National-sized Expectations

It's less than three months away... The autograph-guest lineup for the National has been announced and it looks like the entire Major-League roster from the late 1970s will be in attendance: Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Pete Rose, Ferguson Jenkins, George Foster, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer, Bruce Sutter, etc. It should be interesting to see what the hierarchy of superstars will be, if everyone will sit peacefully side by side at long tables, or if some of the old timers will conspire on a power grab or coup for the best folding chair and a spot near the men's room ...

I'm interested to see what some of these guys look like now. Did Bruce Sutter just let his beard consume the rest of his face? Does George Foster still look like he did on his 1986 Topps card (the one where he's wearing shades like he's getting ready for his moonlighting gig as a keyboardist in a funk band)? Or do they all look like normal, older men?...

I don't see this anywhere on the NSCC website, but I would love to see some panel discussions as part of the show. Certainly on the state and future of the sports trading card and memorabilia industry, but also on the emergence of blogging (probably about four or five years overdue on this topic) and customer interaction ...

I also hope Topps, Tristar, Panini, Upper Deck, and some of the other larger companies do Apple-like product presentations. It would be encouraging to see the thought-leader companies take a commanding presence with customers in a venue away from the trade show floor, because I have a feeling I know what the industry trade show floor booths will be like: tons of people grabbing for anything and everything not bolted down. I'm thinking stacks of sell sheets, bins of individually wrapped promo packs, boxes of VIP card sets stacked behind presentation tables, lanyard-wearing industry types swigging bottled water and checking their BlackBerrys, and kids presenting fistfuls of bunched-up pack wrappers to trade in for a special Cal Ripken card. Oh, and lots of pushing ...

I'm not a fan of big crowds, which will make my few days at the National all the more harrowing, but I'll be impressed greatly if the show is anything like or anywhere near the intensity of Comic Con ...

What I'm hoping to accomplish at the show:

1. Meet the company representatives. Learn about their stuff for 2013 and beyond.
2. Meet reps from smaller, more eccentric companies and independent entrepreneurs with booths.
3. Get a few cards I've always wanted and hoard up on miscuts, blank-backs, and wrong-backs
4. Try to talk with some of the autograph guests without waiting in line for an hour (or more)
5. Swig bottled water with a lanyard around my neck and try not to get trampled by the teeming masses.

The reason I'm going:

To live-blog and tweet about what I find. This has been one of my goals since all the way back in 2006, when I started The Baseball Card Blog. I figure I'll post some videos, maybe an audio interview, some Twitter and Facebook updates, and write, write, write. I've never been to a show of this size, and despite all my bluster, I really don't know what kind of experience I'll have.