Is GTSM Moving in to Triumph's Territory?

GTSM (GT Sports Marketing) is planning a New Jersey show in 2011. Are they capitalizing on the exit of the Triumph Football Spectacular?

A comment on the Football Spectacular Out-of-Business post gave me the tip on this.

GTSM has been doing on the West Coast: San Jose, Bay Area, for a while now. As far as I can tell, this is their first entry to the eastern market.

I haven't been to a GTSM show - the CA shows are a bit too far for me to travel. I sent a message to GTSM for more information. I'll report back if I hear more.

Football Spectacular Show Affected by Sagging Economy

Triumph Sports has canceled all of their 2009 autograph, card, and memorabilia shows. The Football Spectacular shows are typically held in Edison, NJ but have also done some in Dallas, TX.

Their shows attract the biggest names in football including Adrian Peterson, the Manning family, Joe Namath, Dan Marino and others. They began promoting the (now canceled) 2009 show in December with a "potential guest" list. Calling it a "potential show" makes a little more sense in retrospect.

Their web site said everyone who ordered tickets should have received their refund by the first of February and they are planning a 2010 event.

Hopefully Triumph's move to cancel shows isn't a trend.

Holding my breath for Triumph Sports

This is the greeting you receiveing when logging in to Triumph Sports.

Based on the March '09 dates, it seems they will only be doing an Edison, NJ show this year. Last year I went to the Dallas show and got a ton of autographs.

Their web site said to check Sept. 1 for guests and pricing. Hopefully I'll get an email with some good news about guests later this week.

Triumph Looking Good

Triumph's April show in NJ is looking awesome!

Dan Reeves has just been added to the line-up. This is huge! Reeves doesn't do many signings so this is a big win for Triumph. Triumph is also delivering on it's 30 Cowboy promise - they have about 25 at this point. Nice job.

I wish I lived in the area or was planning on going to that one. If anyone goes, please let me know how it went.

Triumph Still Making Promises

The Triumph autograph company is making its return to Edison, NJ this spring. At the junior varsity run Dallas show every Triumph and Prova Authentication employee bragged about how much more professional their NJ shows are than the Dallas show. Hopefully I'll find out from someone how if this is true.

They promoted 50+ Cowboy greats for the Dallas show and barely delivered half of that. Their NJ show promises 30 former greats and even that seems out of reach for them. And what point to reach the "bait and switch" plateau?

I know, I know, ... someone will crack about "their isn't 30 Cowboy greats," but that's not my point. My point is that Triumph and other show companies shouldn't promise a product they can't deliver and as fans, we need to hold them accountable.

Following the Dallas show, I sent numerous emails to Triumph - I'm still waiting on their response.

Why this Hobby is Great

I don't know the culture and people of other hobbies, but I know that this one rocks! You get to meet some great people in this hobby.

I got an email the other day from a someone I met on an autograph replated message board. I corresponded with thim through email and talked to him at the Triumph show in Dallas in December.

And now we correspond about autographs shows and if one us can get an autograph for the other. How cool is that?

At that same autograph show in Dallas, I met some nice people from Vermont. There was a date/time change for someone they had an autograph ticket for. They couldn't make the new time, so I got the autograph for them and mailed it to them when I got home. A few days later i got a nice note and some fresh Vermont Maple Syrup... Very Cool!

Those are just two reasons why this hobby is a lof fun. What stories do you have?

Expect a Giant Increase in Inscription Charges

If you're looking for NY football Giants autographs, you can expect to pay a little more.

After their Super Bowl 42 upset victory, NY Giants autographs are in greater demand and you can expect to see more of them on the autograph circuit. The Triumph Football (un)Spectacular show in NJ has quite a few Giants lined up... inlcuding Eli Manning.

Expect inscription charges to go higher considering most will want, "SB XLII Champs" or "SB XLII MVP" in Eli Manning's case. A quick look at the Triumph site has Eli's inscription charge of $75. That's much higher than before but I was surprised it wasn't higher. Brother Peyton's autograph inscription charge a year ago was double that amount at a Mounted Memories show last March.

Dallas Triumph Show Run Poorly

I was in town to see some family and catch the game, so we decided to check out the Triumph Sports Football Spectacular Show in Dallas. Wow... the organizers could really use some help!

The whole ticket process was a cluster. Before even standing in line to get an autograph, I had to stand in three separate lines! One line for a show ticket, one line for an autograph ticket, and one line for a authentication ticket. What? Why not put the booths next to each other? Why not get your autograph ticket and authentication ticket at the same spot? And why were the booths at the opposite side of the hall from the autograph booth? No one from Triumph or Provo looked at the user experience.

Triumph workers were arrogant and offered zero information. As a promoter you need to have full disclosure.

• Find out why someone is running late, when the guest will arrive, and when you'll have new information. Their "I have no idea" answer isn't good enough for someone waiting to spend their money on your services.
• If every guest is 30 minutes after the first day, then it's probably a good idea to get people 30 minutes sooner the next day. Brilliant.
• Complaining about the set-up of the show on Day 1 doesn't make your company look good. Triumph people were saying they didn't like the stage set up.... so why not change it? Comparing the problems of their Dallas show to their show in NJ (on the first day) isn't a good idea. It shows me that Triumph didn't put any work in to preparing for this show and doesn't seem to care to fix it.
• Attitude. From the moment I got my ticket, no one at Triumph was helpful. I actually had to ask someone to find out an answer because all of us were asking it. The Triumph employee was satisfied with "I don't know" as an answer. We were not.

I don't know if I'll go to another Triumph show. I'd rather spend my autograph money with companies that actually seem to care about the collector's experience. Triumph made MAB, CSA, and Mounted Memories look like real professionals. I've been to several autograph shows where players cancel, or run late. These things happen. The promoter cannot control that, but the promoter can control their customer's experience in dealing with those issues. Triumph needs to learn that lesson.