2003 National Sportscard Convention
Chris and Jeff Mullen at the National
The 2003 National Convention was held in Atlantic City, NJ from Thursday, July 24, 2003, to Sunday, July 27, 2003. Wednesday, like usual, was reserved for dealer set up and was not open to the general public. I arrived in Atlantic City at around 2pm on Wednesday during dealer set up. Thankfully, I already had arranged to pick up three dealer passes to the National so that I (and my brother Chris and boss Dan) could get into the show a day before the general public. Even though this was my first National, I had heard from numerous sources that all of the big "finds" would occur on Wednesday night. For the most part, my sources were correct.
The VIP Lounge at the National: The Men's Restroom
So we walk into the National and my brother wants to purchase a VIP pack. Why? Because the VIP pack gets you 3 exclusive promotional Lebron James cards. The VIP pack was $100 and we already had free passes so I was like "what, are you stupid?" In true Mullen fashion, Chris did not listen to me and bought the VIP pack (we found out later that you could also get the cards from opening boxes of Upper Deck in front of Upper Deck representatives). Anyway, we go up an escalator to get to the main floor and we immediately notice, at the top of the escalator, a VIP Club Lounge sign ... positioned right in front of the Mens restroom. The sign was here for the entire convention.
My Big Wednesday Buy
My Big Buy
Like I said above ... I had heard that the time to search for great buys is on Wednesday night because you get to beat most of the advanced collectors to the punch. Translation? You have two hours to run through the entire showroom looking for the "diamonds in the rough" ... the jewels that pop up every year. I had already received what I thought was going to be my only jewel from Hank ... the phenomenal 1950 Bread for Energy George Mikan card (only about 8 exist ... my second pick for the "Honus Wagner Card" of Basketball where the first is the Scott's Mikan). Anyway, a senior partner in my firm, Dan Gantt had accompanied me to the show. Dan's interests are rooted in Pre-WWI baseball cards. However, Dan was excited to see the card that I had spent the entire card ride talking about. After I showed Dan the card, we parted ways and start looking through the tables. About 30 minutes in "the hunt" I check my cell phone and notice that I have a voice message. The message is from Dan and goes "Hey Jeff ... you know that card you just showed me ... well there is one over here that looks very similar to it ... its down at a table near the entrance." Now, according to my NordicTrak I lose 40 calories per minute when I run at a speed of 5 miles an hour. During the next minute, however, I probably lost a good 100 calories. Instead of slowing looking at every card and inching down the aisles ... I was flying towards my goal ... the card that Dan said looked similar to the BFE. I already had my suspicions that Dan had landed a card that I was hoping to see pop up at the National ... a 1950 Bread for Health Mikan. My assumption was correct. A Mikan Bread for Health. These cards do pop up every few years and I already had one in my collection. The bread label was in average condition (e.g., a PSA collector would think the card is worthless because of its rugged condition). Yet, the BFH Mikan was better than the one I already owned. The dealer was asking $750. When I saw the price tag, I knew that I was walking away with it. I mean when I first looked at it, I was expecting to see a price tag of $2,000. After a failed attempt to get the price down (thanks to my brother Chris who immediately yelled out "oh shit" when he saw the card) ... I forked down the $750 in cash. If a great BFH Mikan ever pops up ... expect it to go for a good $5,000. I have included pictures of both my BFH Mikans. I can't tell which one I like better. They both have their flaws. For now, I'm going with the one from the National. BFH Mikan From National, My First BFH Mikan.
Booth 466: Hank Reizes' (shown) and John Parker's Booth
Booth 466 Video: Booth 466
Booth 466 was the best booth at the National for vintage basketball cards. It was run by John Parker and contained, as the sign suggests, 99% basketball. Hank was responsible for populating only a single display cabinet so John gets a majority of the cudoes on this one. John's items included a vast array of pre-1970 oddball cards, publications, jerseys, advertisements, and basketballs (the largest set of vintage basketball's for sale at the National).
Cards of Booth 466 Movie: 1967 KTAV Front, Movie: 1967 KTAV Back, 1899 Enamaline Oil Lot
For those of you not at the National ... I will exhibit John Parker's oddball cards for sale. I would have picked up more of his cards ... but the BFH Mikan killed me (but in a good way). So ... where to start ... Upper Left you see some Kahn's cards over a batch of Quaker Oat Sport odditiest. Moving left we see a large group of 1899 Enamaline Oil Sporting Girls (one was basketball missing the back ... $180) and a group of Essex Meats. Next to the meats are some 1910 Murads (one was really nice and didn't even have the tax stamp ($75). All the way to the left we see a 1967 KATV card, some Jack in the Box and some Icees next to a trimmed Mikan exhibit ($100) some Hawaiin Oil Chiefs ($30). In the bottom left hand corner we had 2 busch bavarian beer sets. In the bottom right hand corner we have a group of 1968 Carnation Milks (~$100 each). Email me if you want John Parker's contact information to buy some of these cards. Check out the movies for some more awesome items that John Parker was selling.
Hank's Wednesday Find Movie: 1901 Cigar Box
Before I had even got to the National on Wednesday, Hank had already found one of the "gems" that had popped up at this years national. Hank had found a 1901 Cigar Box that was for an early Baltimore team. Awesome!!! , 1901 Cigar Box Pic1, 1901 Cigar Box Pic2.
Hank's Thursday Find Movie: 1910 B-33 Blanket Uncut Strip
I stopped by Hank's booth late Thursday and Hank told me that he had another great find. Hank reaches underneath the table and pulls out an uncut strip of three B-33 blankets from Brown University. Now, this may not seem to interesting to most, but Hank let me in on the fact that it confirms a few things about this series. For one thing, the strip helps us understand why there is a dramatic difference in the number of blankets out there for a particular school. I mean there are about 10 blankets where only about 5 exist and then there are school where literally hundreds exist. The strip shows us that they were printed in school strips. Therefore, more strips could be printed for the popular schools (instead of sheets with an even distribution that would require you to print a Johns Hopkins blanket for every Harvard blanket you wanted). The other thing it suggests is that there is a Bucknell blanket. A bucknell tennis blanket is known, but no basketball. The strip that Hank found had three blankets on it and each blanket depicted a different sport. So, the blanket strengthens the assumption that Bucknell basketball B-33 was produced. Hanks strip neither has a basketball nor a tennis blanket.
The Dinner Movie of the Dinner
This was the highlight of the show for me. I finally got to meet the people I had befriended over the last few years over the phone. Albeit we had a few technical difficulties with the table size (or read as Mike's big shoulders), and a few other things, the dinner was awesome. Next year, however, I think that I am just going to rent out a room in a bar on Wednesday night (since everyone fly's in Wednesday night anyway) and just have everyone come over when they get in. The people in attendance were as follows. I probably messed up the spelling of everyone's name ... for that I'm sorry.
Doug N.: Absolutely great guy who collects turn of the century basketball postcards, publications, memorabilia and cards.
Jeff Mullen: Me
Chris Mullen: A thinner kind of me
Dan G.: One of my 52 bosses. One of the most advanced collectors of pre-WWI baseball cards on the planet (and the most unknown collector).
Mike R.: This guy is awesome. I mean I've known him only for about four months and I would already call him a great friend ... not because I know everything about him ... but because he is the type of guy that is very outgoing, sociable, and loves to help people succeed. He's one of those guys that gets happy by making people happy. Anyway, Mike has the nicest 1948 Bowman and 1957 Topps set on the planet. Period. For example, if he ever put his 1957 topps set on the registry, he would be ahead of the current leader by like half a point!!!
Lisa: Mike's long-term girlfriend. Just like Mike, she is extremely sociable and very kind. I mean I probably talked to Lisa more than anyone else at the dinner ... and she is not a collector of basketball cards at all!! (even though she has learned a lot from Mike through osmosis)
Hank Reizes: Has one of the top pre-1900 basketball memorabilia collections around. He just retired and has been selling some of his items ... it looks like he might turn into a dealer ... If so ... that would be great for the hobby.
John Parker: Right up there with Mike Mosier and Steve Taft as being the best oddball vintage basketball card dealers.
Harold: A close friend of Mike, Harold is working on one kick ass 1957 set. Probably the third youngest in the group (my brother and I were the babies), Harold is a dentist who had one of the best finds this year in the oddball sector ... a Busch Bavarian Beer basketball set for ... $10 ... That is $2 a card!!! and in NRMT!!!
Rich: One of the largest game-worn basketball jersey collectors out there
Chris S.: The nicest 1969 Topps set in the world (like 40% in PSA 9). Chris has tons of cards that I've never even seen examples of before. A great guy that lives near Fort Washington PA.
1948 Bowman
I saw 3 PSA 9s ... Lee Roy Robbins ($2,400), Risen ($3,000), and Byrnes ($2,500). The Risen sold on Thursday (for less than the asking price). One dealer had about 30 PSA 8s and scattered PSA 8s were present throughout the show. I also noticed a few really great raw 1948s. In terms of variations, two dealers had grey backs (one had 2, the other had about 40) and one dealer had a grey back/triple print (multiple prints of a movie star face on the back). Except for the outrageous prices, I was happy with the 1948 bowman presence at the show.
1957 Topps
The show was lacking. I only saw 3 PSA 8 1957 Topps cards. They were Pettit, McCauley, and Russel ($4,500). In terms of raw 1957s, I noticed a few hundred that would grade at a PSA 4 or 5 level, except for about 5 raw 1957s that would grade at a 7 or 8 (Andy's Sportscards).
1961 Fleer
Piedmont Sportscards sold the PSA 10 West.
1968 Topps Test
None, Zippo, Zilch.
1969 and 1970 Topps
There was one dealer with really nice raw 1969s (that would grade on the 7 or 8 level). I saw a few graded 1969s/1970s but most were PSA 7s. Mint State Inc. had the only high grade tall boys.
1971 Topps Trios
I saw my first batch of 1971 Topps Trios proof panels. They would have graded PSA 8 or maybe even 9. They were pristine. The difference between the proofs and the actual panels is that there are no white lines separating each panel (thus, they basically are uncut stickers panels). They have always been referred to as proofs, but I think that they may just be a variations (e.g., the panel cutting/defining machine didn't work for a few sheets and those sheets reached the public via packs). The guy wanted $400 a pop.
Ranting and Raving
My Biggest Problem With The National
Unless You Work For A Major Card Company You Should Skip
My biggest problem with the national was with the modern sportscard companies now officially suck balls. I love opening modern wax with my brother ... its fun and it is what we used to do when we were kids. Most of the major card manufacturer's have promotions where you trade in wrappers for cool cards (e.g., Lebrom James Promos). I've gone to about 6 fanfests in my life (although none in the last 3 or 4 years) and my brother and I would always have a blast opening packs and trading in the wrappers for cool cards. The problem with this national is that the companies, e.g., Upper Deck, required you to 1) present an unopened box to them; 2)open the box, and all the packs, in front of them; and then 3) you had to give them all your wrappers (like in the good ole days).
As a result, A) the line was like and hour long; and B) you had to rip open your $130 box in like a minute. I mean it was horrible, the Upper Deck representatives would grab packs and rip them open for you to speed the process up. Translation: I FUCKING HATE THE MAJOR SPORTS CARDS COMPANIES NOW (this is the first time that I used the F#$# word on my site in its true glory).
After my brother and I did this once and got one set of LeBron James cards (which are already selling for a few hundred on ebay) and bought 2 more Upper Deck boxes for $130 each ... we decided to take our chances. We decided to sit on a bench and open them up slowly. We were the only ones that enjoyed opening a box of Upper Deck cards that day. We did attempt to get the LeBron James cards and we explained why we had not followed the "upper deck rules" but we were denied because we didn't follow the rules (I think it was the dealer badges that we were wearing). I understand that some moron at Upper Deck probably thought that this was the best way to exclude dealers from getting the LeBron James cards (even though the dealers were the ONLY ones with smiles on there faces when they literally brought cases of uninteresting boxes that they couldn't normally sell and sat back while the U.D. associates opened the packs for them ... walking about with 20-50 LeBron James Packs).
Now, the moron obviously had good intentions, I mean if you just had to hand in wrappers then the dealers could just save them throughout the year and trade them in for all the promos on Thursday morning (thus not one collector would get a promo). Upper Deck was smart in 1989. Upper Deck was dumb in 2003. Hopefully, Upper Deck won't be dump in 2004. Figure out a way for collectors to enjoy the money they spend. I fell like Upper Deck owes me $5 per pack that they opened for me. The funniest line from Upper Deck at the National? Someone was opening a pack for a kid and saw a shiny card in the middle "do you want me to take out the shiny card?". And to make matters worse ... Upper Deck had ZERO hot girls. I mean Collection Monster knows how to market. The trump towers on Friday ... KNOWS HOW TO MARKET. Upper Deck? Sucks. However, the young bald guy that was in his late 20s/early 30s at Upper Deck was one of the coolest guys I spoke to at the National. My solution calls for putting him in charge of next years national.
© 2003
