2014 National Sports Collectors Convention

[vintagebrett]

Still a ways to go but just wanted to let everyone know that this years National is in Cleveland, Ohio. I will be setting up with William and Corey Leiby of Antique Athlete. Although we will have a smaller booth than last year, we will/hope to have some great items for purchase. The Indians are in town all week so I'm looking forward to getting to at least one game. Anybody else thinking/planning on attending this summer? Information on the show can be found here

http://www.nsccshow.com/

[vintagebrett]

Two months out from the show - hoping to see some glove collectors at the show. We are in booth 1625 and should have a good assortment of vintage leather. Corey Leiby from the Antique Athlete will be sharing the booth with us and he always has great stuff. Anyone going??

[vintagebrett]

About a month to go before the show. I've heard from a few people making the trip and hope others will come out to the convention as well. On twitter, the National reps have been touting this year as the most presale tickets they've ever sold - hope the majority are coming for gloves and not those shiny modern cards!

Oh, just a reminder to glovecrazy/rob - when packing for the show don't forget your winter parka. Temps may sneak down into the high 70's during the evening at the ball game and we wouldn't want you to be freezing like last year.

[GloveCrazy]

Oh, I see how it is. A little jab because of my duty to the boy scout motto. What do you have against boy scouts and America, sir?!

[vintagebrett]

Oh, I see how it is. A little jab because of my duty to the boy scout motto. What do you have against boy scouts and America, sir?!

I'm always prepared - have a tub full of vintage wool sweaters to keep you warm at the show. I know how the slightest change in weather is difficult to handle for you So Cal guys.

[vintagebrett]

One week to go until we leave for the show. If you're still on the fence about going, please try to make it if you can. At the show, we will be located in booth 1625. Our booth will have close to 200 vintage gloves to choose from - most of them very reasonably priced! As well as the leather surplus, there will be bats, baseballs, catalogs, other paper items, uniforms, sweaters, etc. Other sports will be represented too including football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, boxing and probably more. If you're looking for high end items, our good friend Corey Leiby from antiqueathlete.com will be joining us in the booth - he mentioned he's been saving a lot of good stuff and foregoing a website update so that he'll have a great assortment of items at the show. The most fun is getting together with glove collectors, new and old, so please stop by to chat, rest, buy, trade, sell etc. As a special promotion, with any glove purchase we will give you an autographed "Glove Crazy" Rob Mucha napkin or piece of paper (whichever is handy) - he will be happy to personalize it as well. Looking forward to a great show - hoping to sell a lot of gloves, get some new people interested in the hobby and keep Rob and William from partying too hard with Johnny Football.

[vintagebrett]

Hello Cleveland! Made the trip out for the National today and we are ready for a fun week. Stop by the booth to say hello and look through our selection of nice leather.

[vintagebrett]

Here's the booth - stop by if you make it to the show

[ebbets55]

Always the best looking booth at the show. Hope you guys are having fun and the sales are brisk!

JD

[theglovester]

Surely a Rawlings PM Pepper Martin there guys!! See what ya can stir up!!!

Great looking display, wish I had just won the lottery, could do some serious damage to your inventory!!!

[Broomie23]

I really tried to go but unfortunately no luck this year. Thanks for the pics so at least I get the experience-good luck!

[Deacon]

Stopped by the booth yesterday and without a doubt the best Vintage Memorabilia booth at the show. A nice variety of items and you couldn't ask for better hosts.

[vintagebrett]

Thanks for all of the people who came to the show! It was great to catch up with a good number of glove collectors and talk vintage leather. Having attended shows in Cleveland, but never setting up, I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the crowd. Overall, it wasn't as great as the other shows we've done but it was still fun and the events included in the National experience made for an enjoyable trip.

After our setup day Tuesday, which was pretty tiring because the union workers have a rule you can't use a cart with more than two wheels, we got to check out a game at Progressive Field. I had never been there before and enjoyed the stadium. We made the decision to get club seats, so for $75 you had all you could eat and some pretty sweet seats on the 1B line. I definitely got my money's worth of food and it was perfect baseball weather - cool and clear. Definitely a great memory from the trip.

Thursday night we had the chance to visit a great glove/bat collection owned by Paul Montesano. He's a longtime collector and I'm sure most of you have run across him on eBay at one point or another. He welcomed us into his home and we were awed by the collection. I ended up not eating anything because I was too busy be overwhelmed by the interesting items I kept running across. Rob and William each parted with items for their collection so everyone went to bed happy.

The best part of Friday was eating at this old school polish restaurant called Sokolowski's University Inn - it was cafeteria style food that took rib-sticking comfort food to a whole different level. Prices were very fair and we all exited in a welcome food coma. Definitely check it out if you make it to Cleveland.

Overall, it was a fun but tiring week. I really enjoy the interaction with other collectors and hope more people make an effort to attend a show in the future. Next year it's back in Chicago. Very thankful for all the help provided by Rob M. and William this week. I'm sure I'll think of more to write as the week progresses but I'm a little burned out right now.

[GloveCrazy]

I'm a little late posting but am really just recovering from the National experience. I'm in pretty good hiking shape, but this year wiped me out ... in a good way! Spent quality time with some longtime collector friends (the best aspect for me), bought a lot more than I expected to, saw some phenomenal gloves/displays, and had fun experiencing some fun and memorable aspects of Cleveland. Thanks to Brett and William for all the great times, to Paul and Bob for the awesome glove get-together, and to Mark Walters for the paddle-board Lake Erie experience and tour.

Lots of great highlights but I'll start with the glove get-together at Paul's house. I didn't get a chance to see Paul's house the last time I was in Cleveland for the '01 National and was really looking forward to seeing his collection and displays in person. I've sort of followed his collecting over the years so had a pretty good idea of the quality, but to see it in person was absolutely amazing! The quantity of quality items on both gloves and bats was very impressive, especially the amount of glove feature variety which is very hard to accumulate. His displays were phenomenal as well, especially considering he built most of them from scratch. Bob Seedhouse and Mark Walters also brought many special gloves to look at which added to the overall experience. It was a great night with lots of great discussions that left my head spinning trying to come up with potential trade scenarios (it still is). Man I miss glove collector get-togethers!

The Indians game with the all-you-can eat seats was also very cool, and fortunately the Major League movie quotes were kept below the agreed-upon threshold. Ate way too much at the game, but not very much of the healthy variety. Similarly, Sokolowski's authentic Polish cafeteria style restaurant was surprisingly very good -- all of it -- and my indigestion concerns never materialized. Paddle-boarding on Lake Erie with Mark Walters was also very cool, as was revisiting the breadth of his mint Rawlings collection.

Lots of good memories inside the Convention center as well. I thought there was plenty available to buy, and not that much competition for the stuff I really like (though wish there were more buyers for my dealer friends). I really enjoyed walking the floors with my collector friends, which led to some great conversations and memories. One memory that I'll share is when Mark Walter brought in a couple boxes of 10 year old common basketball cards to sell for $5 each. I've had some experience selling unwanted cards so took the opportunity to ridicule him in advance and make him a small wager he'd get no takers. The third card dealer literally just laughed at him, which I think left a scar. We then tried a science experiment to leave one unattended at the food court for 20 minutes. Nobody took it. Good times ... it doesn't take much to entertain me.

Brett, William, and Corey's booth looked great and they had a ton of variety for both the advanced collector and beginner. Lots of great memories there as well.

All for now except some pics ...

[GloveCrazy]