Working Towards National 2019

My wife and I are going to the National for the first time this year. I'm starting to get excited, and I normally can't visualize more than a week ahead of time. We have our flights and hotel booked. We will be buying our show tickets online shortly when we decide which day(s) to go. We have White Sox tickets for the Wednesday and Cubs tickets for the Saturday. We thought about making it an extended trip and trying to hit MKE and/or MSP, too, but trying to keep things real. We are working out a little and getting in shape for lots of walking and food. I'm starting to sell stuff to put together more raw cash. I even got my crypto account activated again so I could sell the little bit of fake money I still had now that it's on an upswing. We're saving money by not buying crap now so we can buy other, presumably better crap later. And to that end, although I normally have 4-5 pages worth of stuff on my ebay watchlist, I deleted it down to about 15 items that I'm pretty sure to bid on. That last part helps me from distracting myself from more important targets, keeping me focused. It's also relieved a big psychic weight. I now don't have to contemplate why I don't just go ahead and get this card or that that I would like to own but don't have a real compulsion for. Out of sight, out of mind. It's been a good experience so far, and the show isn't for another 4 months.

Anyone else going? Any tips for stuff that happens? I know Topps, Panini, etc sometimes have promotions where you open packs or something at their booths to get special promo packs, like the Bowman Chrome cards and stuff. Is that all the time or a special event? Wife loves ripping packs more than anything, so she lit up when she heard about that. Neither of us are big IP autograph people, so probably won't get any unless it's someone incredible.

I am just jealous that you have a wife that not only tolerates the hobby, but apparently even participates and enjoys it too?!

I do think I had a small breakthrough this past week though, after my wife joined me as I met an eBay seller that I have gotten to know online over the last 1-2 years. We were in his area and I suggested we meet. He used to work for a MLB club in the front office. He is a wonderful story teller and she did seem to enjoy the time we spent with him. When I later suggested that I might try to treat myself and buy a certain fairly expensive item he has and showed me during the visit, she didn't freak out or even balk at it. She said something to the effect that it would be something I would hold on to for a long time and later, that it was a milestone birthday coming up for me too, implying it would be a nice way to celebrate. That is about as much cooperation as I get for hobby related stuff from my wife!

You guy's have awesome wives. When ever I show my wife something new from my collection that excites me. She just give me oh that's nice honey. As long as your happy look.

I will be there with [MENTION=1810]phillyfan0417[/MENTION]

I will be there as well.

There are definitely promos that will be available with wax purchases. The value dropped significantly between 2017 and 2018, so with it being in Chicago and the hobby being so strong, I expect they won't carry much value. The info should be available a few days in advance. I don't open wax any other time of the year. I don't really collect new baseball, but the Topps promo had much more value than Panini, so that is what I did more of.

I would try to be there as long as possible and on Thursday and Friday. Chicago gets a great turnout and I bet Saturday is difficult to walk. It will take much more time to see everything than you can imagine. I don't do vintage and I don't dig and I pretty much saw everything twice between Thursday and Sunday last year.

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