My Time at The National

[justrun7]

Long write up and lots of pictures ahead.

Wednesday:

We arrived in Cleveland around 4:30 to check into our hotel. I had gotten some pretty nice tickets below face value for the Guardians game for my wife and I. I figured it would be nice to have some time with her while the grandparents watch the kids and I won't see her much over the next three days. Before the game started I grabbed a Roman Quinn game used jersey worn in Spring Training.



Unfortunately, on the way home the alternator on my car went out. We had to wait for a tow to a local Ford dealership and my father-in-law had to pick us up after midnight. Luckily my in-laws were staying at the hotel with us and the kids to help out.

Thursday:
My father-in-law and I wake up early to get to the dealership to get my car situated and then he will drop me off at the show and go hang out with my wife and kids. I make it to the show and use this day to focus on adding game used memorabilia to my collection, as I know these items will not be in abundance as the cards will be.

My first deal was for this group of minor league jerseys.






My next deal was for these game used bats and jerseys.






Next, I found my dad this Edgard Clemente jersey for his collection. He was the nephew of Roberto Clemente.


My next deal of the day was for this nice group of vintage flannels. The Rome Colonels were a minor league team in the 1930's through early 1950's. The Limeport jersey is for a local town team in Pennsylvania.




My next deal was for this Nelson Cruz jersey worn on Opening Day in 2022.


My final deal of the day was for these game used jerseys.

[justrun7]

Friday:

Friday I decided to try and focus on cards and any other memorabilia I may find. Cards were much harder to find good deals on and many tables were hard to navigate or see all inventory. Here are some cards I was able to grab Friday.


Next are another pair of jerseys and my favorite story from the weekend. The cool part of these is that I bought them from a vendor that used to be the Oakland Athletics visiting team bat boy. He showed me pictures of him in the dugout with former players and his old Athletics credentials. A cool layer to the story of these jerseys.


Before I left for the day I decided to grab this game used bat of Carlos Santana.


After the show Friday I got my car back but my family had not returned from their daily adventures. I decided to check out the antique store across the street and come home with my oddest find of the week. This was Bob Feller’s hard hat that he wore during the groundbreaking of the Cleveland Indians new Spring Training facility. It’s definitely one of the more obscure items to find, and I was even able to find some tweets of the event and photos of him in the helmet.




Saturday:

On my final day my goal was just to see what I could find, may have missed, or may have been added by dealers from their pickups.

Here were the cards I picked up:


Before I left, I decided to pick up some more jerseys I had been eyeing up the previous days.


Overall, I felt like it was a very successful National for me. I felt like I was able to find a nice mix of items I could re-sell and items I could add to my personal collection. Memorabilia felt like it was much easier to find below marker deals on than cards, but that was just my experience and the items I was looking for. If you read all of this, thank you. Also, if I did any deals with you, thank you as well.

[ThatGuyPal]

That Vlad glove relic is SICK! What happened to Panini putting amazing relics like that in products?

Nice trp breakdown and thanks for the pictures, makes posts so much better and less bland than just reading the name of the card etc you bought.

Some of those jerseys are in great condition, a reminder the National isnt all about cardboard.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Sounds like you had a great show! Amazing pickups!

[GoTribe!!!]

Great write-up. Thanks for sharing. A lot of those jerseys are really cool.

[tmoore_25]

That's an awful lot of jerseys. What do you do with them when you get them home? Do you display them somehow or do you just put them away? If displayed, I'm sure we'd all love to see some pics of that room.

[justrun7]

Originally Posted by ThatGuyPal

That Vlad glove relic is SICK! What happened to Panini putting amazing relics like that in products?

Nice trp breakdown and thanks for the pictures, makes posts so much better and less bland than just reading the name of the card etc you bought.

Some of those jerseys are in great condition, a reminder the National isnt all about cardboard.

Thanks. I thought it was the coolest card I picked up. I probably overpaid but it was too nice to pass up. Yes, I agree that people seem to forget it is called The National Sports Collectors Convention and not just about cards.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Sounds like you had a great show! Amazing pickups!

Originally Posted by GoTribe!!!

Great write-up. Thanks for sharing. A lot of those jerseys are really cool.

Thanks to you both. It was definitely a great show.

Originally Posted by tmoore_25

That's an awful lot of jerseys. What do you do with them when you get them home? Do you display them somehow or do you just put them away? If displayed, I'm sure we'd all love to see some pics of that room.

I am not keeping all the jerseys. I have made some available on eBay. The others are hanging in my game used closet.

[the mesiah]

That’s a cool Miami hurricanes jersey