Went Sunday and Monday.
Sunday was packed. Picked up a ticket on Stubhub for $9. Wound up going pretty late...got there around 1215pm. Found free street parking on Flower St, about 2 1/2 blocks from the convention center. Autos reservations were available on the Play Ball Park Ap at 8 each morning. They put you in a virtual queue. I got in after 6 minutes and failed to get Vlad Guerrero. No standby line for him either. Got Rick Monday instead which I was still happy about. You can only get one per day, but also can do standby lines. Spent a LOT of time on the floor, most of which was pointless. A lot of lines to do kiddie stuff. I just turned 50 so....meh. Anyway, closer to my 1pm appt I got in line for Monday. Unlike the annual Dodgers Fanfest, most everyone was pretty nice and there were people who were completely unfamiliar with getting autographs. I was happy to see that. Its not all about the dudes who just go bonkers on the autos. Monday was nice and unlike modern players, has a great signature.
After that I went to check out the Topps booth. Ugh. Sold out of everything except Flagship S2. And crowded. Went over to the Hall Of Fame booth. I was floored. Absolutely amazing stuff...Lou Gerhigs glove, Babe Ruths hat, Jackie Robinson's hat....My dad had gone to Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles with longtime Dodger Centerfielder Willie Davis. He said that the day after Davis signed with the Dodgers he was driving a new car at school and had the biggest smile on his face that a person ever had. The display had Willie Davis' bat from a 31 game hit streak he had. I spent a lot of time in there. I saw the overflow line for Fergie Jenkins auto was not too bad, but my bad luck after about 15 minutes the line got cut off literally the person in front of me.
Monday I got Fergie Jenkins/Manny Mota. I had wanted to get Juan Marichal but I believe he cancelled both Sunday and Monday. I arrived around 1230 and found street parking with a meter for $6 about a block further away than Sunday. All the lots were $25-50 so I was pretty happy. My ticket on Stubhub also was only $6. So much less crowded than on Sunday and much more enjoyable, Jenkins signs REALLY fast and has a great auto. Very nice guy too. I think he signed Saturday, Sunday and Monday so I guess pretty fan friendly. Again the people in line were very nice. Also had Manny Mota which is cool enough as well. One more thing I should note...MLB reps were there with MLB holo stickers and writing down what the items were. That was a nice touch. All the items I had signed got that treatment.
Went to the Topps booth again after that as it was right next to the auto area. Again Topps sold out of everything except Flagship S2. I saw a box of the Chrome anniversary or whatever its called and looked up a bit and there's Steve Garvey, Topps was interviewing and filming him opening packs of cards. Garvey along withe Dusty Baker were my favorite players when I was a kid. I've met Garvey before, but under rushed conditions. So I just hung out and watch. He only opened a few packs because whenever he would hit someone from his era, he had a story to tell. Actually related a story from when he was a kid in Florida in 1956 and he got to be bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers who had just won the World Series the year before. He said his dad got him a few packs of Topps cards and Garvey hit some Dodgers including Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges who were his childhood heroes and got the cards autographed by them. At the very conclusion of the interview they said something about Garvey signing autos for people in line. I turned around and had no idea people had been lining up. There were maybe 50 people in line so I got in line. Garvey was great, took pictures, and I believe he signed for the entire line. I was going to get a ball signed but saw the card he was signing was made by Topps specifically for this event.
Pretty happy after that. I went to check out the Hunt Auction booth. Again blown away by the very cool stuff they had. Just amazing. Several Ruth auto'ed balls, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner....literal history of baseball type stuff.
A little after 2pm I got in the standby line for Joe Ferguson. Not a big name at all, but he signs infrequently and I had brought a few of his cards. Wound up talking to the guy next to me most of the time so the 45 minutes or so flew by. He had been at the Frank and Sons show on Saturday and showed me pics of McFarlane Sportspics he had signed by Randy Johnson, Vlad Guerrero, and Bo Jackson among others. I was impressed. It was nice stuff. Joe came on right at 3. Clean cut and looking good at age 75+. He always looked like he was homeless to me on his cards, but clearly enjoying retirement. Very nice guy also.
All in all I had a very good time. If I attended again I would have taken more advantage of the "worlds biggest baseball" where you take a picture with a player. I know Andre Dawson and Tim Raines both did it. Winfield too, but he's a massive jerk. It would have been nice to have bigger names signing, but LA fans are a bit nuts and it probably would have caused a security issue. And I'd most definitely go on weekdays. The difference in crowd size was so noticeable. MLB did a good job with this, all things considered.