The experience of going to the National will really prepare and inform future expectations of the show. Before going in, I had this weird mind set that basically anything would be available for the picking if you just looked in the right spot.
I had high hopes that I would make some really good progress on my Ryan Dempster and Carlos Marmol collections. I’ve bought a lot of the bigger/lower numbered cards off of ebay at this point, and the majority of what’s left are base cards and high quantity parallels where I can’t rationalize paying for shipping. That’s where I thought the National would come in.
I figured there would be plenty of vendors with team separated cheapies ready for plucking. There were some team-based sections, but the super cheap was absent, and the less popular players were also largely absent. That’s when it hit me.
It doesn’t make sense for a card seller to bring a bunch of cards of non-semi-stars to a show where the objective is to move inventory and make as much profit as possible. There can’t be that many Ryan Dempster collectors out there, and there certainly can’t be many collecting Marmol – even if we are talking about a “local” show. To add to this, many of these people will have inventory tailored to their hometown, so it again makes sense that not too many have Chicago stock in droves.
It was surprising at the time, because even a player like Kerry Wood was tough to come by. I did well on the last day on finding stuff for him, but he’s a popular, still sought after player in this area, and very few booths carried anything of his in the bargain section. Unless it was all scooped up before I arrived, but I doubt it.
What this all means is that I walked away from the show with only three new Dempster cards and only three new Marmol cards. But they’re nice ones that fit my goal.
Before NSCC Dempster – 156 of 502 (31.08%)
After NSCC Dempster – 159 of 502 (31.67%)
On a side note, I’m going to stop doing the captions on the pictures. Wordpress updated and it looks really dumb now and I can’t change it back to the way it used to be.
Yay! We start with a refractor of the 2004 variety. To finish the chrome rainbow for this year, I only need the Gold (which was more common/unnumbered 11 years ago), and the Red X-fractor (with a print run of 61 but also not numbered on card). I should be able to make that happen one of these days.
Card #2 is another chrome. In this case, I already had the refractor of this (although I’m still missing the regular Topps Chrome refractor). Now to complete 2010 Heritage, I’m missing the black refractor, which pops up on ebay from time to time with a high starting price ($20 or so) and the advertising panel(s).
Oh wow, I’m really close to being done with all 2011 Bowman cards. After picking up this green paper for a tiny bit of green paper, I only need the Chrome and Chrome Refractor. Very attainable. I bet some of you have it in your houses right now. If so, let me know. Maybe I should set up a most wanted list.
Unfortunately, that’s it for Dempster. On to Marmol, where 3 cards accounts for a better percentage jump.
Before NSCC Marmol – 82 of 161 (50.93%)
After NSCC Marmol – 85 of 161 (52.80%)
See, parallels like this are much needed. As proof, for 2011 Topps base set, I still need 5 more parallels, which accounts for a whopping 3.1% of my needs list. I will say it’s great to see this collection get securely over the 50% mark.
From 2011 to 2012 we go. I only need 3 more parallels for this year: the Wal-Mart, the Target, and the black border. I’m surprised I don’t have the black version. Normally I scoop those up pretty quick.
Lastly, we have the 2013 edition of this game. Still need 7 parallels for this set. Yeesh! This wrapper redemption card looks really nice. I’ve been wanting it for some time, actually, and I’m glad I got to hand pick it.
So, even though I didn’t make monumental progress with these player collections, I still made progress. How can you be mad at that? I guess the next step is to hit some more local shows and shops to really make serious dents.
This happens to me a lot at card shows, but mostly with sets. I’ll see nothing but stars or semi-stars from a certain set and I’ll ask if they have any of the commons in the back and they tell me unapologetically that, no, they’re at home. I’m always surprised by their response, but then I realize that they can’t bring their whole inventory with them.
So, then my next thought is, “maybe I can go home with them.”