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
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
