The Natioinal is OVERWHELMING
 
 
I thought I was prepared - and I am old and jaded so not much fazes me, but the NSCC really overloaded my circutis.
 
 
Just walking into the building is mind-boggling.   
 
 
I have been to the PhillyShow, which is a good size show.  Perhaps 200 dealers.  The National dwarfs that several fold and also has the corporate sponsers on top of the independent dealers. 
 
 
I wanted to really take the show in and get a feel for all that was there.  Truth be told, I think I got more of this ambiance from the various blog postings and twitter feeds.  There is so much to see, one day just isn't enough time to check it all out. 
 
 
In the end I spent the bulk of my day shopping for vintage cards, just like I would do at any card show.  The browse factor is incredible - so many historic items to both the sport of baseball and the collecting hobby.  I probably should have dedicated more time to this, but the buying urge took over. 
 
 
I did manage to meet one other blogger, Chris from Vintage Sportscards, early in the day.  We only got to chat for a minute, but I was honored to meet one of my favourite columnists.  He gave me a brief rundown on some of the things he picked up and I look forward to seeing the postings on the items he mentioned.  I had intended to try and find some other bloggers, but my lack of preparation and the fact that I am still using a dumb-phone did me in on that goal. 
 
 
Hoarding
 
 
One of my recurring card show goals is to pick up a card for my vintage type collection.  I had to go outside of the Baseball genre to fulfill this requirement but it counts: 
 
 
1972-73 OPC Canada vs Russia Tony Esposito
1972-73 OPC Canada vs Russia Jean Ratelle(b-side)
 
 
Found this in a Dollar Bin - Tony Espisoto was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 and this card also fulfills my HoF Type collection - simple but nice design on the card.  I also picked up the Jean Ratelle card - the back of this card is presented above.  Ratelle is also a Hall of Famer inducted in 1985. 
 
 
 
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The bulk of the cards I picked up came out of dollar bins, with a couple of pricier cards. I hope to feature more cards from the NSCC over the next few weeks.