Today is a very exciting one for me, and it's something I've gotten pumped up about every year since its inception in 1999. I wasn't working at Krause Publications during the first year of the Chicago SportsFest, but my best friends and I made the journey from Green Bay down the highway about four hours to check out some of the hobby's best memorabilia and cards that appeared in one building at the same time.

From what I remember, we had a chance to chat with David Hall, head man of PSA, and treated him in awe like his was Michael Jordan. Speaking of MJ, we also got to stand on the same wood floor when Jordan hit his final shot in a Bulls uniform, a great display that I think Upper Deck brought in.

Shows have definitely changed over the years and it seems that lately every time I go to one people are always focusing on how floor traffic has decreased over the years. Check out these pictures I  posted from National Conventions (I'm not sure what year these photos are from, but probably from about 20 years ago).

It's amazing to see how many people went through the doors in the shows from years ago, but one thing that I come up with when I see things like this is not how light traffic currently is at card shows, but how gaudy the numbers of customers were back then. I actually think that SportsFest 2007 had normal numbers, way less than the first SportsFest, but those were different times. Card collecting was at its peak, and nothing can stay at the top forever. Remember Michael when he played with the Wizards, or Marino's last stint with the Dolphins?

I leave for Schaumburg, Ill., in about two hours and can't wait. I'm not going to focus on how dramatic the decrease is in dealers from 20 years ago, but I'm going to pay close attention to the current excitement of the market and the extraordinary volume of impressive pieces that will be on display, as compared to the small setup that was present at the first National in 1980 when only 150 dealer tables piled into the Los Angeles Marriott.