Ok, so the National ended on Sunday and it's already Wednesday. Better late then never for a review. I spend about four hours at the I-X center this past Saturday with two other friends and I will say that I was very overwhelmed by the whole experience. What struck me most was the amount of autographed memorabilia and high prices that the vendors were charging. I went with one goal in mind...to pick up a 1985 Topps Pete Rose Commemorative Set. Unfortunately, I came up empty on that but I did find a few finds to add to my collection. The first was a Pete Rose comic that I spent $2 on. It's a nice oddball that I had never seen before and it looks nice on my display case. The second item I found was a Reds pennant. The vendor had a large table of pennants with some historical but a huge selection of modern pennants. I was able to grab this Reds pennant for $3. I also found a vendor that was selling a package of 10 1991 Stadium Club baseball packs for $3. Finally I nabbed 5 ultra pro 8 x 10 toploaders to hold my autographed pictures. All in all, I spent $13 for everything. I was a little bummed that I couldn't spend time in the dealers dime and quarter boxes, but that was probably for the best as that would have completely blown my budget. It was nice to see some historical artifacts there at the show, but I don't think I would attend another National. Just waaaaaaay too crowded for my liking.
5 comments:
I meant to stop at the dealer with all the pennants before I left, but it slipped my mind. Nick pickup.
That Pete Rose comic book is cool. I'd like to attend at least one National... but after air fare, hotel, car rental, and show admission... I'd end up spending hundreds of dollars on a stack of dime box cards.
I was surprised that they had a lot of World Series and All Star pennants in the mix for $3 a piece. I was just glad I found a Reds pennant I liked.
With the $18 admission fee and $8 for parking I was wondering if it was worth it, but for the experience and what I walked away with for $13 I won't complain. Now if I had to drive to Chicago or Baltimore then it wouldn't have been worth it, but being in my own back yard that's a different story.
Yeah. Unless it comes back to San Francisco, I'm going to dish out travel expenses, plus admission fees, and that doesn't even include spending money. The more I think about it... the less likely it'll ever occur.
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