White Sox Fest 50/50s From William

I submitted some White Sox cards to a kid named William who goes be the handle "memorabiliamadness" on Instagram.  He was attending this year, and since my friends Max or Anthony weren't going, I went ahead and hooked William up with some cards.

He took a bunch of my White Sox base cards off of my hands, and instead of paying me for them, he offered to get a few cards signed for me.

I was especially excited about the above 2019 Topps Pro Debut Luis Robert gold parallel that William got signed for me outside of the event, before it even started.  He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get it signed, and he was able to knock it out early.

He also took care of some team set needs that I had.  The above Dane Dunning Dash card actually used to belong to a kid Chris and I knew from Wood Ducks games.  Since the kid has since unfollowed us and is no longer talking to either of us, I guess the card is mine.  He ended up becoming too cool for cards anyway, so I'll happily add another Dunning to my album.

William also got two 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects Zack Collins cards signed for me.  I have several cards left from this set, so I was glad to get two of them out of my box.  Chris got the other one.

Thank you so much for getting these cards taken care of for me, William!

Sox and Cubs Fest Autos From Max

I can always count on my good friend, Max, to take some cards off of my hands and turn them into signed cards for my autograph album.  This year, I got a nice return from both Cubs and Sox Fests, and the autographs are really great.

I was excited about the above Zack Collins that I had pulled out of a pack a month or so ago.  It had gotten damaged in transit to Max, but you can't tell from the scan.

He hooked me up with some nice Will Venable cards, especially the above 2013 emerald parallel.  You can't see the auto too well from the scan, but it is there.

Getting these two Venables was nice, too, because they had hung out in my Bowman box for quite a long time.

These Randy Hundley cards turned out well.  He has a funky signature, and you can definitely see that on the 1973 Topps that he signed (right).

Here are a couple horizontal cards that look really nice.

Max got me a whole bunch of cards signed.  I have no more Ed Farmer in my bulk boxes, which is nice.  I always enjoy moving stuff out of those boxes and either into my album or as trade bait.

We were able to fix my issue of not having a Daryl Boston for my 1987 set.  I forgot to send him one last year, and this year, we made sure one got done.

 He also got these Bostons signed, and they all look nice.

I was upset that I bought a Bowman Hi Tek Nicky Delmonico at the National last year, and misplaced it.  It would have looked nice when signed.  Still, I got some nice stuff back, and the 2010 Ryan Sweeney turned out really well (top left).

Here are a few more of the cards Max got done for me.  The 1976 Traded (bottom left) was a nice addition to the album.

Finally, I have a signed Pete LaCock card for my album.  This 1978 Topps is really nice, and I'm gad Max hooked me up with it.

Thanks so much, as always, Max.  I hope you were able to get some good stuff for yourself, also.  I can't wait til the next signing takes place and we can put some more of my bulk cards to use.

April 30, 2017, Wood Ducks Vs. Dash Graphing

Chris and I went to the Down East Wood Ducks game against the Winston-Salem Dash today to try to get some more autographs.  We did really well today, getting  bunch of autos from the Dash, as well as the Wood Ducks.  The above 2011 Topps cognac parallel turned out really nice.  I had been hoarding Harris cards for TTM, but I was able to get everything that I had signed, which helped out tremendously.

Harris (b. 1978) was really nice to Chris and I.  He signed everything that we had, and then Chris gave me all but one of the cards that he had gotten signed.  I had bought all of his Orioles cards off of COMC, since I wanted to add them to the collection.

Harris played in the majors from 2001 to 2012 for the Orioles, White Sox, Red Sox, Braves, Nationals, Mets and Reds.  He had 580 hits, 39 home runs and a .238 batting average in his career.  He won the World Series in 2005 with the White Sox.

Brian Drahman was really nice.  He also signed everything that Chris and I had.  I had found 5 1992 Topps of his between my boxes and the ones at my LCS.  Drahman (b. 1966) played in the majors from 1991 to 1994 for the White Sox and Marlins.  He had a career record of 3-2 with 29 strike outs and a 3.54 ERA.

I had two cards of prospect, Zack Collins.  He would only sign one, but this 2015 Stars and Stripes turned out really nice.

I busted a jumbo box of 2017 Bowman yesterday and took a few cards from it to the game today.  I was successful in getting all of them signed, starting with these two (a chome and paper) from Dane Dunning.  He was the only player that I got after the game.  The Dash won 6-1, but Dunning was really the only guy I had left that I could get.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Josh Morgan show up in my 2017 Bowman box.  He signed both cards for me, but was off from the game today.  It was just a routine day off.  He was still nice enough to sign.

Between Chris and I, we got four Howard Johnson cards signed.  I still have a ton of his cards, but he has been really nice and has signed for us each time.

Johnson (b. 1960) played in the majors from 1982 to 1995 for the Tigers, Mets and Rockies.  He had 1,229 hits, 228 home runs and a .249 batting average.  He was a two-time All Star and Silver Slugger (1989 and 1991) and his best finish in the MVP Award voting occurred in both of those seasons, with a fifth place finish.  He won the World Series with the Tigers in 1984 and the Mets in 1986.  He appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2001, but didn't receive any votes.

Finally, I got another of my Hickory Crawdads cards signed, this one by Chuck Moorman.  A lot of this year's Wood Ducks were Crawdads last year, so I have gotten a few of the cards signed.

Chris and I did really well at this game, I think.  I am low on Wood Ducks cards, so I think I will be trying to refill at some point soon.