As Clark Griswold famously said, "Tis' the season to be merry." And for a Phillies collector, back-to-back weekends featuring card/memorabilia shows will make this season very merry. December is busy for everyone, but this year many of us will squeeze in some time during the first two weekends of the month to attend the Philly Show (12/7-12/9) and Poppel.com's annual show at Bucks County Tech HS (12/15). They say the holidays are a time of giving, and the promotors for these two show have given us four days packed with Phillies player appearances.

With a variety of projects currently in flight, I am pretty excited about the lineups and will be at the signing table often during both of these shows. Billed as "A Celebration of Lefty's Magical Season", this year's show will feature Carlton (Sunday), but most news has been around the rare show appearances of 2008 Phillies, So Taguchi and Chase Utley on Saturday. For the record, I'm still undecided on whether or not to add Taguchi to my '08 ball.

Other signers during the weekend who interest me are:

1993 NL Champs John Kruk and Terry Mulholland. I need both of them for my 1993 Phillies poster
Gene Garber. Though he is solid TTM, I'll probably pony up $15 to have him sign my 1977 team ball.
Dennis Eckersley. With a renewed commitment to my HOF single-signed ball collection, this might be a nice, cost-effective addition.

Poppel.com is cycling through the 1980 Phillies again, which is good for guys like me who started new '80 World Series projects since the last time they were in town. This show features Lonnie Smith (whom I have never met), Kevin Saucier, George Vukovich and Larry Bowa. All are TTM guarantees - but, I've been reluctant to send out the oversized 1980 WS poster in the mail. Glad to get all but Bowa this weekend. Also appearing is 1993 Phillie, Mariano Duncan. If you missed him last December, this is a great chance to fill-out your '93 team items.

Check out all the upcoming Phillies autograph appearances.