Tuesday night I hopped on a plane from JFK to Portland. The purpose of my journey was a signing with 1998 World Series MVP Scott Brosius. We have been working on a '98 team project for a few months and, despite the far distance to travel, it was time to add arguably the most important autograph to the pieces. I landed in Portland at about 11:00 Pacific time. Unfortunately the signing was not in Portland...it was in McMinnville which is about an hour or so southwest of the city (middle of nowhere). I finally arrived at my meeting room-less motel at about 1:00 AM and proceeded to move all the furniture around in my room (as to make space to set up bats, jerseys, baseballs etc..) I somehow how made it work and got a few hours of sleep before the time change set in and I was up way before the sun came up. Scott popped in at 10:00 AM sharp and banged through the signing in no time. Brosius is now a coach at Oregon's Linfield College and really seems to be loving life back in his home state. It took Scott less than an hour and a half to knock out the signing and I was left with a bed and floor full of product (nowhere to move in the room). It took me about three and a half hours to pack up and prep the items to ship back to New York. That left me eight..yes eight..hours until my flight. There is only one flight a day back to New York so I didn't have too much of a choice. Rather than spend my remaining Oregon time in fun-filled McMinnville I instead headed back to the airport to catch the Suns-Lakers game on ESPN. I finally landed in New York at 8:00 AM Thursday and, soon after, went out to New Jersey for a signing with Michael Strahan....which will be a story for another day.
I will be spending much of this week down in Ft. Myers...spring training home of the Red Sox. Check back for updates from sunny Florida.
Enjoy the weekend!

So the Giants team signing is finally over. Last Saturday we were finally able to put Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Umeniyora on the pieces. Osi was the lone G-Man to participate in Hawaii (which is a crime within itself) so it took a little longer to get him up to the office. Then, in my absence (due to the Oregon trip which will be my next post), head coach Tom Coughlin came up Wednesday night. Coach was the final name on the pieces. Everything came out unbelievably strong. It was, by far, the most exciting three weeks I have ever had in this business. There is always a lot of energy when doing a team signing after a championship but coupled with the fact that it was not only a New York team but actually one that I root for it was absolutely amazing (That was definitely a run-on sentence). Over the course of the past few weeks I have heard so many incredible stories about the game and the parade. I probably had the most fun listening in on the offensive linemen. They all came up together and collectively are totally out of their minds...it was great.
So with after all the hard work and late nights we are actually left with slim-pickings on product. Almost everything is sold out or close to so I recommend ordering something ASAP. I rarely push product on this blog but I am so proud of these pieces that I don't feel too bad about doing it this one time. All the robust photos, jerseys and helmets are amongst the best items I have ever gotten signed. We even did a handful of helmets where practically every player put an inscription ranging from "SBXLII Champs!" (never get tired of hearing that) to "18-1!"....wickedly strong! This team is one of, if not the, most special in New York sports history. I am fairly confident you will be hearing a lot more about them on the blog over the next few months as we start having a few public appearances and more signings.
Check back later for a recap of my Oregon trip.

First and foremost we are almost done with the Giants signing. I will do one last post/recap on it later in the week. It has been beyond exciting and I cannot wait for you all to see the robust product line that will soon be unveiled. Anyway, I just returned home from our appearance at the Steiner Sports Store with Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin has become a household name and is, by far, the best hockey player on the planet. Despite all those accolades I was still a little pessimistic about a Caps player signing in Long Island...I was way wrong. There was a sickly huge line awaiting the fashionably late mega-star. There were a ton of kids wearing #8 jerseys salivating for an autograph from Alex. Ovech did not disappoint. We got through th entire huge line in no time while he took photos with everyone holding a camera or camera phone (Camera phones have become a new pet peeve of mine. I am so down on them...they take way too long to use. What happened to disposables?) After the public portion we took Alex to the stockroom to sign some pieces in private. I was able to build up a pretty strong variety of items for our inventory over that hour or so. Ovechkin signed Caps pucks, mini-helmets, jerseys and a few different amazing images in both 8x10 and 16x20.
So I was wrong about the turnout (not the first time and surely not the last). What I did realize today is that Ovechkin completely transcends hockey. He is the biggest star in the game and even the casual observer or fan (like myself) is familiar with the name and face. Alex is a must-have autograph for any hockey collector.
Tomorrow is President's Day and I am off (first day off in the better part of a month). After that short break I am back on the road. Tuesday I am flying out to Oregon for a private signing with 1998 World Series MVP Scott Brosius. It should make for quite a blog entry as should the Giants recap later in the week.
Check back for an update from McMinnville, Oregon (not sure if I spelled it right and there is no way spell check will pick up on it so it is what it is)
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Here are a few more prolific photos showcasing the final days of the Giants team signing...

We are now a week into the Giants team project. It is finally winding down and the product is as strong as any we have ever had. Here are a few awesome photos from today's proceedings...

We are now a few days away from completing the Giants massive team project. Once the signings are completed I will be doing a major recap of the entire experience. In the meanwhile, and amidst the Super Bowl hysteria, we have had (and will continue to do) other signings. Yesterday we had our appearance at Last Licks Armonk with Rangers legends Eddie Giacomin and John Vanbiesbrouk. Eddie, who I have worked with numerous times in the past, flew in on Saturday. After finishing up with David Diehl on the Giants pieces Saturday morning I began setting up for Eddie. Giacomin popped in at about 1:00 and signed for close to two hours. Over the course of that time he autographed some incredibly robust items including those classic masks as well as some strong photos. That brings us to Sunday where I met up with Eddie and Beeze at Armonk at 11:15. While Giacomin has been on our signing circuit for quite some time this was the first time I had ever worked with John. There was a nice crowd on hand so we decided to begin the public early. Both guys talked with and took photos with everyone. Once the public concluded Vanbiesbrouk banged through his pieces in no time. Aside from Rangers pucks, mini-sticks and some amazing photos Beeze and Eddie also autographed a seriously strong Rangers Goalie Greats collage photo (in both 8x10 and 16x20). I am really looking forward to the next Leetch and Lundqvist signings so that we can complete the piece.
We have a ton going on this week including some more Rangers signings as well at the completion of the Super Bowl XLII Giants team project. Check back daily for photos and updates.

Here are a few more strong photos from today's festivities...

Every once in a while there is a lull on the blog that lasts several days. I try my best to write almost every single day but much of the time it is to no avail. The typical lack of posts are due to one of two reasons - 1)There is not much going on (this is rare) or 2)There is a ton going on and I just don't have the time to put the thought into a strong post. This week's deficiency is due to the latter. As I type this I am deep into the Giants team signing. Rather than recap each day I am going to wait until it's conclusion (or at least until the end is in sight) to truly get into the magnitude of the situation...it's robustly strong to say the least. In the meanwhile here are a few awesome photos from the past few days of signing. Check back later for more photos and, eventually, a major recap.

It is 11:45 Sunday morning. I waited until now to write this installment figuring that I would need something to do to pass the time until kickoff (I have officially lost my mind...game should be earlier than 6:00). Anyway, late Friday night I finally arrived home from my Atlanta trip. I arrived in Georgia Wednesday evening for my two day signing with my boy Hank Aaron. For the first time I was actually staying at a hotel right across the street from "The House of Horrors" Turner Field. As a Mets fan I have experienced so much heartache at that park (Benitez..why?) but over the past few years the tide has seemed to turn. Hank popped in at about 10:30 Thursday morning. As has become the norm Aaron will usually come sign for a few hours, leave and then come back a few times over the course of a day. This trip was no different. He signed for around two hours and the came back later in the afternoon to knock out some more. We talked a ton of Mets/Braves ranging from the topics of Tom Glavine (good riddance) to the newly acquired Johan Santana (best pitcher in baseball!). For years Hank never gave the Mets any credit but he has come around and admitted that we are stacked and are poised to go to the World Series (barring injuries)...strong statement from the King!

The next morning Hank arrived at 10:00 sharp and signed for three hours. We got some seriously robust product signed including a special "Heroes of the Game" bat as well as that classic 715 16x20 photograph. Once he was done I began packing up and headed straight to the airport. I was pretty excited about the prospect of getting home relatively early. Much to my disappointment there were major flight delays and I did not even step foot on an airplane until after 7:00 PM. After getting situated in my seat the captain came on and gave us the bad news that LaGuardia will be closed for about an hour due to bad weather in New York. We sat on the runway for hours before taking off. I finally arrived home late Friday night/Saturday morning. One observation that I had after touching down at LGA is one that I have thought about for years...passengers complain to no end that there is a delay (it is not the captain or flight attendants fault..it is weather that cannot be controlled) yet when the plane lands these same people really take their time getting off. I will never understand that.
Anyway, this week should be one of the busiest in recent memory. Check back daily for updates. Enjoy the game! Go Giants!