Billyhoyle
Im Not Juan Garcia
Just read this on HK and was definitely worth sharing plus a nice mention of @Mr Paparazzi and @sashsquach Thanks to @41mvp
41mvp said:Hi All,
Since nearly everyone else has taken the time to recap their experience at the National, I will do the same even though I'm a week late.
As you all know by now, a group of us decided to get together and setup a table for the first time. While we were not affiliated with HobbyKings or the site, we certainly had our share of people representing HK. As Matt has mentioned in his recap, we went with the name Card Ninjas- not because of some of the groups Asian decent, but because most of us from the group have collections that are fairly private. So this week was a coming out party of sorts, with many of our collections and "spare" cards on display.
Leading up to the National, I was responsible for getting our table, etc so naturally I also felt responsible to watch over the well being of our table at the show, the people and our precious cards. It really did feel like I had to take care of kids- as young as 30 and as old as 50.
Most of us arrived on Wednesday, and as we started to setup, Mike needed the most help. Wisely, he traveled with his cards in penny sleeves to maximize his luggage space, but it meant we spent a lot of time buying supplies and sleeving the cards. You know he had some monsters when cards like Lebron limited logos, Jordan autos and Paul George NT RAP's were just in penny sleeves.
I didn't have much to setup- I think I only brought around 40 cards to display/potentially sell, so i was done setting up rather quickly. I decided to walk around the show and see what other people were setting up. When i returned, i found out that Randy had cashed out and sold ALL his cards in one transaction. I was like what is this a joke? Are you serious? Randy proceeded to say stonefaced, i'm out, i'm heading home- i dont have anything left to sell! I was shocked, but happy to find out he was just kidding about leaving and was here for the experience.
As we helped Mike setup, a bunch of dealers did come by and managed to purchase quite a bit of Mike's inventory. He was ok with the price, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.
Wednesday was slow for me for the most part, I didn't have a single sale, but I do have one nice story to share. As you may be aware, Upper Deck had a really nice promo where if you busted a case of Fleer Retro Basketball, Football or Hockey, you would get a raffle ticket that guaranteed a top tier prize like a Michael Jordan auto, Lebron James Auto poster, some NHL Draft signed stuff etc. So i picked up a case of Retro Hockey since that's the only licensed product available and proceeded to bust it at the UD booth. As i was on my own, and my buddies back at the table probably have zero interest in hockey, I asked Chris Carlin to help me bust through the case. He did about two boxes worth, while we chattted up. I asked about the future of Exquisite, and he did tell me they plan on doing it again this year for basketball, despite what Panini claims to have an exclusive on some of the rookies that UD have also signed. So we'll see. Now there's a reason UD is doing this promo- you see, outside of basketball, Retro has been (IMO) a complete bust on the football and hockey side. It's really quite interesting to see what may sell really well in one sport, has no interest or demand in another. It also doesn't help that on the hockey side, it's loaded with crap autos. But in any case, it's a wonderfully fun bust, especially if you like licensed product, nice designs and shiny cards. About half way in to the case break, i was regretting the purchase with limited nice hits. Then it got better.... I pulled a PMG Green Evgeni Malkin. Then later in the break, i opened a pack and I'm shorted a hit. I complain to Chris and he says I'm sure we can find something to compensate you. The very next pack from the mini box i opened, was loaded- and not only were there extra hits in the pack, I pulled this....
I was shaking and so excited- now i know most of you on the boards don't do hockey, but i *think* this guy is a household name. UD took a picture of the card, posted in on FB and their blog and it was definitely one of the nicer hockey hits pulled at the show. I finished up the case, and was ready to head back to the table. Oh but wait, the raffle! So i ended up winning a sweet Goodwin Auto poster of Lebron James. As i walked back to our table, i did run into mswift, who i hadn't seen in a few years. He was pretty busy, so i told him to swing by another time so we could chat.
I joyfully returned to our table, and mentioned to a few of the guys about my pull. We celebrated the pull, high fived and drooled over the card later as we tore down for the day. While i didn't have any sales on day one, i did close the day on a high note and I was excited to see what the rest of the week would have in store for us.
Thursday opened up to a slow start, as it looks like dealers don't really setup again until around 10am, so while we were finishing setting up, I remembered from the day before that Randy's son's birthday was this week. Randy wanted to get a lebron auto for him, but since he didn't collect cards, Mike suggested that he buy the poster that i won. So i sold Randy the poster for dirt cheap, he was happy and i was happy that his son would have something nice to hang in his room.
While some NT carnage ensued around me and throughout the show, I was focused on manning our tables. Next time, I'll definitely relax a bit more and take in all the fun of busting- in fact outside of the one case of retro i did, i only busted one redemption pack- what fun is that? haha, call it strong will i suppose.I did enjoy watching other people bust stuff and there was certainly no shortage of that happening around our tables.
My first purchase at the show was from an Asian fella, looking to sell- i had been interested in picking one up over the years but never got around to it. So the price was right and this one was mine:
A father and son from Canada came by our table- he was looking to get a Durant rookie auto, and i had just the card. Mike had previously sold a bunch of Durant autos the day before, but since he was looking for a rookie on card auto, i had just the one. He offered to trade a Lebron SP Signature Auto with inscription and some cash for the Durant and i obliged. In retrospect, i should have asked for a bit more cash, but ah well, a deal is a deal.
While we could have been a lot more organized and socialized the idea that we had a table, word definitely got around over time and people at the show knew we were one of the places to come to to look at awesome basketball cards and to cash out and/or sell. As i'm a member of other forums, i did know that there were several ozzies that were planning to visit the US and attend the National. I had the pleasure of meeting all of them i believe- Brett/Mr Paparazzi, Sunny/sasquatch, and others. it was neat because immediately after one of these mates would ask about a card i had, i could tell they were from Australia and we proceeded to chat it up. Sunny was particularly interested in a card i had- Kevin Durant SPRT 35/50. And so we agreed on a deal that both of us were comfortable with, and he'd wire the remainder of the funds that night and pickup the card the following day. Done deal! I also ended up trading the Lebron i picked up earlier for some cash and another card with one of the other ozzies. Crazy that i made two deals with two OCT'ers in one day!
Jimmer NBA Jersey # PMG Green!
Enter Earl- a serious drose collector, who looks to be moving on from cards and/or taking the time to cash out. Depending on who you talk to, I spent anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half talking to this young fella on a deal. But as anyone who knows me can attest, I'm not just interested in the cards, but the people and the story behind them too. So when Earl opened up about his kids and how he's training them to race bmx bikes and what not, i felt like this guy was definitely worth the time getting to know. I would say because i was tied up in this deal, i missed on an opportunity to get a Kobe Notable Nicknames auto among other things but Mike got it so it's all good. Back to Earl though- he was a walking urbandictionary and taught me words like what a "stack" is or a "whole" - i almost felt like now i was living up to my birth name (or at least Matt's perception of what I looked like) fast forward into time and the deal was done, a fairly big and complex one, but done nonetheless. Here are my pickups which required some cash and cards to get the deal done. Nice way to cap off day 2 at the show.
Throughout the day, i ran into other HK'ers - of course Gerald and his awesome table with amazing Number Pieces and logomen, Richie and his crazy MJ inserts, i even met preciousmetalgems several times and he gave a lot of grading advice to me as i debated to grade a few cards from my PC. Wegotstock, slinkster and many others stopped by several times as well. Celtics made his cameo appearance along with SPAuthentic84, longbomberz, thenwhatjk and lieuteva sabonis. Throughout the show we did attract a lot of families and dads with kids- it was cool each time they came up to show us their pulls and ask us what they were worth. Our table definitely had the fun hangout vibe even though it also brought in a ton of NT reselling as well.
We packed up for the day and walked over to dinner- an unforgettable evening to be sure. Thursday night was supposed to be our "HK" dinner night, and we all went over to the Mexican restaurant. You can read the details in Matt's posts, but for me it was a nice chance to reflect on where I'm at in life. Besides the card talk, i was thoroughly entertained by Nick/lieuteva trying to pick up our waitress. Fortunately Bri was kind enough to help him get her phone number, but the whole process of it all was just a hoot. I sure don't miss those days, and am happy to be a family man now. lol.
Friday was a reunion of sorts, but a short day since some of us were going to the Cubs game. I spent a lot of time talking with mswift, met bdrr and Alabamaslama, talked more with Herbert/stivslovienna, wegotstock, and an old time favorite- lisu! Yes lisu is still around folks- active as ever on FCB and the baseball forums, but she's still collecting basketball too. We got to meet her friend as well and picked up a few key cards for the PC from her NT busts. I finally had a chance to browse around the show a bit, and picked up a few cards as well as had some nice conversations with TILL, some guys who I kept bumping into around the show and what not. After the advice from PMG, i went ahead and raw graded the following card- my first and happy to see the results:
Jersey #'ed 11/14!
Aside from the BGS grading, i picked up a few NT cards here and there, and the generosity continued at our table. Not only did Mike get me a silhouette prime rookie, he when i got back from browsing around, there was a certain card i was looking for in my display case. Thanks to Mike, i was able to secure the card at a good price, even though Mike probably gave an arm and a leg in trade too. Thanks Mike!!! Behold!
We packed up early, and bid Matt and Bri farewell, as we headed to Wrigley Field. While we only got to see an inning or two, it was an amazing experience. Wrigley Field has so much history, and Cubs fans are amazing even though their team is so awful. Safeco Field pales in comparison to Wrigley. I got my obligatory souvenirs for the family, and we headed to Michael Jordan's steakhouse. For those of you that aren't aware, this is strictly MJ's steakhouse by name- there is no memorabilia or decorations so that was a major disappointment. But if you are into pretty decent (overpriced) steaks, it's a place worth checking out.
Day 4 Saturday
Last day at the National and for a Saturday, it didn't seem quite as busy as I thought it would be. I spent a lot of time talking with dhkidd and howard and we exchanged stories about how some PC cards are held hostage and/or overcharged for cards. We talked about the great exquisite613 and others that have come and gone from the hobby. I think we've all ran into that situation one time or another, and unfortunately it's the dark side of the hobby none of us enjoy. Personally it's one of the reasons I am mostly private about my collection, because for every cool dude that's out there, there's also folks who are trying to flip a card and/or make max money. Unfortunately, as I was talking with Howard, someone else secured a deal with Randy on two key cards from Exquisite that i needed for my PC. So ironic that after all this time, it turned out that Randy had these cards all along and i didn't even know it! So lesson learned folks, you don't know until you ask!
The day started to wind down and i resisted the urge to buy/bust more wax, and picked up a few more cards for the PC. Gerald came by to show his massive pull (Kobe Logoman Auto /5) and deekin did made a cameo appearance toward the end of the show, so I was glad to see him and talk a bit and happy to hear that his daughter is doing ok and out of the hospital. Hope you come back to the hobby strong deekin now that life is settling down for you! Since most of us were heading back home early, we all decided to tear down early and call it a show. A great experience, and one I'd definitely like to do again next time the National is in Chicago.
Hope you guys enjoyed the write up, probably nothing quite as exciting as Randy and Matt's posts, but hopefully still entertaining to read nonetheless. Take care and hope you are enjoying the hobby!
