St. Paul Saints Giveaway

About a month ago a buddy of mine mentioned he saw the Saints had announced their promotions this year, including a Charlie Brown bobblehead.  If you've been collecting bobbleheads over the past few years and know anything about the Saints promotions, you'll know that the Charlie Brown bobblehead is fairly rare. In a top 5 list of Saints bobbleheads, I'd rank it #2 (behind only the infamous Larry Craig bobblefoot).  It appears the Saints are giving away the bobblehead again.  The promotion says "Return of the 2001 Charlie Brown Bobblehead Giveaway."

I have a few thoughts on this.  First, I really hope they don't giveaway the same exact bobblehead from 2001.  Why you ask?  Even tho its a very popular bobblehead, its the same, this will reduce the value of all 2001 bobbleheads and the rarity of that one will no longer be there.  Also, its somewhat lazy by the Saints...bring it back but make it recognizably different.  Because I had questions, I dug a little further.  What I heard back was this "The bobblehead will look almost identical to the 2001 giveaway."  Exactly what I didn't want to hear.  

I recently saw one of these on eBay sell for roughly $90, of course that was the 2001 version.  I'm sure there will be plenty of 2014 versions on eBay shortly after the giveaway date, which is August 10th.  Looks like they'll be giving away 1000 - good luck and have fun standing in line!!

Below is the 2001 version!

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!  

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!