Lucky Craigslist Pickup! Tyler, MN

I've known about this bobblehead for a while...I had only seen it in pictures.  Several months ago I was looking at Craigslist and noticed this bobblehead in a lot of random things.  I emailed the poster and asked if they'd sell only the bobblehead.  We quickly agreed on a price and a couple hours later I picked it up.  I don't know much about it, but I believe its one of those rare and random town festival type of bobbleheads (perhaps the local Chamber of Commerce sold them to raise money).  Anyway, its from Tyler, MN and called Nissemaend.  Check it out!

Shipping Bobbles - How to package them!

I've read a lot about the shipping part of bobbleheads.  Whether you buy from eBay or Craigslist or thru an online retailer, there are plenty of shipping options.  That's the easy part.  The most important part of shipping is how you pack the bobblehead.  I've seen several people blame the post office for a damaged bobble and then file a claim (even tho the shipping package had no visible damage).  I've received bobbleheads in the mail...and 90% of the time I can tell without opening the package if the bobblehead is in good condition or not.

1 recent (in the past couple of months) example of poor shipping.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures to show.  I picked up the box and immediately things rattled around.  Obviously this is the first sign that something is broken.  How much rattling usually is a good indicator of how many broken pieces there are.  I opened the box and found 3 pieces.  The main bobble, its head decapitated and the base of the bobble, detached from the feet.  To me, this bobble is ruined, I can glue it back together, but in my mind...(and I have a very steady hand) it's no longer in good condition, even if it looks "ok."

How do you avoid this...NEVER ship in bubble mailers.  Several eBay sellers ship bobbles only in bubble mailers.  Typically this is a cheaper option (depending on the weight of the bobblehead).  I always ship in boxes...never bubble mailers (I use them for padding tho).  It's not really rocket science.  Take the bobblehead, wrap the neck (or all spots it bobbles/moves) with bubble wrap.  I usually wrap tissue paper around that for extra cushion.  Then I wrap the entire bobblehead with bubble wrap (it should go around the bobble at least 2 times.  If I dont have the original box, I use bigger bubble wrap one more time, again to make sure its double padded.  I then place it in a box and put anything (more bubble wrap, newspaper, plastic bags) around it so it can't move.  Once the box is stuffed, I tape it shut.  Then I shake it.  Weird huh - shake a box with a bobblehead in it - call me crazy but it works!  If you can't hear it move...you are set.  If you can, open the box up and stuff more crap in it!

This is not a hard process, use common sense (I know at times, it's not that common), and remember - bubble wrap is pretty cheap!

Bobblehead Boxes

So...you buy a bobblehead off eBay, Craigslist, at a Garage Sale, from a buddy...wherever you get it...a lot of the times, it doesn't have a box.  More teams are doing specialized boxes nowadays, but several still do the generic plain white boxes.  That's a problem for a lot of us.  Even if we display our bobbleheads, at some point they might need a box, or perhaps you don't have the space (like me) to display them all.  Bobbles in boxes are much better than un-boxed bobbles!  I've seen too many damaged and chipped bobbles because they are all thrown into one box.  Hell, one of my first deals I made was at a garage sale, but it was over the phone.  The lady was very honest with me saying several were damaged but plenty weren't.  My sister-in-law picked them up for me.  The lady crammed them into one box (minimal bubble wrap) and sent her on her way.  I get the box and honestly I wasn't expecting much (over 30 bobbles for $20...I couldn't go wrong).  About half of them were damaged, scuffed, or chipped in one way or another.  Obviously the lady no longer had the boxes.

Well...now you never have to worry about having an un-boxed bobblehead!  My buddy Bill (quite the entrepreneur) has bobblehead boxes available.  Feel free to email him to buy your boxes!  They are heavier/sturdier than the giveaway boxes too and measure 3 x 3 x 7 5/8!

Bobblehead buys...gone wrong!?! Suspicious to me!

I don't buy a ton of bobbleheads - at least not compared to some collectors out there but this has happened to me, and I'm sure to some of you at some point in the past.  It's beyond frustrating and to me, just downright wrong.  

I was recently reading posts on a bobblehead group and one of them was about this exact situation. 

Here's the background...You bid on a bobblehead on eBay, watch it until the item ends.  eBay says you won the bobblehead.  You pay for it and wait for the seller to update the item with shipping and tracking information.  That doesn't happen for a day or 2.  You get an email from the seller saying something along the lines of "sorry but the bobblehead fell off the counter and broke, I'll refund you your money."  At which point, you probably aren't happy and probably somewhat frustrated.  You get your refund and move on with life.  

My question - did the dog really eat the seller's homework?  I'm 100% confident in saying that at times, yes, the dog did eat the homework.  I'm also 100% confident in saying, quite often that homework, err...the bobblehead (that you won) is in perfectly fine condition and in the hands of someone else or in a box heading somewhere else.  Some seller's on eBay (and Craigslist too) make this move.  Another buyer comes along within 12-24 hours of the auction ending on eBay and offering a price above the one you won the bid at.  Seller sees more money, takes more money, refunds you your money and everyone...but the buyer, is happy. 

But, at least you got your money back, right?  Frustrating tho, right?  It happens.  I completely sympathize with any buyer that goes through this.  And I completely despise any seller who does. I've had multiple opportunities to sell something for a higher price, but I've never done it and never will do it.  Once I make a deal, in my mind, it's a done deal.  Story closed, that bobblehead is no longer for sale.  I've held bobbleheads for months for guys that I've done deals with in the past.  I have no problem doing that.  If I haven't dealt with someone before, they don't get the same type of treatment. But I'll never make that type of play.  

I've also had similar things happen.  For instance, guy responds to craigslist ad, says he wants items A, B and 4.  (like what I did there?) :)  We agree on price.  He says he's not local and he doesn't have paypal (suspicious in this day and age, especially when you are looking at other state's craigslist ads). I tell him thats fine, send me a check.  I'll hold the bobbleheads for a few days (giving the post office a day or 2 extra).  Check never arrives.  I email potential buyer, tell him, he says it went out on a specific day.  I wait 3 business days from then.  At this point, 95% chance he's lying.  100% chance I'll never do business with him again.  

Just some food for thought on a sunny Friday in Minneapolis.  Try not to get too offended or frustrated when this happens...but know that most of us sympathize with you!  Happy Friday!  

Bad call?

Since most of the sports world is talking about the horrendous call that Seattle made...to lose the Super Bowl, I thought it would be fun...err...interesting...err...well we've all made bad calls and I'm going to share a couple of mine.  Hindsight is 20-20 but dammit sometimes it'd be nice to know what's really sitting in front of you.

2 situations stand out for me.  If I knew what I knew now...at the time I was in this situation, my collection would have an additional 120-130 bobbleheads!  This happened early on when I was collecting.  I had responded to a craigslist ad for Twins bobbleheads.  If you've read previous blog posts, you'll know my passion started with Goldy bobbleheads but quickly moved to Twins bobbleheads.  The guy selling them had several and invited me over to look over them and pick out the ones I wanted.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  He had lots of Twins and a ton of other random bobbleheads, many Minnesota related.  Since I didn't know, at the time, that I was going to end up collecting all these random Minnesota ones, I focused solely on the Twins.  The prices were extremely fair too as he was just happy they were going to another collector.

I'm sure my wife doesn't mind that I missed out on this opportunity.  She'll probably smile and say "Thank God" under her breath or something...when she reads this.  That is...if she ever reads this thing!  And yes...I did go back to the guy and see if he had any of those still available and unfortunately he told me he sold all of them to a local dealer.

My second bad call has a very similar feel to the first.  I was a newbie at garage sales.  I noticed one that wasn't that much out of the way for me, so I stopped by on my way home from work.  I scoured their entire sale and only came across 2 bobbleheads.  The ad said "tons of bobbleheads."  Obviously they were genius marketing wizards, right?  Wrong...I asked about the bobbleheads.  The lady chuckled and responded with..."oh, most of them were sold this morning, when they are all under $5 each, they go quick!"  I pretty much kicked my own ass on the way back to my car.  The 2 that were left...Delmon Young, both versions (SGA & STH), I figured he deserved to sit on that table a while longer.

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.

Charlie Brown Bobblehead Day

Today the Saints did a 2nd edition of the Charlie Brown bobblehead.  I had previously blogged about this, check it out here.  Based on some limited intel - I was worried it was going to be the same exact bobblehead.  Luckily its different and easily defined as the 2014 version or 2nd edition.  Prices on eBay are already crazy.  For those of you with patience...wait a week or two...Im sure they'll come down a bit.  I'm betting plenty of people walked out of Midway Stadium with a handful of bobbleheads.  1000 were given away and several will find their way to eBay and/or Craigslist.  Below is a picture of the one from today. You can compare that to the 1st edition on the post I linked above.

Tom Brunansky Bobblehead Day

July 5th was Brunansky Bobblehead Day at Target Field.  By the looks of eBay and Craigslist, lots of people got these bobbleheads that have no interest in keeping them.  The prices on both sites are in the $30-$50 range.  I'm not surprised by those prices and can only assume they'll drop a little bit in a week or two. Below is a picture of the Brunansky bobblehead in case you are looking for it!

Harmon Killebrew Bobblehead Night

Killebrew bobblehead night was this past Friday, the 20th of June.  Since Killebrew is such a fan favorite, I knew there would be lots of bobbleheads on eBay and Craigslist!  However, there are even more than I thought.  There are several on Craigslist, ranging from $45 to $100 or so.  There are roughly 40 or so listed on eBay (as of this blog post).  And of the bobbleheads that have already been sold, $40 has been the lowest they've gone for, while the most expensive one sold for just over $72.  Based on that, the Craigslisters are asking a bit too much.  $30-35 is a good cash price, otherwise, hold out and set your buying limit at $40 on eBay.  eBay usually sees the same trends from popular giveaways, the first few go for about double of whatever the average price is a few days after the giveaway.  That'll last for a couple weeks, then they won't pop up nearly as often.  At that point, all bets are off as far as price goes.  You'll see some sell for $25 while others will probably fetch something close to $75.

My advice - be patient.

Legends of the Dome

Legends of the Dome, otherwise referred to as LOTD are 2 bobbleheads, one of Kirby Puckett and one of Kent Hrbek.  But there are 2 different bobbleheads of each player.  Both Puckett and Hrbek have green bases and are the typical SGA bobbleheads, (each also comes with a COA).  The second variation is actually a set given away to season ticket holders.  I say set because they are packed in the same box within the same styrofoam packaging and come with red bases.  For whatever reason, the sets aren't as valuable, even tho I think they tend to be more rare. Each LOTD SGA comes with its own specialized box, which to most collectors is just as important as the COA (as its not the generic white boxes most Twins bobbleheads come in).  Below are some pictures showing the differences.  I recently picked up the LOTD set from a guy who responded to a Craigslist ad I had posted.  We agreed on a fair price and I met him later that week to pick up the bobbleheads.  Continually getting closer to completing the Twins bobblehead collection!

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 #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!

A bobble-foot you say?

A few days ago a really good buddy of mine posted a picture of a bobblehead he had.  The discussion that soon followed was about how cool the Hrbek/Gant bobblehead was.  I'll blog on that specific bobblehead at a later date, but this gave me an opportunity to show a very cool bobblehead that I had.  Another really good buddy of mine mentioned within the comments about the infamous Larry Craig bobble-foot the St. Paul Saints gave out a few years ago.  I knew I'd blog about the bobble-foot, and figured this was the perfect time.  

If you don't know who Larry Craig is and/or why his foot bobbles, you really need to start reading the paper or watching The Daily Show at the very least.  Here are a few articles about the bobble-foot.  

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/19160729.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/24844034

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/its-larry-craig-bobblefoot-day

I had been looking for this bobble-foot for quite a while.  I knew eventually I'd find it but I wasn't ever going to pay eBay prices for it.  Currently there is a seller wanting $375 for this bobble-foot.  I can see $100-$200 as it is a rare bobble-foot and it intrigues plenty of different collectors.  I had come across local Craigslist postings for the bobblehead but pretty much all of them wanted $100 or more for it. Again - not a bad price, but I didn't want to pay that much for it.  I came across a garage sale posting (again, on Craigslist) that simply had one line that said "St. Paul Saints memorabilia."  As with a lot of garage sale postings they don't allow the viewer to email them but sometimes do include a phone number.  I called and the gentleman I spoke to mentioned a different assortment of Saints bobbleheads.  That's all I needed to hear, so I made the quick 15 minute journey to the sale when I had time, I think it was the 2nd day (which I knew might screw me over).  I didn't see any bobbleheads right away, so I asked and he had them stored in the garage.  I saw the Craig bobble-foot right away.  Let's face it, most people who put on garage sales just want their crap to find a new home and if they can make a couple bucks while doing so, its a win to them.  The guy was asking $50 for the bobble-foot.  Not a bad price at all, but I like to negotiate (ask my wife).  I told him, I wasn't trying to low-ball him...wait for it, wait for it...I low-balled him.  I offered $20, figuring he'd laugh at my offer and stick to something close to $50, his response, "Make it $25 and you have a deal!" I quickly agreed to that price, packed up the bobble-foot and was on my way.  I was quite happy with that deal but wouldn't consider that one of my top 5 garage sale deals - something I'll post about in the near future.  For now, check out the pictures of this one-of-a-kind and eccentric bobble-foot!  

1965 Heroes vs. 1965 Katrina

In previous posts I've mentioned these 2 sets.  The 1965 Heroes set are SGA bobbleheads.  The Katrina bobbleheads are not. I'll try to explain all differences between these bobbleheads, that truly look very very similar to each other.  The Heroes set of bobbleheads were given away by the Twins, the difference between these and all other SGAs, there are 10 different Heroes bobbleheads.  Those 10 were all given away at the same game.  So while one person might have gotten a Jim Perry, someone else got an Earl Battey.  I've read online that 1000 of each of the 10 players were given away.

Here are pictures of the full 1965 Heroes SGA set as well as the Katrina set.  As you can see each SGA bobblehead comes with its own COA, while the Katrina set has 1 COA for the complete set. 

Here are comparison pictures of one bobblehead, Jim "Mudcat" Grant, both the SGA form and Katrina bobblehead. The SGA has "Ecumen" on the base, as they sponsored those 10 SGAs, while the Katrina set has the name of each player on the base.  The Heroes SGA set has the names on the back of the bobblehead.

The Katrina set is fairly easy to find (typically on eBay or Craigslist, but more often than not, people are asking a ridiculous amount of money for it).  The 1965 Heroes SGA set is much more rare and extremely hard to find.  Most of the individual bobbleheads from this set will sell for $75 to $125 each.  Eventually I'd love to own each of the 1965 Heroes SGA bobbleheads, but at their current rate, it'll take me a while!

Minnesota Twins Bobblehead Sets (Part 1 of 4)

In 1991 the Twins established what is now called the Twins Community Fund.  This Nonprofit was organized to enrich local and regional communities.  I believe the Twins, through the Twins Community Fund have produced 4 team bobblehead sets.  This is the first post in a 4 post series detailing each set.  None of these sets are SGA or ST bobbleheads.  They look very similar and I've seen some eBay listings and Craigslist ads saying they are SGA, but technically they are not.

The first set was sold in 2005 in an effort to raise money for the Hurricane Katrina relief fund.  This set is commonly referred to as the 1965 Katrina set.  A total of 500 limited edition sets were sold for $265 each. The set included 10 stars from the 1965 Twins team.  There has been some confusion over this set and some SGA bobbleheads of the same players, I'll blog about that in the near future.

3 Tips for selling bobbleheads

I've hit on a variety of aspects of both buying and selling.  I'm focusing this entire post on the selling side.  As you know, I buy and sell bobbleheads (as well as a few other things, nothing major but my mom is trying to make a wave - they are moving to a new house and neither her nor I want to be moving lots of stuff that they don't need in the new house, so her genius idea - have Scott sell it on ebay and craigslist).  I know I know, lucky me - right?

The first part of selling - know what you are selling.  It doesn't take much research to know if you have something worth $10, $100, or $1000.  But asking $1000 or even $100 for something that routinely sells for $10 is absolutely ridiculous.  In terms of bobbleheads, sometimes its hard to know what you have. Other times sellers simply don't care and just want it out of the house.

Craigslist and eBay are different!  I've mentioned this before, but people wanting eBay type money via selling on Craigslist need to realize there are huge differences between the 2 websites.  eBay offers the entire world as a potential buyer while Craigslist offers your local community and neighboring areas.  Typically Craigslist is a cash transaction type of game.  There are no fees and no shipping.  eBay costs the seller money to list and eventually sell an item.  Then on top of that the seller pays a shipping fee as well.

Pictures, pictures, pictures.  Post pictures!  I've responded to a few Craigslist posts asking to see pictures of a specific bobblehead they have listed.  Most of the time, I get a positive response back with requested picture.  There are times where I'll get an email saying "its so and so's giveaway bobblehead."  I'll kindly reply back 2 things.
1. I need a picture if you want to sell it.
2. There are different giveaways of various players.
In the end, I either get a picture or stop the communication.

Those 3 tips will help you, I promise you that.  Do a little research, know the differences (and therefore how to market) of Craigslist and eBay and take pictures!