my national experience

until just a couple of weeks before it began, i really didn't have any thought about heading to the national this year. chicago is an easy flight for me, but my collecting style is not one that i thought would play out well at the show as i am a focused player collector and team collector who is working on just one vintage set that is just two cards short of completion. it just didn't seem worth the time or expense.

however, i did consider attending the field of dreams event that pop fly pop shop was working to put together on thursday and friday of the national weekend because the guest of honor was to be steve garvey.

unfortunately, there were not enough tickets sold and the event was canceled. i was disappointed as the only in person interaction i'd had with garvey came when i was 12 and he signed my autograph book before the game in which he passed billy williams for the national league's all-time consecutive games played mark. since then, there have been a couple of near misses where we were in the same town at the same time, but i didn't get to the events he was attending.

at some point in july i realized that the dates for the field of dreams event overlapped with the national, so i looked at the lineup of people appearing in chicago, and there was garvey's name. he was going to be there on sunday, and so i floated the idea to my wife. i looked at it logistically and saw that i could redeem miles for my flight and points for my hotel room. it would be a quick trip - essentially 24 hours in rosemont, but i would be able to have the experience of meeting garvey. she's the best, so she understood.

i had not been to the nscc since it was last in anaheim (sometime in the mid or late 1990's), and i knew it was going to be almost completely different. i tried to time out what i needed to do - doors at 10, garvey signing at 1145, photos 15 minutes before. i wasn't sure about the crowds and didn't know if i would be able to do much until after the meet and greet was over. and then there was the text from the airline saying to get to o'hare three hours early because of all the events (such as lollapalooza) that were taking place in chicago that weekend. time became an annoyance.

at least the people were friendly. on saturday night, i arrived and went to my hotel and wound up chatting with a father/son duo from new orleans at the hotel restaurant. the father had been looking for a 1926 tris speaker item along with some other high end items. he found the speaker but not the michael jordan he was looking for. on sunday morning, i walked over from the hotel and got in line. i talked with a collector from ohio for about an hour as we waited in the non-vip line to gain entry. he had a 1979-80 topps wayne gretzky on him (psa 5) that he was looking to trade for some vintage football. i hope it worked out for him.

they wound up opening the doors at 930 or so, and it took me a little bit to get my bearings. i wanted to go to the autograph area right away to figure out the lay of the land, and after a bit of misdirection i found the space and picked up my will call tickets. 

even though that went quickly, i figured i would stay somewhat close to that part of the convention to keep it easy on myself.

i walked around a bit and found some "sunday special" quarter boxes that netted me $45 worth of cards. no haggling allowed - it was still too early on sunday, and these boxes were already marked down from dollar boxes on thursday. "replenished throughout the weekend" the sign said, and i don't doubt it. the boxes were pretty full and attracted a fair amount of attention. some examples of what i found include a lot of 2021 topps chrome sapphire edition dodgers

and a few other dodgers of interest to me.

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary joe kelly aqua wave refractor

2020 topps corey seager gold parallel

2024 topps jason heyward blue holofoil parallel

2023 topps austin barnes red foil parallel

2013 panini father's day clayton kershaw studio

2021 panini donruss optic clayton kershaw and mookie betts

it wasn't all dodgers, though, as i found some other cards that spoke to me. this 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg orange holo parallel 

fits in my double play collection, as does this 2021 topps carlos correa royal blue parallel

finding the sandberg card was nice since i was in chicago and he had recently passed away. there was a moment of silence in the convention center for him, dave parker, rickey henderson, and pete rose not too long after i found these cards.

i will typically not leave o-pee-chee cards behind, even when they aren't variations of any sort. case in point, these four specimens from 1982

it's not a card show if there aren't some broders thrown in, and this 1985 style will clark card

was a great example of a card that should have been.

how about a 2011 topps vintage chrome freddie freeman insert for a quarter?

yes, please. topps failed to slap the rookie card logo on this card so i am guessing it went unnoticed by people.

here's another decent find for a quarter box - a 2020 topps archives max scherzer san diego "nat'l lea" variation

finally, here's teddy ballgame in his minneapolis millers duds

courtesy of 2022 topps pro debut.

next stop was at a seller with several monster boxes of in person autographs. his booth was very well organized - he had printouts of his inventory on the table so you didn't have to blindly dig, and the cards were organized by team. i was very interested in his 1969 topps milton bradley jim lefebvre auto that was listed, but someone had beaten me to it. still, i was able to add a pair of signed 1978 o-pee-chee cards

of reggie smith and davey lopes, along with three more lopes topps cards

joe ferguson is largely unheralded in the hobby, although he did make an appearance in some recent leaf releases. i was happy to find a 1976 sspc card of his signed

as well as a 1985 opc card signed by the guy who took over as dodger catcher in the post-ferguson era, steve yeager

my topps dodger autograph project ended with the 2020 release, but i still picked up a 2024 topps jonny deluca signed card

as well as a 2022 topps update ryan pepiot signed card

this seller is from the tampa area, so it made sense that he had these guys in his inventory. i was checking my watch constantly and decided to not look through any more of his inventory so as to get to the autograph area with plenty of time to spare. i will say that i wish now that i had returned to this seller later on and looked for more 1978 topps signed cards that i don't already have.

anyway, i made my way to the autograph area for the photo op. jim kelly's group was first in our timeslot, and he was pretty engaging with his fans. it appears that he is healthy and he seemed to be in good spirits even as his family endures a different health crisis. i didn't know about his grandchild's condition until someone in the group asked him about it. hopefully things have improved.

there was one person in line ahead of me for garvey, and we chatted about a number of different things. he was getting a few different autographs that day but garvey was the only photo he wanted. it turns out that his first real baseball memory was garvey's 1984 nlcs home run off of lee smith. when it was time for the photos, he told garvey about it and garvey replied that he was walking down michigan avenue on saturday and people were still mad at him for hitting that homer.

after the photo, we went to the autograph area and waited to be called. it all went smoothly, and garvey was talkative and seemed to enjoy being there. he signed my dodger stadium seat back that i salvaged from a damaged seat i had purchased back when the mccourts redid the seating in the mid 2000's. he signed it big as i requested and it turned out great!

he added his jersey number at no additional cost (or specific request) which was a nice touch.

we exchanged some more pleasantries and that was that. certainly more impactful for me as a lifelong fan (i am reminded of rush's "limelight" lyrics) but he still made me feel welcome and seemed genuinely appreciative of his fans. i did try to take a photo of garvey signing the seat back with my wallet card in the frame but the photo came out super blurry and i wish i hadn't tried and instead chatted with him a bit more.

i had brought a 1975 mengler card 

with me in case i wanted a second item autographed, but i decided against that so this will go back in to my dodger collection (already have one in the garvey binders). 

walking around that area was a bit surreal - hey trevor hoffman how are you? - and it reminded me of a card show i went to in the early 1990s where i saw tom seaver and gaylord perry signing. i am probably too much of a fan sometimes but i was in awe of those guys growing up.

after a bit more wandering, i found a seller with boxes ranging from a quarter to two bucks. it was just a bunch of random stuff thrown together, but i found some cards to take.

2020 topps stickers cody bellinger

b/w shohei ohtani

i could use another of these cards as the belly photo is a nice dodger stadium shot that we don't see too often.

speaking of dodger stadium, here's the back of a 1990 fleer sticker insert with the stadium on the back

that i will put in my dodger stadium mini collection.

another oddball from these boxes - a 2022 topps spotlight 70 by andy friedman darryl strawberry card

featuring a watercolor take on his 1991 topps traded card.

from 2025 bowman, here's a hyeseong kim rockstar rookies insert

and here's another rookie insert - this one from 2013 panini select featuring yasiel puig

i added a few more panini cards from this seller, including inserts featuring duke snider 

and vladimir guerrero 

from 2023 prizm, plus a couple of inserts from 2022 panini mosaic featuring clayton kershaw and guerrero.

they are "men of mastery" i guess.

the last seller i stopped at had quarter boxes that were just a completely random mess of stuff. i quickly found four items of interest - this 2022 topps heritage high numbers tony oliva 1973 candy lid insert 

and three 1975 zoo's who stick ons from 2024 topps heritage

and that was enough. finding one more ryne "rhino" sandberg card seemed fitting, and i decided to not bother digging through any more of this seller's boxes.

i walked around a bit more, noticing a lot of interactive areas and large amounts of real estate dedicated to psa and breakers and that sort of thing. i saw a lot of vintage in cases, and i am sure there were some more bargain boxes around that i could have dug through. however, that text from the airline was weighing on me, so i decided to leave after spending just about 3.5 hours at the show. i had accomplished what i wanted to accomplish, even though i had sort of hoped to finish my '55 bowman set in person.

i headed back to the hotel and got my luggage out of storage and wound up talking with a couple of guys from north carolina as we waited for the hotel shuttle to take us back to o'hare. after i told them i skipped finding those two '55 bowmans and would probably just ebay it, they agreed that it was easier that way, but you miss out on meeting the people when you don't go to the shows. they were right. it's always fun to talk with fellow collectors about the hobby.

postscript - i was walking out of the delta sky club at o'hare to head to the gate for my flight when i ran into paul molitor. you may recall that molitor was, after garvey retired, my favorite non-dodger. he was nice enough to stop and say hello and shake my hand. turns out we were on the same flight back to the twin cities. once i got to the gate area, there was dave winfield waiting for boarding to begin. it's difficult for him to be inconspicuous but he had airbuds in and wasn't really looking around. he did look my way and i gave a subtle wave and asked if i could say hi. he nodded and gave me a thumbs up which was enough. 

so, not a bad day as i was able to shake the hands of two of my all-time favorite players, and say hello to another player whose career i followed closely. still, i probably won't go to the national again unless my friend who currently lives in detroit is around and wants to go to the 2028 event which will be in the motor city. time will tell!

postscript postscript - i decided after i got home to mark my visit to the national by adding this card to my "meaningful and just because" collection

it's a 2025 leaf nscc 15th anniversary paul molitor lazer card, numbered to 15. here's the back:

i wish garvey had been included in one of the nscc sets, but molitor is a nice substitute. i'm certainly glad i made the trip!