DRANO said:What you need is a Stern Lightning!!!
Ahhh yes... the "poor man's" Black Knight. I love mine!
And Trudeau is certainly a class act. Nice to hear when you get designers of his caliber respond so positively.
D
Custom Signed Apron Cards
- Thread starter spiroagnew
- Start date
Ahhh yes... the "poor man's" Black Knight. I love mine!
And Trudeau is certainly a class act. Nice to hear when you get designers of his caliber respond so positively.
D
Menace said:DRANO said:What you need is a Stern Lightning!!!
Ahhh yes... the "poor man's" Black Knight. I love mine!
And Trudeau is certainly a class act. Nice to hear when you get designers of his caliber respond so positively.
D
Not sure it's still a "poor man's" BK. I think they may be equal in value now.
Very cool thread, Rob. Will make your games unique. I like that each one is addressed to you. Very cool.
Cheers,
Duane
TwilightZone said:
Coming from the sports/entertainment autograph collecting hobby, its one of the "tricks" to getting the signature you are after. The request to personalize practically guarantees that you can't sell the signature on ebay or other auction site. "Real" collectors look at personalized autographs as near worthless...thus your request is more likely to be granted without the threat of resale...especially if requested through the mail with no money changing hands. On an autograph tracking website that I am a member of, there were a series of requests sent to Lee Majors (TV's The Six Million Dollar Man) which were either not returned or returned to sender unsigned. I paired a nice letter (not a form letter, written specifically for the subject) with my own photo and a request for a personalized autograph and it came back within two weeks. Same thing happened with John Hillerman (Higgins on Magnum PI, and my avatar)...he has been a recluse for years and known for not even acknowledging fan mail. I sent a 4x6 index card to be signed and requested personalization--he sent it back ALONG WITH a signed photo from his own collection. Granted these are not A-List stars (anymore) but I'd rather have a Lee Majors autograph than a Johnny Depp hanging on my wall (yes, I frame them and hang them up...in our main floor bathroom). The further away these guys are from "FAME", the higher the chance they will honour your request...hence the high success rate with pin designers. I have a few other neat stories from collecting hockey autographs (NY Islanders exclusively), but the Majors/Hillerman stories stand out. Odd hobby...grown men collecting signatures of other grown men. Kind of like grown men collecting arcade games, I guess.
Sure, if I end up selling the pins, the apron cards are "worthless", unless I find another "ROB" to sell the game to. I guess I could frame them and hang them up as memories of pinballs past. As if I need any more crap to hang on the walls...
Its a bit of a repeat (or encore), but I got a signed Pat Lawlor card for my TAF today in the mail. Same inscription as he put on the FH one which is a bit of a bummer but beggars can't be choosers. I'm waiting on one from Python Anghelo, but given his health situation, I'm not in a rush to get it. Instead of sending Python a donation through his GoFundMe site, I sent a cash donation with the autograph request a couple weeks ago. No sign of it yet.
Update:
The Python Anghelo card has been deemed a lost cause. Sounds like his final days were packed with game design, not reading fan mail/autograph requests. Understandable. Regardless, Partick from the Gameroom Junkies podcast was nice enough to get my two apron cards signed by Barry Oursler, for Fire! and Pin*Bot, at the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta. Nice to have connections in the hobby...I had contacted Mr. Oursler myself in the past but was met with no response.
The Python Anghelo card has been deemed a lost cause. Sounds like his final days were packed with game design, not reading fan mail/autograph requests. Understandable. Regardless, Partick from the Gameroom Junkies podcast was nice enough to get my two apron cards signed by Barry Oursler, for Fire! and Pin*Bot, at the Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta. Nice to have connections in the hobby...I had contacted Mr. Oursler myself in the past but was met with no response.
After a very long wait, another Nordman signed card was returned, this one for Demolition Man. The wait, as he explained in a short note, was attributed to my letter being at the bottom of a stack of paperwork on his desk. Understandable. I think I'll try to hunt down an Elvira signature for my EATPM apron card...getting Nordman again would be overkill.
Sent out to designers Ward Pemberton and Greg Kmiec a while back.
Got a care package back today from Mr. Pemberton, designer of Mousin' Around and Fathom (among other games). I sent the apron card to be signed, he sent back a nice letter, my signed apron card, and two signed flyers. Both flyers have my first and last names on them...maybe to prevent me from selling them on eBay?
Got a care package back today from Mr. Pemberton, designer of Mousin' Around and Fathom (among other games). I sent the apron card to be signed, he sent back a nice letter, my signed apron card, and two signed flyers. Both flyers have my first and last names on them...maybe to prevent me from selling them on eBay?
It's no Lawlor or Ritchie, but I got designer Tim Seckel to sign an apron card for my WWF Royal Rumble. I sent my card care of WMS Gaming (yep, the old California Avenue address where all those great games of ours were built). His Linkedin profile said he worked at WMS, however, he had recently left the company. WMS was nice enough to forward my correspondence to Mr. Seckel and not just slap a RTS onto my envelope.
This one is really just a placeholder until my Bret Hart and Hacksaw Jim Duggan cards come back in the mail... (I'll update here when they do!)
This one is really just a placeholder until my Bret Hart and Hacksaw Jim Duggan cards come back in the mail... (I'll update here when they do!)
Not an apron card, but a pretty neat return. I bought a project Hot Doggin from Monkeybag earlier this spring. I loved the game the few times I've played it and its got one of my favorite pinball art packages of all time. I conducted an interview for Credit Dot Pinball with artist Greg Freres a while back and he's an insightful and friendly pinball figure. He agreed to sign a Hot Doggin flyer for me...and even sent along a signed Whoa Nellie flyer for good measure. Hopefully it will inspire me to get the restoration process rolling!
I forgot about this thread. I have a couple of updates, but for the most part I've been working on older Bally and Stern games, and I prefer period correct apron cards on those rather than signed ones. Anyhow...
I got Greg Kmiec to sign a card for my Transporter: The Rescue. Kmiec originally designed the game at Bally, then Bally was bought out by Williams, and Williams decided to Williams-ify Kmiec's design for release. Thus, Kmiec and Tony Kraemer are given credit as co-designers on the game.
I thought this one was lost to the mail gods. I'd sent Bret Hart an apron card to sign with a signing fee (he usually charges $10 on his website for an auto'd photo) and totally forgot I had sent it. A year later, it came back. I'm very happy to have this one on my Royal Rumble.
I got Greg Kmiec to sign a card for my Transporter: The Rescue. Kmiec originally designed the game at Bally, then Bally was bought out by Williams, and Williams decided to Williams-ify Kmiec's design for release. Thus, Kmiec and Tony Kraemer are given credit as co-designers on the game.
I thought this one was lost to the mail gods. I'd sent Bret Hart an apron card to sign with a signing fee (he usually charges $10 on his website for an auto'd photo) and totally forgot I had sent it. A year later, it came back. I'm very happy to have this one on my Royal Rumble.
In just over two weeks, I received my signed apron card back from CFTBL designer John Trudeau. Wrote him care of Stern.
FWIW, I've removed this signed apron card from my machine for the time being...because well, you know....
I had a chance to meet Hacksaw Jim Duggan at a charity event last week. He's featured in Data East's WWFRR, so I had him sign an apron card. Two wrestling legends, one apron!
Hoooooooooo! Tough guy!
Hoooooooooo! Tough guy!
Hate to admit it, but I joined the 21st century and added a modern Stern to my collection: an HUO IM. PBRev member Aurium was nice enough to make an apron card with room for a signature to match his beautiful existing IM cards he has on pinballcards.com
The card was returned within a week (!) signed by Mr. Borg. I asked it to be personalized to match the rest of my apron cards in the collection, but alas, he didn't. Still happy with the addition, though.
The card was returned within a week (!) signed by Mr. Borg. I asked it to be personalized to match the rest of my apron cards in the collection, but alas, he didn't. Still happy with the addition, though.
100-year-old Wayne Neyens signed my Gottlieb North Star apron card! Pretty happy to get this one done. He even sent along one of his old business cards from the 1970s.
