BACK BY NO DEMAND

Five Year Hiatus OVER

I've been a bit busy creating a family the last five years so I took a break from autos. Recently, I've decided to get back to it. Everybody needs a hobby. Up top is a Michael Fulmer 5X7 I had signed at a local signing. I bought a bunch of these 5X7 cards online and hope to start getting them auto'ed they look so much cooler than regular cards.

Here are 4 other autos I've gotten recently. All in person autos but one:

I attended Tigerfest for the first time in 3 years this year and its nothing compared to what it used to be. I used to meet and get autos from 10-15 players and lines were 2 hours. This year I took my brother and feel bad he had to suffer through it. We stood in line for 3 hours to get Mike Pelfrey's auto and then 4 hours for Buck Farmer. Don't get me wrong; I love the autos I got and am so grateful the Tigers put on the event but it seems like they sell 10,000 more tickets to the thing now making it so packed you can't move. Also, in years past I NEVER stood in line to get a single autograph. Usually there were 2-4 signers at the table. I don't know what caused the changes that made the event take a terrible turn but it needs to be worked out. I would rather pay $500 for a ticket to assure I'd get to meet at least half the team and only 1,000 people were in attendance than pay $30 and spend my day standing around for little reward. The Tigerfest FAIL was a big reason I decided to get back into TTM autos. The younger Tigers coming up are looking good and I have a big wishlist of autos from them so since I only got Buck from my list done at Tigerfest I decided I'll send for the rest.

Anyway, the Marcel Dionne I bought online as we share the last name I should own this card. The Buck Farmer is amazing looking. He said he had never seen the Allen and Ginter X card before. The Pelfrey card I had to trade a Fulmer RC for in line before getting it signed as I couldn't find any Pelfrey cards before the event in my collection. The Kevin Van Dam was one of the coolest moments of my life. I went to a fishing show just to see him and maybe get him to sign this card. I walked around peeking behind the scenes for hours trying to spot him. Suddenly I saw a small crowd forming and him in the middle. As soon as some kids got their picture snapped I dove in and handed him the card and a blue sharpie. He had a black one already open and asked what color I wanted. I've idolized this dude forever so I just stared and drooled and don't even remember if I answered him.