Want List (Part 4)

Below are 2 different sets of pictures.  The first is a group of St. Paul Saints bobbleheads I'm looking for.  There are two different Wayne Terwilliger bobbleheads that I'd like.  The other two pictures are of Hardware Hank and The Real Cougar.  I've seen all of these on eBay, but their prices are a bit too high for me!

The second group of pictures are Timberwolves bobbleheads I'm missing.  The first is Al Jefferson, I believe this was given to season ticket holders several years ago.  A while back I sold a Jefferson bobblehead to a friend.  I thought this was a duplicate of one I had in storage.  Apparently, I was very very wrong.  So I'm back to the drawing board in searching for the Jefferson bobblehead.  The next is Bill Beise otherwise known as the Superfan.  Then Johnny Flynn (again I believe it was a season ticket holder giveaway) and finally mini crunch.  

I'm sure I'll find one of these 8 at some point in 2014...hopefully more than 1!!  

Want List (Part 3)

My want list today is pretty simple.  Any bobbleheads from the University of Minnesota.  I'll even take doubles and triples of what I have currently.  The picture below is of 4 bobbleheads that I don't have. There are others that have the M on them, I know Janel McCarville had a bobblehead while playing at the U - very similar to Whalen bobble below.

The first bobblehead is of Bronko Nagurski.  This was produced by the Big Ten Network (BTN) in a collection known as the Big 10 Icons.  It featured one "Icon" from each school in the Big Ten (at the time).  A total of 11 bobbleheads make up the set.  

The Goldy gymnast bobblehead was given out at gymnastic meets several years ago.  The Goldy hockey bobblehead was produced by Gold Country (as you can see on the plaque) and finally the Whalen bobblehead.  I know besides the McCarville bobblehead I mentioned earlier there is another Goldy with a maroon shirt (M on his chest) with his arms outstretched that I currently don't have. There are others out there, but these are my most desired U of M bobbleheads!

Want List (Part 2)

As I continue to blog about my current want list, I truly am amazed at how lucky and fortunate I've been since I really started focusing on collecting bobbleheads - just a short 9 months ago!  This list would have looked a TON different 3 months ago, as it would have 6 months ago.

Today I'm concentrating on the Vikings bobbleheads I'd like to add to my collection.  There is a group of bobbleheads that seem to be designed by the same person/group.  I have the majority of the collection but need 2 more to complete it.  Paul Krause and Bill Brown.  These aren't super rare and I see them from time to time - typically on eBay.

As you can see these each have the purple base with the "Vikings" plaque on it.  Other bobbleheads in this group are the Purple People Eaters, Chuck Foreman, Frank Tarkenton, Fred Cox, Mick Tingelhoff and Tommy Kramer.  Obviously there are plenty of other Viking bobbleheads, but for now, this is the group I've been collecting.  It sounds like one bobblehead comes out about every 2 years.  No idea who the next Viking will be, but there are plenty of guys to pick from!  

Want List (Part 1)

Over the next week or so, I plan on displaying pictures of my most desired bobbleheads.  They will range from Twins bobbleheads to a couple the Timberwolves have given away and even some minor league bobbleheads.

Here are the final bobbleheads I need to complete my Twins SGA bobblehead collection.  Both are from the 1965 Heroes set, given away at one game.  Frank Quilici & Harmon Killebrew.  In an earlier blog post I explained the difference between the 1965 Heroes set and the Katrina set.  This is most likely the hardest set of Twins bobbleheads to complete.

Below are pictures of the red base bobbleheads from the Twins that would complete that collection. I'm not as confident about my knowledge in the red base bobbleheads as I am in the green.  But I'm looking for Zoilo Versalles, the Mauer/Morneau double bobblehead - I believe this was given out to season ticket holders purchasing large group tickets or perhaps long-standing season ticket holders, and lastly - the Legends of the Dome set of Kirby Puckett & Kent Hrbek.

Twinsfest = Success

My buddy Killer and I went to Twinsfest on Friday afternoon.  This was the first time the event was held at Target Field.  I'd say for the most part the Twins did a great job, obviously it was a lot different when they held it at the Metrodome.  We had a lot of fun tho and pretty much had a semi all-access pass for Target Field.  It was quite a scene to be in the Legends Club and Suite level while overlooking a field covered in snow!  We also checked out the Champions Club.  Pictures below.

A white, snowy Target Field

Champions Club

Champions Club Bar

Now - onto some more fun stuff we found at Twinsfest!  The first thing I wanted to do was check out the Twins Yard Sale.  This was something new and is exactly what you think of when you hear "yard sale."  Knowing they'd have bobbleheads there (from a little recon I did before Twinsfest) we went straight to its location (which was in Legends club between home and 1st base).  We were probably 200 or so back once they opened the gates, so we weren't the first at the yard sale.  Most of the bobbleheads were in boxes with a label on the top.  I saw a few that intrigued me, quickly opening one and much to my surprise it was one I was hoping for.  I grabbed 5 more and kept looking.  There weren't any others that I needed, but certainly some good deals.  They had multiple 91 World Series sets as well as the Managers set.  I told Killer that I wanted to check back later to see if they put out anything new.  So we went back a couple hours later and I asked one of the Twins employees if they'd be putting anymore bobbleheads on the floor.  She was super nice and helpful and said all they had left were 2 of the 91 World Series sets that were on the way up but other than that, what they had was displayed.

Lastly we went to the sports collectors area.  This is the one area I think the Twins could have done better with.  I'm not sure where it could have been held, but where it was....basically in the hallways of the service level (otherwise known as the bowels of Target Field) was poor.  The lighting was bad and the hoards of people created a traffic jam as there wasn't much room to move.  I saw a few dealers with bobbleheads that intrigued me for a variety of reasons but felt like I had spent enough on the 6 I already purchased.

Speaking of - I didn't say who they were, for a specific reason.  I'm still somewhat in shock that I found the 6 I did.  They are 6 of the 10 giveaways from the 1965 Heroes set!!  See the picture below!

I could have been a touch luckier but I certainly wasn't the earliest bird to the yard sale and because of that I missed out on the Harmon Killebrew bobblehead from this set.  You ask how I know that...well I didn't until we walked through the collectors area. One of the dealers I was chatting with had a box similar to the ones I purchased with "Killebrew" on it.  He mentioned he got it at the Yard Sale and immediately I said, "dammit!"  So, its all about luck and timing.  I had a lot of luck but not quite enough to get the Killebrew one.  However, I'm still super fortunate for landing these...6 that I figured would take years to find.  Now I'm only missing 2 - Killebrew and Quilici. Eventually, maybe my timing will be right and I'll find those too!

Not Cuddyer...its Michael Restovich!

I saw a Michael Restovich bobblehead on eBay earlier in 2013.  The seller wanted $25 plus shipping for the bobblehead and that was just too much for me to shell out (no offense Mr. Restovich).  But...I was attached to it.  You see, back in high school a really good friend of mine - Bobby Johnson - played basketball with Michael Restovich on the Minnesota Select team.  Obviously you know how good of an athlete he is already - being on MN Select but bypassing basketball because he was an early draft pick of the Twins.  A group of friends went to Saint Cloud back in high school to watch Bobby play.  Quite the site to view some of the state's best basketball players duke it out against each other.  He mentioned what a powerful and athletic guy Restovich truly was.  Since I had seen Restovich play (albeit basketball) before he hit it big and got a bobblehead made of him, I knew at some point I'd really like to have said bobblehead.  

That happened a couple months ago.  I was pretty surprised to see it as I rarely see any minor league bobbleheads around here.  I quickly looked it over, and it didn't have any chips or cracks so I gladly paid a couple bucks and took it home to display with the other minor league bobbleheads in my collection.  I'll write more about minor league bobbleheads in an upcoming post!  He's wearing a Quad Cities River Bandits jersey, the Twins Minor League team he played for at the time.  

Roy Griak bobblehead!

I saw a picture of this bobblehead a few months ago.  Until then I had heard nothing about it.  I did a little research online and came away with a wealth of knowledge about the bobblehead, but had only 1 idea on how I could possibly add one of these sweet bobbleheads to my collection.

A little background on the bobblehead.  The bobblehead was given out to coaches and some runners who were at the 25th annual Roy Griak Invitational, which was held in 2010.  Here is the U's bio on Mr. Griak.  I'm certainly not a runner (that can't be a surprise to anyone) and I've never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Griak, but he sounds like an outstanding human being.  I have no idea how many bobbleheads were produced but my guess is nowhere near what the Twins have done for any of their giveaways or even the Wild or Wolves.  

The only idea I had...actually worked.  I won't go into detail about it, but I'll say this, that golden rule of "Do unto others as you'd like done unto yourself" is spot on.  I made a super connection with a wonderful guy, and because of that, this awesome bobblehead is now part of my collection.  I am beyond thrilled that it worked out and it adds a pretty rare bobblehead to my Gopher stash!  

A couple local celebrities!

In my 2014 "Goals" post I mentioned I'd like to find another local celebrity bobblehead in 2014.  Here are a few bobbleheads I already have.  2 are of Ray Szmanda, better known as "The Menards Guy." I believe he has 3 total, so eventually I'd like to find the one I'm missing.  The other bobblehead below is that of Eric Perkins, Sports Director at KARE 11 in Minneapolis.  The Minnesota Swarm (local Lacrosse team) retired the jersey of Perkins in March 2008.  You and 99% of the rest of missed Perkins' time with the Swarm, but apparently he was on the field for a whopping 8 seconds.  The night the Swarm retired his jersey, they also gave away 5000 bobbleheads of Perkins.  So this is truly an SGA bobblehead.  We'll see what local celebrity bobbleheads I find in 2014!

                           

                               

Bobble-gloves?

I blogged about the infamous Larry Craig bobble-foot a couple weeks ago.  I don't have many bobbleheads where something other than the head actually bobbles.  Mr. Craig's foot was the only thing that bobbled for him.  But in what could be my most rare (for a couple different reasons that I'll explain below) bobblehead, it also has other bobbling pieces.  This is a Derek Boogaard bobblehead, and was a giveaway by the Houston Aeros (former minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Wild) I believe in 2004.

Boogeyman's head bobbles (duh, it is a bobblehead) but his fists/gloves also bobble!  Why you ask? That answer is quite simple - he was one of the best fighters in the NHL.  For more info on Boogaard, check out his Wikipedia page. Boogaard died of an accidental drug overdose in May 2011.  A couple reasons why this could be my most rare bobblehead. First, there were only 3000 produced and given away at a minor league hockey game, who knows if all 3000 were even given away and what has happened to all of them.  Secondly, the fact that the gloves bobble is unique and cool but also comes with a bit of worry - the more things that bobble the more things can bring.  The bobblehead I have is in mint condition and everything is in bobbling condition.  Lastly, he autographed the bobblehead. Those 3 things make it a very rare bobblehead, it might not be my most valuable bobblehead, but could be the most rare!  Enjoy!  

Best Bobblehead ever!

A year ago today, my wife gave me a card and a gift bag.  There had been plenty of talk leading up to this moment about how much I was going to enjoy the gift.  I had absolutely zero idea what it was. She had shown a few friends (in front of me) and they all thought I'd love it - whatever IT was.  I had to wait until January 12th, 2013.  You see, 1 year ago today, I married the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I won't get all sappy here - thats already happened on Facebook, but she doesn't hate one of my passions.  Her words exactly when talking about my bobblehead collecting, "I'm supportive of it, I like that it gives Scott something "different" to be excited about.  However, I'm not personally a collector, so sometimes the sheer volume of bobbleheads can be a bit overwhelming!" I'll take it!  Win for Scott!  And 1 year ago, not only was it the biggest win of my life, it also gave me my most memorable bobblehead and obviously my favorite bobblehead.

Jess did all of this online.  She researched a few different websites and picked one that she felt most comfortable with. She estimated that it took a couple months from start to finish.  Below is the picture she sent the company with the bobblehead next to it.  They asked for close up pictures of our faces so they could really make it look like us.  We both agree that mine is pretty spot on, whiles her's isn't perfect, but its close and in my mind - its perfect.  Happy Anniversary!!

2014 "Goals"

It's January so everyone is talking about the resolutions for the new year.  These aren't exactly resolutions, but I'll call them "Goals."  If you are a recent visitor, you've probably noticed that I try to keep the blog somewhat light-hearted.  Hence "Goals" :)

At the end of 2014 I'll go thru and review my "Goals" and see what I accomplished - if anything.  Or perhaps I'll just be completely bored with this blog and say screw it!  Onto the "Goals"

1. Get a couple more Twins red base bobbleheads.  These are given to season ticket holders and currently I have roughly half of them.  There are some rare and hard to find ones, but I'll do my best to hunt them down.

2. Find 1 ecumen bobblehead (for a price I'm willing to pay).  There are 10 total.  I figure if I find 1 a year, it'll only take me 10 years to fulfill the set!  I know I can buy most any of them on ebay for $100 per...but I'm not interested in shelling out that much cash!

3. Find the 1991 World Series set.  Again, I can pay good money to get this off Craigslist or eBay, but will wait it out until I find someone willing to take what I feel is a fair offer.

4. Much like the previous "Goal" I'd like to find the Twins Managers set

5. Come across a couple local celebrity bobbleheads.  The ones I have now, I only knew of about 1/2 of them.  So I'm not even sure who'd they be!

6. I'd like to get the Paul Krause and Bill Brown Viking bobbleheads.  I know I'll have to pay for these, and I'm fine with that.  I just need to pull the trigger.

7. I'd also like to find a Goldy bobblehead that I currently don't have.  Right now I believe there are 4 out there that I'd like to own one day.  It'd be nice to come across one of them in 2014.

8. I'd like to come across and Timberwolves bobblehead that I don't have, either a mini Crunch or Johnny Flynn.  I also found out I need an Al Jefferson.

9. I'd like to complete the 2013-14 Wild bobblehead giveaway collection.  There are 5 in total, I already have one (I'll blog about that sometime soon).

10. Last, but certainly not least...I want to have fun hunting.  My wife asked me the other day if I ever think about the mileage and time I spend on bobbleheads - I do, I certainly consider that when making an offer for a bobblehead or selling one.  To me, the excitement is finding the bobblehead.  Getting lucky when emailing someone on Craigslist or finding something unique or cool at a garage sale.  And of course meeting people along the way.

We'll see if I accomplish any of these in 11 months...I know number 10 will undoubtedly happen!

Buying bobbleheads in bulk!

I've mentioned several times the idea of the "bundle concept."  It had been a while since I was able to use this method when buying bobbleheads.  I had been talking to a guy on craigslist for a couple of months.  He had a large lot of bobbleheads that I was interested in.  The problem was, I didn't need them all, nor did I want them all.  Right away I asked if he'd break up the lot, not surprisingly, he wasn't interested in doing that.  And I couldn't blame him one bit.  Then, I made what I felt was a very fair offer, even tho it was a bit lower than he probably wanted to hear at the time.  I checked in with him every couple weeks and today we finally negotiated a price we were both happy with!  He knew from the start that my end goal, if I were to buy all the bobbleheads was to try and resell roughly half of them.  I picked up all the bobbleheads this morning (7 boxes worth) and had a wonderful time chatting with him.  He hopes I can sell the ones I don't need for my collection for plenty of money - at least to recoup some of what I paid.

Obviously you'll get the shady people and unreliable ones through Craigslist.  It makes deals like this mornings even better. Meeting nice, genuine and sincere people on Craigslist - which certainly isn't the norm, makes my hunt for bobbleheads well worth it.  It's that old golden rule - do unto others as you'd like done unto yourself.  If I expect good, consistent, genuine communication, thats what I provide to everyone that contacts me.  

Now I gotta try to sell all the bobbleheads that I don't need!  It truly is a never-ending quest.  Buying and selling, selling and buying.  Happy 2014!

2013 Best Garage Sale Finds #1

The final blog post in this 5 part series of my best garage sale finds in 2013 is a simply a humdinger!  Ok, and I got extremely lucky, you'll see why once you see the picture of the bobbleheads.  Much like my second best find, I was lucky because I saw the posting the night before.  Many times for garage sales, no contact information is left, only a street address.  Why you ask?  Because the seller wants people to come to their sale, even if you don't find what you came for, there is probably plenty of other junk you might have an interest in!  This poster had left their email address, I took advantage of that and asked a couple questions. The next morning, I checked my phone and had a response.

The sale wasn't super far away but not exactly on my way to work either.  As I wrote in one of my first blog posts, I'm completely unsure of garage sale etiquette.  Plenty of listings specify a time the sale starts and ends.  Some listings go as far as to say "No early birds" or something along those lines in a harsher tone!   This particular sale started at 9 in the morning.  Typically I'm well into my day at work by 9 in the morning.  I figured I'd drive over to the sale and do a quick drive-by.  If other people were there, I'd stop.  I drove by...and unfortunately it was on a cul-de-sac...so I couldn't get a good glimpse of what was happening.  I figured, why not stop and at least try to talk to the seller.  The lady was still setting up but invited me to look around.  I mentioned I emailed the night before about the bobbleheads.  She pointed me in the right direction and I was ready to buy a few bobbleheads!  I knew she only had Twins bobbleheads, but what I didn't know is she had 2 of the more rare and valuable Twins bobbleheads.  Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew. I always try to negotiate prices, unless I feel like the price is just so fair (or low sometimes) then I won't.  I got those skills from my dad!  The prices were marked on each bobblehead.  $5 for Carew and...yep, you guessed it, $5 for Killebrew.  I snatched those 2 up quickly, browsed a bit more, got 2 more, paid and left. The Killebrew one goes for over $100 on eBay and the Carew goes for anywhere between $35 and $50 typically.  Oh and each of these had the COA too!  

Seriously, I was super lucky with this garage sale, luck certainly has a part in becoming my best overall garage sale find in 2013!

2013 Best Garage Sale Finds #2

This past summer I scored my second biggest find at a local garage sale.  I saw an ad on craigslist for a garage sale that included bobbleheads.  Luckily for me, I looked because the garage sale started the next morning.  I figured I'd run over on my way to work.  I'm so glad I did.  A couple people were looking around at all the items for sale.  I immediately found the bobbleheads.  The sellers had a huge collection of bobbleheads, not only sports, but comic bobbleheads, celebrity bobbleheads, minor league bobbleheads...tons of them.  I'd guess there were between 50 and 60 bobbleheads for sale.  I didn't look at them all, but they ranged from $1 to $3.  Perfect garage sale prices in my opinion.  I picked up several and asked if I could place them somewhere safe as I couldn't carry all the ones I was interested in.  The sellers were extremely nice and after I picked out the ones I wanted, we chatted about the Twins season (which of course in 2013 was terrible) and whether or not Ron Gardenhire should be fired or not.  Then, something wonderful happened.  They asked...would I be interested in other Gopher and/or Twins bobbleheads. Uhhh, duh, does a bear shit in the woods?  Of course I said!  And out came 4 more Gopher bobbleheads and 2 more Twins.  In total I picked up 16 bobbleheads for a total of $30.  The 3 best are displayed below.

2013 Best Garage Sale Finds #3

My number garage sale find in 2013 happens to be a group of bobbleheads.  3 bobbleheads for $5 total. I hadn't been focusing on the Minnesota "celebrity" bobbleheads, but for $5, you can't really go wrong. Especially when each of these routinely sells for between $15 and $25 on eBay!  Because of this find, I've added to my local celebrity bobblehead collection.  I only have a handful, but honestly, I have absolutely no idea how many of these kind of bobbleheads are out there.  I know Jesse Ventura has about 4 or 5 different variations of his bobblehead when he ran for Governor.  And some local TV/Radio personalities also have bobbleheads. Getting 2 different Sid Hartman bobbleheads and a Wally the Beerman...all for a whopping $5, certainly a great deal!

2013 Best Garage Sale Finds #4

I had been looking for the following bobblehead for quite a while.  I had seen a couple, but they were going for a bit more than I was willing to spend.  The box was in rough shape, so I wasn't sure if the bobblehead inside was damaged or in good condition.  After inspecting it, I was completely happy!  It was listed for $10, but I asked if the seller would take $5, she happily agreed to that, I boxed it back up and was on my way. Since that garage sale, I've actually come across this bobblehead 2 more times and I bought both of them and resold each.

The Lynx bobbleheads are a bit more rare, just because they don't have the production run that many other of the local pro sports teams do.  I believe the Lynx give out roughly 2500 or each.  I have most of the Lynx ones that have been given away at games, but not all of them.  Eventually I hope to get them all.  But this was my #4 garage sale find of 2013.  Maya Moore - she can freaking play ball!

2013 Best Garage Sale Finds #5

Garage sales are hit and miss for bobbleheads.  Even ones listed on Craigslist aren't always that great, while others turn out to be diamonds in the rough.  When I'm going thru my top "finds" in 2013, a lot has to do with the price I paid for them and/or the rarity of the bobblehead.  And sometimes, its just becuase I find the bobblehead to be unique in some way or cool in another!

So...#5 on my list is a bobblehead I find for a whopping 2 bucks!  Joe, I mean, Jim Kleinsasser.  Rainbow Foods sponsored this bobblehead and the box has the name "Joe" on it, while the bobblehead is truly that of Jim Kleinsasser, Tight End for the Minnesota Vikings.  The bobblehead is pretty cool in general as it depicts Kleinsasser after drinking some milk, similar to the "Got Milk" ad campaigns.  On top of finding the bobblehead for $2...it came with the box as well and the box is in great shape.  Even tho I don't show a picture of the box (it's in some tote somewhere in my storage room and I really don't wanna dig for it right now) believe me, it came with the box!

2013 - A bobblehead year in review

I've been blogging for nearly a month.  2013 was the first full year I really started collecting bobbleheads.  I'd pick one up now and then before 2013, but as I've mentioned in previous posts, I did a lot more hunting in 2013 and I came up with some tremendous bobbleheads for really great prices.  I also made a couple decisions that didn't go in my favor.

A couple people had told me about a couple auctions near the cities that had bobbleheads.  The first one I went to had roughly 15-20 twins bobbleheads.  I was interested in many of them, so I headed down to the sale after work.  I was brand-spanking new to the auction world so I had no idea what I was getting into.  It ended up being a waste of time and gas as I only bid once on any of the bobbleheads as they went for well over my limit.  It started out fun, then just got depressing and frustrating. The second boneheaded move I made was to check out another auction.  Whats the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results?  Oh well...I made another trek, this place also had 15-20 bobbleheads, but they were of all sports.  I was interested in some, not in others. If it wasn't for one guy, I probably would have gotten them quite cheap, and Im sure he thought the same thing about me.  Nobody else bid and he had more money (or a higher limit) than I did.  I believe he took every bobblehead in the place.  But I did come out of there with a purse for my wife...which she was super happy about.

Now - onto the good news.  I'm going to do another series of blog posts, this one will be my top 5 garage sale finds.  Starting with the fifth overall best find and working my way towards the number one score of 2013.

Other than garage sales, I was able to find a few good deals on Craigslist and eBay as well as thru connections I've made previously.  We'll see come Spring/Summer 2014 if garage sales bear the same fruit as they did in 2013!