CyberErik's Success Thread- just starting out, feedback and help welcome!

[cyberer]

Went to the Phestival yesterday. Judging by some of the posts from philly friends that I've seen, my success may seem modest by comparison, but here goes anyway.


My major needs were pretty small this year- Michael Young, Delmon Young, Carlos Ruiz (on the SI cover) and utley on a ROMLB (I have him already but only once).


I bought 3 packages, and sold 2 of them. So I was left with 2 tickets- #s 5 and 6.


Unfortunately, those 2 numbers turned out to be Kyle Kendrick and Delmon Young. So I had a lot of work ahead of me. I did my usual magic walking up and down the lines asking people to sell or trade.


Right when I arrived a girl was willing to trade me papelbon for her favorite player, Kyle Kendrick, so that was a major score. I was then able to trade my Papelbon for a Michael young, so I had that one in the bag. Now for the rest.


One thing I noticed throughout the course of the day- people were absolutely CRAZY over Kyle Kendrick. His line was one of the longest I waited in, and his tickets were in pretty high demand.


I made a series of transactions where I would buy kendrick tickets then resell them for modest profit, and do it over and over again to build up cash to buy other tickets. I also came across a few extra tickets of Delmon Young that I managed to sell at a profit.


During the course of doing this, one older gentleman really needed kendrick, so he was willing to give me a ruiz ticket for a kendrick. I obviously jumped all over that. So now I had Ruiz, Delmon Young, an extra kendrick and Michael Young, my 3 major needs, plus a good deal of cash in my pocket- I love it how I always make money going to the phestival.


So I get in there, got through Ruiz's line in about 5 minutes (I was 10th in line), then Delmon Young's line in about 10 minutes. Ruiz was nice enough to inscribe "Chooch!" but I wish he didn't sign it over his black glove! Afterwards I was about to get in Kendrick's line, but as I said above it was huge! Longer than Ruiz!






So I decided to run up and get michael young. His line was short- only like 15 people, so I got in and out in 5 minutes, then went back and waited for kendrick- 20 minutes- crazy how long his line was. Kendrick wasn't too happy that I had a stack of cards but he did them all.






By this time it was 5:15, the event ended at 6:30, and I was out of tickets. So I decided I was going to camp Chase
Utley's line for cash. This is the part where things almost went awry, and I almost got kicked out.


I talked to the usher in charge of the line. He said that they weren't taking donations yet, but that if I got in line with the ticket holders and got to the front, then he would let me stand in the cash line and be first in line. So I decide to do that.

So I get to near the front of the line, but then to my outrage, I saw that A CASH LINE HAD ALREADY FORMED NEARBY! AND NEARLY 30 PEOPLE WERE IN IT! I was promised the first spot but it started without me.

So I went to the usher running the cash line (a different guy than who I had talked to before) and explained my situation to him. He was nice enough but said there was nothing he could do. I insisted that he go and talk to the other usher to confirm my story.

He did that, BUT THE USHER LIED AND DENIED WHAT HE TOLD ME!

He was like "I told him maybe if they took donations that I could help him out- but I didn't promise him nothing!" he was an old, kind of uncouth, guy.

The other usher was like "but we did have a cash line, why didn't you send him over to me?"

The first usher said "I didn't know that- but I didn't promise him anything!"

I said "You did though, you said I'd be first in the cash line."

The other usher said that there was nothing he could do. He was about to leave when the first usher finally came clean and said "You know what? I did tell him if he waited he would be first in the cash line." Thank goodness he told the truth!

The other usher gave the guy a "you're an idiot why didn't you tell me that to begin with" look, and threw his hands up in exasperation. He took me back and put me at the front of the line, explaining the situation to the others in line. So long story short, my night ended getting utley on the SS of a ROMLB.



I asked utley to inscribe "08 world series champs" but he said no. I guess he was trying to get as many through as possible for the cash donations.

All in all a good night. As I said I see people who had like 20 tickets did a lot better, but I had only 1 package and modest goals, and it was nice to get everyone I needed and get some pocket money.

[gladdyontherise]

Awesome stuff, and your stories are always great. Good thing you got Delmon Young now, he's a tough one (and incredibly unfriendly).

[cyberer]

Awesome stuff, and your stories are always great. Good thing you got Delmon Young now, he's a tough one (and incredibly unfriendly).

Thanks for the comment and thanks for noticing! I try to put a lot of effort into my stories, because I have so much fun doing it, and I want to share that with others, especially those who can't get out and graph in person.

I agree- Delmon barely looked up when I was talking to him at the booth.

[djauwerda]

Nice pick ups. Utley is having a nice year.

[Red33Sox]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing!

[cyberer]

Put in a lot of time for the reds yesterday. Results were mixed.

I had already obtained most of the team in spring training- Votto, Bruce, Phillips, Dusty, etc. But notably I did not get Chapman. Also, I went for Chapman when he was still in AAA, twice, and got snubbed by him. So I'm 0/3 lifetime trying for aroldis chapman.

The team as a whole were pretty terrible. In the morning I did manage to get Mesoraco on a batting practice ball:



The reds HOF broadcaster



Dusty Baker




And Jay Bruce on an 8x10



Votto snubbed, Phillips said on the field, and the rest snubbed us.

Latos especially was a huge jerk. He verbally abused us as he was passing, but did say he would sign on the field. We pressed him on where and when he would sign- he said 5 minutes before the game he would sign on the top step of the dugout. Yeah, right, buddy.

Inside the stadium, I managed to get Frazier on an 8x10 over the dugout



Chapman snubbed us before and during the pregame warmups, so I'm 0/4 on him. Oh well.

The story of the day was Mat Latos though.

If you'll recall he said he would sign on the top step 5 minutes before gametime. So sure enough, he pops up on the top step 5 minutes before. I ran down to the dugout.

I yelled "Matt!" He pretended not to hear. I yelled again and he half turned to see who it was. I then got his attention for real and said:

"Hey, you said you might sign on the field 5 minutes before gametime."

He replied: "I didn't promise crap to you."

I said "Well you said you'd sign."

He repeated: "I didn't promise you anything."

Finally I said "Well you said you might do it, so can you do it?"

He then motioned for the usher to hand him the photo. As he was signing he said "Hang on a minute, usher, I have to help this kid sell on ebay!" He angrily scribbled a graph and handed it back to the usher to give to me.

What a d-bag.

[Eddie_2]

I always had a theory that a lot of players check sites like ebay to see if people post their stuff. The internet/social media in general is extremely assessable to players nowadays with smart phones and laptops in the locker rooms. Latos probably thought you were a dealer, and I can bet you, he is probably checking to see if that type of photo comes up on any sites. Some players do that type of thing, because it bothers them. Either way, I think that story is hilarious. At least he signed your photo, but he was probably thinking "damn this dude is persistent!" lol cool post.

[bishop19]

Personally, if I were you, I would've waited til I got the photo back & said "do you know what the value of this signed pic is on eBay? I then would've ripped it up in front of him & said the same as a pile of garbage...who do you think you are?" Then I would've just walked away. I wouldn't want a piece of ™™™™ like that's auto in my collection. I could understand if it were Jeter or Trout, etc...

[Captain]

Personally, if I were you, I would've waited til I got the photo back & said "do you know what the value of this signed pic is on eBay? I then would've ripped it up in front of him & said the same as a pile of garbage...who do you think you are?" Then I would've just walked away. I wouldn't want a piece of ™™™™ like that's auto in my collection. I could understand if it were Jeter or Trout, etc...

Haha, that would be hilarious.

[phillyboi90]

Hey Erik,
I saw your Reds graphing story. Didn't know Latos was such a jerk. Anyways I go to a lot of Phillies games and have always tryed to obtain Phillies graphs but now that I finished everyone I need on the Phillies I was wondering how the other teams are and if you get there when the gates open you have a decent shot of graphing the other team. Thanks for your time, David