Did You All Have Fun at the National???

Did you find those cards that have been burning a hole in your want lists?

Did you meet and mingle with the top names in the Hobby industry?

Did you gather with your online friends at parties after (or maybe even before) the convention?

Did you meet your favorite Hobby bloggers at the convention?

Was the convention a blast?

For me, the answer to the first four questions is no. And for the fifth, I couldn't tell you.

Because I didn't get to go.

Before you break out the tiny violins, it wasn't all that big a deal...even if the show was down the street from my house.

There was a weekend fair in a town here in the northern suburbs of Chicago that the family bakery got to go to and sell cupcakes, cookies, mini apple pies, and the like. Our kids and their cousins worked their tails off selling and grabbing things out of the cooler to keep up with the demand. Somebody had to watch the booth even with the kids pretty much running the show. That's where I come in. So instead of perusing the aisles upon aisles of card nirvana, and rubbing elbows with the Hobby Industry, I was perusing the aisles of food stands and carnival rides, serving pastries to the crowds.

In my downtime, I did keep up with Hobby events. I read twitter feeds from those who attended the show and kept tabs on the Hobby forums to see what people were able to find. I also was finally able to put away my 2013 Topps Series II cards into the big binder. Ditto for the Topps Pro Debut set from 2013. Tell me, do you think I should go after the SP card of the guy that won that "Be a Minor Leaguer for a Day" contest (Tim Kane, right?) I also have the 2013 Topps Archives set in a binder so until Allen and Ginter's comes out this week (why did Topps not push the "street date" to the week of the National??!), I'm up to date on my card collecting this year (now, if I could only finish the team sets from earlier this year, I'd be all set).

On an unrelated note, my daughter tells me that two Topps employees even stopped by the bakery on Thursday. She even told them that her dad was such a big collector that he even writes a humble, little blog about it.

So I leave with a little request to anybody from Topps who might actually reads this blog, remembers finding their way to Park Ridge, and stopped by a little bakery called Mrs. A's Cupcakes @ the Pickwick, please do me a favor: Come back in 2015 when the National comes back to the Windy City. Or heck, come on by anytime you are in town. Or order online. We can ship it out to you.

Okay, Mom. Free plug for the store is in.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. If anybody has a Yasiel Puig card that they'd like to sell or trade for, I'm all ears. Send me an offer. Thanks jba