Bobbleheads Bobble Sniper

Free Bobblehead Giveaway Tonight!

by | Nov 1, 2016 | Sniper Rants

Free Jim Harbaugh Bobblehead giveaway ends tonight. Sorry for the late notice on the site, but this post has been on my Instagram a few times. In order to win these rules must be followed. 

  1. Like and follow @bobblesniper on Instagram.
  2. Tag 3 of your bro’s on Instagram
  3. Sign up a member name on the site and post a comment to any blog.
  4. Your account on Instagram CANNOT be private.

The winner will be selected tonight at 8:00pm EST. The winner will be contacted via Direct Message on Instagram for shipping information. Good luck! 

How to Display your Bobbleheads

by | Oct 12, 2016 | Sniper Rants

I’ve been asked a gazillion times what’s the best way to display my bobbleheads. Ever since I’ve been posting on the Internet especially Instagram, I get messages and emails all the time asking this specific question. Well I’m here to help. 

First, there is an art to this. This process takes a shit load of time. If you want to proudly display your collection then a ton of effort must be put in. If you half ass it, then your hard earned money that you put in to buying bobbles is a complete waste of time. Display them right or just put them on a shelf and let the dust ruin them. 

Depending on how many bobbles you want to display is the absolute key ingredient. If you have in the range of 50-100 bobbles then yes, you need a cabinet. Anything under that, put them on your dresser or a table and call it a fucking day. The only drawback to displaying them without any coverage, is they will get dusty faster than Josh Hamilton blowing a line. Dusting off your bobbleheads is a pain in the ass and I refuse to do it. It takes up to much time and my time is extremely valuable.

 Here’s a step by step approach so we can put this question to rest. 

Step 1: Download the Craiglist app on your mobile device. 

Step 2: Search “Furniture” under Category 

Step 3: Under “City” put in where you live. 

Step 4: Search “Curio Cabinet”

Curio’s are the best bang for your buck. All my cabinets are Curio’s. They come in different sizes in height, length and width. They are sturdy and elegant. Depending on your room size, measure the height of your ceiling in inches. You’re going to be fucked if you get one to high for your room. 

While searching and scrolling down the Craigslist page, DO NOT BUY FROM FURNITURE STORES or MAJOR ESTATE SALES. They are to expensive and people that buy from them are wholesalers.  All of my cabinets I have bought have been under $200. 

Next, find one that has between 3-4 shelves and a mirror back.  In addition, Make sure there is a working light and plug it in to an outlet to see if it functions. This is very important for displaying purposes. Obviously look at the pictures for condition of the Curio. Email the seller and get your ass over there and take a look.

Here’s where I ran into problems. I don’t have a truck with a bed in the back. I’ve had to borrow my neighbors truck or my father in laws truck. When and if you get a truck, MEASURE THE BACK OF THE BED AND COMPARE IT TO THE CABINET HEIGHT. Once, I bought one and I didn’t measure well enough and it didn’t fit. Remember your time is valuable and you don’t want to waste senseless time running to Home Depot to rent a large truck like I did because I didn’t measure properly. 

If you’ve never been purchased an item off of Craigslist then this is important. Negotiate with the seller. I’ve been in someone’s living room before and the cabinet I wanted, she listed it for $150 and I got her down to $80 cash. Wheel and deal. I’ve had both feet out the door once when my offer wasn’t good enough and the seller called me back in and accepted it. Curio Cabinets aren’t a “hot item” these days. People want to dump them and get rid of them, especially if they’re moving. Set your own price. The reason I stress this, is because if you’re a serious collector and you have a ton of bobbles, displaying them can get very expensive. I have 14 Curio’s right now. They ranged in price from $50-200. Adding them all up over a period of 5-10 years it’s well over $1,000. Do you know how many bobbles you can add to your collection with 1K???

Next, (and I won’t go into much detail) but lifting these bastards into the back of a truck with a couple of my bro’s and driving home over pot holes and stopping short will be very challenging. *Take the glass shelves and pins that hold the shelves OUT prior to putting the Curio in the truck! Trust me.

Over the past 10 years, getting my bro’s to carry these heavy fuckers down to the bobble cave is not rewarding for them. You better have some cold crafty’s waiting for them especially during summer months. 

Okay on to the juicy stuff. Once your Curio is cleaned and placed where you want it, what’s next? 

I use baseball “cube” holders and hockey puck holders. They are plastic and more importantly different in size. Go on eBay and search for “baseball cube holders and “hockey puck” holders. Ultra Pro has a great line of baseball holders. For the hockey puck holders I use SafTgard Supplies. They come in various quantities depending how many you want. *Very Important* The baseball cube holders come in two pieces. Therefore, you can use one baseball cube holder for 2 bobbles. 

Depending the size of your shelves, measure the size of your bobble (7″, 8″ 10″) and play around putting the bobble on the holder. I place all baseball cube holders in the back (for the back row). The second row will be the hockey puck holders. Finally, the first row of the shelf, each bobble will be placed flat. 

img_5764 img_5771

 

The display height to make sure 85% of your bobbles are seen looks best if:

  1. Baseball cube holder back row
  2. Hockey puck holder 2nd row
  3. No holder for front row

This displaying process takes a fuck load of time. I’ve spent countless hours in the bobble cave making sure they all look bad ass. This is where passion comes into place. Why have a big collection and not display them the correct way? 

Step 5: Have your bro’s come over to watch a game and turn on that Curio light and sit back and enjoy. They WILL say it looks bad ass but they WON’T comprehend the time and effort you put in to your masterpiece. They can’t and won’t understand the process. They don’t need to. Only you do. Of course there will be the one guy that calls it weird or creepy. It’s normal. Never ask him to come back again. 

Lastly, tell them the Sniper sent you. 

Your welcome. 

 

The Red Sox Win The AL East!!!

by | Sep 29, 2016 | Sniper Rants

The road starts now. My beloved Boston Red Sox are AL East Champions. This team has gone through more turmoil this year than the FBI trying to find the infamous gangster Whitey Bulger for 30 years. 

The starting pitching was a gigantic mess for 3/4’s of the year. Our first year zillionaire David Price who signed a 217 million dollar contract was up and down for easily the first half of the season. You’d think that your one ace would put forth tremendous outings each start but that wasn’t the case with Mr. Price. He’s had his share of awful outings and the fact that he has a track history of not performing well in the post season scares me. It scares me a lot. 

Joe Kelly was supposed to be a front line starter this year and he found himself getting sent back to the minors 3 times. Stephen Wright made the All-Star team and was baseball’s best pitcher for a third of the season until John Farrell had him pinch run and busted his shoulder sliding. We haven’t seen him hit the bump for over 2 months and have no clue if he is officially done this season. The list goes on with this rotation as there have been plenty of ups and downs. The night we clinch, Craig fucking Kimbrel can’t even record an out. 

On the bright side Price turned his 2nd half of the season around as he ended up finishing with 17 wins. Rick Porcello is a 20 plus game winner and the last to do that was Josh Beckett in 2007. Mark my words, if Porcello doesn’t win the Cy Young award this year I will burn all my Red Sox bobbleheads. He’s been the most dominate pitcher for the past 7 months and have kept the Sox atop the American League East. 

This offense is beyond disgusting. The Sox have close to 6 hitters in our lineup hitting over .300 and there’s legitimately 2 MVP candidates in Ortiz and Mookie Betts. The year Big Papi has had as his farewell tour comes to a close is incredible. Why even retire? Mookie Betts should win the MVP though. This fucking dude is the new face of the franchise. A strong arm in the outfield, the range he covers, his speed on the base paths and his Homerun and RBI numbers are off the fucking charts. Many people who don’t follow the Sox don’t understand the concept that he put up the majority of these insane numbers as the leadoff hitter for most of the year! 

John Farrell has caused much frustration this season for the Sox. The moves and calls he makes are indescribable. Pulling pitchers from the game, pinch running starting pitchers, starting a shit ton of different lineups has made the Boston faithful scratch their heads. I hope he sticks to the script of what works going forward. 

Is this a World Series caliber baseball team? Yes. Are there questions surrounding this team and obvious weaknesses to exploit? Yes. Are we are sure fire lock to make it to the World Series? No. Many things have to happen in order to get to the title. What scares me most is when we face 1 or 2 front line legit starters in the playoffs will our hitting shit the bed? I hope to christ we don’t. It’s definitely possible but with this potent lineup we can do some major damage. Our pitchers need to keep cool and do what they’ve done the last month of the season when we won 11 straight games in a row. As of now we are the AL East Champs and deservingly so. This division was a major pain in the ass. Toronto and Baltimore have given us such a run the past 2 months it’s mind boggling. The Yankees cleared half of their team off the roster and new studs have stepped in and gave all teams in the division headaches. The cream of the crop always rises to the top and that’s what the Red Sox have done. Hopefully, the next Red Sox blog will be celebrating entrance into the World Series. 

 

Sniper Alert! Bobblehead Collecting 101

by | Sep 27, 2016 | Sniper Rants

Attention all Snipers….

I just got some bad news that everyone needs to be informed of. I just was contacted by a fellow Sniper who lives in Florida and he’s in trouble. He messaged me asking if I wanted to buy his whole lot of bobbles. I looked at what he had and I asked him why he was dumping them all. Come to find out, he started collecting just 5 months ago and he has accumulated over 160 bobbleheads and he’s broke as a joke. He went on a bobble frenzy and bought 3-5 bobbleheads a day. He maxed out his only credit card that he owns and is in debt over $5,000.

Now at first thought, I said to myself what a fucking idiot. Fuck him. He’s on his own. Second, I remember what it was like first starting off collecting bobbles. It brought back memories when I first got into buying them. I spent so much money in a short amount of time because it’s a disease! It really is. It’s addicting! If you’re reading this blog you know what I’m talking about. Shit just gets carried away! This one comes out, that one comes out, then a series of exclusives come out and you tell yourself that you have to get them all or the world is going to end! 

I’m writing this as an awarness blog. I’m not going to buy his lot or start a gofundmepage because I think this Sniper needs to learn a lesson. Lessons learned in life provide characteristic traits that will guide you from here on in. I’ve seen this to many times with collector’s who get carried away. I personally have experienced this myself (not to the extent of 5k) and it’s scary. Now, is this Sniper a grown man? Yes. Should he have used better discipline? Yes. Did he make a financial mistake? Yes. Is he human? Yes. We all make mistakes and I take this personally because I don’t like people, nevertheless another Sniper racking up debt collecting bobbleheads. 

Only spend what you have and what you can pay at the end of the month on your credit card. Bills, mortgage payments, car payments, food, clothes etc. Family SHOULD ALWAYS COME FIRST! Bobbles can wait. They aren’t going anywhere. Collecting bobbleheads should be fun and not a stressful passion. 

Take this lesson as experienced by someone else and PLEASE don’t make this same mistake. I know it’s hard and the discipline to not buy this one or that one can be very challenging. Remember bobbles won’t go anywhere. You’ll have plenty of time to buy an SGA on Ebay and certain exclusives won’t run out in a month or two. Be patient and use your money wisely on necessities for you and your family. Keep collecting but most importantly, be smart about it. 

 

 

SGA vs. Retail Who Wins?

by | Aug 30, 2016 | Sniper Rants

SGA vs Retail Bobblehead. Who wins?

So the ongoing debate that many collectors have is what is better? A stadium giveaway (SGA) bobblehead or a retail bobblehead?

Typically, the first 15,000 or 25,000 people to enter the gate at a ball game get a bobble as a free giveaway.  The Giants, Mets, Dodgers and Red Sox for example have been doing some really cool bobble giveaways the past few years. They have players in different stances, arms in the air, follow through pose on a pitcher, diving for a ball and players making a wall-catch etc.

There’s many factors that go into each. Quality, detail, sturdiness, what box it comes in and overall, how well does the spring “bobble” the head. Companies often are known to produce the same pose or stance on a player. For example, Derek Jeter can have a certain stance on his 2002 bobble and the same fucking stance in 2003 but the uniform is different. This also applies to different players as Jeter and Arod have the same stance which is a bullshit move.

Forever Collectibles is one company known to do this year after year. Although, I think it’s a lazy move, I do like the quality FOCO puts forth. The base design is cool and the structure of the bobble is sturdy as fuck. The special exclusives they come up with are what makes them so great.

Companies like AGP “Bobble Dobbles” (Alexander Global Productions), come out with awesome detail but their overall creativity lacks . For years, back in the day, AGP has had the same body structure for years. The typical fat body player with the same stance. I personally don’t like them but they are highly collectible.

Recent SGA’S made by AGP that the SF Giants and Athletics have done for example have been pretty unique.

BD&A have made some good quality bobbles. The Oakland A’s have been using BD&A for years and have caught my attention.

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have been using Promotional Adventures for a few years and have brought the fucking heat! They have creativity and the Quakes always have a good product for their fans.

Success Promotions, which is a new company as of late have produced some killer ones.

So the question continues to frequently exist, what is the better overall bobblehead? A SGA or a retail? Although it’s a very close call as there are many pros and cons but gun to my head, I’d lean toward retail. I’m a huge FOCO collector and the various stances and poses do it for me. FOCO has been coming out with their “springy” bobbleheads and player name/number background which makes them pretty bad ass.  The special exclusives they come out with can’t and won’t compare to an AGP, BD&A, Promotional Adventures or Success Promotions. Now, the experience of going to a game, waiting in line for hours and the anticipation of getting a SGA as opposed to buying one through the Internet is worthy of another blog.