My SU Greats Project & Carmelo

[Henny & Coke]

Ok, need some help from my fellow SU Bball fanatics on an important upcoming decision.

A hobby of mine is collecting sports memorabilia - For about the past 4 years or so I have worked on getting as many SU Bball greats autographs on a neat 16x20 picture of the Carrier Dome (attached). In fact, Orangeyes saw me lugging this thing around one Midnight Madness & loved it as well.

I currently have 22 signatures, from greats such as Jim Boeheim, Dave Bing, Derrick Coleman, John Wallace, Pearl Washington, Roosevelt Bouie, Gerry Mac, Dion Waiters, Michael Carter-Williams and more. Needless to say, the process of getting the various autographs has been extremely time consuming, but also a ton of fun. At this point, every new person I ask to sign it comments on how cool it is. It's probably my favorite item in my collection.

But, it's always been somewhat incomplete, due to the fact that I have never been able to add Carmelo Anthony. For those who know the story, I was a Senior at SU for the magical 2003 National Championship, and one night afterwards, the entire team came into the bar I was bar-tending at & I was able to serve Carmelo a post-National Championship celebratory drink - Henny & Coke!

I've kept a lookout for the first opportunity to add a Carmelo Anthony autograph to my collection, but, to the best of my knowledge, Carmelo has not done an autograph signing (public or private) in a very long time (for whatever reason).

Until now. Steiner Sports is advertising a private signing with Carmelo for the end of this month. But it's expensive - $300 to get a picture signed. While I am not opposed to dropping this cash to add such a legendary player to my collection, I am having trouble figuring out what I should have signed. Is it an obvious thing to send in this SU Greats picture I have been working on for so long, to finally get Carmelo on it? You may think so...but let me give an opposing view.

1.) There is not that much space left on this picture for Carmelo to sign. If I'm dropping that much dough for the autograph, I'd at least like a nicer, bigger, clean signature to proudly display. Is there room on this current picture for that? I'm not sure there is.

2.) While I absolutely love this piece, in terms of one day possibly wanting to sell off my collection (even though I really don't think I ever would sell, but in case I do), it would be a better decision to have Carmelo sign a picture that was limited to him alone. (At least, this is my opinion. Single-signed pictures seem to sell for more and sell easier than multi-signed pieces for whatever reason.)

3.) Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I wanted to also pay for Carmelo to add an inscription to whatever I have him sign. I was thinking something along the lines of "Celebratory drink - Henny & Coke!" haha. Obviously, if I were to have this particular picture signed, there is no room to add any inscriptions.

I have limited time to make my final decision - if I decide not to get this picture signed, I would go with an image of Carmelo (and possibly the entire team) celebrating the National Championship win. I can post some of these images later if anyone would like to comment on which they like best - so I am asking for any & all comments/suggestions on my big decision.

Thanks for reading!

 

[HoustonCuse]

My personal opinion is to have him sign this one that you posted. I think worrying about resale value on such a thing is a very low priority compared to what it will mean to you. I would vote no on the inscription also. If you can hold out and wait, it seems like you could probably get this signed by him the next time he comes to Syracuse. You clearly know enough board luminaries to get that arranged without having to pay the $300. But either way, my vote is have him sign this piece and make it complete.

 

[Henny & Coke]

My personal opinion is to have him sign this one that you posted. I think worrying about resale value on such a thing is a very low priority compared to what it will mean to you. I would vote no on the inscription also. If you can hold out and wait, it seems like you could probably get this signed by him the next time he comes to Syracuse. You clearly know enough board luminaries to get that arranged without having to pay the $300. But either way, my vote is have him sign this piece and make it complete.

Good thoughts, appreciate it!

- Yeah, I do admit the resale value part is a very, very small part of this decision, as I can't imagine ever selling it in my lifetime.

- The suggestion about waiting until next time he comes to Syracuse to get it is interesting. But Carmelo is a different level of superstar, and that makes it even tougher than usual to get close enough to him to get an autograph. For instance, that Midnight Madness I talked about seeing Orangeyes at was the one when the NBA was on strike, so many former players came & they had a scrimmage. Carmelo even came. I waited outside the Dome after the event to see if I could get any more signatures...but I am not joking when I say that Carmelo literally had a full police escort of his car right from inside the Dome to the outside, meaning there was no contact with the fans who had gathered outside. While it was a pretty neat scene (almost like seeing the Presidential Motorcade), I'd imagine this is often how Anthony gets around, considering his unique level of stardom, which makes getting his autograph outside of an organized signing even more difficult than usual. So that makes the money for the private signing seem more worth it.