Thursday, April 17, 2014

First Annual Card Blogger Convention - June 2017


This is the fantasy itinerary for a card blogger convention to be held over a weekend in June, 2017.  I figure we get a convention room in a hotel complete with sponsors and name tags and festive t-shirts and such.  Here's what I envision:

Friday Night

Meet and Greet – Everybody meets up in the hotel conference room and introduces themselves. Everyone will wear name tags depicting their name and blog.  Faces are finally put with names and blog personalities.  Instant camaraderie ensues.

Saturday

Introductions – Attendees introduce themselves and give a quick run-down of their blog, what they collect, and what they hope to get out of the weekend.

Topps Talk and Q&A Session – The VP of marketing for Topps comes in and thanks us for our business.  He/She talks for a while about the company and their plans for the future.  Ends with a joke about Panini not having a license.  Dime Box Nick is granted a Summer internship following the Q&A.

Panini Talk and Q&A Session – The President of Panini America comes in and thanks us for our business.  He/She talks for a while about the company and their plans for the future.  Ends with a joke about Upper Deck not being allowed to use current player images.  The Prez takes a grilling for not having logos on their cards but leaves everyone satisfied as Panini brings better giveaways than Topps.

COMC Talk and Q&A Session - The President of COMC comes in and thanks us for our business.  He/She talks for a while about the company and their complete dominance of the sports card valuation industry.  Ends with a joke about Beckett.
 
Card Blogger Workshops

- Organization Workshop – Everybody share their best practices for organizing their collections. People could provide photos of their methods as well as the overall look of their collections, maybe even a flow chart or two.

- How to Ship Cards – Best practices for shipping PWE’s, cost-effective use of boxes vs. bubble mailers and when to go Priority Mail, proper tape usage.

- One-stamp Contest – To take place after the How to Ship Cards workshop.  A few weeks before the convention everyone mail a sealed PWE to one non-interested blogger using only one forever stamp.  We bust open the envelopes and see who could successfully ship the most standard-size cards in a single PWE with one stamp without the USPS returning it for additional postage.  Blogger with the most cards in their successfully-delivered PWE keeps all sent cards and whatever donated prizes we can muster.

Card Blogging Live! – A new take on the delivery of a blog post.  Bloggers give a live presentation in lieu of a written post and talk about whatever they would have otherwise talked about in the written post.  Visual cues on a large projection screen with musical accompaniment encouraged. Dramatic readings of existing blog posts welcome.

- Night Owl – Greg does a dramatic reading of a trade post where he received ’72 minis.  All are very excited to hear him give a hearty “miiiiiinnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiis!!!” live in person.

- gcrl – Jim explains his distrust of the SHIFT key and shows off some of his favorite double-play cards.

- The Junior Junkie – T.J. spouts off about how amazing Griffey is or whatever.  The Topps rep offers T.J. a position as an outside consultant, T.J. accepts and runs off to spend the money he hasn’t even made yet on Griffeys.

- Tim Wallach – Corey gives a prepared talk the transcript of which gets published in Sports Illustrated under the title “The Art and Science of the Single-Player Supercollector.”  The movie deal that eventually comes from this pays for the entire next year’s convention (and a crap load of Tim Wallach cards).

Blogger Box Social – Everybody gets loose and drinks martinis (or whatever they like), and we talk about balancing blogging with everyday life.  Trades discouraged at this event.

Blogger Bar Hopping – Boom.  Chris of Nachos Grande and Matt of Red Cardboard get into an argument about who’s the bigger Barry Larkin fan, decide to settle it by going shot-for-shot with Jaegermeister.

Sunday

Brunch – Chris and Matt do not make it to this.

Box Break – One massive box break!  We get a dozen boxes of cards and everyone picks teams like normal (there should be a big fight for the Dodgers).  Perhaps we can get Topps and Panini to donate a case or two to this.  Can you imagine?

Trade Extravaganza – Everyone trades their extra pulls from the break as well as anything else they brought with them.  A huge chunk of this event would probably be bloggers having the rare opportunity to give other bloggers trade stacks in person instead of having to mail them.  Everyone’s carry-on is way too heavy with cardboard for their flights home.


See you at CBC 2017!

24 comments:

  1. Only one suggestion...make it in a major league city so we can go to a game on Friday or Saturday night.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha, awesome. Who needs brunch anyhow (and to settle the record - I'm the bigger Larkin fan)!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like a productive weekend to me! I'd be happy to get a Topps internship out of it. I'd probably get crushed at the one-stamp contest with the other PWE aficionados around the blogosphere, though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You better get some hotel discount packages or I will Skype my ass into this convention.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think in 2017 I'll be too old to pull off a dramatic reading. But I'll probably be even better at rants.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fantastic idea. I propose California, or another similarly enlightened state.
    For ex. Washington or Colorado.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I vote we all wear catchers masks to be mysterious and maintain a healthy bit of anonymity. Plus it'll keep us safe from the backlash we get from Topps/Panini when we trash them during the Q&A.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nachos can have Larkin. I'll take every other Red ever.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Also, you left out a neck-beard grooming seminar and an academic summit on 'where all da ladies at?'

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm there. I'll do a demo on the use of blue tape instead of scotch tape and we'll have a massive bonfire where I burn all the top loaders that have tape residue on them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll co-host this demo with you promoting S.T.A.N. Stop Toploader Abuse Now. I have a stack of about 200 that I can add to the bonfire!

      Delete
  12. Sounds like fun. I am such a procrastinator I would probably show up in October of 2018.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'll definitely be there. I wouldn't want to deprive y'all of the pleasure of meeting me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Awesome idea. Count me in. There's no way I'd miss the opportunity to hang out and hear one of Greg's rants in person. Plus I'd love to get autographs and photo op's with a lot of you guys.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds great, i might fly over for this one !

    ReplyDelete
  16. Man, I always thought something like this would be awesome, though I'm guessing there'll probably be a full-scale brawl right before the box break over who will get the Yankees. This means I'm probably a goner. But I'm definitely in if it happens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I say you choose your team when you pay your dues for attending the con. First come, first served. Therefore, you'd have a good shot at landing them Yanks. I've got my sights set on the Mariners...

      Delete
    2. Yankees.....Pssshhhh...wait till you see the Blue bloodbath of bloggers trying to snag the Dodgers!

      Delete
    3. That gives me an idea. How about a battle royale with all the Dodgers bloggers and one with all the Yankees bloggers. Winners from each get first dibs on cards for their respective teams for the rest of the year.

      Delete
  17. We'd be happy to help put it on and make this a reality if you'd like. We love helping make bloggers smarter.

    Dan R Morris
    BloggingConcentrated.com

    ReplyDelete