HOF Induction Weekends

[LakersMC]

FYI. Here are some autograph shows around the HOF weekends.

Baseball HOF by MAB, July 22-25:
http://www.mab-celebrity.com/c-1201-...ular-2011.aspx

Football HOF by Mounted Memories, Aug 6:
http://www.mountedmemoriesshows.com/...&criteria=1290

Also, a couple of questions:
1. Does anyone know of an autograph show for the Basketball HOF?
2. Has anyone graphed at the HOF induction events? Is it impossible to get anything? (Just curious - I wasn't planning on going any time soon.)

[jyosi]

My friends and I rack in canton every summer. My friend collects hof minis and I think has about 75 different members on minis. All of the pay signings are out of control price wise so we don't go to any of those.

[LakersMC]

My friends and I rack in canton every summer. My friend collects hof minis and I think has about 75 different members on minis. All of the pay signings are out of control price wise so we don't go to any of those.

Wow that sounds awesome. I would have thought the place would be too full of dealers & ebayers that the players wouldn't want to sign.

Rack 'em up! Post pics if you go this year!

[Sawks14]

I just got back from spending the day in Cooperstown.

I got...

Pete Rose, Frank Robinson, Andre Dawson, Red Schoendienst, and Phil Niekro.

I got Rose at his signing for $60 with a free inscription(I went with 'BIG RED MACHINE').

Frank Robinson for $105(Frank looks pretty frail this year but it could have been the heat) for a sig and HOF.

Andre Dawson for $50 with a free HOF.

Schoendienst for $45 with an HOF and for $30 he signed a Perez Steele Great Moments PC for me.

You can get almost anybody you want at the paid signings. My Dad is a big Rose fan and my HOF guidebook has a page that features a '75 WS ring so I got Rose there. I got Robinson because again he looked and sounded frail. Dawson because I'm hoping to get all of the 2010 class and Schoendienst because he rarely signs.(ill go more into that).

For me they were all worth it. It really comes down to who you want and for what. Perry and Jenkins signed for $20 while Murray signed for $99-there's something for everybody.

For the thrifty out there though free signings are possible but its hard because guys get MOBBED. Niekro signed a couple balls by CVS-nbd until a crowd of 30(guilty of being 1 of them) swarm him. He says no more than walks half a block. I actually pass him but hear somebody say "Thanks Mr. Niekro"-he signed some dude's jersey. I spun around and he graphed my book. Again swarmed and again he waves them off and walks across the street where the crowd leaves him alone for 2 seconds until a little kid walks up. He takes the ball, spins in a circle, and says "Nobody else! if I keep this up I'll be here all day". He signed the ball and took off.

Rumor has it the golf course is the last holdout for us collectors. I plan on hitting that up eventually but with the heat there was no way I was going to stand next to a stonewall in 96 degree heat for hrs on end. Maybe next time.

Two notes though-

1) Always be prepared. Niekro was only signing stuff for people with pens/sharpies. I had a black sharpie as an afterthought and am so glad I grabbed it. There were people he was willing to sign for that had no writing tools and lost out.

2) It looks like it could really be another rough year for the HOF. Yogi looks so small and frail these days. He looked real nervous with the crowd and had to stop signing at least twice that I saw and get inside and away from it all.

Schoendienst was probably the 3rd most popular guy of the day behind Yogi and Kaline(who looks great). He looks real frail as well and MAB was about ready to shut him down when I made it in. I was probably 15th in line and the bouncer/coordinator and his boss were talking about it being rough for him and him having a hard time. The wait was incredibly long and it was touch and go when they let me through. IDK how much longer they had him sign but it was bad. His sig looks amazing and he did a beautiful job but you could see it was hard for him. Word around the waiting line was Herzog was having similar difficulties earlier in the day.

Frank Robinson looked weak and seemed a bit more aloof about things. Molitor seemed to be looking weak as well.

One guy who looks and sounds amazing though is Tony Gwynn. He looks and laughs just as you would imagine him to be. It seems like the worst of his issues are behind him(lets hope).

[TheEvilEmpire]

By looking at those links, those prices are rediculous, especially Ricky Henderson's

[LakersMC]

^^^ Wow, Sawks14! Great IP report.

That is a lot of money to drop on autographs, but so worth it. I actually think MAB prices are not too bad. They offer a lot of good graphs (in general) in the $20-$50 range. And like you said, "It really comes down to who you want and for what." I also saw a tv special on MAB, and I think they know how to treat the players & the fans.

Sounds like a fun trip. Have you ever gone to the actual enshrinement ceremony?

[LakersMC]

By looking at those links, those prices are rediculous, especially Ricky Henderson's

I think some of the prices are pretty good for what they are. A HOFer for less than $50 is pretty good these days. I agree w/ you that some of the prices that top $100 are a bit much for me personally.

[Sawks14]

^^^ Wow, Sawks14! Great IP report.

That is a lot of money to drop on autographs, but so worth it. I actually think MAB prices are not too bad. They offer a lot of good graphs (in general) in the $20-$50 range. And like you said, "It really comes down to who you want and for what." I also saw a tv special on MAB, and I think they know how to treat the players & the fans.

Sounds like a fun trip. Have you ever gone to the actual enshrinement ceremony?

No, I haven't but am strongly leaning towards doing it next year.

Just got back from my second and final day at HOF weekend.

I wanted Harvey, Aparicio, Herzog, Bunning, and Kiner. Unfortunately they were all signing between 10 and 12 so it took up my day. That said, here's what I learned today.

1) Friday is the day for show graphs. Yesterday everything was manageable and most people seemed to be quick enough to keep up with the ticket numbers being called and where things were happening. Today...that was not the case. Ten times the people were there and it seemed like nobody could understand what was going on. People were just stopping to gawk at the HOFers signing and blocking people who actually bought a ticket. There was a HOF theme 'flashmob' that shut down main street for 5 minutes while dancing to 'Centerfield' that made things 100 times worse because people were sprinting to get to it all while traffic backed up the length of the street.

2) Saturday is the day for golf graphs. As lousy as the people made main street the golf course was nice. There were crowds which made it hard(I got iced out of Fingers who signed a bunch) but it was easily the best shot for a graph. They announced the tee times and who was teeing off at which hole and it was nice. Of course the dealers were in full force which a father yelling at about a 6-8yr old girl because Boggs signed her bat(Before I got to that hole) but smeared his first name. "He is not going to pay for that bat....you need to be more careful and not get messed up autographs". When Morgan came up he had his two little girls ask and he said "no autographs today, sorry" and the dad yelled at the little girls because one stuttered "Morgan" when they asked. Back to the positives though from what I heard......at least Boggs, Fingers and Jenkins signed for free along the course for a handful of people. Also heard Gillick could be had at a local bar Thurs and Fri nights and Niekro and Brett where around town signing for free.

If I do Saturday again(on the fence because the crowds on main street just sucked) it'll be all day on the golf course. Word is Fisk is a lock for $20 and a bunch of the other guys are great.

As for the book I have...

Feller, Irvin, Ford, Kiner, Roberts, F.Robinson, Marichal, Aparicio, Killebrew, Doerr, Schoendienst, Perry, Jenkins, Jackson, Bunning, Niekro, MacPhail, Cepeda, Harvey, Dawson, and Herzog for HOFers plus Pete Rose. All the HOFers have their HOF inscription except Niekro who signed for me on the street for free. Can't really complain about a free graph especially when Niekro was not doing any shows this weekend. Next year I hope to get Weaver, Bench, Gwynn, and Mazeroski.

[LakersMC]

^^^ That's cool you're working on a HOF project. Would love to see pics.

Thanks again for the IP report. You guys on the east coast are lucky to be close to all the Halls!