The National Sports Collector’s Convention was held in Chicago several months ago, and it was the second one I was lucky enough to attend. My rookie year on 2015 was quite the adventure. I bought a lot of cards and was able to write about a small percentage of them. Thanks to a better financial situation, a better understanding of the layout and what to expect on the show floor, and a slew of additional players to collect, my haul was significantly larger.
It was a great show, and I really look forward to going again in 2019 when it comes back this way. In the meantime, I’ll try to get caught up a bit on all the cards I got in ’15 and ’17.
To start, we’re looking at the first booth I hit on the first day: the dimeboxes. Yes, the National actually had a booth with dimeboxes! They were quite busy, as you could imagine, but I managed to wedge my way in.
After the damage was done, I wound up with 31 cards I needed and several I didn’t. I figured at a dime each, why bother checking the want lists. I would rely on my memory and if it was wrong, then oh well. Besides, all of these cards came in toploaders, so if it’s a duplicate, I bought a 10 cent toploader.
Why did people like this set?
This isn’t bad freebie with a 10 cent toploader. Obviously most of the pairings in Bowman’s Best were not going to work out well for the new guy, but Dmitri had himself a respectable career. Tough to match a HOF player.
Just say “no” to peeling
This Finest was already freed. I’m anti-peeling, but this card came that way. It’s the No-Protectors version, which can not only be determined from the lack of the coating on the front, but also from this metallic finish on the back. Glad they did that, because otherwise it would very tough to tell these days with all those peel monsters out there!
This would be a terrible SI cover
So, to review, 1997 was a year. Moving on.
Still weird to see him as a Blue Jay
This looks like some of the crappy 1995-96 basketball inserts Topps put out that I’m collecting. Overabundance of shine and an off-putting clunky border.
For a dime!
RBI #32
May 15, 1994 – White Sox at Rangers
Frank drove in two runs in this 9-6 victory. The first came in the top of the first to put the Sox up 1-0. After a Joey Cora double, Thomas decided to add a double of his own to bring him home.
Too many of these
I don’t know if leading the league in OBP is worth a 20th Anniversary tribute.
Don’t care how good the season was, the card is basic
I don’t know if Maddux’s 1998 card is worth being called one of Berger’s Best.
Picture just as good as 1998 Topps
Now this is an accomplishment worthy of a baseball card. I’m not wild about the design, but like that the highlight is mentioned on the front.
The smile of a 2-time MVP
The last of the Thomas and Maddux cards I found from the dimebox was this. As you can imagine there were a ton of recent inserts in there so I saw this one several times over. Had to pick up one copy.
There it is! I’m finally talking about the National. I’ll do a couple more dimebox posts and then we’ll theme it up in other ways. I have a TON to cover from the show eventually, including some really big time cards.
I also attended the National in Chicago last summer. I came across a dime box that was filled with mid to late 90’s cards. I stood there for well over an hour and came away with a nice stack of cards. I didn’t get to look at much else. The amount of tables there is overwhelming for sure.
It’s such a daunting show. I’m sure we crossed paths without realizing it a few times. If you have a chance to go for more days, it’s worth it. I spent 4 days there and still didn’t search all the boxes I wanted to
[…] more dimebox finds. If you missed the first part of this adventure, go ahead and read up on it here. These ten cent treasures were kind to me. It was interesting to see what kind of random stuff […]
[…] anything about the National, which isn’t good because I have a lot to cover still. The first two parts of the dimebox focused on what I’ve been calling the “legacy” […]