Chicago Sports Spectacular Card Show Preview
The Chicago Sports Spectacular card show is this weekend (running November 22-24) at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois.
For those familiar, this is the same location that hosted the National in July. This marks my second trip to the show, and you can read all about my experience (including an awkward run-in with a former Green Bay Packer and an awesome run-in with a Cubs All-Star) at last year's Chicago Sports Spectacular. Last November I found plenty of vintage Cubs baseball cards, as well as a huge pile of cheap Cubs autographs.
All in all it was a great show and provided good practice on how to work the room for this past year's National. Now that I know the lay of the land, I'm better prepared for this weekend. So, what's on tap?
BULK TRADES
Steve from Twitter is a vendor at the show, and we conducted a big bulk trade last year. Picking him up in the loading dock is what led to my awkward exchange with that former Packers player. The trade netted me 30,000 Cubs baseball cards, and an additional 3,000 came in another trade the next day.
This year's swaps will be a little smaller with an estimated 16,000 Cubs cards coming in from Steve for boxes of Nationals, Diamondbacks, and Astros. David and I will do another Cubs for Red Sox trade for an additional 3,000 cards.
DOLLAR BOXES
What's my plan of attack? My checklist? My want list? There isn't one. Well, kind of. Last year I went in with no real plan of attack and it ended with a mish mash of purchases. From pre-War singles, to banged up 60's, to dollar autos.
Now I have a plan. Strictly dollar, quarter, and dime boxes. My strategy for day one (Saturday) will be to work the room and find the dollar auto boxes. There, I will plant myself and search for goodies (both Cubs and prospects). Next, I will look for the quarter boxes. You can really find some gems in these boxes.
For day two, I'll circle back to the dime and quarter boxes and hope for good bulk buys. I will be staying away from vintage and anything more than a dollar. That's the plan.
NO LIVE BLOG
Two reasons that I will not be covering my weekend card show experience with a live blog.
1) Time. It's very difficult to write out thoughts while your face is buried in a dime box.
2) Wix is not mobile post user friendly. Last year, it was simple to write out my thoughts on the Wix app, and upload pictures to the post. In an update not long after last November's show, the app would no longer allow you to place images anywhere in the post. More recent, it has become more difficult to write in the app as the screen does not move as you type (essentially you are typing blind).
TWITTER UPDATES
Despite there being no live blog, you can still follow my Chicago Sports Spectacular experience on Twitter.