Saturday, September 4, 2010

A (Very) Delayed Thank You to Zach

Zach, who writes the amazing Autographed Cards blog, held a College World Series contest at the end of June.  I haven't had luck with winning contests around the blogosphere but I was finally able to win one thanks to my random selection of the winning teams.  I don't think I did a great job but I was able to edge out the competition.

It's only taken me about 2 months to get around to thanking him for the awesome cards and autographs he sent me, but hey, better late than never.  


I love autographs of Hall of Famers and this is my first one of Harmon.
 


 Augie is the legendary Texas Longhorns baseball head coach who has the most wins in NCAA history. 



The cards marked R are also mine, and the Jim Rice autograph is an 8x10.  You'd think I could have found time to get these scanned within two months, but no.  



I sent Zach a couple cards of Mario's since he is playing somewhere in the Midwest.  Zach was nice enough to send this one back to me for my orange uni collection.


Thanks for everything Zach!  If you've never checked out his blog, head over there right now!  He features a new autographed card every day and he always has some interesting information on how he got the autograph.

2 comments:

zman40 said...

You're a better man than me. If I don't post something about a trade/prize within a week, it never happens. Thanks for the plug!

I had to do a little scheming to get that Harmon card signed. I got it at the Rickwood Classic in Birmingham in early June. I went through the line once and got a card signed for me. I got in line a second time with the intention of getting a ball signed and this card signed. My friend Dustin was there to help me with your card.

After standing in line for about five minutes and not getting anywhere, Dustin decided to head for the seats to watch the game. The line was much longer than it was the first time we went through.

So, I started to survey my surroundings and there were two kids behind me. I asked what they were getting signed and one kid showed me a ball that had been hit for a home run twenty minutes earlier. I asked the second kid what he was getting signed and he said that he was just standing there with his friend. I told him that I would buy him a hot dog if he got this card signed for me and he agreed to it.

So, that was the plan until I got about thirty people from Harmon. At that point, my 'graphing partner and I are within sight of Harmon and the kid sees someone getting their ticket stub signed. He pulls out his ticket stub and can't figure out why he didn't think of that first. So, he decides to get his stub sign and leaves me back at square one. No hard feelings though as I was glad to chat with the youngsters for almost an hour and it was good to see them coming out to such a great event.

At that point, I thought this card was not going to get signed (I forgot to mention that after being in there ten minutes, they cut the line off). But, next thing I know, an older lady walks in and joins the group in font of me. This group consisted of a grandfather and his two grandsons. I tested the waters with them early on and decided on the two kids behind me. But, when Grandma walked in, it was a whole new ballgame.

I first asked her to get a card signed for me since she was just taking pictures and not getting anything signed. She just laughed and said "I'm just here for the pictures". So, I came up with a new plan after watching some of the people in front of me.

I hung real close to the grandpa and kept chit-chatting him up (one of his sons lives in Kansas). When I finally got up to the front of the line, there was a guy there grabbing the memorabilia for Harmon and asking what we wanted it signed with. I handed him the card and the ball and he started to spit out the "one per" jargon. I pointed at the lady who was taking the photo of her husband and two grandkids with Harmon and I told him that the ball was for her. That was that and I came out of there with two autographs.

That's how I was able to get a ball and a card signed to hand out in a contest.

Sorry for the post-sized comment, but I thought it was a good tale. That's cool that you posted the card at the same time I was posting my '03 UDV cards.

Orioles Magic said...

That is an awesome story, and some excellent scheming, thanks for sharing it and thanks again for the great card!

Believe me, I have had to do some planning/scheming with some players and situations, but I think you would out think me any day with those things.