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

[djauwerda]

Love the Cunningham jersey! Beautiful! He's one I need to add to my collection!

[cyberer]

Thanks guys I really love the jersey!

As for modells, I did stick it to them, but only because for a Randall signing they HAD NO KELLY GREEN EAGLES ITEMS! Like cmon man, dark green modern minis, dark green modern jerseys with RANDALLS NAME AND NUMBER. Made no sense.

But yeah thanks for the kudos as always.

[cyberer]

Had a really great experience graphing this weekend which is awesome because I almost didn't even go in the first place!

On Tuesday my buddy gave me a heads up that Nick Foles was going to be doing a top-secret meet and greet for Verizon, but you had to "find" a ticket at a participating store on Wed or Thurs- 110 tickets total. They didn't even advertise the location you had to win to find out.

So I went Wed morning and no one had any idea when the contest would begin, so I almost gave up entirely. I went back a few hours later and sure enough there were post-card sized tickets for me to "find."

I got one and got it redeemed for a VIP ticket lanyard, but the ticket said "NICK WILL NOT BE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS AT THE EVENT." And even with the ticket the location would still be secret until the morning of (Saturday).

So I almost didn't go, but I got 2 of my friends (including someone on these boards- the one who gave me the tip) to go too so I ended up going.

On the morning of they sent a text and email with the location, a fancy rooftop bar in downtown Philly, free food and soft drinks to be had. The email reiterated that Nick would not be signing but said something interesting- "Verizon Up customers will get a chance to receive a signed piece of memorabilia while supplies last."

So I made sure I got there right when the event began and asked around all the attendants from Verizon until I found someone that helped me- I got my VIP ticket validated to receive a Nick Foles mini helmet. Turns out they had 50 helmets available for the 110 guests of the party. But I don't think 110 showed (I know a few ppl who bailed when it said no graphs), so nearly everyone there got a mini. People asked him to sign and a few times he picked up the item and was about to, but was stopped by his handlers.

Someone also brought a replica of the lombardi trophy and I got a pic with it.



But Foles was being a total gentleman, aside from not signing. He was taking pictures, interacting, being nice- he even threw a pass to a guy with the football the guy had brought.

I got my pic with him- he seemed to like my Foles pro bowl jersey that I was wearing.



I was really happy with how the pic turned out!

Then it came time to get my mini helmet. Turned out they had a random grab bag of minis- some were "speed" the kind with the holes in it that the guy has to sign down the middle. The first one I grabbed was a speed unfortunately and maybe it's my OCD but I HATE speed minis. I went back up and asked the guy if I could trade mine back for another one. He obliged and let me look in the box and pick the one I wanted. I got this beauty.




So for an event I almost didnt go to, I spent an hour all told in and out, got to actually meet and talk to Nick in a relaxed atmosphere, and get a graph. Oh yeah and free food from one of the best places in town. Can't remember a better time I've had graphing!

If I paid for a Foles meet and greet and mini helmet at the Philly show I think it would have cost 500+ dollars, so that's even better!

As an aside, I can't understand why it was cheaper for verizon to buy 50 signed minis to give out versus having Nick sit down and sign promo photos for the fans... but hey I'll take it.

[cyberer]

Long time no graph, but I wanted to fill in some major wins!

First thing's first, I was at a flea market in Oakland cali and found a pretty sick deal (~70 bucks) on a 1989 world series team ball from Oakland with Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco, La Russa, Billy Beane and others. I can't find mcgwire but the rest of the team seems to be on there.



Then, possibly the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me graphing happened the other day. I wrote off the Phillies Festival (my yearly favorite event) months ago because I had to work. All of you who read my thread know that I usually make a KILLING wheeling and dealing in line so I was sad I couldn't go.

But lo and behold the day of the event I got out early from work in time to just barely make it, albeit a bit late. I debated not going, because I wouldn't have time to wheel and deal and I didnt even have an admission ticket. But I decided to go give it a shot.

So I got there and thankfully they still had some admission packages left, "random" tickets. Of course, as usual, I got screwed- Pivetta was the better autograph of the 2, to give some idea of how bad my random tickets were. And unlike earlier years, I had no time to wheel and deal in line.

So I walk in, trying to trade my tickets for Arrietta or kingery, my 2 biggest needs. I couldn't make a trade with 20 people or so, until I asked a middle aged woman if she had a trade. She said, to my amazement, "I don't have any tickets, I just gave them away because I don't need them- but I have a sponsor tag that lets me get into all the booths, you can have that."

So just like that, I had a FREE line access to every booth. The only limit was time (70 minutes left).

I got to Arrietta first, needing him, fortunately they let me get in the front of the line as a sponsor and I got him real quick. He was, as usual, being a real jerk. He wouldn't let anyone in for cash donations and shut his booth down early, so glad I got him early on a ROMLB.

Then I got to kingery, his line was long but moving fast. Got him on a ROMLB.

Time was running thin, but I managed to get through Rhys ROMLB, Kapler, Cesar Hernandez, Carlos Santana ROMLB, and just barely made it to Aaron Nola ROMLB before he closed it off.






Kingery and Arrietta were my last needs on the team so I knocked those out, and got some valuable dupes. So I had one of my best festivals ever!

[OC22]

I see 'Los has been taking autograph tips from someone. He was famous for sideways side paneling ROMLBs in black Sharpie at TribeFest the last few years. Solid haul!

[cyberer]

I see 'Los has been taking autograph tips from someone. He was famous for sideways side paneling ROMLBs in black Sharpie at TribeFest the last few years. Solid haul!

Hahaha he’s been nice enough here I got him twice, at a modells free signing and the festival and got him SS in pen both times

[OC22]

Hahaha he’s been nice enough here I got him twice, at a modells free signing and the festival and got him SS in pen both times

Good to hear...I miss 'Los in Cleveland. I don't think he ever gave lousy graphs out of spite, he just didn't understand why people cared. I know at his last Tribefest, Trevor Bauer gave him a ton of crap for his signing habits, and things seemed to improve.

[cyberer]

That’s funny- it’s cool when guys police themselves haha.


I had a really awesome experience that I have to share with my favorite band, and it ended up being one of those cosmic coincidences where I feel like the universe smiled on me. Here goes!


For as long as I can remember, I have loved the punk/rock band Alkaline Trio. They are relatively obscure, but their From Here To Infirmary album was my high school cruising music and all time favorite. I’ve seen them in concert, but never tried graphing them. So, I bought From Here to Infirmary on Vinyl and decided to have at it after the show.


The complicating factor to all this is that their lead singer, Matt Skiba, was recently added to Blink 182 to replace their singer Tom, so he has recently become WAY more famous now being a part of blink. So I didn’t know what to expect, even though I heard Skiba was nice.


I realized he would probably leave very soon after the show, so I ran out during the last song and went to my car and got the record and ran over to the stage door.


There were 4 or so other guys with stuff from the Merch stand to get signed already there. It started drizzling and the cover kept getting droplets on it, but I did my best.


About 5 minutes later he came out, in a hurry. I said Matt can you sign my favorite album of all time?


He said “Yeah!” And he signed very quickly, never stopped moving or broke stride, and tossed my marker back up over his head when he was done and ducked into a waiting car. He didn’t sign for the other guys, I was the only one. The sig was rough with the rain and the hurry he was in but I wasn’t about to complain.


I waited about another hour, and got the backup singer Dan to sign it as well. He was nice as could be, spent like 15-20 minutes talking to all of us about the band and signing whatever people had and taking pictures. I asked him about the 3rd guy in the band, and he said they were using a replacement drummer tonight. I was pretty bummed that I wouldn’t be able to finish the cover, but it still looked great!


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But then, the universe intervened. I was home researching the 3rd member of the band, and to my surprised I learned something new about the band. That album in particular the band used a different drummer than all their other albums, named Mike. So he would never tour with Alkaline Trio because he split with them. I was bummed at first, but then I read up on him that he was in another band AND THIS BAND WAS PLAYING 2 DAYS LATER A BLOCK FROM MY APARTMENT. Seriously, you can’t make up this coincidence.


So I facebook messaged the guy, showed him the album pic, and he was SUPER NICE about it and said he would come out of the venue on the day of the concert and sign. So I messaged him the day of and he came out of the stage door after sound check and signed and chatted with my a bit about the album. Really chill guy. What are the odds that within a week they would be touring and that he would be so nice as to do it!


I went from thinking it would never be completed to completing it within 4 days! Framed it up in a vinyl album frame and it looks great!


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On kind of a funny side note, while I was waiting Sunday for Alkaline Trio a guy came out of the stage door with a giant tray of pastries with the band logo. I jokingly asked if we could take one and he gave them out to whoever wanted them, maybe 10 of us waiting. Turns out, they are vegan pastries because Skiba is a vegan.


I showed them to my girlfriend (also a vegan) and we realized that they came from her favorite vegan place a bakery called Vegan Treats in Bethlehem PA. Crazy coincidence!


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Really, although the celebs are kind of obscure, this was one of the most fun times I’ve had graphing in a long time. Personal favorites! Also shout out to someone on these boards who prompted me to research the 3rd member in the first place!

[Atlantaman]

That’s awesome!

[cyberer]

Thanks Atlanta!

I finally got out graphing again, this time it was a "sure thing" but a long long day.

Inexplicably, Cal Ripken is endorsing Roy Rogers this year for their 50th anniversary. He has done a series of free signings at stores throughout New Jersey and Maryland. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the signing he did in New Jersey close to home, where apparently he did multiple items and all the inscriptions you want. But when I saw one signing pop up near baltimore less than a 2 hour drive away, and on my off day no less, I couldn't pass it up.

I rolled there with a friend, and we got there about 10am for a 5 pm signing. We were lucky we got there when we did, as it turned out, people that got there after us did not get tickets. They had only 100 tickets total and 50 of those were reserved for a local radio contest and VIPs of the restaurant employees and families. So we got tickets 77 and 78.

And so we had to wait. It was one of those 100 degree days with bright sun that we've had on the east coast recently, so it was pretty brutal. But to his credit Cal was right on time. They told us going in it would be only 1 per person, and no inscriptions. So unlike last time, we would not make out like bandits. But the Ripken was only for my PC so I don't care about that.

We got in there, Cal was nice, talking to people, taking pictures. Overall, the signing was really well run. I don't know why more free signings don't use numbered tickets. Making people stand in line with tickets to hold a numerical order has never made sense to me. Anyways long story short cal gave me a beautiful sweet spot sig on my ROMLB, and a great pic with.





Not bad for a relatively short drive on an off day. Still got home in time for dinner!