National Sports Collectors Convention: Day 5

I cannot believe it is all over. Already.  Time flies when you are having fun.  For the past five days, things have gone like this: wake up, shower, grab breakfast to go, drive down to Baltimore, park, walk to the convention center, look through cards and memorabilia and talk to dealers and other collectors, leave around 5:30, drive home and eat dinner, sort through cards, blog about the days events, sort through more cards, sleep. Wake up, and do it again.

Sunday at the National is pretty epic, because dealers want to move what stuff they have left quickly.  To pack up everything and take it back home is tedious, so the less inventory the better.  Dave and Adam's Card World had some serious discount blasters and boxes going on around 11am.

How about this for an epic discount?

$12 for 36 packs, if you're interested in this sort of thing (which I'm not).

I did buy a box of 2011 Score Football. Because, why the heck not?

I again spent the entire day going through boxes, chatting with people, and just getting a feel for the last day of the show.  I bough a lot of singles, but the big purchase of the day was a box of 2012 Topps mini cards.  These are $50, and are exclusively sold online and at the National.  Buying them at the National got me a special promo set that includes a Bryce Harper rookie, the all important for the player collection Roy Halladay promo card, and a few other players that don't matter as much as those two.  I will show these cards on the blog in the days to come.

I made a little cash today.  At the Tristar booth they sell authentication tickets for $10. I had five of them (I won them a few days ago) that I wasn't going to use.  So what I did was go over to the autograph pavilion, and offered them to people for $5 apiece.   Half off was something that people couldn't pass up, and I sold them quickly--well, four of them.  William from Foul Bunt walked by at just the right time to get an auto and I handed him a free ticket.  Fellow bloggers get that kind of privilege!

Oh, some dude named Mike Tyson was signing today.  If you look really closely you can see him in this picture:

I went around and took some pictures of memorabilia I liked, including these four jerseys:

I also got a glimpse of the late Harry Kalis' sparkly 2009 NL East Champions Ring:

Maybe '52 Mantle cards are more your thing.  I saw one on sale for $48,000.

There were many Mantles at this booth.

Here is the scene from the front of the National, just before I left to go home.  Dealers started packing up around 2pm.

I am already looking forward to next year in Chicago!

Pictures can show you the scene, but what they do not capture is the spirit of the people there.  If you have never been to a National, and you are able to, consider going next year.  It is truly a life changing event for collectors.  I've met so many great people over the past five days--friendships that will continue over blogs and Twitter; friendships brought together from this great hobby of ours.  Many of us are already making plans to meet up at next years show in Chicago.   If you want a really good perspective on just what this show is like for those who attend, check out RJ's blog.  Here he writes about what the National really means. It is far more than collecting, selling, and trading.

I have to be honest--I am kind of tired of looking at trading cards! It's what I've been doing for so many hours for so many days and having a great time at that.  I have two unopened boxes sitting here.  One is the 2011 Score el cheapo, and one is the super cool Topps mini cards box.  Not sure when I am going to open them, but I am sure it won't be tonight!  I have hundreds of cards to sort through, mainly because of the boxes I bought.  I have hardly even peeked at the Allen and Ginter hobby box I ripped at the Topps booth, so going through those cards will sort of be a new thing again.  

I hope to hold a few blog contests, and of course trade with you guys in the weeks ahead.  If I owe you anything please let me know. I am really bad at remembering, and right now my brain is completely fried with the thought of any kind of trading card!  And to think I go back to work tomorrow--the real world!  Five days in card heaven was so much fun.  Thanks for reading and following my adventures at the 2012 National Sports Collectors Convention.  Look for show loot posts ahead.