ruth signed ball! If you can't count there are thirteen in the picture. To top it off, the case next to this one has an additional nine Babe Ruth signature balls. This dealer told me that his company sells about 100 Babe Ruth balls a year. Ay, carambi!
I really like this picture, not to mention the memorabilia. Two signed Joe DiMaggio baseballs and one Mickey Mantle.
This Babe Ruth ball is super clean. Its just beautiful, and I'm jealous of the person who bought it.
I know that this isn't on the same level as the other stuff, but you have to admit that it presents well. This University of Oregon football helmet is signed by Marcus Mariota. I think the gold on green looks great. An interesting side note, in all of my searching at this show, Mariota and Winston seemed to be an afterthought. I saw very little of their stuff. Maybe Kris Bryant fever clouded people's shopping trends.
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