Who are you?
I am an avid collector of Giants bobbleheads with a youtube channel. That is all you need to know.
What is a Slideball?
It's a nickname for a slider used by Mike Krukow during his Giants radio broadcast.
A slider is the most devastating pitch in baseball when it is thrown correctly.
How many bobbleheads do you own?
About 120. All Giants. I lost track after adding 34 more in 2010. I focus on the stadium giveaways.
I have a few retail ones from the Giants Dugout Store, but I do not collect minor league bobbleheads.
Why did you start a youtube channel?
It was late. I was drunk. I wanted to watch videos of bobbleheads and decided to make my own.
It started with a silly video of the Crazy Crab returning to the ballpark and the rest is history.
Can I buy that bobblehead off you?
No. Nothing I show you on youtube is for sale. Please don't bother asking.
Why build a Giants bobblehead website?
I wanted a central clearinghouse to organize all the various information that is out there.
I know several people who check my videos before making their next major trade.
For them, I wanted all of my videos to be easily accessible for reference sake.
How long does it take to shoot a video blog?
I do about 30 minutes of research, shoot the video twice, and I post the better one.
I usually write an outline of topics to cover and post it on the wall before shooting.
Do you do any video editing?
Does it look like I do? It's one long straight take. I say the wrong thing all the time.
Did I make money off my youtube videos?
Yes, Google Adsense paid me a penny for every unique visitor. I have a dollar so far.
Do I make money off this website?
Yes, Google Adsense pays me a penny for every unique visitor. In a year, I'll add a dime to my dollar.
Why don't you make more of your awesome customized bobbleheads?
I can only get excited about the challenge of making something completely new that no one else has ever tried to do before.
Once the mountain has been climbed, I don't have any motivation to climb it again, even if I know it will be easier to do so.
Besides, knowing that only one of them exist and no one else has one in their collection is pretty special.
What are you working on next?
I need to figure out how to take a Jon Miller bobblehead and trim him down into a Dave Flemming bobblehead,
install a custom sound chip into the base, and have him do Edgar Renteria's World Series home run call from game 5.
I would also like to make a hunched over Rod Beck bobblehead with a free swinging dangling right arm.
Why don't you cross promote your youtube videos with an eBay store to make money?
Do you know what they call a person who takes something of dubious value and artificially hypes it up just to make more money off you?
I don't know, but that person is probably not your friend. The opportunity to make money off my videos would have changed the focus and
I just didn't want my videos to come off sounding like an infomercial. My goals with the videos are to share my passion for the hobby with others,
provide useful relevant information, and entertain people with my humor and downright bobblehead obsession.
Are you really obsessed with bobbleheads?
Umm. I have 70 youtube videos and a massive website, all devoted to Giants bobbleheads ... so I'll say no.
What do you do for a living?
I sit in a fabric covered 8 by 8 cardboard box and eat free donuts and stale coffee like a good loyal employee.
Do you daydream about bobbleheads at work?
Never. I bring my bobbleheads with me.
Do you done a lot of presentations in your line of work?
Can you tell?
How long have you been a Giants fan?
Since 1978. My first game was Willie McCovey's last at Candlestick.
Are you a Giants season ticket holder?
No. I blew all my money on bobbleheads. I usually sit in section 315, centralized above the action.
Can I meet you at a Giants game?
Why? I'm nobody.
Have I met you before?
Probably. You know that big fat guy in the bright orange shirt that sits right behind the Giants dugout with the pumpkin lid hat on his head? That's not me.
What types of training do you have to modify bobbleheads?
I took basic art classes in college, focusing on painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and casting.
The electrical wiring skills I learned by fixing broken things around my house. Nothing fancy.
Are you on eBay or Craigslist?
Yes, but I go by another alias. Once people discover who I am, the price tends to go up.
If they recognize my voice, we usually wind up talking shop for an hour, which I don't mind.
What's the best way to grow my collection?
I suggest doing what I do. I wait until the off season to load up on popular bobbleheads while everyone else is watching football.
Then I makes trades during the baseball season to get the ones I want. I try not to pay full price for anything to avoid going broke.
Else, I post what I have on Craigslist, solicit offers, and then take the best one. That's how I picked up Snoopy for Moises Alou.
What does SGA and NIB mean?
SGA means Stadium Give Away. The retail ones you can buy in the store, while rare, don't have much demand.
NIB means New In Box, or rather unopened mint perfect condition. That's how you should trade or sell them.
Who makes the bobbleheads?
The SGA ones are made by AGP, Alexander Global Promotions, under the brand name of Bobble Dobbles.
AGP ignited the modern bobblehead craze with 1999 Willie Mays. The Dugout Store ones are made by Forever Collectibles.
How much is your collection currently worth?
Not that I would sell it, but if I did, it would easily fetch several thousand dollars on eBay.
How much have your spent on your collection?
I picked up 80% of it for free by going to games I was already attending. I've spent maybe $1000 over 8 years.
I bought Woody and Buzz for $50 in 2003 and someone offered me $500 of them. Bobbleheads can be very lucrative.
What do you do with the empty boxes?
I line up all the empty boxes on the top shelf of my walk in closet, so they form a 270 degree ring around the room.
I keep the blank empty ones in a secondary row behind the ones with artwork and I stack them higher as the collection grows.
Is there anything that annoys you?
Yes. Three things bug me. Bad art done by people who just don't care to do it right. Unethical sellers who misrepresent what they have.
Unethical traders who demand Charlie Brown for a Luau Lou. Of course, the stupidest thing about posting videos on youtube is that they
all get sucked into the Google universe, so when I do research on bobbleheads, all I find are links back to my own videos!
What's the best trade you ever made.
I traded Moises Alou for Snoopy. I traded Snoopy for Matt Williams. I traded Matt Williams for Willie McCovey. I sold McCovey for $125.
I also found a free Charlie Brown bobblehead at the giveaway game under a chair and found two more Chucks inside FanFest grab bags.
Any advice for a new collector?
Stop now. Your wife will hate you once you have more than a half dozen of these little tribbles.
Else, preserve the domestic tranquility and buy yourself a cheap display case to contain the madness.
Many wives have told me that they despise me because I got their husbands hooked on bobbleheads. "I'm sorry!"
Are most Giants collectors men?
No, only about 90 percent. About 10% of my youtube traffic is from women.
If you're married to a fellow collector or someone who understands, you've hit the jackpot.
Last thoughts?
I like garlic fries and they do seem to be better when bought from under the center field bleachers.
As always, thanks for watching! Go Giants! Bye!