Day Two of the National Review...Why You Should Bring the Kids

The Saturday show was a lot busier than Thursday like I thought. More of a crowd, and definitely lots of kids. I brought my daughter along this time, and she had fun as well.

I will skip the explanation as to what was at the show (that was done on Thursday). So I will just note some observations not covered previously:

• Again, disappointed that Topps did not make an appearance, although they were covered by their eTopps and Topps Vault programs. I do wish that they had a bigger presence.
• The Benchwarmers booth was noticably close to the "Family Area" (no neither I nor my daughter went to visit it...on both days!!!)
• Kids are free!!! And they got stuff for free too!!! Can't stop with the exclamation points!!!
• At the eTopps booth, we did get a TON of Toppstown codes cards (and no, we are dividing them up between ourselves and my son who didn't go, so don't ask me for any).
• The box wars took place by the Blowout Cards booth. Loud, but not as insane as when Topps had three years ago.
• Absent because of his boycott was everybody's good friend Alan "Mr. Mint" Rosen.

Both my daughter and I did some spending. What did we get???

My daughter is now the proud owner of the following items:

• One 55-card 2008 Topps Chicago Cubs gift set
• One deck of Northside Chicago Heroes playing cards
• One 2008 Upper Deck (she's gone to the dark side...hope to save her) Kosuke Fukudome Rookie Card (with the rookie card logo)
• One Topps Finest Shawn Merriman autograph card (from the eTopps promo. Thanks to the guy that let her spin the wheel).
• One Chicago Cubs Teddy Bear that she has named Marco (don't ask...)

As for me:

• One 55-card 2008 Topps NY Yankees gift set
• One 55-card 2008 Topps NY Mets gift set (without the auto, I didn't need it, and they lowered the price if I offered to go ahead and let them keep the card...Davey Johnson MGR card)
• One 2008 Topps Hobby Factory set with the ten bonus rookie variation cards (and the Kosuke Fukudome Topps card)
• One 2008 Topps All-Star Game Factory set with the five bonus Yankee cards in it.

It may not look like I got a lot of stuff or that I spent too much on cards that I already have, but I wanted the bonus cards, and will be glad to sell the sets on the Bay at a later time.

Overall, I was very happy with the show. I would have bought more again, had it not been for the fact that I already bought the Allen and Ginter set beforehand. The next show that comes to Rosemont will be the Chicago Sun-Times show that comes in November. Having my daughter there allowed me to share with her my insane Hobby. She asked lots of questions, most of them I was able to answer. She didn't mind running around the aisles with her madman of a father.

The show next year is in Cleveland, and may not come back to Chicago for another three years. But when it does, I'll be making sure to go, and I'll bring my son this time.

Pictures will be coming soon. Took some decent shots of the show and of Dmitri Young's PSA 10 collection of Rookie Cards.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama