• Cleveland in 2007
• Baltimore in 2010
• Baltimore in 2012
• Atlantic City in 2016

• It wasn't all guys in their 40's, 50's and 60's - there were families (wives and kids). I saw many more teenagers at this show than in previous years.
• It was really busy for a Thursday - there was a huge swarm of folks ready to enter at 10am (and it stayed busy all day).
• The corporate sponsorship is a main thing - from the banners all over the convention center to the wrist bands.
• It also seems like there are a lot more companies offering grading services and online marketplaces.
• From what I saw, dealers were selling roughly 60% newer cards, 40% vintage. I would think it was the opposite ratio at my last National.
• Prices on items seemed really HIGH consistently. And every dealer had display cases loaded with high end slabbed cards.
• There were fewer dealers selling autographed cards than what I remember and the selection was considerably less than what I saw in Baltimore in 2010-2012. I guess we've collectively picked over the best inventories since then.
• There was NO INTERNET OR PHONE RECEPTION for just about anyone. Not being able to look up my wantlists or playing signing habits on SCN was definitely a challenge. Dealers had problems charging folks credit cards.

• It was really nice to get to meet a few SCN members. Without question this was the highlight of the show for me.
• It is awesome there is so much interest in sports collectibles and people were definitely buying things. I wouldn't have thought this would be a reality in 2019.
• The show seemed bigger, more commercial, and with fewer deals than at previous National shows I have been to. I came with the intention to pick up a bunch of items, but I would up spending more on admission + parking + tolls than on purchases.
• I rarely buy from dealers that do not put prices on their cards and I noticed this from other buyers too.
• I was exhausted and burnt out by the end of the 7 hour marathon. It was just so crowded and some folks needed some/better deodorant.
• I realize now that I like going to these mega-shows with other collectors I know rather than walking around solo. I tried to convince a few folks to go with me, but they couldn't take off of work.

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BIG NEWS - one of our members elected to the Pro Football HOF

Ray with HOF president David Baker

Ray Prisby (aka dawg3232) was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in February. What makes it so amazing is that it was based on his being a Cleveland Browns superfan and his collection of Browns memorabilia. You can see some videos of his collection on our blog post. It was absolutely awesome when Jim Brown visited his home to present him with his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. Congrats Ray!!!

Our Numbers

Site enhancements and upgrades made in 2021

	Signing Icons Next to player listings thoughout the site we added a icon that denotes there is an upcoming Paid/Private Signing. You can click on the SIGNING icon next to their name to see details.
	Filtering & Sorting for Private Signings This feature release introduced: Filtering Private Signings by Sport & Team. Much easier sorting of Private Signings listed.
	Upgraded Payment Processing for subscriptions This feature release introduced: Immediate processing for new subscriptions and renewals. Support for credit card payments. Elimination of super confusing messaging from Paypal.
	Signing Habits of Active Players Leveraging the awesome Players and Teams functionality (that only SCN has), we made it easy for collectors to see active MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL players' signings habits.
	Filtering Players by Fee/No Fee We added the ability to filter players by whether they do or not have a fee specified on their player profile in the SCN database.
	Upgraded tools for Managing Private Signings This has been a major set of enhancements for promoters to manage their signings: Filtering the list of Your Signings More options on the detail page Ability to change the date of signing See all Transaction Details in one place Ability to contact all traders for the signing at once

Many of our heroes have passed away

My personal collection

1989 Hoops Basketball (352 possible cards)



I sent out over 500 TTM requests (over 40% are 1970's-1990's basketball players) and I have a 70% success rate for the year so far.

My obsession with getting multi-signed cards continues as I have added a few nice ones. Below are my favorites:



You can click on thumbnail for larger view of the others I have gotten in 2021:



I got 11 more completed tri-cards from 1980 Topps basketball, now it is getting tougher:



I am still on the hunt for the following signed cards to finish my sets:

1977 Topps/ O-Pee-Chee Glossy Inserts (Round Corners) Darryl Sittler




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Rethinking and Upgrading Private Signings
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Posted by jaygross
Comments: 1

We introduced the Private Signings functionality to SCN way back in April 2010. I was excited at the time of launch, but I could have never imagined how popular they would become and how important they would be to our community of collectors. In 2021 alone, we had over 2,400 Signings posted on SCN!!!

While I am excited that we are able to offer this functionality, seeing this many signings get posted by subscribers (and approved by our admins) helped to see that we need to evolve the offering in a few ways. As always, the community's feedback has been super helpful.

Who can offer signings? Promoters...

Up until now, we required members to have a feedback score of 5 or greater to list signings. While it was helpful as an initial bar, it didn't feel like it was the right criteria. So today we are changing the way we will decide who can promote signings.

We are introducing a new privilege available to some subscribers that we call "Promoters". Our Admins are able to assign members as promoters, giving them the ability to submit signings for approval (All Signings will continue to need admin approval).

While we don't charge any additional fees for promoting signings, we are selective for who is able to promote signings on SCN and we now require an interview process where an admin (mostly me) will have a virtual video meeting with new or infrequent promoters. If you would like to sign up for a promoter interview, you can do so here (as shown below).

Enhancements for Managing Signings

We've made some much needed enhancements to help make it easier for our Promoters to manage their signings:

1) Filtering the list of Your Signings

The screen below shows how we have added the ability to filter signings by Active/Past, Approval Status, and by the Player:

2) More options on the detail page

On the detail page for each signing, the promoter will now see a bar at the top with options for:

3) Ability to change the date of signing

4) See all Transaction Details in one place

Feedback you both have left





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