After day one of being here in Chicago, but not really having the time to get around to all the tables, it was exciting to finally have the opportunity to see some of the show. I can say right now, that I am glad I brought my walking shoes and had a spot to stash my bag, because otherwise, I would have been in a bad place.

The day started at about 8:45 when we got to the show, right before the VIPs were available to go in at 9:30. It was cool to be able to walk around without all the traffic and see what was going on, and even talk with some of the guys about the stuff they were selling. Although it was obvious yesterday, the vintage presence at the show was a lot larger than I expected. One of the guys from FCB was in heaven because of his collection of lower grade HOF baseball rookies, and ended up getting some amazing stuff. Ill talk more about that later.

My first stop of the day was at the Topps booth, where I was promptly instructed by Mark to check in on foursquare. It was an interesting element to their booth, because they offered the Heritage national cards to some of the first people who checked in for them. If you dont know about foursquare, its the equivalent of the places feature on facebook, and is used to show your friends where you are at a given point. This was really a new thing this year, as some of the people were using it to remember where they had seen cards they wanted to go back and buy at the massive amount of tables around the show.

They had brought along some preview cards from the upcoming release of Inception, and I must say, the cards look absolutely amazing in person. Lets face it, if you opened a box of these cards, and then opened a box of anything Panini has put out this year, put them down on a table next to each other, it would be tough to justify the gap in wow factor between the two (thanks Jim). Thats where the problem with stuff today really is.

I started walking the floor a bit more and really got deep into just how much stuff was really at the convention. It was like walking around an entire mall, only every store was for sports cards and memorabilia. There were dealers selling everything from pre-war baseball to concert used guitar picks from the Police and Metallica. Just crazy stuff. I actually saw one table break out a signed game used Hank Aaron jersey that may have been the coolest thing I saw on the floor yesterday. THAT is why I came, because you would never get to see this kind of thing if you were just looking through the auction catalogs at home.

There were plenty of great tables with lots of autographed stuff as well, as I even saw one guy with a wall of baseballs from the best players you could have. He had dozens of seemingly legit Mantle PSAs, as well as guys like Koufax, Dimaggio, and company. One table bins upon bins full of game used baseball and basketball pants, something I found very interesting and smelly.

I stopped by JO Sports Co to see their Vikings game used stuff and was impressed by what they had there. Although they wanted 8500 for their Peterson game used, they also had Ryan Mathews and Jared Allen at reasonable prices for a show. The crazy thing was that they had sold Peterson’s gloves for 1200, where his cleats they only got 1000. Didnt really get that, but interesting none the less.

After getting hungry I stopped for lunch and headed back to the FCB booth to hang out. That is when all hell broke loose thanks to a guy with the most ridiculous box of HOF autographs I have ever seen. You know all those cards that you see and drool over? Yeah, he had all of them and then some. Ruth Cuts, Ruth Jumbos, Gherig, Dimaggio, Jackie Robinson, everything. I wanted to buy a Koufax auto at the show and he ended up with a beauty that was available for a price I could afford. Even though it was on foil, it did feature a cool design and an on card auto, so I decided it was time to give up the hunt.

I was also able to drop off my 1985 Donruss signed Puckett RC, that I got when I was a kid, for encapsulation with PSA. It cost a lot of money to do, but I know it was something that makes the card worth that much more in the long run. I have an overwhelming feeling in the pit of my stomach that it will come back fake, per the horror stories I have heard. That would be very, very bad. This was the only time I could do it, because PSA doesnt do on site encaps in my area, and I dont want to pay the 100 bucks to have the membership monthly.

As for Panini, their booth was rockin’ all day into the afternoon, with a line the size of that long train you have to wait through when you are late and driving to work. Scott Prusha, who was again corgial and nice showed me some of the sketches they were giving away, which seemingly matched the level of hilarity from Topps last year. Players are players, not artists, right? I opened 5 packs of Elite to try out one of the redemption packs, but didnt get anything worth mentioning (Thanks for the Badge too, I really appreciate it). I wanted to do more, but it was crazy like I said.

After seeing the Panini booth, I went back to FCB and sat down to chill. Thomas Fish was there, and we talked for a while about his incredible collection of Comic Book Art. When I say incredible, I mean, it might be the best in the world. He had the cover art to Amazing Spider-man 300 at one point, and still has the introduction page of Mary Jane Watkins from the early days of Spidey’s run. Check out his collection at comicartfans.com, it is truly impressive.

Lastly, I was able to pick up my “On Card Isnt Hard” shirt from Press Pass, which was cool. They had a smaller booth than the other companies, as expected, but the Nascar people really do value what they bring to their sport. I just like the T-shirt because of the bold statement that is probably the least true thing about producing autographs from any sport. On card, from my interactions with all the companies, can be a logistical nightmare. especially when the subject is non-sports related. Remember, a few thousand dollars to most of the athletes mean nothing, so it can be tough to chase them down and do the cards.

The show closed around 6pm and we were out of there as quickly as possible. It was a long, long day, but fun to say the least. I will be posting pictures on Twitter all day long, follow me @SCUncensored to catch this as it happens.