Shaqfest at Newegg City of Industry 3-15-15

Thanks to a tip from my friend Shaun aka Yosh I decided to check out Monster Madness with Shaquille O'neal at the Newegg store in City of Industry. Shaq was there to promote his Monster products such as speakers and headphones. I was literally informed about the signing yesterday but by the time I went to check for tickets they were already sold out.

Luckily Shaun had an extra ticket for me. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have gotten all of these autographs today since the tickets to the event were sold out. Thanks again Shaun I owe you one. I couldn't pass up the chance to meet Shaq let alone get his autograph. The signing took place literally a few miles from my house. You rarely get a signing so close to your home let alone from a future HOFer. Shaq has always been one of my all time favorite Lakers so it was a great opportunity to finally meet him in person. My goal today was to get my Forum Floor Piece signed along with possibly a basketball. I didn't prep for this event since this was last minute.

Here are the details of the signing below.

Basically the first 20 fans were guaranteed an auto and a photo op with a purchase of a Monster product. Today they had portable cell phone chargers for sale which cost about 32 dollars and also portable speakers for sale which went for sale for 100-120 depending on which model you bought.

I arrived at the signing at around 8am and was ironically number 8 in line which is also Kobe's old number.  I hope that didn't mean bad luck for me. The event was organized and they started handing out wristbands at around 11am.

They ended up selling 12 powercards to the first 12 people in line. The rest of the fans who wanted a wristband had to fork over 100-120 for a speaker. I picked up the powercard since I always needed one and also because I didn't want to spent 100 on some speakers I wouldn't end up using.

While waiting in line I was chatting with the graphing family and ran into a familiar face; my buddy Jerry. If you recall Jerry is the same guy who hooked me up with a Gary Matthews Jr bat several years ago. Jerry has always been nice to me over the years so we chatted a bit and discussed what items we were hoping to get signed today. He mentioned he was going to get a jersey signed plus his forum floor piece and possibly a basketball as well. I told him I had no time to prep since it was a last minute event for me and mentioned this would be a perfect opportunity to drop a jersey on Shaq. Jerry mentioned that he had a surplus of procut Shaq jerseys in his car and asked me if I wanted one. So we go over to his car and I see two brand new with tags attached Procut Road Shaq jerseys from the 2000-2001 season. Getting a last minute high quality jersey unplanned is completely unexpected and thanks to Jerry he sold me his extra jersey for a reasonable price. Thanks again Jerry for the hookup. Thus my plans changed and the jersey was the first item to be signed today.

Shaq arrived at the signing around 3pm and they were letting the first group of five go inside the Newegg building. Shaq was cool as can be and kindly added the 3peat inscription for me on my jersey.

I also ended up getting a basketball signed by Shaq.

As soon as Shaq was finished signing for fans with wristbands the organizers of the event said that Shaq was done signing. There were still about 150 fans waiting outside, most of which showed up to the event when it started and they were also the ones who didn't buy any Monster products. Shaq was cool and told the organizers that he would sign for the rest of the fans. Thus we all hopped back in line to maximize our opportunities for the day. The last item I had left for him was my Great Western Forum Floor Piece with all the players with retired Lakers jersey numbers. This project is still a work in progress as I am missing Magic, Elgin, Kareem, and West. Chamberlain, Mikan and Hearn are also missing but sadly those guys won't be on this piece since they are deceased. If Goodrich didn't take up all the real estate i'd have room for more.

Here is what the rest of the gang got today. Shaun ended up getting a basketball and all of his SI's done.

My buddy Manuel aka "The Godfather" racked as usual and got his photos plus a basketball done.

My buddy Mikey got his shoes done plus a few photos.

Last but not least my friend Big Mike ended up getting a basketball plus an ROMLB signed by Shaq using the good ol Sweetspot Jacket.

I want to give a shoutout to the graphing family and all those who waited with me for seven hours to get Shaq's autograph. I want to thank the staff of Newegg for running such a well organized event. I also want to give a special thanks to Shaun aka Yosh and also Jerry. If it weren't for Shaun I wouldn't have gotten all these autographs today and it weren't for Jerry then there wouldn't be a signed Shaq autographed jersey in my PC. Thanks again everyone.