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

[kclj520]

Congrats....the Cubs are not famous for being a great team to the fans (I am from Chgo and am sad to see the way things have gone with the team and the fans) after the WS win especially. I saw online a private signing with Bryant and Rizzo for $699 for both. RIDICULOUS! For two players to scribble their initials and jersey numbers? No.

Sad too about photobucket, I spend most of my time on thebenchtrading.com and just switched today to imgur.com for photo hosting, its free and faster to upload and use than photobucket was.

Thanks for a fun thread, God Bless!

Kevin

[cyberer]

I know it's kind of redundant at this point for me to say (seems like I say it at the beginning of every post) but things have been slow for me lately. Personal life crises and professional stuff are really taking their toll on my graphing. But that just makes it sweeter when I finally get out. And I got out twice this week, yesterday and today.

On Thursday night I went to Merrill Reese's radio show, with special guest Chris Long at a Chickies and Petes in the suburbs! The crowd was huge for him, but I got there early and had a great spot up front. My table where I was eating dinner was right in front of the stage, so perfect spot.

I got Reese while I was waiting for Long to arrive on a mini. I always regret not getting Kalas when I had the chance so I won't make the same mistake on Reese.

Long got there and was a class act as expected. I got in line and got the graph.

But then things got a little dicey.

Myself and everyone else that had already gotten him got back in line to get him again. When the show ended his agent came over and asked everyone that had already gotten him to get out of line. Everyone that had not gotten him yet were allowed to stay in the line.

So I laid low, returned to my table (which was right by the stage), and waited. As soon as he was finished with getting everyone for the first time, I went up and asked him to sign, which he did, even though he had already gotten me.

Well no sooner had he done that than his agent descended upon me with the restaurant employee and chewed me out for asking him when I was told not to. A bunch of graphers were also giving me guff. If it was such a problem, why did the guy sign the autograph? Clearly Long didn't see a problem. I hate making waves, but I had to take care of my buddy with the extra that I got done, so I have no regrets.

Here are the 2 Longs and the Reese:




So that was Thursday.

Friday might have been even better! Alshon Jeffery doing a free signing at a Modell's. No "outside" items, but you could buy things at the store to get done, including minihelmets. So I bought a mini for it and met up with my brother and my buddy.

All went smoothly, we were 5th in line (100 guaranteed signatures). The only hiccup was Alshon was 45 minutes late ("stuck in traffic"). But, once he got there, he was a perfect gentleman, talking to the crowd, taking photos, signing nicely, etc. Class act as well. We got in and out in 15 minutes once he started signing. There were 5 of us total, each got 1 (they were strict 1 per, but some people got back in line at the end. We left before that, though).

My Alshon:



The Group Haul



My fist pound photo with Alshon (poor quality)




And, the local news was there and we all got on the 11 oclock news haha.

So all in all some pretty epic additions to my Eagles collection. Not bad for a "rusty" grapher haha.

Stay tuned, I may be going to a Sixers event next week to get some certain star "Process" players...

[Atlantaman]

Awesome stuff as usual. Minis came out nice! Good luck next week!

[cyberer]

Got out graphing again on Thursday, wanted to post an update.

For those regulars still remaining in the thread, you know that I have a long history going to Sixers events where the team OVERPROMISES and UNDERDELIVERS. I am sorry to say this is another example of the same.

I got an invite from a buddy of mine with season tickets to go to a season ticket holder event with a Q&A/meet and greet with Simmons, Dario, Holmes and Korkmaz. I have been to this exact event in the past and it has been great for autos (I got Okafor at that event)- they had dinner and refreshments and a graphing session. I will note at that event that not everyone that was there got Okafor, which is absurd.

So I get there really early for Simmons, 4:40 for a 6:15 gate opening event. I am #10 in line. I wait until 6:15 and get in.

As soon as I get to the check in table to register for a graph (only the first 350 get graphs), they tell us that Simmons cancelled last minute "due to a last minute scheduling conflict." Yeah, okay.

So I need Dario anyway, so no big deal. I got a Dario ticket.

But I look and there are only maybe 75 Dario tickets, which were gone in about 5 minutes. Which left the remaining hundreds of people coming in with a choice of Korkmaz or Holmes, 2 guys I've literally never heard of.

So I hang out waiting for the event to begin, and wait, and wait. What's more is this year there is no food, only sodas. It is late starting by about 45 minutes. Finally, the organizer comes out and says that Holmes is stuck in traffic and so they are going to cancel the event.

They said if you still have Dario tickets or Korkmaz you can get them really quickly and then leave.

So Dario came out, I got in line, #5 in line. My buddy was with me.

4 kids in front of us have basketballs, Dario did them all like a gentleman. I get up there get my photo done in the perfect spot, again a gentleman.




My buddy is in line behind me, he goes up, hands his photo to Dario. Dario smiles and takes it and is about to sign.

WHEN SUDDENLY,

A handler jumps between them and grabs the photo and says "No more of these photos or those basketballs or this other stuff, do the cards only (referring to the cheap 5x7 team logo index cards).

Dario is looking at me and my buddy like uhhh it's no big deal.

The handler won't give the photo back.

I strongly tell the handler that this is not what was promised, and ask Dario to please hook up my buddy. Dario grabs the photo, signs it, and signs the logo card, and hands both back to my buddy. We leave quickly.

Thereafter, it was no outside items. For Dario Saric. Even though he wanted to do it. At a season ticket holder event. Where the headliner already cancelled. I have never seen such blatant mishandling and mistreatment of the fans. Literally every time I go to an event like this from the Sixers I am reminded why I will NEVER be a season ticket holder. They simply don't care about their fans.

We went over after and hit the Korkmaz table (there was no line and no interest haha). Got him on a 12x12 floorboard.



I am planning on going to the rescheduled event whenever that might be, in case Simmons goes. I have a simmons on a photo card from Beach bash, but the more the merrier since he is impossible. I am almost positive that I will never get my jersey done though.

I am glad I had these successes this week as I had work commitments all weekend and John Elway apparently was all over town signing like crazy and I missed out. Oh well, can't get em all. Just glad to be back graphing!

[gojacks]

Always appreciate your in depth analysis of your experience! Simmons was such an A-hole at LSU. Hopefully you can get a couple more though! That Saric photo looks sharp!

[cyberer]

Thanks man! Yeah Simmons is a real POS. I'm glad I got him on the photo card at beach bash just once, bc it's going to be near impossible to get him again if he's bailing on season ticket holder events.

I got out graphing again, this time on the left coast!

I had an interview in San Fran so I decided to... dare I say it... try the warriors at home. According to YouTube and some friends I have in the area curry racks at home. So I decided to see for myself.

I got tickets in the lower level near the tunnel and got there super early with my authentic game ball all pumped up and ready to go... and then security tells my NO BASKETBALLS ALLOWED. At a basketball game. WHAT THE EFF?

I had to leave my basketball at bag check. And I was left with officially... zero items... for curry.

I got in early and got down to the graphing spot by the tunnel. I saw a guy with a bag full of jerseys. I swallowed my pride and asked him to buy a Swingman jersey. He agreed. He gouged me on price. Not that badly, but some. But I was glad to pay it.

So I had a jersey. Shortly thereafter Curry came off and started racking. There was a bit of a mob but not too bad. I had to really stretch my arms to get my jersey low enough but he did the whole line and took care of almost everyone. Class act.



After Curry finished, my buddy pointed out that Durant was still warming up even though he wasn't playing. So I had to run back down into the graphing section. It was more crowded this time but I managed to get my way inside. He came through and signed for mostly everyone as well. Durant still a class act. He hit my NBA finals OKC jersey.









It was a pretty quick hitting night for 2 NBA superstars, I was amazed at how easy it was despite the crowd. Epic!

Curry was a white whale of sorts, went for him a bunch of times in Philly and he always skipped my item in line, or narrowly missed him. So awesome to put it to rest!

[cyberer]

Signing on to post another quick update- amazing how the collection has started growing again the last few weeks! I had the afternoon off from work and Torrey Smith was doing a freebie at a local Verizon store. I got in and out in 20 minutes and they gave out free photofile photos. Not a bad haul! And, unlike my last free signing experiences, completely drama free!




Gotta load up on my eagles, in case they... dare I say it... win something.

[lizard-jd]

Great gets in SF - those two are tremendous super stars! Good to read your experiences and seeing you "racking" again. It was a sad day last week with losing Doc Halladay - I'm sure you looked at some of your signed items by him just as a memory...

[cyberer]

Yeah, man, it's amazing how good Curry and Durant have always been and still are to the fans given their level of fame. I am just happy to have gotten in while the getting is good. I've missed out on Curry so many times before when he was racking.

And yeah, the Doc thing was a shock to my system. It definitely brought back memories of the "chase for the sports illustrated." And again, when I finally got him in the parking lot that day, he was such a gentleman. Huge loss for the sports world and the real world.

My stuff is mostly in storage at moment because I downsized apartments, but I was definitely thinking about my stuff. I also weirdly feel like I jinxed his life and career, because I got him in his prime on a ROMLB with 2 time cy young inscription and I remember feeling scared that he would win another cy young and ruin the inscription. So I used to think I subconsciously jinxed him. Obviously that stuff isn't real and I shouldn't feel guilty but it's just so sad all around.

[Atlantaman]

Awesome hits!