Lunch With Former Penn State Running Back Mike Guman

This afternoon I had lunch with former Penn State running back, and LA Rams fullback Mike Guman.  Guman was the guest speaker at this week’s meeting of the Selinsgrove Rotary Club, which was held at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club.

Mike Guman is most notably remembered for playing in the 1979 Sugar Bowl.  Penn State was playing Alabama.  You had two of the greatest football coaches in history going against each other – Joe Paterno and Bear Bryant.  Alabama was winning 14-7, and Penn State just needed to get over the goal line to score.  On Penn State’s last attempt Paterno decided to give the ball to Guman.  Unfortunately when Guman jumped the pile he was met by Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss and didn’t make it in.  Penn State needed to score a touchdown and only having to go such a short distance and not making it is one of those gut wrenching plays.  As the story goes, Krauss hit Guman so hard the rivets in his helmet came loose.  In 2002, ESPN ranked the 1979 Sugar Bowl as the Greatest Bowl Game Ever, and ESPN.com ranked the final play of that game as #6 on their list of 100 Moments That Define College Football.

Mike Guman is an excellent speaker.  He talked about life on and off the field.  He also provided us with his perspective on all the recent events that have taken place at Penn State.  Guman held back tears when talking about Paterno, and wishes the whole situation would have been dealt with better.  He got to sit down and talk to Paterno for about 30 minutes after these events unfolded.  Guman doesn’t like how Paterno has been vilified.  He wishes they would have let him retire at the end of the season.  Paterno said to him this was going to be his last year anyway.  Right now Mike Guman is Vice-President of Oppenheimer Funds.

I took my black and gold Penn State football with me and got him to sign it once the lunch was over.  Usually I get my photo with the athlete whenever I get an autograph, but this was not an official autograph signing, so I didn’t take the camera.

As far as cards go, he doesn’t have that many.  Eleven to be exact.  His rookie can be found in 1981 Topps card #322.  I bet there would be a lot of college football collectors interested in seeing some modern day cards made of Guman.  Perhaps a Guman/Krauss autograph?

For lunch I had meat loaf, mashed-potatoes, corn, and a roll.

Photos: Eagles Autograph Signing With LeSean McCoy

Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy was at the Susquehanna Valley Mall this afternoon from 2:30pm until 4:00pm signing autographs for fans.  The signing was put on by C.C. Collectibles.  The signing had a very nice turnout.  Lots of fans came out to see him.

Near the center of the mall they had a small card show too.  I was looking for a box of 2011 Leaf Metal Draft Baseball but didn’t see any.  Instead I picked-up a couple of 2011 Topps Marquee Baseball packs I will be busting a little later.

LeSean McCoy SV Mall Signing This Weekend – 10/22/11

Collectors traveling through Central Pennsylvania this weekend might want to stop at the Susquehanna Valley Mall this Saturday – 10/22/11.  From 2:30pm to 4:00pm, Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy will be signing autographs.  Click here to learn how you can obtain your autograph ticket.  Any item is $30.00.  If you purchase your ticket online, you can show them the PayPal receipt once you arrive.  You could also purchase a ticket at the show too.  They shipped me my ticket since I bought it so early.  I’m actually ticket #001.  Looks like I’m first!  See you there.

The Philly Show Is Dying

Hunt Auctions is the owner of The Philly Show, and they are down right killing it.  Ever since the show moved to the Valley Forge Convention Center fewer dealers have been coming.  They keep raising the price for booth space, and the facility the show is held in is falling apart.  This doesn’t take into account that the bathrooms look like a crime scene from CSI and they didn’t have the air conditioning on.  The dealers and visitors weren’t warned about any of the construction that is currently taking place either.  To get to the show, you had to take such a long walk through the hotel.  They could have had more tables to sit at too.  Upper Deck, Hunt Auctions owner should be ashamed.  I miss the days when The Philly Show was held at The Fort Washington Expo Center and The Greater Reading Expo Center.

Since there were such few dealers it didn’t take long to browse through most of the tables.  As usual there were a lot of vintage cards, but I did find some dealers that carried modern stuff.  I didn’t purchase any single cards for my collection.  Instead I bought two boxes of 2011 Topps Finest Football from Marty’s Sports Card Exchange, a few supplies from Eddie of ESE Supplies, and an autograph ticket for Pat Gillick.  MAB Celebrity does a great job when it comes to organizing and bring in the athletes.  That still is a big draw for collectors.

This may have been the last time I attend The Philly Show for awhile until they shape up.  That’s what I heard from a lot of dealers.  I might give the show at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center a shot.  Many dealers had positive things to say about it.  I hear its run by the same group that does the Chantilly show.

Tomorrow I will reveal what I pulled from my two boxes of 2011 Topps Finest Football.

Pat Gillick – 2011 member of the Baseball HOF.  Gillick was the General Manager of the Phillies when they won the 2008 World Series.  He was very nice to come out from behind the table for a photo.

Gillick’s signature can be seen on the right

Bill Mazeroski

Julius Erving – “Dr. J”

Former Phillies shortstop Dickie Thon

Former Phillies second baseman/shortstop Mariano Duncan

Former Phillies Outfielder Ollie Brown

Tyrell Biggs – 1984 Olympic Boxing Gold Medalist

Introducing The HK Talking Bobblehead

On 5/16/11 the Lehigh Valley IronPigs will be giving away a talking Harry Kalas bobblehead.  Push the talk button once to hear him make a call, and push twice to hear him say “I’m hog wild about IronPigs baseball.”  This is beyond awesome!!!  I will be adding one of these to my collection.  This will be Kalas’s third bobblehead.  I highly doubt there will ever be another stadium giveaway as cool as this.

The Philly Show – March 5, 2011

Its been almost a year since I’ve been to The Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show, which is held at the Valley Forge Convention Center.  I noticed a few less dealers, but I had fun.  I got some autographs, busted a few boxes, and did what your suppose to do at The Philly Show.  Let me tell you something.  There are two dealers at this show that do extremely well.  One is Marty’s Sportscard Exchange and the other is ESE Supplies.  Marty Davis of Marty’s Sportscard Exchange always has the best deals on wax, and Eddie of ESE Supplies has any type of holder you’d need.  I even stopped by the Louisville Slugger booth.

FYI – a few vintage sets were stolen at the show.  The announcer said the sets came from 1961 and 1971.  They did not state which sport.

Phillies Fan Favorite Jamie Moyer – Moyer made his MLB debut the day I was born

Art Mahaffey was the 1st Philly to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  You can see Lenny Dykstra (my personal accountant) in the background wearing the hat.

Former Boston Red Sox Manager and Phillies Pitching Coach Joe Kerrigan

Hunt Auctions had an impressive display of memorabilia.  This old “Casey at the Bat” book really caught my eye.

In the top right corner, you’ll see an issue of Beckett Baseball with Ryan Howard on the cover.  I’m actually in that issue for when I wrote a little piece on Victor Martinez’s first card.

More memorabilia from Hunt Auctions

One of my first stops of the day was at the Louisville Slugger booth.  I purchased a new bat with the Phillies logo and “SPORTS CARD INFO” engraved on it.  Then I got Moyer and Mahaffey to sign it.

The Dec. ’09 Philly Show Report

After talking to one of my local shop owners, I didn’t know what to expect while attending The Philly Show this weekend in Valley Forge, PA.  I arrived at the Valley Forge Convention Center at about 9:15 in the morning and the parking lot didn’t seem too full.  Browsing around the show floor you could see that about one third of the dealers weren’t there.  I highly doubt it was the weather, but instead probably because of the increasing setup fees from Hunt Auctions.  Did you know Upper Deck owns Hunt Auctions?  Today was the first time I had heard that.  MAB-Celebrity was in charge of getting the autograph guests for the show, and I think they did a great job.  All of the signers this weekend were or still are Phillies.  Bringing all Phillies in is a great idea from MAB-Celebrity.  Being so close to Philadelphia it just makes sense.  Ever since Hunt Auctions purchased The Philly Show, MAB-Celebrity has brought in big name players like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Frank Robinson, but they really hit the jackpot when it comes to Phillies.  I had never seen so many people lined up for signatures.  This was by far one of the fullest shows I’ve been to.  The dealer that told me Upper Deck owns the show said he wishes they would bring in Michael Jordan and/or LeBron James and just let people get their photo with them for a few bucks.  If Upper Deck did that the place would be extremely packed, but I like the idea.  I hope they continue to bring more Phillies to the show.

While heading for lunch, I met the blogger who runs Phungo and he handed me some custom made Phillies cards for my collection.  The pack even included a card of Harry Kalas.  I also saw Chris Harris from Stale Gum from a distance.  When I started blogging, I never thought I would get recognized at shows 🙂  Thanks Phungo for the cool cards!!!!!!!!!

I got a few autographs, busted some wax, and pulled some insane stuff!!!!  Here are some of the highlights.

Former Phillies catcher Todd Pratt

Pete Rose signing my bat.  I hope he makes it into the HOF someday.

Mike Schmidt

Pratt’s signature is all the way to the right.

Rose has such a huge signature.  It takes up a good portion of the bat and looks awesome.

This Rose ’08 Sports Legends jersey #’ed/100 is the only single I purchased from a dealer.

Pulled this Stafford autograph jersey/ball/jersey #’ed/299 from a single pack of ’09 Absolute.

I took a chance with ’09 UD Black Football and man did it pay off.  This is my first Peyton Manning autograph and it is #’ed/18.  It also contains a piece of film.

Tried a pack of ’09 Leaf Limited and pulled this Brees autograph jersey #’ed/25.

Pulled this from my pack of ’09 Leaf Limited too.  Quad jersey relic of Turner/Peterson/Jones/Brown #’ed/100

I wanted to try a box of ’09 Topps Unique.  Pulled this 3 color Freddy Sanchez patch #’ed/99.  While opening my box of Unique, another collector sat down at the table and started opening their box of Unique too.  They pulled an Utley jersey and an Ibanez autograph 🙂

This was probably my best hit from ’09 Topps Unique and it isn’t even “game used”.  These Presidential Bat Barrels are quite difficult to pull.  I think they come one per case.

Overall, this was probably one of the better shows since Hunt Auctions purchased The Philly Show.  I think Hunt Auctions and MAB-Celebrity finally learned what draws in the fans.  Hopefully some of those dealers return for the show in March.  You can definitely say the “MOJO” was with me today, after seeing all the cool stuff I pulled like the Manning autograph.  I give this show 4.5 hot dogs out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect).

Dealers Angry With Hunt Auctions

The other day I had an interesting conversation with one of my local card shop dealers.  We were talking about the upcoming Philly Show scheduled for next weekend and I learned some inside stuff that I normally don’t hear.  It seems like almost every dealer is angry with Hunt Auctions.  My local shop owner has been in business for over 30 years and has been attending The Philly Show for almost as long.  After Hunt Auctions purchased the show in late 2008, they immediately raised the price of what it would cost for a dealer to setup.  According to the shop owner, he would normally pay around $700.00 to setup his booth.  Since he has a lot of stuff, he usually takes up two spots.  For next weekend’s show, it will cost $1,050.00 to setup.  He told me that I shouldn’t be surprised if half the dealers don’t show because of the price.  He also told me that Hunt Auctions doesn’t advertise the show.  I probably advertise more for the show here then they do at all.  Even though  MAB-Celebrity has been bringing in bigger name athletes like Mays, McCovey, and Fisk, they haven’t been making very much off of their sales of tickets.  One athlete got paid $25,000.00 to sign autographs for only 14 people that purchased tickets.  I’m no expert in math, but I can tell you that those 14 tickets didn’t amount to anything close to 25k.  It will be interesting to see how many dealers actually show next weekend.  This is why The Hobby is heading towards being 100% run over the internet.  I’ve talked about The Philly Show many times because its one of my favorite shows.  I’d hate to see it go down hill like this.

Update:

I also find it disturbing that they still don’t have a list of dealers who plan to attend on their website yet.  They usually have one up by now.  Perhaps they don’t want people knowing how few of them there will be.  MAB-Celebrity doesn’t have Cole Hamels on the list anymore but Hunt Auctions still does.

Dec. ’09 Philly Show Is Heating Up

One of my favorite shows to attend is The Philly Show which is held at The Valley Forge Convention Center in Valley Forge, PA.  Before Hunt Auctions purchased the show last year they would only get one or two autograph guest to come over the whole weekend.  After Hunt Auctions acquired The Philly Show they have been able to bring in a bunch of big ticket athletes for collectors to meet ranging from Willie Mays to Frank Robinson.  The next Philly Show takes place on Dec. 4-6 and is a must for any Phillies fan.  Check out the lineup of athletes scheduled to attend.

Saturday 12-5:

• Pete Rose
• Mike Schmidt
• Todd Pratt

Sunday 12-6:

• Steve Carlton
• Scott Eyre
• Keith Moreland
• Shane Victorino
• Cliff Lee

I enjoy getting in person autographs, because you can obtain cards almost anywhere you live.  It doesn’t matter if you have a hometown card shop or not.  Collectors can always go to the internet.  Meeting athletes like this can’t be done all the time.  The dealers must do well at these shows if Hunt Auctions continues to bring in big celebrities like this.  I plan to attend Saturday and hope to get some great autographs and photos to share.  I might also bust a box or two 🙂  You can learn more about the show from MAB Celebrity and The Philly Show’s site.  More autograph guests could possibly be added in the future.

Autograph Lineup For The Sept. ’09 Philly Show

According to show Manager Paul Kutch, this will be the autograph lineup for The Philly Show that takes place on Sept. 25-27 at the Valley Forge Convention Center.

Sat. 9-26-09

• Johnny Bench
• Carlton Fisk
• Joe Frazier
• Angelo Dundee
• Dave “The Hammer” Schultz – This will be the FREE one that comes with your ticket

Sun. 9-27-09

• Whitey Ford
• Bob Boone
• Ric Flair
• Greg Gross – this will be the FREE autograph that comes with your ticket

The show’s website states that Yogi Berra is coming but he wasn’t on the list that the Manager just sent to me.  It looks as if they replaced Berra with Frazier.  I wasn’t planning on paying the high price for Berra, but it would have been cool to see him.