November Sun-Times Show
neal_brockett > 11-21-2011, 03:10 PM
I went on Friday and Saturday night and it was the usual more relaxed atmosphere compared to the National/Fan's Edge summer shows. I got Willie Davis, Jerry Kramer, and Forrest Gregg on Friday night. Willie Davis hardly sold any tickets and was a HOF'er at just $29. It seemed the more obscure Packers outsold him, guess they didn't need him. I got him on a GLAC and he was very friendly. I got Gregg on a mini who seemed to sell 100 or so tickets. He was in a good mood but you could see him having some tremors in his hands/neck. However, he took a long time on his signature very carefully and it turned out to look like his normal signature. He was even shaking people's hands. Then I got Jerry Kramer who was very friendly and would put any inscription you wanted. I got him on a mini with a SB 1+2 Champs. I got my ticket Friday night and it was #42 so I think he sold well under 100. My brother got Starlin Castro on Friday night and picked up ticket #45 so he sold in the area of 100 tickets too. The ticket buying lines were terrible as mentioned previously unless you had cash. I had most of mine bought in advance besides the Kramer. They weren't as bad on Saturday. It seemed like Brock and Ford sold ok at the rollback prices but Urlacher was clearly the most popular guy that night and was flying through his numbers as he has a fast sig.
I went back on Saturday and got Jack Lambert, Mel Renfro, and Lawrence Taylor. Lambert was cool and my mini turned out great. I paid for a Renfro ticket though the VIP lines were way down with the weaker lineup. Some people got him many times where usually you can max at 2-3 for the HOF guys. I got him on a mini and he was friendly too. Lastly, I got LT who was out around 25 minutes late. I got him on a Giants throwback and it looks great. He was smiling but I'm not sure what his mindframe was. He paused for 30 seconds and then wrote my HOF inscription. Maybe just spacing out?
Johnny Bench sold great at over 200 tickets with rollbacks. It didn't seem Oscar Robertson sold all that well as he was just here recently and priced highly. Willie Mays was signing slowly but sold at least 150 tickets by the time I left and those were at high prices obviously. The boxing guys like Holmes and LaMotta brought decent interest from what I could tell.
Looks like the next show is March 9-10 or so and usually has active football players involved. Hoping to see retired guys like Marcus Allen, Bruce Smith, Peyton Manning, Joe Namath, Joe Schmidt, Jack Youngblood, and Thurman Thomas on my wishlist