Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

So about a year ago, I blogged about the Best Bobblehead ever.  Today I can blog about the Best Christmas Present ever.  Jessica (my wife) puts up with my passion of collecting bobbleheads and sometimes she even gets completely on board, much like she did with a our very own custom made bobblehead that she gave me for my wedding present almost 2 years ago.  We display that bobblehead on our mantle year-round.  But every winter she goes into Christmas decorating mode and that includes a little sass for our bobblehead.  You'll see why I'm talking about this shortly...

Christmas morning came and before celebrating with our families we had our own Christmas morning, just Jess, Murphy (our dog) and myself.  Before we started to open our gifts from one another she calmly stated, "I won this Christmas."  Obviously you know from reading my blog I'm a pretty competitive person, and so is Jess.  What did she mean by that statement, simply put she meant she got me the better presents or at least she won in terms of intrigue, thought, and well...giving me the Best Christmas Present ever!

She ordered a custom made Murphy bobblehead.  Pretty spot-on too!  I never expected this, but I knew when she said "I won this Christmas" it might be bobblehead related, however I never would have guessed it was a bobblehead of Murphy!  Merry Christmas to me!  Oh and there you can also see our scarves and "snow" that we are standing in during the winter.  

Oops...missed my 1 year anniversary

So apparently I've been doing this blog thing for over 1 year!  My first blog was December 11th, 2013, click the link to read it.  At the time I wasn't sure if blogging was going to be fun and interesting for me or more of a pain and chore.  Obviously it is definitely more of the former than latter.  175 posts in just over a year isn't bad at all.  I'd love to keep that pace up in 2015!

Even tho I'm 2 weeks late, I'm giving myself a small pat on the back for keeping up with this and giving my readers a huge THANK YOU for helping me do so!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone.  It's been quite a year for me in the bobblehead world.  I've learned so much about bobbleheads in the past year.  It's crazy to think about what I know now compared to what I knew 12 short months ago and it intrigues the hell out of me to know where I'll be in December 2015!

A few main thoughts.

1. Be nice to the men and women that deliver your packages.  When I do get something shipped to me, I usually have it sent to my office.  2 reasons, if I'm out of town during the week, it'll sit on my desk (in a climate controlled environment) til I return.  Secondly, if its delivered during a weekend, I don't worry about it as the building I work in is locked on the weekends, so it's never just sitting outside waiting for me.

2. When you have the chance to buy something you want, do it.  Or, ponder this question, does saving $5 or $10 really matter to you if its something you don't see often but know you want to add it to you collection?  I'm not saying to spend foolishly, but sometimes a good deal is just finding that specific bobblehead (or whatever) for sale - at a fair price.

3. Lastly, set goals.  I have my want list updated, I'd love to acquire some of those bobbleheads in the next 12 months.  I doubt I'll find them all, but isn't the "The Chase" part of the addiction?

New Idea - New Adds

After looking at other collectible blogs out there I have another new idea that I'm going to try to introduce to my blog.  This might not be perfect but I'm going to try to make a "New Adds" section. As the title suggests, this will be a place where I post pictures of any new additions to my collection. I'm guessing I'll do a monthly post where I share these pictures.  In the comments section, it'd be fun to have, you, the reader add pictures of your new additions as well!  So remember to take pictures (I know that will be the hardest thing for me to do).

I have a couple more posts this year, hopefully I'll have the time to do get them online!!

Want List (Part 15)

Finally!  I know you are thinking the same thing...the final part of my Want List.  However, I reserve the right to add to this list whenever I want. :)

This is also most likely the part of the list that will grow the most as I'm sure there are several out there that I don't know about!  So, if you have pictures of other bobbleheads like these or any of the previous 14 blog posts, please share them!  I'd really appreciate that and hopefully other readers will too!!

Below are two high school bobbleheads.  First is a Blaine Bengals bobblehead and then an Elk River Elks bobblehead!  The Elks bobblehead is hockey themed, they also did a football themed bobblehead.

Then we have a couple different college bobbleheads.  The first is Cobber from Concordia College. Then we have a "Power Bowl" bobblehead.  The Power Bowl was played between Concordia and Minnesota State University - Moorhead.  I'm guessing Moorhead also has a bobblehead, but I haven't been able to find a picture of it.  Last is a Southwest State University (now known as Southwest Minnesota State University) bobblehead of their Mustang mascot.    

Want List (Part 14)

This is the second to last post in my Want List series.  Thanks for continuing to read them, or look at pictures or just give me the satisfaction that you clicked on my blog!  I appreciate all of it!

The Northwoods League teams do a really good job with their giveaways.  Plenty of bobbleheads are given away each year and so far I've found it almost impossible to come up with a master list of each teams giveaways!  But I have found these pictures and therefore, I'd like to add them to my collection!

The first two pictures are of Slider from the Rochester Honkers, next is the mascot of the Alexandria Beetles, now known as the Alexandria Blue Anchors.  Last is Harley from the Duluth Huskies.

Want List (Part 13)

Checking in 13th on my Want List, yes I know its getting ridiculously long, comes a few different Mankato bobbleheads.  The first 2 are of Muttnik, their Northwoods team (Mankato MoonDogs) mascot.  And the third is the Mascot of Minnesota State University - Mankato which looks to be produced by their Hoops Club.

Want List Part (12)

A couple more random bobbleheads for the Want List.  The first is a Tires Plus bobblehead of their "mascot" Tuffy.  And one of the more unusual bobblehead "mascots" Jericho!  Jericho is the Fort Myers Miracle mascot.

Want List (Part 11)

Here are a few random bobbleheads.  The first is a variation of a commonly seen Fran Tarkenton bobblehead.  You'll notice the difference is he's wearing a white jersey compared to the typical purple jersey.  I believe the production run was limited on this bobblehead to...10, yep, just TEN!  Next is Ryan Suter when he played for the Milwaukee Admirals.  And last would be my final piece to my Pepsi One collection, Lee Corso.

Want List (Part 10)

This is my last post for Twins related bobbleheads I'd like to add to my collection.  I believe all of these are SGAs of former Twins players.  LaTroy Hawkins (Fort Wayne Wizards) makes another appearance and next to him is Lew Ford (New Britain Rock Cats).  Then we have Johan Santana (Savannah Sand Gnats) & Eric Milton (State College Spikes)!

Want List (Part 9)

Here are a few more Twins related bobbleheads that I'd eventually like to find.  First are a couple major leaguers, or umm, semi-major leaguers...you'll see what I mean by that in, 3...2...1

Yep, that's Aaron Hicks when he played for the Beloit Snappers and Trevor Plouffe when he was on the Rochester Red Wings roster.  I've seen these before, they aren't all that rare, I'm not willing to pay some sort of ridiculous amount for them tho!  Next we have a couple former Twins.  Gary Gaetti, the current manager of the Sugar Land Skeeters.  And a New Britain Rock Cats bobblehead of David Ortiz.  

Want List (Part 8)

Here comes some Twins related bobbleheads that I'd like to add to my collection.  Mainly all will be minor league bobbles!  

AJ Pierzynski, Matt Garza and LaTroy Hawkins are the first 3 minor league bobbleheads I'd like to get.  I don't know much about these, only seen pictures online of each of them.  

Want List (Part 7)

In part 7 of my Want List series I have pictures of 2 bobbleheads, the first Don Shelby from the Alexandria Beetles and Don Meyer from Northern State.  

The Shelby bobblehead was a giveaway in 2011 while the Meyer bobblehead was a giveaway at a book release, also in 2011.  Here's a video from WCCO on the Shelby bobblehead!  I'm hoping I can add each of these to my collection in the coming months!

Want List (Part 6)

Here are 4 random bobbleheads.  I really don't know anything about any of them!  So, after a week-long delay since my last blog post, this one won't be very long.  The 4 bobbleheads are, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nissemaend, Ron Meshbesher, and the Spam guy!  I think the Wilder and Spam bobbleheads are retail ones that can still be bought today.  The other 2 - no clue.  If I see pictures of bobbleheads with a Minnesota connection, I save the picture and start researching.  I didn't get very far with any of these!  

Want List (Part 5)

The second part of my mini series focuses on two different bobbleheads from the Runestone Museum near Alexandria, MN.  I know one (right side in the picture below) is available for sale from the museum, as for the other - I'm not sure.  I've only seen it in pictures.  My hunch was maybe it was a prototype or first edition type of bobblehead.

I think these are pretty cool bobbleheads, with some nice detail!  Hopefully I'll be able to add both to my collection at some point!

Want List (Part 4)

I'm going to try to do a mini series within this Want List series of posts.  The next few posts will focus on a bit more random Minnesota bobbleheads.

Below are a couple pictures of the iconic Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  A few different small towns have done bobblehead promotions in effort to raise funds for specific events in their communities.  Paul Bunyan and Babe make great bobbleheads.  I believe both come from northern MN towns, one in the Brainerd area and the other set from Hackensack.  I'm sure there are several bobbleheads out there like this - if you know of some, please email me!

Want List (Part 3)

In the third part of my Want List I'm featuring a few more rare bobbleheads.  I see them occasionally but am not looking to spend ridiculous money on these bobbleheads.  They are kinda funky looking but many people like them.  They are called SAM's bobbleheads.  I believe they were originally produced in China and from what I've heard the factory they were made at burned down.  So many collectors never got their grubby little hands on them!  If you know more about SAMs in general - please share!  Otherwise here are the 3, the first is a generic Vikings player, in the middle is Rod Carew and on the right is a generic Twins player.  

 

Want List (Part 2)

My second post in this series revolves around the Saint Paul Saints.  The Saints have definitely had some interesting giveaways in the past and their bobbleheads have been a big part of that.  I believe I'm missing 2 from having a complete set.  The first is Duke Snider and the 2nd is a Vintage Saints nodder.  I think the Vintage nodder is from the 2000 season and I'm unsure when the Duke Snider bobblehead came out.  Neither are super rare or valuable, but definitely would like to add them to my collection!

Want List (Part 1)

I believe I'll be able to create a "list" to display the entire series of my Want List.  I'm hoping this will appear on the right side of my blog so you in case you miss an entry its easy to spot or you can come back and see what is on my want list and find it easily down the road. 

Part 1 - A couple gopher related bobbleheads.  Neal Broten and Johnny Pohl - 2 former Gopher greats.  I haven't been able to track down any information regarding the Broten bobblehead.  As for the Pohl one...its from the Worcester IceCats, a former AHL team that Pohl played for.  I've seen this one twice and missed on it twice.  I've got 2 strikes on me and not looking to strikeout!  

As always - with this entire series, if you know any other information regarding any of these bobbleheads, please pass it along.  

My much anticipated Want List!

Much anticipated might be stretching it!  I know several people have inquired about bobbleheads I'm looking for and I have a list in my head but to get it on paper (and more important in picture form) takes a bit of time and work!  I've been working on it for the past couple of months.  Trying to come up with pictures at the very least!  

So over the next week or 2, I'll be doing a "blog mini series" on my want list.  I'm not sure how many blog posts it'll cover but I'm sure there will be several.  My want list covers the minor leagues, northwoods league and the pros.  In most of the major sports as well!  Also, random Minnesota bobbleheads too - which are the ones I know the least about.  So if you have information on a random bobblehead that has Minnesota ties...PLEASE let me know!  

Check back soon for the first part in this multi-part series!  

TwinsFest 2015

TwinsFest returns to Target Field this coming January.  Read more about TwinsFest 2014 at the 2 links below!

Twinsfest!!
Twinsfest = Success

Here are a couple more pictures from the 2014 TwinsFest.  Target Field probably looked the same last night (if the lights were on).

In a little over 2 months thousands of Twins fans will fill up the Target Field corridors.  This is the second year the annual event will be held at Target Field.  It's definitely a more intimate setting when compared to the Dome days of TwinsFest.  The biggest complaint I heard last year (and continue to hear from dealers and collectors) revolved around the memorabilia showcase area.  I wonder if the Twins will move this to a different area in Target Field.  I have to think there are better areas for it, but the big question is if those areas are available!  

Check out the announcement about TwinsFest 2015.  

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #1

The top spot on my 2014 Spring/Summer Finds list is all about one lucky day.  I went to a few garage sales and thrift stores late this summer.  The first one I stopped at, I found this Josh Willingham bobblehead.  No, not the "hammer" bobblehead, the red base, season ticket holder one.  Definitely the most valuable Willingham bobblehead!

At the very next stop, I found one of the most popular recent Twins bobbleheads.  Kent Hrbek and Ron Gant from the 1991 World Series.  

And lastly I found these 2 bobbleheads at my last stop.  Quite the haul for me!  Easily my biggest haul in terms of value when you consider there were only 4 bobbleheads total.  Chi Chi Rodriguez and Maya Moore from the Lynx.  Luck certainly one out that day!

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #2

Number 2 on my 2014 Spring/Summer Finds list is a moving sale I found earlier this summer.  The gentleman that was moving, was truly getting rid of everything.  He wasn't necessarily a collector but had lots and lots of bobbleheads as well as a ton of other sports memorabilia.  We had emailed a couple times and he told me the names of guys he had.  I knew he had some good bobbleheads, but wasn't sure just how good they were.  When names like Puckett, Hrbek and Killebrew get thrown out there, I'm sure everyone hopes for the first year bobbleheads.  But we all know that each player has several bobbleheads and really the first year (both SGA and STH) are the ones worth good money.  

Knowing he wanted to move them, I was intrigued, so I went to the sale and bought several bobbleheads.  I had a great time chatting with him and learning more about his "collection" even tho he repeatedly said he wasn't really a collector.  

I came away with about 14 bobbleheads.  Below is a picture of the best set.  

That's right, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek and Harmon Killebrew.  On top of those 4, I also picked up a couple of the 1965 Ecumen bobbleheads and a complete set of the 2001 SGA set that includes Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven and Dave Winfield!  Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.  On that summer day, I was 100% lucky.  

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #3

Earlier this summer one of the first good finds I had was at a garage sale in Farmington.  They had several bobbleheads, mainly Twins, but a few othe random ones as well.  There are a couple reasons that this sits at #3 on my top 5 Spring/Summer Finds list.  The first, I was able to add a couple bobbleheads to my collection.  One (or should I say 2) is a bit more rare than the others.  This one was extremely cheap, actually a bit cheaper than great garage sale prices!  So I lucked out on it!  This is a retail AGP Minnie and Paul bobblehead set.  They are shaking hands (held together by magnets).

I bought several and there was a Twins nesting doll set that was intriguing.  Because I love to wheel and deal, before I accepted the sellers price for all of the ones I was buying I asked him to throw in the nesting doll set.  He had no problem doing it.  I had 2 thoughts - it was cool and possibly rare/unique.  The cool factor meant that at the very least I'd keep it for my own collection.  I hadn't ever seen one like it before but I don't really search for things other than bobbleheads.  I did a little google research and that turned up zero, which was either good news or terrible news.  I went to a local sports collectibles store and talked to the owner.  He said he had seen them before but not for quite a while and offered me $50 cash for it.  At that point I knew I had something that was somewhat unique and valuable.  Add to it that it contained the biggest of big Twins names (Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kent Hrbek & Gary Gaetti) I knew I'd eventually sell it on eBay.  

My office view from the past couple of days

I don't really blog about things outside the bobblehead world - since this blog is a bobblehead blog. So many of you might not know that I grew up on a farm in southwestern MN near the town of Jackson.  I see my parents and friends back there quite often but one of my favorite times to go is during the fall.  Fall is the best time of year.  This past week, Jess and I went down for a few days.  It was the first time I was actually able to do something anywhere close to physical labor since my surgery.  

My office view on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was much different than my normal view. Collecting bobbleheads and this blog is simply a hobby of mine - a passionate one, but only a hobby. My weekly office view is out of huge glass block windows that overlook Northeast Minneapolis.

Quite different than the view below.  However, the view below gives me peace, happiness and a great appreciation of where I come from.  It also allows me to think about life in general.  At times I thought about blog ideas and bobbleheads.  I've mentioned before and really want to connect with more of my readers.  I kept coming back to that question.  So in order to connect with more of my my readers I'm asking you to send pictures of your collection, or your favorite bobblehead or a new bobblehead you just found.  Send blog ideas or ask questions about previous posts.  Get in touch with me.  We all collect bobbleheads or maybe you just like my writing style, while others just put up with it to see pictures of stuff I find.  

Hell - maybe the first question to get a response is this, why DO you read my blog? :)

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #4

Checking in at #4 of my best Spring/Summer Finds in 2014 is a group of Twins bobbleheads.  No picture for this one (as I didn't remember to take it).  I learned about a garage sale that had lots of sports collectibles.  I figured I'd find something that I liked and it wasn't too far from my house so I checked it out early one morning before going to work.  I'm glad I did.  I came away with 11 Twins bobbleheads plus a couple others that were good trade assets.  The deal I got was incredible as well. Since I bought so many, the seller was more than happy to give me a solid discount.  None of these were rare or hard to find, but all of them were in excellent condition and most came in their original box too.  The seller wanted to move these and I was happy to buy them.

As I mentioned - 2 non-twins made for nice trade bait too, one has already been traded and am working on another trade with the other.  A few of the Twins bobbleheads were thrown into a bigger trade as well.

Sometimes if the price is right, it makes sense to buy - even if you don't have a current need or desire for a specific bobblehead.  I knew these would be valuable down the road, and that road hasn't even been a long one!

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #5

I'm doing a 5 part series counting down my 5 best finds from the 2014 Spring and Summer.  At times I won't be able to tell you where I found the specific item, not because I don't want to, but because I don't remember!

Coming in at #5 is a Joe Mauer Autographed bobblehead.  This was a bittersweet find.  I had went to an estate sale with some knowledge that several bobbleheads would be for sale and for pretty good prices.  Notably, first year SGAs of Puckett, Hrbek, and possibly Killebrew.  I knew for a fact the Puckett and Hrbek were there and had heard the Killebrew was also for sale as well as 15-20 other Twins bobbleheads.

If you haven't been to an estate sale, they can be quite frustrating.  Not knowing where anything is located, the mad rush of people trying to get in to find those special treasures they value and at times unhelpful people who run the sale.  At other times, estate sales are wonderful.  This one fell somewhere in between.

I was lead to believe the bobbleheads were displayed (which to me, they would have been easily noticeable).  This was not the case at all.  They ended up being in their plain white boxes within another larger box, on the floor AND under a table.  A few were displayed but not the ones I was hoping to snag.  I scoured the house for 5-7 minutes before walking out.  When I was about to leave I saw the box.  There were about 10 bobbleheads left.  Another guy had spotted it before me (obviously) but the one he didn't take was a Mauer Autograph bobblehead (seen below).  I fully believe the guy saw Mauer and didn't take it out of the box to look at it.  Once I saw the auto, I knew I was buying it.  I bought a couple others for a decent price and went on my way.

This was a nice find, but I was hoping for more so I did leave a bit disappointed.

Slowing down

Perhaps it's just the luck I run into, but over the past couple of years, the spring and summer are usually when I find my best deals.  Obviously a big part of that is the garage sale season is pretty popular from May to September.  It was another great few months for me.  I've blogged previously about my best garage sale finds and I'm planning on doing another recap of that soon.  But it'll take a while for me to go thru all the deals to find the best ones.  I'm guessing since Fall is now here and winter is creeping into the picture more and more every day (or so it seems) my "finds" won't be as common.  Maybe I'll get lucky, maybe I won't.

I thought I had a to chance to get quite lucky as a collector recently found my blog and reached out to me.  He had several bobbleheads he was looking to sell.  And by several I mean...maybe 100-150? The problem I had, I was really only interested in about 10 of them.  He wanted to sell them all to one guy.  Eventually he did but that guy wasn't me.  At times, I'm glad it wasn't me and at other times, it sure would have been nice to add those 10 to my collection.  Bottom line - he found me thru my blog and that makes me happy.  No matter if you are a current or former collector, it's fun getting to know all of you.  I'll still be blogging (I sincerely hope that won't change for a long long time) but the highlights might not be as flashy as some have been in the past.

If you have blog ideas for me - let me know.  I still want to put pictures out there of your collections. I think readers would love to see other readers collections and not just my bobbleheads.  So send me an email with some pictures of your collections!

Brian Dozier STH Bobblehead

Just like the past few years the Twins did a bobblehead giveaway to select season ticket holders. The season ticket holders to rank giveaways and maybe even specifically bobbleheads high enough on their "wish list" received a certificate redeemable for a Brian Dozier bobblehead.  During the final homestand of the season, people with these certificates had to redeem them for their Dozier bobblehead at the start of each of the games.  A limited number of these were produced, only 1500! Much less than the 2500 Joe Mauer bobbleheads from last season's STH giveaway.

Below are pictures of the certificate as well as the bobblehead.

Busy week...or month even!

I haven't had the chance to blog much lately.  There are valid reasons for that, some directly related to bobbleheads.  I've been going through old storage totes, most I thought were empty.  Much to my surprise that was not the case.  This was only after I bought a few smaller lots of bobbleheads from a few friends of mine.

Other than having fun looking through hundreds of bobbleheads (and no, I'm not exaggerating that number at all) I've spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with some sort of system to sell the bobbleheads that I now have doubles of!  I still don't have a great way to do it, but what I have for now, will work...for now.  If you are looking for specific bobbleheads, let me know!  I might have found a couple you could be interested int!

Below are a few pictures of some of the new ones I've uncovered!

The first bobblehead is Torii Hunter from the Fort Myers Miracle.  This was a giveaway, several years ago.  I've heard somewhere in the range of 500-1000 were produced.  The second is Jonny Flynn from the Timberwolves.  I believe this was an STH bobblehead.  Lastly is a mascot bobblehead from the Minnesota Youth Athletics Services for the Gopher State Baseball League.  I'm not sure when this was produced, but since it's a Minnesota themed bobblehead, I'm happy to have it in my collection!  

Season Ticket Holder Gallery!

A week ago I mentioned my desire to get an image gallery up!  Twins SGA and STH bobbleheads would be my main focus.  I'm half done.  I just updated the image gallery.  It includes all Minnesota Twins STH bobbleheads.  Click this link to be directed to the main slideshow. There is a slideshow on the right side of the main page.

My next goal is to get the SGA side down.  Hopefully that'll happen soon!

Minnesota Twins - 1st Edition SGAs vs 1st Edition STHs

I've had several people ask me about the difference between SGAs and STHs.  For the most part its super easy to tell, green base bobbleheads are the giveaways while red base bobbleheads were given to season ticket holders.  However, one major hurdle is the 1st Edition of each set, as they both had green bases.

Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett make up each set.  The SGA set was given out in 2000 while the STH set was given out the following year.  There are a couple great features with both sets.  This is by far the best quality set the Twins did, both in terms of the quality of the bobblehead specifically as well as the uniqueness of each one.  Each player has different jerseys (where as most of the more recent sets - the same jerseys appear with the only difference being a red base vs. a green base).

The hard thing is remembering the exact jersey of each player to tell if its a SGA or STH.  There is a much easier way to tell the difference of each.  The base of the SGA says "Mountain Dew" (they sponsored the set) while the base of the STH says the last name of each player. THAT is the best way to tell which edition of bobblehead you are viewing.  Below is a comparison picture, on the top is the SGA set while the STH set on the bottom.

My most wanted bobblehead

I've been in the process of updating my want list, albeit very, very slowly.  I know the #1 position belongs to a Goldy Gopher hockey bobblehead.  Below is a picture.  I don't think its super rare and its not terribly expensive, but so far this one has completely avoided me.  It was a retail bobblehead sold at Gold Country (a store in Dinkytown) on the University of Minnesota campus.  If any of you happen to see this one, I'd be glad to trade for it or buy it outright.  I'll get a more in-depth want list on the blog sometime soon, but for now...I'd be super grateful if anyone contacted me about this one! Here's to hoping!

Hermann the German

I picked up this bobblehead recently.  Hermann the German is a staple in New Ulm, MN. Back in 2012, the New Ulm Convention & Visitor Bureau came up with an ad campaign featuring Hermann the German.  Part of it was to make bobbleheads of his likeness and sell them.  I believe between 500 and 1000 were produced and they sold out pretty quickly.

I've seen these on eBay now and then but never pulled the trigger.  Glad I didn't as I got it for less than eBay prices.  It's a pretty cool bobblehead and of course I wanted to add it to my collection since it has Minnesota ties!  Even better - I mentioned this as a goal of mine in my Goals Addition blog!

Image Gallery

For some time I've wanted to display some sort of image gallery.  At first it was going to be focused on all the Twins SGA & ST bobbleheads.  But the more I think about it, I'm going to try to add other SGA bobbleheads from the other professional teams in Minnesota.  This will take me quite a bit of time because I don't have pictures of all my bobbleheads.  Also I'd like to get nice pictures of the ones I'm missing, that compare well to my other photos.  It'll be a work in progress.  I'm also not entirely positive how the pictures will display on the blog.  When viewing the blog, this new section is on the right hand side, called "Image Gallery."  I believe each "set" of pictures will have a link underneath the title.  For example, it now shows Minnesota Twins STH Bobbleheads as a clickable link.  This will take you to a page that shows all STH bobbleheads.  I'll keep updating it as I have time.  But like I said previously, it's time consuming and right now I haven't been able to find much time!  However, I feel like plenty of people could use a quick link to a nice image gallery to see what a specific bobblehead looks like.  So please - start using it as such!

Golf Pro - Tom Lehman

Local Minnesotan Tom Lehman even has a bobblehead!  I've seen a couple of these and this is the exact kind of bobblehead I'm now looking for.  Lehman grew up in Alexandria and went to the University of Minnesota.  I believe this was a giveaway at the 2005 Marshall Fields Challenge and appears to be an AGP bobblehead.  If you have more information, please share!

Apparently I have a "Professional Eye"

Recently I was contacted by a couple people about pricing some bobbleheads they were looking to sell.  This came out of left field, ya know...much like Delmon Young played the position, never knew what you were walking into!  Crap, that's 2 Delmon Young references in consecutive blog posts, pretty sure I've met that quota for...ever.  Anyway, back to the story.

After reading the email, I instantly knew I was going to help if our schedules lined up.  As I've wrote about several times, simply basing everything off eBay is a huge frustration of mine and the seller probably won't sell too much.  Luckily the sellers were motivated and completely understood the eBay vs. local idea.  I believe they had roughly 60 some bobbleheads, ranging widely over the past 10-15 years of giveaways and retails.  We met after several emails and I went thru everything they had and priced them out fairly (both for them and whoever was going to buy them).  That's important to me, they asked for my help, so I certainly wanted to be fair to them.  But part of being fair to them was pricing the bobbleheads at a value that would sell which leaves a fairly small sweet spot.

Shortly after I provided the help I received a thank you note saying that my "professional eye" was a lifesaver and they were so incredibly happy and gracious that I gave them my time.  In all honesty, it was totally my pleasure to help them.  I'd do that for most anyone.  It's fun looking at bobbleheads, maybe I'd see one that I didn't have, maybe I'd look at a bunch of common ones, no matter what I'll always try to help, especially since I have that "professional eye!"

Crap, its been over a week!

I've been meaning to write this blog for a while.  It's been over a week since I posted a blog, but not for a lack of trying or being lazy on my part.  It happened to be my wife's 30th birthday this past weekend and obviously we had to celebrate that in style.  So most of last week was spent getting ready for that wonderful event.

For most of my readers, you'll know I enjoy helping connect other collectors to bobbleheads they are looking for.  I've had several tell me, if you ever find a Pohlad or Mauer powder blue season ticket bobblehead, please let me know.  I've also been able to find several SGA bobbleheads for new collectors.  It's fun for me.  I wrote about the chase and the find a couple months ago.  Not only for my own collection, the chase and the find are fun for me when helping others too.  Even if its a Delmon Young...wait...no, not many people actually "desire" that bobblehead, how bout...even if it's a Gary Gaetti SGA, as Pharrell would say, reason for the chase and the find is all "because I'm Happy."

So if you are looking for something specific, email me, leave a comment, get in contact with me somehow and I'll do my best to connect you to that all elusive Delm...I mean, anything from Gary Gaetti to Carl Pohlad!

Organization is key!

I've had several people ask me how I keep track of my bobbleheads.  A few months ago I touched on this, read that here.  At first I started with a simple excel spreadsheet.  Then my passion grew into something a bit more than me just being "passionate" or so says my wife.  A small obsession perhaps?  Well, at that point I knew this excel spreadsheet wasn't going to cut it.  I looked at a few different options but eventually settled on something I was familiar with - Microsoft Access.  Simply put this is a database management system and exactly what I needed to keep track of my bobbleheads.

Below is a screenshot of my access database.  You'll see I have plenty of columns, for each bobblehead.  I try to get as much data as I possibly can.  If I learn something down the road, I fill it in on my database.  It includes both bobbleheads I have and those that I'm looking for.  It's not a perfect database yet, but hopefully some day, it will be!

A rare Rod Carew bobblehead!

I hadn't ever seen this bobblehead before but knew I'd like to add it to my collection when I saw a picture of it.  This is part of my great month or so (really it probably stretches about 6 weeks).  I traded a friend for it and am happy its part of my collection.  Most minor league bobbleheads aren't worth a ton and I have no idea what the value of this one is, but it doesn't really matter - its Rod freaking Carew!

Wilson Tobs was the Twins minor league affiliate in the early to late 60s.  Rod Carew played for the team in 1966.  The team honored him with a bobblehead giveaway in 2004.  I'm unsure how many were given away but would think in the 500 to 1000 range.

I don't know much more than this, if you do, please leave a comment and fill us all in with more details!!  Thanks!

Holy Grail of Twins bobbleheads?

I've heard this referred to as the "Holy Grail" of Twins bobbleheads from several collectors.  Given its rarity, I figured I'd never see this in person let alone have the chance to add it to my own collection.

As the story goes, 50 of these bobbleheads were made by the Twins.  They handed them out at a special "roast" of Carl Pohlad.  This event was an invite only type of thing.  I can only guess that the most important of important Twins officials were present.  Anytime you have a limited edition of 50 items, each one will be somewhat valuable.  Given that this is a Twins bobblehead, produced by AGP and of the former owner himself, that rarity skyrockets.

Like I said, based on everything above, I didn't think I'd ever come across one of these.  And as I mentioned in my last post, the past month has been pretty damn lucky for me.  My fortunes were at their highest when I was able to acquire this bobblehead.

Without further ado, the so-called "Holy Grail" of Minnesota Twins bobbleheads, Carl Pohlad.

What a month!

I've had wonderful luck over the past month or so.  Easily the best month of my extremely short collecting career.  I've also been able to replenish a dwindling stock of bobbleheads to sell - gotta pay for the collecting side somehow, right?  I've blogged about a few of the bobbleheads I've picked up.  I plan on blogging about a couple others in the very near future.  A quick estimate would say I've added nearly 50 bobbleheads to my collection over the last several weeks while I've added about 60 bobbleheads to sell.  Obviously my hope is that I can sell the 60 for enough to pay for themselves as well as the almost 50 bobbleheads I'm keeping!  Ideal, but ideal doesn't always work.  And sometimes it takes months and months to sell everything.  So we'll see how things go!

Here are a couple pictures of a few I've blogged about recently.  More to come soon!  Also an updated want list!  

Be courteous!

I've wanted to write this post for a long time.  No matter if you buy or sell.  Use eBay or Craiglist (or some other alternative). Are on the good or bad end of things.  Be courteous!  I've had tons of great experiences using eBay, Craigslist and at card shows.  I've also had a few terrible ones.  Obviously its always easy to remember the bad experiences.  Even with those, don't automatically blame the seller.  Here are a few examples why.

Recently I had sold something thru eBay.  Sent it off from the post office and got a note from the buyer asking me why the bobblehead was in a different country...not state...country, on the day it was supposed to be delivered.  He wasn't mad, but perhaps worried and maybe even a bit confused.  He wasn't alone.  I immediately called USPS, who unfortunately didn't help one bit.  The next day I went to my local post office where they were super helpful, very apologetic and even offered a refund.  Human error is what happened. It certainly wasn't my fault or the buyers (obviously) and really I don't even blame the post office, mistakes happen.  They made up for it.  The buyer eventually received the bobblehead and everything turned out just fine.

Earlier this year, as a buyer, I had a similar experience.  I had purchased a bobblehead off eBay.  The seller shipped the item but never supplied me with tracking information.  After a few emails we figured the bobblehead was completely lost.  The seller gave me 2 options.  Refund me in full or they'd buy a similar priced bobblehead (the same one if possible) and have it shipped to me.  I opted for the latter.  A couple weeks later, the new bobblehead came and everyone was happy.

Sometimes things happen that is out of control for both the buyer and the seller.  Remember that.  Don't jump to conclusions right away.  Feedback on eBay is crucial - if they have great feedback, they are more than likely trustworthy buyers and sellers.  It's a bit more difficult through craigslist, but usually you can get a good feel for a buyer (and seller) over a couple emails or a phone call.

Consider all elements of the bobblehead

I come across bobbleheads all the time with major to minor damage and/or defects.  I've had a few people ask me how to judge a bobblehead in something less than excellent condition.  There are so many variables that go into the value of the bobblehead so its really difficult to put a number or value on something without seeing the actual bobblehead.  

I look at overall condition of the bobblehead first.  Are there chips and/or cracks or pieces missing?  Usually you'll find chips on the neck, ears or cap.  Sometimes there are extra curricular items (more than just the player/person) such as a bat, ball, glove, etc.  Depending on the manufacturer, some are made better than others.  All of those things definitely have a negative impact on the value.  

Secondly, I'll look for excess paint, chipped paint or anything to that degree.  Most of the bobbleheads are hand painted, so the paint jobs can be a little spotty.  I've had plenty of bobbleheads with a dribble of paint where it shouldn't have been.  To a serious collector this probably decreases the value. Chipped paint certainly decreases the value.  

Next, if its an SGA bobblehead, a ticket and/or COA card will only increase the value.  Many collectors will only buy bobbleheads with COAs and tickets.  While others (like me) aren't set on needing them for their collection - if I get them, great.  But if I find something I like and its in my price range - card/ticket does not matter.  

Tilted head.  Whats that you ask?  We've all seen them - a bobblehead with its head way off center. Personally these don't worry me too much.  Unless the head is way off base.  Does it affect the value?  I'd say (again, unless its significant) it shouldn't.  

Bobbleheads are massed produced and because of that not many of them are in pristine condition - where everything is absolutely perfect.  Those tiny defects shouldn't stop you from buying it.  Just be careful (and inquisitive) when looking to purchase one.  Below is a picture of random "defects" I've come across.  Some major, some minor.  Ultimately its up to you to determine what is major and what is minor.