click photos to enlarge
Front of Atlantic City Convention Center	Atlantic City  Boardwalk Skyline
Wednesday July 23rd 2003 7:50 A.M., dealers  in the lobby of the Atlantic City Convention Center waiting to set up for the National
Dealer Kevin Bronson arriving on convention floor for set up	Floor plan map of convention

click photo

View from my hotel room, 

44th floor, Bally's Atlantic City

The 2003 National

By 

Carlton Hendricks

To view a photo of any item discussed in this article, 

click on the highlighted description of the item

An edited version of this article was previously 

published in Sports Collectors Digest Magazine. 

The 24th annual National Sports Collectors Convention was held Thursday July 24th thru Sunday July 27th 2003, at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City New Jersey. In today's column we'll take a look at the display pieces I saw there. Atlantic City was the sixth national I had been to, in the sixteen years I've been a collector. The price of airfare and hotel rooms has kept me from attending them all. Usually you have to buy your airline ticket thirty days in advance to get the better deals. I didn't decide to go until about three weeks prior, so I ended up paying $685.00, round trip, from San Francisco. My hotel room at Bally's ran $179.00 a night, actually about $200 with all the tax etc. Times four nights, equals like $800.00. So just to walk in the convention door ran around $1,500.00. Plus food, cabs and the seven dollars I lost in the slots. Most people like gambling towns for the gambling….for me it's the buffets. Try the dinner buffet at Cesar's….. Excellent, all you can eat, char broiled steaks. 

The last National I attended was in Cleveland in 1997, and it was a great one! I can't say Atlantic City measured up to it. Everybody knows eBay has taken a toll on the shows, and it was evident at Atlantic City. Nevertheless I did see some good stuff, just not as much as previous Nationals. First lets get clear on something. Because my area of concern is sports display antiques, my viewpoint on the National will probably be different than many sports collectors. The National, like most card shows is mostly newer sports memorabilia. So you're liable to read all kind of glowing reviews about how great it was, and I wouldn't dispute them. From what I saw, there seemed to be a lot of great contemporary sports cards and memorabilia there. Gosh, there ought to be, because if they run out, they can just make more! However, display pieces from the general era of my concern…say circa 1880 to 1930 weren't what I'd call abundant. 

I had envisioned Atlantic City being an excellent, centrally located place to have the National, drivable from many regions of the east coast. Since this sector has traditionally been the best mining area for sports antiques, I thought there was a good chance of abundance. Like I say, there was good stuff, and it was within the boarders of being a good show. However, compared to the Nationals I'd been to before the proliferation of eBay, it didn't make it to the level I'd hoped for. Nevertheless, it did rise to, and meet the challenge of being the National, as it was exciting and a lot of fun! 

Three booths stood out as having the best selection of vintage display pieces, and pretty much carried the show. Top prize goes to the shared booth of Bob McCann from Gilbertsville, Pa., and Corey Leiby of Antique Athlete, from Orwigsburg, Pa. Anyone familiar with these two veterans, and the kinds of things they deal in weren't disappointed. As we'll see they came with their usual great material. They're definitely pros, no question, two of the top dealers in the country for sports antiques.

Next was the shared booth of John Kanuit of Vintage Sports Collector, from Palos Verdes Estates, Ca., and Mark Nash of National Pastime, from Pikeville, NC. They've had a strong booth at every National I've seen them at; it seems to have become a tradition now. These two dominated Los Angeles Before Nash moved to North Carolina recently. Nothing moved in the Long Beach or Rose Bowl Fleas without them knowing. Maybe now I can find stuff there. You just never know what the Nash-Kanuit team will come up with. They have a tendency to surprise. Their booth was well stocked with good material, and was a major contribution to the convention. 

Finally David Hunt's booth of Hunt Auctions, from Exton, Pa. weighed in with one of the top three booths. David has one of the best reputations in the hobby. He's primarily an auctioneer, but had great stuff available for sale. 

For those that couldn't make it to the convention, I walked the floor for 7 ½ hours searching for and photographing the best display pieces I could find. I got to the Atlantic City Convention Center about 7:30 A.M. on set up day Wednesday July 23rd, and went in when they let in the dealers at 8:00 A.M. By the way….that 7 ½ hours I walked the show….no air conditioning!…the convention center doesn't turn on the A/C until the public comes in! About half way thru the day I was dragging. Went across the street to Tuns restaurant and got some lunch and soaked up the A/C for an hour. The crab cake san wasn't very good, but man their A/C….superb! Came back recharged ready for more battle.

You couldn't ask for a nicer facility to house the National in, than the Atlantic City Convention Center. It was built in 1997 and boasts that it is the largest convention center from Atlanta to Boston with 500,000 square feet of exhibit space, on thirty one acres. Bottom line was, it was immaculately clean, pleasant and well managed…other than the A/C thing.

I will register one complaint about the National's program. The program contains a map of the Convention floor and a booth index, which lists the dealers and their booth number only. Had the index supplied contact information for the dealers, the program would have been turned into a valuable tool, instead of essentially a $10.00 souvenir. Say you get home and recall something you saw, and want to get a hold of a particular dealer, or track something down….good luck amigo.

Today's written account of the convention address' forty-four items I found worthy of documentation. These are a mixture of the good, the great, and the phenomenal. As you can see, each item discussed in this article is highlighted in blue. To see the item, just click the highlighted text. Before we begin the tour, I'd like to remind readers I only shot the highlights of the show. The dealers mentioned had plenty more items in their booths. I'm only showing you what I considered the better display pieces. 

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