It’s that time of year once again, time for the National Sports Collectors Convention.  This year’s event is being held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.

All the bells and whistles were in place, from the rip parties at the various manufacturer booths to the young, attractive women being used to lure men to a number of products and even to the inevitable fiery disputes between a would-be purchaser and a reluctant seller.

One of the highlights of the show, at least on Thursday, was the Mount Rushmore of cut signatures (shown below), featuring cut signatures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt.   This card could be yours for a cool $125,000.

The lines for autographs were long, and the business at the booths for Blowout Cards and Dave and Adams Card World never slowed.

The intrigue of Razor, the new company taking the prospecting world by storm, brought a number of visitors to their booth to check out the promo Tim Beckham cards.  And, of course, who could forget, what about Steve Bartman?  Well, he never showed.  No surprise there, really, but whoever controlled the p.a. system sure wanted people to think otherwise as he drowned out all other noise with his incessant announcements that Bartman was running out of time.

With parking at $11 and another $18 just to get in the door, you’re already in a hole walking in, but the plethora of items from vintage to modern, from cards to memorabilia, from Sun-Times subscriptions to AAA memberships (seriously), make it easy to find what you want and to feel you’ve gotten your money’s worth in the end.

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