There are all time great shows, like the National I went to over the summer. There are really good shows, like the one I went to last week in White Plains. And then there disappointing shows, like the one I went to today. 

MAB Celebrity Services was having a show this weekend loaded with former Yankees (including Chris Chambliss, Paul O'neill, Bobby Murcer, Danny Cater, Goose Gossage) in Secaucus, NJ at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. They added Bob Gibson as a late addition, so I decided to make the trip to get him.

I woke up early and decided to take public transportation instead of driving (as I was going by myself to this one). This was a great move, as the subways and trains are dead in the morning (so I could get a seat) and gave me plenty of time to write some letters to out in tomorrow's mail. I made it to the hotel by about 9:45, so it took about 1.5 hours (not so bad).

Admission to this show was $10, and that didn't include any free autographs like the week before (when I got Dave Kingman). But I'm OK with it, I was hoping they would have a good variety dealers selling cards.

I walk into the room and it was tiny. They claim there were 100 tables, but there was no way. There were 3 short rows of tables. Maybe it is because I am comparing it to the 300 table show from the week before, but this was a let down. And as I walked through the door, I noticed they had a small section in the back roped off for the signings - and I knew it was going to be a disaster.

Gibson wasn't going to be there until 11:00, so I had an hour to kill. I was hoping to find some dealers selling affordable vintage stuff like I had the week before. Not only did I not find that, barely anybody was even selling cards!!! Everything seemed to be higher priced autographed bigger items (and the only autographed stuff I collect is signed cards).

I made my way to the middle row, and see a table with books of signed photos and cards. As I thumbed through one of the books of cards (all 1950's and 1960's signed football cards priced very fairly), it hit me that this was Main Line Autographs that I bought from at the National. That made my day.

So introduced myself to Bill (who is a SCN member) and Jim who were working the table. We chatted for a while and both are great guys.

Now they had a smaller space at this show and didn't have as much on display, but they still had some great deals. Below are scans of what I picked up from them (you'll notice the multi-player cards with good TTM signers I will be sending to):

After talking to Jim, I will certainly be sending him my wantlists. If you are working on signed sets, you may want to send him your lists - their selection of signed cards is amazing... Seeing these guys would have been worth making the trip.

Now my biggest complaint with the show wasn't the lack of selection of products, but the extremely poor organization of the signings. All the customers were bunched in the aisles waiting to hear the promoters announce the numbers for their particular player. Pretty much everyone was complaining and saying how much nicer it was when people just wait online to get the players.

THIS IS THE LAST MAB SHOW I WILL BE GOING TO (unless they have a guest I really desperately need).

I had #21 for Gibson, and it took approximately 30 minutes for them to call my number. Totally unbelievable how slow they were moving.

I get up to Mr. Gibson, and he sees my 1967 Topps leaders card. He immediately says "Uh Oh" because there is not a lot of space for him to sign it. He has a pile of different pens and markers, so he asked me which one I wanted him to use. The guy sitting next to Gibson suggested a ball point pen (yuck), but I replied the the thin point blue sharpie. He tested it the marker on a piece of paper and then carefully signed it.

I was going to take a picture of him signing my card with my cameraphone, but I decided against as he was rubbing his eyes and complaining how the flash was hurting them.The sig came out great, thank you Bob Gibson.

Below is the scan of what will soon become my all time #1 favortie signed item.

I recently saw a flyer that Juan Marichal will be coming to the Hofstra show on the May 3-4 weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the card off then.

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