Holiday Gift Guide 2018

Maybe you’re not too inclined to spend more money on Giants-themed merchandise until you get a better sense of the team’s direction this offseason. If they wind up trading away a bunch of favorites, then your home office, bedroom, or outhouse might soon be decorated in lost loves instead of old friends.

Still, the good thing about merchandise and memorabilia is that it’s designed to be timeless... for the most part. Sure, the in-stadium giveaways are usually something related to the present moment, but the entire reason why we collect this stuff is for the instant recall, and the reason why we wait until the end of the year to get all this stuff? Uh...

Let’s take a quick trip through the marketplace of gift ideas.

Old friends

In a previous guide, Grant mentioned this poster made by a fan of the site. It’s still a good one, even though you can feel the pangs of age-based negative regression just looking at it.

ZenPop’s store is still open for business. Check out their work. I’ve had this dream many times:

VIDGSIG is a new streaming video venture that connects you to Hall of Fame athletes. Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda will be live for 1-on-1 chats as he signs your sports memorabilia on January 5th beginning at 12:30pm Pacific. Memorabilia signings and chat session prices range from $59-$199.

They also have appointments to meet with Joe Montana. This is a great gift idea for Bay Area sports fans.

More posters

I still think this 8-bit NES game cover of Madison Bumgarner’s is the bee’s knees.

It’s on sale for $17 (plus shipping) through Big League Print’s Etsy store. It’s 11x17. Reviews look to be excellent. Get it before he’s gone!

Minimalist AT&T Park print - $30.00

I’m not too into minimalist art, but this one caught my eye and I really think it’d make a great stamp for some reason. No, I’m not a stamp collector.

Ishakawalkoff! - $25.00 (plus shipping)

Marvelous. Even accounted for Crazy Jake Peavy.

Toys & Giveaways

AT&T Park Stadium Blocks - $79.99 (plus shipping)

If you’re into LEGOs, then this would be the perfect gift to put together with your family during the holiday break. Open it Christmas morning and complete by New Year’s Day? It’s important to note that this is not an official LEGO product, it’s imported and manufactured by Forever Collectibles.

Anyway, here are the features:

Approximately 3,000+ pieces in total

Includes decals for various stadium features

Approximately 12” x 10” x 3.5” when fully assembled

I can’t vouch for this Sports Fan Island site — I just liked the look of the stadium set.

Sergio Romo San Francisco SF Giants Portable Speaker - $11.99 (plus shipping)

This was a stadium giveaway in 2016 that you can pickup on eBay. Look, we now know that Romo can close and start games so there’s something sort of poetic about a two-speaker setup where he’s involved. And it’s Sergio Romo, as #ForeverGiant as they come.

Barry Bonds 500 Home Runs Pin - (EXPIRES 11/21)

Here’s another eBay item, but this is a timed item and so it might’ve expired by the time you read this. Anything with Pacific Bell Park seems like a worthwhile gift as of now. Not only was it two stadium names ago, but it was also the brand seared onto a lot of foundational memories of this epoch in team history.

Too Pricey

This San Francisco Giants-branded Woody from Toy Story... this is a real thing?

Per the eBay description:

This is an authentic, not customized, San Francisco Giants Woody Toy Story bobblehead purchased at the Giants Dugout store in 2004. Item has been displayed and is in excellent condition. There appear to be no issues. Box and plastic clamshell included. It measures 9” in height. The price is firm and no trades. Contact me with any questions before bidding. Buyer to pay $15.00 shipping.

That firm price? $999.99!

José Uribe’s 1990 Fleer card

Back in July, I wrote about how I suspected that criminals were laundering money through the sale and purchase of this particular baseball card. A printer’s error on the card itself is not a reasonable explanation for

You can still definitely find this outrageously priced card (for reasons still unknown) right now on eBay. There are three pricing categories: Under $500 / $500,-$758,000 / Over $758,000. I’m not recommending you take out a second mortgage on your home or start a GoFundMe, but just know that’s what it’s going to take to snag a card like this.

For some reason.

Tickets

Single game tickets are now on sale through sfgiants.com. The Yankees series (April 26-28) is sold out and it looks like that scheduled day-night doubleheader against the Diamondbacks originally set for Saturday, June 29th, has been transformed into a standard four-game series with no off day on June 27th, meaning the Giants will play 20 straight games just before the All-Star Break.

BreakingT

The company that brought you the Let Pablo Pitch and Hunter Was Here shirts from this year has a new holiday sale that runs through December 13th:

Enter the following codes at checkout for discounts:

* HOLIDAY15 gets 15% off $40 or more

* HOLIDAY25 gets 25% off $70 or more

* HOLIDAY35 gets 35% off $100 or more

* HOODIEHALF is a buy one hoodie at full price, get ANY second item for 50% off

* We also just refreshed our $15 Collection and there are some STEALS in there

A reminder that BreakingT has not just Giants shirts, but an entire Bay Area collection:

And don’t forget about this nifty Let Pablo Pitch hoodie they’ve added to their collection:

And here’s a sizing guide for BreakingT’s merchandise:

Movies

In previous guides, Grant listed books. Well, I didn’t get a chance to read very much this calendar year, so I’m just going to recommend that you all check out the movie Sugar. As Roger Ebert tells it:

“Sugar” approaches with tender care the story of a kid from the Dominican Republic who has a strong pitching arm and a good heart. Miguel Santos, known as “Sugar” because of his sweet personality, is recruited from the fields of dreams in his homeland by Major League baseball, and assigned to an Iowa farm club that is very, very far from home.

This is not a Rocky-type story, but it is about an underdog trying to take exist in a strange new world. It’s much more about Sugar’s attempts to adapt to this new place far from home and a strange culture that has the vague familiarity of the game he loves but different rituals when it comes to actually playing it.

Sugar isn’t about the glory of the game, it’s about the cost of playing it, told from the point of view of all these interesting prospects we only know about from a transaction page or scouting blurb. It doesn’t look like it’s available to rent, but you can buy it from Google Play for $12.99. Also available to buy via streaming on Amazon for the same price.