[tracy hackler]

One of my best customers, Garrhet Noda, came in on a Saturday night and started opening boxes at around 9 p.m. He started with Luxury Box Basketball and moved through other sports including Renditions Golf from 2003 — from which he pulled a Tiger Woods autograph. That was around 1:15 a.m.

He came in the following night at about the same time and went through another 15 random boxes, including UD Premier, from which he pulled a Michael Jordan autograph serially numbered to 23. Again, we left the shop after midnight.

Garrhet showed up again on Monday -- again, at about the same time -- and looked to continue his streak. After breaking about 10 random boxes, he decided to open a case of UD Black. On his third pack, he pulled a huge card — an Octograph redemption card featuring autographs from Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuwon, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. When he pulled the card, all of us, including the four other customers who were there at the time, were jumping up and down and yelling! It was so cool!

Anyway, if anyone is interested in some late-night pulls, my shop is open until all the games are over — and with the hockey playoffs going on right now, that could be all night!
- Mitchel Guttenberg, The Bullpen, Los Angeles, Calif.