My Recent Pickups & DBacks FanFest!

[DBacks08]

So today was the BEST day of the year for me... Arizona Diamondbacks FanFest! I had so much fun getting photos with players, shopping at the Dbacks Foundation Yard Sale, and hanging out with some new friends!

But first... a few pics of some recent pickups of mine from my LCS that I'm particularly in love with!

2011 Bowman Chrome Mark Reynolds Canary 1/1

A killer 2004 SP Authentic Luis Gonzalez auto/patch (gold, purple, silver) /10

And now, a view of Diamondbacks FanFest from right-center field!

I met a few players...
Ian Kennedy and I:

Joe Saunders and I:

Daniel Hudson and I:

I also saw the best mascot in sports... D. Baxter!

And finally, I picked up this sweet Luis Gonzalez autographed commemorative plaque from his #20 Retirement Ceremony last season!

Just wanted to share some of my fun times recently... thanks for looking!

 

[r2d2]

Congratulations on your pickups and for reporting about the Dbacks Fan Fest. I was wondering if we don't have members in Phoenix.
I'm from Sonora, the Mexican state that borders with Arizona so I've been a Dback fan since their birth. But I've been living in another city for 5 years now due to school so I'm not able to attend this event It never matches my spring break.

 

[Djarum]

Nice pickups and thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like it was fun indeed.

Dale

 

[hawkfandan]

Very cool. I'm envious that folks can wear shorts in February.

 

[DBacks08]

@r2d2: Heh, yeah, I'm usually more of a lurker than an active poster. Too bad about FanFest not matching your Spring Break, but since it's on a Saturday, maybe you should just take a weekend vacation! It's totally worth it!

@Djarum: Thanks! It was!

@hawkfandan: Haha... yeah, it was actually HOT today standing in the sun! And I saw people still wearing sweaters! I'd prefer the cold with snow on the ground myself.

 

[nkdbacks]

Great pickups and glad to hear it was a fun time. I've heard mixed reviews from today- I couldn't make it for the first time this year, I was definitely bummed.
Attendance last year was 10,000- it went up to 25,000 this year, I've heard people saying it was just too crowded and season ticket holders pretty much bought all the autograph tickets.

Anything interesting in the yard sale game used wise? Or anything interesting really haha.

 

[DBacks08]

Great pickups and glad to hear it was a fun time. I've heard mixed reviews from today- I couldn't make it for the first time this year, I was definitely bummed.
Attendance last year was 10,000- it went up to 25,000 this year, I've heard people saying it was just too crowded and season ticket holders pretty much bought all the autograph tickets.

Anything interesting in the yard sale game used wise? Or anything interesting really haha.

Thanks! Yeah, it was REALLY REALLY crowded... my one photo above doesn't do it justice. That's only half the field. And yeah, the STHs bought up all the auto vouchers, but I didn't really care much about that because I can get all the autos I want at Salt River Fields for free, so I skipped the vouchers this year.

As far as the Yard Sale, they had a bunch of signed jerseys for $60 each that were really nice. Mostly former players, like Webby and Buckner and Reynolds. Also had the usual stuff: signed balls, signed bats, GU broken bats, lineup cards, bobbleheads, shirts, STH cups, pins, etc. They also discounted the Gonzo plaques from my photo above, so I picked up one of those, and the only other thing I bought was one of the 20 All-Star Game ballot boxes from this last summer! So cool... just waiting on it to be delivered to me next week.

They also had an area for food on the field, so you didn't have to go way up the concourse to get a snack and worry about getting back in time for autos/photos or whatever. And the auto sessions were all in the SHADE this year, which was definitely a plus for people.

By the way, I love the Webby card in your signature! Very cool!

 

[nkdbacks]

Great pickups and glad to hear it was a fun time. I've heard mixed reviews from today- I couldn't make it for the first time this year, I was definitely bummed.
Attendance last year was 10,000- it went up to 25,000 this year, I've heard people saying it was just too crowded and season ticket holders pretty much bought all the autograph tickets.

Anything interesting in the yard sale game used wise? Or anything interesting really haha.

Thanks! Yeah, it was REALLY REALLY crowded... my one photo above doesn't do it justice. That's only half the field. And yeah, the STHs bought up all the auto vouchers, but I didn't really care much about that because I can get all the autos I want at Salt River Fields for free, so I skipped the vouchers this year.

As far as the Yard Sale, they had a bunch of signed jerseys for $60 each that were really nice. Mostly former players, like Webby and Buckner and Reynolds. Also had the usual stuff: signed balls, signed bats, GU broken bats, lineup cards, bobbleheads, shirts, STH cups, pins, etc. They also discounted the Gonzo plaques from my photo above, so I picked up one of those, and the only other thing I bought was one of the 20 All-Star Game ballot boxes from this last summer! So cool... just waiting on it to be delivered to me next week.

They also had an area for food on the field, so you didn't have to go way up the concourse to get a snack and worry about getting back in time for autos/photos or whatever. And the auto sessions were all in the SHADE this year, which was definitely a plus for people.

By the way, I love the Webby card in your signature! Very cool!

Cool, sounds like it was pretty much the same as years past. I was worried about missing out on some Webb or Daniel Hudson Game Used stuff, but it sounds like the jerseys weren't actually game used, and i doubt they will sell anything of current players until they are off the team, so I doubt I missed any Huddy stuff. I definitely wish I could've gone, but I'll make up for it next year.

Someone on another forum mentioned the ballot boxes, they sounded really cool. Hopefully I can make it out for Spring Training as well, I'd love to get some autographs and keep working on getting an 8x10 auto of as many players as possible. If you are going to be at any games let me know, we should meet up, D-backs fans need to stick together. Did they not have the card show on the field this year by the way? I didn't see it on the map for the FanFest and it looked like the food court replaced it over near first base/right field.

Now I'm just pumped for the season to start, FanFest always makes me overly eager. Thanks for the kind words about the Webb, definitely my favorite of his that I have and one of the first I got actually way back when. I'm working on getting all my collection scanned up in my Photobucket, but its a pain. I'm about to hit 7,000 different D-backs cards, so hopefully I can have it done and ready to display by then.

 

[Pastretta]

Very nice pickups....25K people were there? I didn't make it and thats crazy that all the season ticket holders took up a lot of the autograph tickets.

That's so true about getting the autographs at the Salt River Fields. Good luck graphing this year guys. :ugeek:

 

[nkdbacks]

Very nice pickups....25K people were there? I didn't make it and thats crazy that all the season ticket holders took up a lot of the autograph tickets.

That's so true about getting the autographs at the Salt River Fields. Good luck graphing this year guys. :ugeek:

Yeah, its amazing what winning will do for fans in this town. And apparently the season ticket holders were allowed to being 4 guests for the early entry as well, which probably explains why they had raided everything beforehand.

 

[r2d2]

Any chance you saw stuff from Edgar Gonzalez?

 

[DBacks08]

@nkdbacks: No, no card show, and the jerseys weren't GU - at least, it didn't look like they were. I heard the card show did poorly last year, so they scrapped it. Fine with me; all the prices were way too high anyway. I'll be at lots of games lol... I always go to Opening Day and I'll be at opening day of Salt River Fields, too. Feel free to hit me up. Got any good Mark Reynolds stuff in those 7K cards? lol... I'm working on supercollecting him!

@pastretta: At LEAST 20K if not more. I wish ballparks would quit with some of the perks for STHs. Like, let everyone into the stadium at the same time instead of STHs getting in 30 minutes early, or an hour early for FanFest. It's just stupid. STHs already get tons of other perks and special events invites without having them blow out all the vouchers that are supposed to be available for ALL the fans! ** End Rant **

@r2d2: Edgar Gonzalez? I don't remember anything specifically from him there.

 

[bballjunky24]

Where did you find the reynolds? I don't think I ran across that on ebay...

If you ever move it, please hit me up I would love to have it for my PC. edit: I do know you collect him as well, but a guy can hope that one day it will be mine, lol...

I was at fanfest too. Really went for the yardsale and I was disappointed. I wanted to buy one of those gonzo plaques and the signed bobble head but I wasn't going to wait an hour in line to pay for it...

 

[DBacks08]

Where did you find the reynolds? I don't think I ran across that on ebay...

If you ever move it, please hit me up I would love to have it for my PC. edit: I do know you collect him as well, but a guy can hope that one day it will be mine, lol...

I was at fanfest too. Really went for the yardsale and I was disappointed. I wanted to buy one of those gonzo plaques and the signed bobble head but I wasn't going to wait an hour in line to pay for it...

I got the Reynolds off the 'bay... I just got it before you could lol! I was quick. You'll be first on my list if I ever decide to move it. And to be fair, I would consider trading it for one of the other big 1/1s I'm looking for.

As far as the Yard Sale, I only ended up standing in line for 20 minutes, but I also used cash instead of a card. You should have let me know; I would have helped you out!

 

[nkdbacks]

I do have a few Reynolds in my 7,000 but nothing that isn't super easy to get. I never got into collecting Reynolds as much. I think its mostly because I really just got back into the D-backs collection last year, and he was gone by that time. I'd only been focusing on Webb for so long. Now I'm off the D-backs collection and rounding out the Daniel Hudson collection.

I'll keep you (and of course you bballjunky) in mind if I ever see any nice Reynolds as long as you guys keep watching for Daniel Hudson! I am desperately searching for the 2012 Gold Rush Autograph variation, I have a feeling its going to be impossible to find with these wrapper redemptions only lasting until the end of this month.

You are right, the card show was never great, but they often had 8 x 10 autographs I needed for $10 or $15 of former players so that was nice for me. Definitely always bring cash to the yard sale, the credit card line is ridiculous. Hopefully next year they consider doing the FanFest differently, because I know STH get plenty of other meet and greet opportunities throughout the year. I'll hopefully be at Opening Day in April for Lincecum vs. Kennedy, but I have an interview day for internships so it's going to be a close call.

 

[DBacks08]

You are right, the card show was never great, but they often had 8 x 10 autographs I needed for $10 or $15 of former players so that was nice for me. Definitely always bring cash to the yard sale, the credit card line is ridiculous. Hopefully next year they consider doing the FanFest differently, because I know STH get plenty of other meet and greet opportunities throughout the year. I'll hopefully be at Opening Day in April for Lincecum vs. Kennedy, but I have an interview day for internships so it's going to be a close call.

The yard sale took over those duties this year. They had an entire table filled with 8x10" autos of former players. Everyone from Webby to Buckner to Jackson to Reynolds by the time I got there. I imagine there were even more when the STHs got in there.