Granite Run Mall Show Recap

The long-awaited Granite Run Mall autograph show finally came last weekend, April 12th.  Once again I had the opportunity to set up shop in the middle of the action - which has been a great chance for me to meet readers, and promote the site.  With my brother out of town for work, I recruited my dad to lend a helping hand - guess, The Phillies Collector is a family business after all!  We really appreciated meeting and receiving positive feedback from so many people.  

It wasn't all work though, I did make some time to build on a few projects, too.  Here are some of the highlights:

1964 Phillies 

I was excited to meet Tony Gonzalez, Frank Thomas and Art Mahaffey - members of the famed 1964 Phillies.  It was the first time getting in-person autographs from both Gonzalez and Thomas.  After exchanging mail with Mr. Thomas over the years, it was nice to finally talk to him, and thank him for all the autographs - and personal responses.  They were all in a good mood and took my fandom in stride...

1993 Phillies

Terry Mulholland was one of the few members of the 1993 Phillies that I have not seen at a show before - and with all my in-progress team projects I had to make a few choices.  

• First priority is to continue filling up my team ball. There wasn't much room, but Mo found a space and got me one step closer to having it complete.
• Also got my team poster signed - choosing it over the "celebration" photo.

I have recently starting getting the inside cover of a 1993 World Series photo book signed by some of the guys.  Since starting it, I have found that a lot of the guys were unaware of it's existence.  On Saturday, Mitch Williams took two or three minutes paging through and looking at the photos, recalling his thoughts and memories of particular moments.  It was a fun experience to share it with him.

Tony Perez

Perez is the first "star" that I added to my 1983 team photo.  After collecting the first six or seven autographs through the mail, I had been able to add Sarge and Larry Andersen at last year's Phestival.  I probably will not add another big name for a while, but having Perez made the project seem a little more legitimate...

TTM Update - April 6, 2014

Spring Training Returns

I'm not going to sugarcoat it - this Spring Training was rough for me in terms of TTM returns.  Instead of sending stacks of cards to the entire roster and hoping to get a few back, I took educated gamble and hung out on the outer fringes.  The group of returns shown here is pretty representative of my target population: Darin Ruf, Jonathan Pettibone and Phillippe Aumont.  I am hoping a few more may still come in over the next few weeks...

Chuck Bednarik

I've been looking to find something for a 1960 Eagles project.  The guys from the team are historically great signers - and I have sent out individual items in the past, but never did a larger project.   I felt pretty lucky to find this 1960 Championship program cover on eBay a few weeks ago and wasted no time in getting it out to Bednarik.  This is one that will be in the family for a long time... Note: He now asks for $30 to have a non-personalized TTM autograph.  

Tony Gonzalez

Of all the signers slated to appear at next weekend's Granite Run Mall show, I am probably most interested to meet Tony Gonzalez.  Though I have received several successes from the former Phillies outfielder over the years, I have never had the opportunity to meet him.  Anyway, I continue to plug away at the 1964 Bulletin set - and now with Gonzalez safely in my hands, the total signed inserts stands at 18!