The day in Marinerdom, Jan 29
On Craigslist today, you can find not one but two David Segui autographed bats.
Went to a signing in puyallup while still played for the Mariners. Autograph are on a limited edition bat, number 25 and 30 of 100 made. No Coa because obtained directly at signing. Asking $15 each or $20 for both
So this bat’s been kicking around for nine, ten years with David Segui’s signature on them. They were sitting in a closet, presumably, as his career fell apart and he subsequently got caught up/found out for his steroid use… but still they remained, waiting. In June (see the photo stamp, and let’s figure it’s real) they were dragged out, laid out on the kind of carpet Quadrant Homes slapped down on every house they stamped out during the boom years, and captured on film. It may have been the first time they saw light in five years or more.
Why $15 for one, or $20 for both? You could use them for batting practice at that price. Heck, you could be like Bud Selig and start your novelty bench construction with these two, moving on to other short-time also-were players whose signed merchandise goes for well under what the generic sells for.
In a decade, who on these last few teams are we going to seem valuable enough to not just throw out but still result in a huge cost discount? Jose Guillen seems the best candidate.
Or for $50, there’s some guy selling chunks of the Kingdome. That price is per piece. They probably still smell faintly of the urine the place absorbed in its 24-year life.
What is it worth to you to have a piece of Seattle history? Selling each piece seperately. There are 2 smaller pieces left and the biggest one
Let me answer that question: nothing. But since the pieces are selling for the same price, it appears that the amount (and value) of history infused into each of these is exactly equal despite their different sizes. I’m not sure how that works. Is history like a hologram where pieces of it, shredded, all present a partial fragment of perspective?
How can a pebble, which for all we know could be fake, picked up while walking by a construction site, be worth more than a 2001 Ichiro bobblehead?
ICHIRO BOBBLEHEAD ONLY GIVEN OUT ON JULY 28 2001. MINNESOTA TWINS VS SEATTLE MARINERS. BY NISSAN. ICHIRO BOBBLE HEAD DAY. NODDER BOBBLE HEAD IS IN MINT UNDAMAGED CONDITION. THE BOX HAS SOME HANDLING AND EDGE WEAR.
So a 2001 bobblehead of Ichiro, in his debut RoY/MVP year in which the M’s won 116 games is worth 36% of a pebble? Where’s the invisible hand here?
Meanwhile “Mike” is already attempting to sell nearly all of his tickets at cost already.
I have a season ticket package with two Lower Box seats, Section 125, Row 27. The Box Office charges $58 per ticket for these seats, but I am offering them for just $40! Feel free to select as many as you like from the list below.
It’s an interesting tactic: buy season tickets (they’re $40 a stub for him, btw, don’t let Mike mislead you into thinking he’s taking a loss), hold back the ones you think you can scalp for a profit (NYY, Boston) and then dump the rest. I guess there are worse business models.
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I wonder if that’s the same “Mike” from the a.s.b.s-m days.
I like that the picture of the Segui bat is upside down — how logical. Then again, he’s selling perfectly good bats for $10-$15 each so I don’t know why this surprises me at all.
I wonder how much my Seattle Mariners baseball signed by Aaron Heillman at fanfest would get on craigslist?
Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard has a Seattle Mariners lunchbox on their wall…
Hmmm … this is kinda sad, but the above post almost mirrors my collection of memorabilia.
I have an authentic little league bat with A Rod’s signature (stamped on … not signed by him).
I have a chunk of the Kingdome (which at least I know is authentic). What can I say … that was my bastioon of sports as a young child.
And, I have a rookie-year Ichiro Bobblehead (I initially had three and sold the other two for $80 each to someone in Japan).
hmm. wonder if I still have one of these under my desk — and if I could get 30.00 for it.
I saw the same chunks of the Kingdome on CL for the same amount of money.
It would be one thing if you picked them up from the demo site yourself as a souvenir, but if you buy one, you’re kinda pathetic–as DMZ points out, odds are reasonable they’re fake, anyway.
“Collectibles” are always like this: genuine collectors of antique things always always always look for the left-over relics of everyday life, and rarely if ever “limited edition” or “collector” stuff. Again, it’s one thing to buy something because you associate a happy memory with it, it’s another to spend your savings on Ichiro bobbleheads because one day they’ll be worth something.
I used to have an old Ken Griffey, Jr. card from his days with the Bellingham Mariners. As a Bellingham resident, that card meant a lot to me when I was 8 years old.
I have no idea what happened to it. Maybe my brother still has it locked up somewhere….
Like, say, this guy?
Looks like Bellingham griffey is worth $150++
If JR is signed….those JR 10th Anniversary Statues will be worth over $60 easy
Only if he is selling some *NOW* pitching…
My second-most treasured piece of baseball memorabilia (and I’m not a collector) remains the barrel end of a Dave Valle broken bat that I retrieved when I had the opportunity to go down on the Kingdome field after a game. I gave my friend who was with me the handle. I wonder what it’s value would be? $20?
My first-most treasured is a foul ball I caught some time during the ’88 season. As luck would have it, I was able to get it signed by much of the team during spring training in ’89, but tragically, Griffey didn’t rate high enough on the totem pole to sign the ball. I still got Mickey Brantley, though. And Henry Cotto.
How about Carl Everett? I’d pay $10 just for the constant reminder that dinosaurs never existed.
[stop it!]
And on the topic of our favorite M’s memorabilia, I’d gotten a number of autos at games over the years (from ages 12-16 I was a hound! BP, after games…you name it). But by far my favorite is my Bobby Ayala autographed card. Acquired in 1997, I actually made a sign that simply said, “Bobby Ayala Please Sign My Card.” I’m sure he thought it was a joke, but I assured him I was a fan. Those were fun days though…got ARod back then, Randy, the Big Hurt…Thanks for the trip back down memory lane!
[stop it!]
You laugh, but I understand where these people are coming from. We’re in the process of moving and in packing up I’ve come across lots and lots of Mariners stuff (and non Mariners stuff) that seems too good to throw away, can’t really be donated (what would Goodwill do with an Ichiro doll or Mariners coin), but also isn’t good enough to easily sell on eBay.
I pretty have the equivalent of all those things you point out and they’ll be on craigslist soon. A Luis Ugueto signed baseball, authentic ceiling tiles from the Kingdome, lots of bobbleheads and other SGAs and a number of my season tickets. Laugh all you want but I just sold a bunch of Baseball Weekly back issues for $100.
And if you’re looking for an excellent way to spend some of your hard earned cash on Mariner memorabilia, don’t forget…
Ichiro Sodâ„¢ – not yet on the market and price undetermined…
Last season I was sitting in that corner seat in the front row of section 112 in right field (where the stands meet the foul line). Ichiro made a sliding catch on a line drive right in front of us and popped up to catch the runner at first for a double play. When he made the sliding catch he displaced a tiny bit of dirt (about the size of two sugar cubes) with grass attached that ended up on the warning track in foul territory just a few feet from our seats. I asked the security guy to retrieve it for me between innings and took it home.
It’s been growing in a pot in my backyard since this summer and is doing fine. I took a first set of cuttings for friends who keep blades of it as good luck charms…
Once it starts filling out I hope to sell portions of “Ichiro Sod™†to fans of the great outfielder.
I sold one of those bobbleheads a couple weeks after the game on eBay for $150. Seemed crazy then, and crazier now. I still have one in a closet, and I bet if I save it for seventy years it’ll be worth even more. Only because of inflation, of course.
Once it starts filling out I hope to sell portions of “Ichiro Sod™†to fans of the great outfielder.
So you’re selling clippings from this chunk of sod? Seriously?
Where do I sign up?
ichirosod.blogspot.com
Wow, there’s something I had successfully blocked from my memory for years…
I have dirt from the Kingdome mound, after the M’s beat California in the 95 tie-breaker. I’m pretty sure it contains some of both Randy’s and Langston’s spit. Pretty much the best souvenir ever…
I do!! My retirement is saved!
he seems to have found a more congenial community
I have a chunk of the asphalt from the old parking lot where Safeco now stands. I went to the groundbreaking ceremony and dug out my own souvenir. No certificate of authenticity, although we did take photos that day. I am sure no one cares.
Thanks for the heads-up, I wouldn’t have seen these bats otherwise. #30 made a great gift for a mentor and friend who, like me and for better or worse, is a lifelong Mariners fan and avid USSMariner reader. #25 will go to another close friend, also an avid Mariners & USSMariner fan, who followed the team closely even while over-seas for nearly a decade and now only has to travel from central Oregon to see a game, which I’m glad to report he does four or five times a summer. And frankly, since the bats have been on USSMariner, their value has increased exponentially for both, though perhaps that increase in value has no monetary equivalency.
Yep, for less than the cost of two beers and a bag of peanuts at the game, two of my close friends have been pleasantly and humorously surprised. Thanks again.
Ha ha! That is totally awesome that they found a home.