Twinsfest 2013 experience

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valediction

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A very mixed show experience for me. I'm guessing part of it is me getting older. It is by far the biggest show of the year, so I always make a point to go.

The autograph lineup, pricing, and setup weren't quite my cup of tea. Last year or the year before, in order to combat the insane lines for Mauer and Morneau, (Someone said they did this with Carew as well, but I didn't see or hear any mention of that myself) they went to a wristband system. The gates opened at 7:30AM for wristbands, though the show itself did not open until 9AM. Morneau was signing from 11-12:30 and Mauer from 12:45-2:15. You go to a certain gate, ask for a wristband for either signing, or both, they give you a colored wristband with the players name on it. They have four or five colors for each player, you get a random color. Then, shortly before the signing, they choose a color and announce it. So if they draw the blue wristband for Mauer, only the people with blue Mauer wristbands are eligible to get in the line for him. If you have a red, yellow, or green wristband, you are out of luck. Now if you were lucky enough to get the blue Mauer wristband, you have to get in line with all the other people with blue wristbands and hope it moves fast enough to get everyone through, because if the time runs out before they get to you, it's the same result as having the wrong color wristband, no autograph, except you waited in line for an hour and a half or more not to get it. I showed up to the show just before 10AM and the Mauer wristbands were long gone, so there wasn't even a chance to get any color. I passed on Morneau, but I heard his sold out not too long after I got there. The other stations were anywhere from free to $35. The minor leaguers were free, but there were some HUGE lines any time one of the better prospects was signing. The current and former players were $10-$15. I must be getting too old and cheap, but there weren't many there I was willing to spent that kind of money on. I don't do much autographing of new players, it just seems creepy for a 41 year old man to stand in line and spend money to get the autograph of someone 15 or 20 years younger. Dropping $15 to get one autograph each from Brian Duensing, Josh Roenicke, and Joe Benson, or even $10 to get Jared Burton, Alex Burnett, and Drew Butera wasn't for me. If they had put the older guys in a separate group, I may have done that. The bigger names (Carew, Hrbek, Blyleven, Viola, Molitor, Oliva, Gladden) were $20-$35, not bad, but they were very scattered across different stations. There just wasn't anything specific I needed to get signed that made sense for me. I kept thinking "well, I'd like to get a Carew, Oliva, Blyleven, Molitor" etc, but the practical side of me kept reminding me $35 for Bert, $35 for Molitor, $35 for Carew, $20 for the Oliva/Gladden table, $15 for Mudcat Grant, Steinbach, and Roy Smalley, that's $140 plus the cost of any items I still need to buy, plus the time waiting in line. In the end I only went for the Gladden/Oliva combo, got a 1975 Hostess card signed by Oliva, and the Fleer 1987 World Series card signed by Gladden.

On to the show itself. As the name implies, it is VERY Twins-(and Minnesota sports)centric. While there is other stuff there, it takes some digging through a lot of overpriced hometown stuff to find it. My finds were:

3 Cello boxes 1988 Topps ($20 total for all 3) just something cheap to open, maybe I'll find a variation or two.

1 1987 Topps Rack box $10, same dealer, should have enough cards to put a set together easy, and it's always cool looking for those cello/rack packs with stars/rookies on front.

non certified autos: $40 got me
1965 Topps Julio Navarro
1989 Fleer Wade Boggs1991 Upper Deck Harold Baines
and a 1996 Ultimate Lineup Team Out Bernie Williams. I don't see a ton of Bernie stuff out there compared to a lot of players, so I picked it up

a 2004 Topps Mark Prior certified autograph ($7) It was a 1:1050 pack pull back then, and was a redemtion card to boot. I see one went for $4 dlvd on ebay, but I know at the time I would have felt jackpot lucky to pull it.

a 1991 Mn Twins World Series Champs Silver Medallion ($10)
It's one troy oz .999 silver, has $30+ in silver value alone

and my big splurge:
1993 SP Derek Jeter rookie, and 2001 Topps Traded Chrome Ichiro retrofractor ($140 for the pair) I can't remember seeing an Ichiro retrofractor in person before, it caught my eye quick, and the Jeter was the cheapest I saw at the show, the other two I found were asking $120-150
 
Ya that doesn't sound too fun. Angels fan fest at least they are free, u just don't know who u are getting....... I hate paying for autos, if I don't get them so be it, that's why graphing is so fun! Thrill of the hunt! Hope u get your stuff done this year. I got a twins commertive ROMLB gonna try for mauer or mornoe on it this year.how is the team in the parking lot? Ever tryed there? Nice read though!
 
Ya that doesn't sound too fun. Angels fan fest at least they are free, u just don't know who u are getting....... I hate paying for autos, if I don't get them so be it, that's why graphing is so fun! Thrill of the hunt! Hope u get your stuff done this year. I got a twins commertive ROMLB gonna try for mauer or mornoe on it this year.how is the team in the parking lot? Ever tryed there? Nice read though!

I've never done the autographing at the park, so I'm not any help there, sorry.

It wasn't a bad experience by any means, but between me getting older and times changing, it just seems so different. It's is a fundraiser for the Twins Charity. It started in 1989, a few months before I graduated high school. I helped a dealer a couple years, I missed a few when I was in college. I started going regularly after I graduated college in 1994. The Twins were not a great team for a lot of the time. We had fun players, but it was the end of the Puckett, Hrbek, Gladden era, into the Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter, Corey Koskie years. I remember $5 autograph stations with 4-7 signers. Most of them older than me and I had watched them play. One year my uncle asked me if I'd take my younger cousin there, he was probably 8-9 years old. When I stopped at their house to pick him up, he gave him $20 to spend. I knew that I'd probably buy him a few other things during the event, but he got a ton of autographs. I think it was just short of 30 if my memory is correct. I ended up spending an extra 20 or 30 to help him get stuff during the day. He bought his first full box of cards, we had lunch, a few sodas during the day, he played on the different set ups, etc. Now it's 3-4 players a station, $10-15 per station, for me to get 29 autographs at the cheapest stations would have cost me at least $120 yesterday. I bought one Bratwurst and 2 Pepsi's from 10am-5pm and that was $15, it was $3 more for a bag of potato chips.

A friend of mine wanted a Jamey Carroll autograph because he's about our age, is a solid player and just someone fans seem to be able to relate to. That is the only thing he was interested in getting. He may have looked around and picked up other stuff too, but that was the only reason he was going to go. Then he sat down and did the math. $10 to get in if he bought advance tickets, or $15 at the door. Parking around there would probably have put him out another $10 or so. Carroll was signing at a $15 station, so even if you only wanted him, it was still $15. It would have cost him $35 or more to get that autograph. Even if he would have done like I did, hit the park and ride lot and took the light rail to the stadium, he still would have been at least $28 to pick up an autograph some dealer will have on his table at the next monthly free show for $3 or $4. Like everything else, it just feels like it has gone from event to business production. I always enjoy looking around at the cool material the dealers bring, but I'm a single guy in a one bedroom apt, there really isn't room to collect a lot more than cards, plus that is where my passion is anyways.
 
SF Giants fanfests are free...haven't gone to one in a couple of years. The last time I went was the year after the World Series victory by my Giants. When I got there, it was about 45 minutes before the opening of the gate. The line was way back near the middle of the packing lot. By the time I got to the front of the parking lot, it was announced that the park was closed, due to the park being in full capacity. About 2 hours wasted waiting in line. Last year I passed, figuring it'll be about the same. This year after our 2nd WS championship in 3 years, forget it.
It was great getting autographs when your team wasn't as good...
 
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1 1987 Topps Rack box $10, same dealer, should have enough cards to put a set together easy, and it's always cool looking for those cello/rack packs with stars/rookies on front.

I wish you luck, I bought a 1987 Topps rack box last year thinking the same thing and the collation was abysmal. I was over 100 cards short of a set and had 4 or 5 copies of some cards.

Richard
 
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