The National is coming up fast and is the 40th Annual.
If you haven’t been before there are a few things I would suggest attending this one. Why? It is the 40th Annual, which I would expect will bring big names and a bigger turnout of dealers. This could bring more of the “hard to find” cards and collectibles to light, so there will be no shortage of “holy crap” moments where you will see something that you never knew existed.
Tips for the show
Set a goal. Are you there for cards and memorabilia, or autographs.
From this page, click on the CLICK HERE TO ENTER CODE button, enter your code on the back of your Home Run Challenge card and then you can pick the game that your player will hit a homerun. If your player hits a home run, you will get a parallel card of said player. You can check out the rules here.
If I am not mistaken, the promotion has ended.
Along with the parallel card, you also have a chance to win a Monthly Grand Prize which is awarded to a random winner for the month.
One (1) Grand Prize is available. The prize is at trip for winner and one (1)
guest to Major League Baseball’s Homerun Derby event in Cleveland, Ohio on
Monday, July 8, 2019. Trip consists of roundtrip coach air travel from major
commercial (or international, as the case may be) airport near winner’s residence
to Cleveland; two (2) tickets to the Homerun Derby event; 3 days/2 nights hotel
accommodations (standard room, double occupancy) in Cleveland. Total
Approximate Retail Value of Grand Prize: $1500 (USD)
Pretty cool stuff, good luck to all the participants!
Thanks for watching and let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
If you have followed me starting this site with Layton Sports Cards and then ending breaks and doing product reviews on my own, the year has been quite a ride.
As the year ends, I want again thank everyone that allowed me to break boxes, or joined a break I did. I appreciate you choosing to do business with me and I hope you had fun whether you got a hit or not.
I hope you enjoy the holidays with your family, friends, loved ones, or just people you want to be around.
If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope that the holiday you do celebrate is a great one!
The National was a great success for me this year. Gone were the pressures of having to actually work at the show. I actually got to walk around and be where I wanted to be at any given moment and that was a true blessing.
From the moment I hit the National floor, I was working on finding cards, getting wrapper redemption packs, and saying hi to friends I have made through the hobby.
Here are some of the periscope video links as I walked through the National and more.
Thank you to Steve from All Star Sports Cards. I know Tony couldn’t make it and you were kind enough to offer me his badge to both the Convention and to the Panini VIP Party. I had a great time at both and I can’t thank you enough for this. You even got me into the Upper Deck Party and that was a blast. I now have a Joe Montana Autographed Print that will be framed and placed in my man cave.
Thanks to Matt and Annette Osman for being great friends. I looked forward to meeting up with you each day I was there at the National. It gave me a great chance to share the experience with someone that would understand my excitement about this industry.
Huge thank you to Scott Prusha from Panini. Husker fam right there. I can’t thank you enough for the items you sent home with me for Jaxson. He would have loved attending this National and I won’t be attending any others going forward without my son. Thanks Scott. I hope you enjoy the drawing of GG and it provides some healing as you think of her each day. I have a painting of my Dad that my mother in-law did and each day I stop to say what’s up to him and that has brought a lot of happiness to me.
To Jared Kelley. You helped me by creating and capturing a fantastic drawing of GG for Scott. I enjoy your talent and I am so glad to call you a friend. I love your work and hope to have your help in capturing family memories and treasures for me for the long-term future.
To Scott Miller, owner of The Card Shop in Omaha. You have been a great friend, supporting me in making a decision to do breaks, and in the beginning, giving me a way to do this and allowing me to continue to enjoy the hobby with an honest and true sense of community and friendship through your shop. I don’t do breaks anymore but that never mattered to you. You have provided great advice and friendship. Thanks so much Scott. I am forever a customer and happy as heck to call you a friend for sure.
Last but not least to my wife. I went back and forth about attending this National. I had no reason to go but I was excited by the thought of going and having no commitments. You shocked me when you told me to just GO. I know it was last minute and we even thought about a last ditch effort to get Jaxson out there as well. It was fun, no drama, except my beer would keep disappearing on me before I could really get a good drink at the Panini VIP Party, lol. Maybe I should have taken it as a sign. It is a funny memory and a lesson to hold on to your drink… lol.
Mahalo to all of you. Mahalo to you if you are reading this too. You are a part of the hobby that I find fun in. Thank you for stopping by and reading this and if you want, please drop a comment on this post.
Oh and before you go, check out the Topps Wrapper Redemption Packs from George for Jaxson below!
I took off bright and early from Omaha yesterday and arrived in Chicago to my first day of the National. This will have been the third day of the National and man was it crazy.
I arrived shortly before the doors opened at 8:30am for dealers at the National. Thanks to a few friends including Scott from The Card Shop in Omaha and Steve from All Star Sports Cards in Tennessee, I was able to get a badge that allowed me early entry to the show. I can’t thank you guys enough.
Once the doors opened, my mission was to check-in with Steve and Scott and to get inline for the highly sought after Topps Redemption Packs.
I really didn’t plan to come to the National so I didn’t really have any plans so I am really focused on building friendships and helping others get some things they were searching for from the show floor. That is why I was after the Topps packs.
After checking in with Steve I realized that the line at the Topps booth was already forming and having heard that they ran out of the alotted packs the previous day, I kept an eye on it and gave George a buzz to discuss the product he wanted and where to get it. Once a decision was made the product was purchased and I made quick work of getting in line.
While there we were told that we may not get any packs as they were likely to run out before we got to the head of the line. We were reminded that there was a strict 16 box limit per person and that was it. If you wanted more you would have to get back in line. No biggie.
The line started moving at 10 and by 10:20… they were out. I was fortunate enough to be the LAST ONE and I got 6 packs. Two for three boxes of finest… of which I had a total of 16 boxes. Bummed for not getting the full lot, I was happy I got something for George.
Next up, I headed over to see if I could drop off a gift I had for Scott Prisha of Panini who happens to be from Omaha and a Husker fan. I was able to drop off and later have him open it. I think he liked it. There may be a video of it sometime and you guys can laugh as I got choked up when presenting the gift. This to me is part of the hobby experience and why I really do enjoy it.
I then made zigzag patterns to see Scott get a quick walkaround the place, swing by with Steve to help him get some Panini redemption packs and… man I am tired just reading this.
Thanks to Steve I was able to attend the Upper Deck Party. It was a very fun event with good food and drink and I got to hangout with another collector from my home state of Hawaii, Jeff (JKBreaks). I walked away with some goodies for Steve and a piece for my PC.
Exhausted, I got a Lyft, headed back to the hotek and crashed. My day two at the National begins today and I am outside Starbucks waiting for my fix.
The 2017 National Sports Collector’s Convention in Chicago opens on Wednesday, July 26. Although I won’t be there for the opening festivities, I will be there Friday morning with my VIP badge ready to get in early on the floor and will be hoping on my personal twitter account @r9tee or the @r90sportscards account to share video of the show. In the madness of the show, I hope to remember to use the r90 twitter account but in case I don’t, please follow my personal twitter account too.
Here are the things I am hoping to do.
1. Check out the manufacturers’ booths.
2. Check out PSA and Beckett booths to show you the lines and craziness around each.
3. Do a walk-by of the Blowout Cards, Dave and Adams, Steel City Collectibles, and many other online retailer booths.
4. Check out some vintage, modern, and a few other dealer booths to show you the mix of what is there and hope to find some cool items that you may not have a chance to see otherwise.
5. Visit The Breaker Pavilion and the GTS Main Stage.
6. Stop by and chat with the GoGTSLive guys, Rob and Ivan.
7. If I can swing any invites to some of the after show parties, Panini VIP, or some distributor parties, I will try to do video from those as well.
If you want anything in particular, want to see if a buddy made it and you want to see them on my feed, let me know. I will see if I can meet up with them and get them on camera!
Mahalo and I hope you guys enjoy the show in person or via others at the show.
As you probably noticed I have had a countdown on the homepage of the site for the National.
I had attended the Atlantic City convention in 2016. Prior to that, I had attended the previous years’ in Cleveland and a couple years prior to that, in Chicago.
In Atlantic City, I was there to work and get the word out about R90 Sports Cards. Jaxson came with me and he and I worked to make sure we were present everyday as soon as the doors opened for us and that we were online and hanging out with everyone online as we streamed.
There was a lot of activity around the booth. We did break and I pulled my very first superfractor for an attendee that was also celebrating his birthday. It was a cool event and Jaxson and I were worn out when we got home.
This year, I will be attending the National on Friday, July 28 through Sunday, July 30. Jaxson won’t be attending which I think he might enjoy as he will have time to hang out with friends and maybe even stay with my Mom and hangout with his cousins.
Meanwhile, I will be attending as a … get this… attendee. I will be focused on checking in with manufacturers and some distributors, friends I have made during breaks, and others I have not had the pleasure of befriending as of yet.
I know attending my first National I had no idea what to expect, or what I should do while I was there. I think it is beneficial for your first time to check out the site for the show and make a list of what you want to do. Oh and very important, set a budget! If you will be there one day or multiple days, set a budget, just trust me.
Here is what I have on my list before this show.
Show budget of $500.
Say hi to Scott and Tracy at Panini’s booth.
Meet and chat with anyone I know from hosting breaks to chatting during breaks.
Walk the show floor and take it all in.
ENJOY MYSELF.
That’s it for my list. Seems short right? Those are the musts… I have all kinds of things running through my head. Oh and if you are really focused on getting autos from the ridiculous line-up that Tristar has? Please plan that well. The National website has all the information and can keep you updated so please check that site out.
If you make it to the National, please let me know you are there, would love to meet ya and shake your hand. I know too many people by their screen names, would be nice to meet the people behind them.
See you there and keep checking back on my posts as the countdown to the National and for a post National summary.
Jaxson and I attended the Saturday show and it was a blast.
We woke up early and drove in from Omaha, stopping by Burger King for some grub and getting outta Dodge.
The drive was only a couple hours long and nothing but rain… there was some excitement when a State Trooper flipped his lights and came up on us like a bat outta hell. I kept my cool, got behind a semi on my right and he pulled the semi over ahead of us. Not gonna lie, I was a bit concerned… Heart rate up, but that was enough to keep my going the rest of the way.
We arrived at our hotel, just a block or two away from the event center to be greeted by the entries blocked by cars and signs saying guest parking only, violators will be towed… I couldn’t for the life of me figure out just how guest were supposed to get in… So Jaxson and I drove around the block and boom, there was a gap just large enough for us to get through and we were in. We got parked, dropped stuff at our room and off we went to the Iowa Event Center.
On our way over, Jaxson and I talked about the event and I had been trying to imagine what we would encounter upon getting into the event center. I had wild expectations of a line wrapped around the building and people doing cosplay and seeing all sorts of cool costumes. We were also excited to see Stan Lee and I was personally on a mission to meet John Cusack and get his auto. As a fan of his, I was looking forward to meeting him… I had a lot of questions swirling in my noggin that I would ask if I had a chance…
There was no line wrapped around the building and there was minimal cosplay but what we did see were from extremes on the spectrum, you had halloween costumes and then you had the cosplayers that really did it up and I enjoyed those. One thing I like about these cosplayers is the willingness to go all out, dressing and playing it up like the character they are portraying. It didn’t matter your body type, I think most people were just in awe of the effort and their ability to buy in and go for it. I applaud all of them.
I was very impressed, once we got in line, to be greeted by the CEO of Wizard World, John Maatta. He was awesome. He took the time to stop and shake the hand of all of the attendees and letting them know that we could call him, his number was on a poster in the event, should we find anything we didn’t like or if we needed his assistance. How cool is that. I have never seen this happen before and I think it should happen at every event now… ha.
After the video, we did another walk through and stopped by some of the vendors to grab a couple fidget spinners, some dungeons and dragons dice and then it was on to what Jaxson was drawn to once we saw it… the Gaming area. He signed up to play in the free Smash Bros. tournament for a chance to win $100. He played it out, but lost in the double elimination rounds. He said it was fun and that had he known he would have played that game more before the event. We don’t have the system or the game mind you… I was glad he gave it a shot though. He played games there as a lead up to the tournament and got his fix in before I pulled him away to check things out again.
In all I think we did about 13 – 14 laps around the entire event getting photos of Jaxson with some cosplayers. Photos below and another video of the mainstage this time with some dance/something… Catwoman was in a suspended ring… I don’t know… check the video out too.
The Hulk
With @Curly-Q Cosplay – Harley Quinn
Jaxson on Stage for “Friendly” game of Smash Bros
Not sure what transformer this is…
Got him! John Cusack Auto… Check!
Iron Man
Uhm, I have no idea…
#Chimichanga
Tournament time
Oh and the auto area was interesting…
On my mission to meet John Cusack, I was curious to see that lines weren’t really forming anywhere. I noticed around 11:30a or so that John Cusack was at his booth and I made my way there. I was able to quickly search through the available photos for one that I liked, got his auto, shook his hand and the question I had queued up for him? Are you still kickboxing?… lol. I was trying to think of questions he may not get often. I thought about asking him about the Cubs World Series win, you think I would since this is a sports card site… He even had a Cubs hat on… Nope, I went for something not obvious…
Yes by the way, he says he still kickboxes.
We did catch a glimpse of Stan Lee as well but he was surrounded by handlers all loading him up with photos that he signed like a machine and just being able to see the man was cool. Maybe someday we will be able to catch him again and get to shake his hand.
Anyway, a great show, hope you enjoy the photos/videos.
Jaxson and I are heading to Des Moines to catch Wizard World, we will only be able to attend on Saturday but hoping it will be a blast, we will do what we can to make it so. Like our page on Facebook because we might just get on Facebook live and capture some of the event for everyone or if you prefer, follow us on Twitter, maybe we will push video there instead.
Here is a link to the list of guests, small list but I am hoping to get an auto from John Cusack.
