Since it is pretty long, I will not rewrite it here.
I will, however, write an addendum about a childhood experience which kind of relates to this one. This is a true story; I do not recall this event personally because I was too young, but I'm told this is what happened.
When I was two years old, my family took a drive from Toronto to Myrtle Beach for a vacation. On the car ride back, we stopped in Washington DC for the day to tourist around. As fate would (eventually) have it, one of the places we stopped was to see the grave of JFK.
As we were walking and the grave came into sight, something caught my eye. It was the Eternal Flame that was near JFK's grave.
And I wanted to see it up close.
I began to race towards it, and my parents and grandparents couldn't grab me in time. With my grandmother in hot pursuit, I ran across the cemetery, under the velvet rope, right across JFK's grave, stopped, and stared at the flame.
My grandmother followed my tracks across the grave herself, scooped me up and carried me off.
I don't know if there were armed guards or anything there. Maybe I should be grateful I'm still here today.
And so, I'm convinced, that's why I ended up liking the song Brain of J. so much, and why everything came full-circle when Pearl Jam fulfilled my request for it.
Awesome deal! Thanks for the opportunity to tell my Billboard story:
I checked the message boards that morning (my usual routine of getting coffee, looking at PJ.com and espn.com) and saw this thing was going for sale. My wife and I didn't get a good look of the finished billboard at Alpine, and the camera died when we tried to take a pic while leaving, so it made me want the print even more. I had just bought another poster a few days earlier from a fellow 10-clubber, thus I had to revert to begging my wife if I could attempt to buy the billboard print, much like Eric Cartman asking his mom for something (uhh, can I try to get this poster, pleeeease?)
Since the time frame was wide open, I had Munk's site, Maxx's site, and PJ.com F5ing all day long. About two hours before they went on sale, my CPU froze. I was freaking out, trying to reboot and get the sites back up, and my wife was at work so everything was up to me. I'm in a fast-paced environment, so everyone probably thought it was business as usual. After restarting the CPU twice, the mouse wasn't working. I kept thinking, "this is like buying tickets for Alpine all over again, how appropriate." So, after a good hour of trying to fix my CPU and get all the sites back up with a working mouse, I put in a bid to only find out they oversold. I didn't do any work that day, severely jeopardized a job I'm fortunate to have (I finally have benefits!) just so I could proudly hang #100 on my wall! Was it worth it? Totally
Virginia Beach 2000; Pittsburgh 2000; Columbus 2003; D.C. 2003; Pittsburgh 2006; Virginia Beach 2008; Cleveland 2010; PJ20 2011; Pittsburgh 2013; Baltimore 2013; Charlottesville 2013; Charlotte 2013; Lincoln 2014; Moline 2014; St. Paul 2014; Greenville 2016; Hampton 2016; Lexington 2016; Wrigley 2016; Prague 2018; Krakow 2018; Berlin 2018; Fenway 2018; Camden 2022; St. Paul 2023; MSG 1 2024; Baltimore 2024
Hard to pick one occasion of tracking down a much-needed piece of PJ memorabilia.
One of the most recent items I had to have was PJ20 on vinyl. I missed out via 10C because of work, and caught wind of it being sold on Amazon.ca for around $40 USD shipped. Needless to say I was pretty excited to be able to get a couple copies for less than one was going for one ebay (always need 2 copies - the needle doth wear on the wax). I placed my order without hesitation. A considerable amount of time went by before it became available to ship. One day I get a call from my wife telling me that my CC provider had called in regards to a supicious charge on my account to Amazon.ca. They promply placed a hold on the card. I had to call to clear the matter up. At that point it was too late. Amazon.ca had cancelled my order. Records heading to someone else's cart. I began by calling .ca and trying to have them reinstate the order. They said it was a matter for .com and I needed to contact them. Confusion ensued. I finally get someone who I think knows what they're doing and they send me what I believe is my order of two items. 2 weeks later a package arrives. Inside is the PJ20 book and cd. :deflated balloon: I call again. Love this CS time! Turns out they only had record of my previous order months back for the book/cd. They suspected that was what I never received and sent a replacement. Those records were nowhere to be found in their database. Poof.
So i'm without the wax I wanted and not really invested in the collectors' market values to obtain a new piece of wax. I find someone in search of a MMC M-S tribute shirt. (He'll rename nameless so as not to embarrass him with due praise). We go back and forth for a bit about what might be available to trade for my shirt. On my wishlist after knowing the value of the trade to him are the Ten and LO10L box sets and a sealed PJ20 vinyl.
After some time, I came to my senses and realized that vinyl had to be mine. And so it was. Canada came through in the end (no thanks to amazon.ca), as it shipped safely from way up north. And it cost me nothing. And I even got to keep that extra set of the PJ20 book/cd free of charge.
It'd be really cool to win this boxset as it was something I wanted when I made the trade.
I decided to go to my first record convention in the town I live just last weekend. I went there because a friend of mine said a seller had PJ vinyls for "half price." The guy said he had sold his one and only copy of Ten and he seemed like one of those record store owner snobby jerks. He had some nice Neil Young vinyls that I didn't want to buy from him. So...I went to another seller and looked through his Ys and loe and behold he was selling a copy of Neil Youngs Mirrorball for only $12.00! I almost started to cry with joy as I handed him the money. I told him he made my day.
Las Cruces, NM Pan Am Center September 14, 1995
Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum July 7, 1998
New York City, NY MSG May 20, 2010
Eddie Vedder Solo Albuquerque, NM November 9, 2012
Wrigley Field July 19, 2013
LA Nov. 23: 24, 2013
Denver 10-22-14
Its cool that you managed to get all the kids home .
Obtaining the item i wanted the moment i saw it went as follows.
Log into 10c account
put item in cart
get cc out
checkout
greet mailman
open package
use the Backpack with a smile
1996 - Ft Lauderdale
1998 - West Palm Beach 1
2000 - West Palm Beach 1&2
2003 - WPB,Tampa,Atlanta,Camden 1&2,MSG 1&2, Boston 3,Hershey Park
2004 - Asheville, Kissimmee
2008 - West Palm Beach,Tampa,Columbia,Virginia Beach, Mansfield 1&2
2010 - Hartford,Boston,Newark, MSG 1&2
2011 - PJ20 1&2, Costa Rica 2013 - Wrigley,Brooklyn 1&2,Seattle 2014 - Denver,Mountain View 1&2 2015 - Bogata, Mexico City 2016 - Ft Lauderdale,Miami,Tampa,NYC 1&2,Telluride,Fenway 1&2,Wrigley 1&2
I obtained a Pearl Jam 2000 Tour Binaural T-shirt and a Riot Act hoodie for cheap a couple years back in perfect condition. I don't know if they're rare but they're awesome.
Very cool contest, thanks for the chance! I'm admittedly not the biggest collector out there--due to lack of funding plus the music/shows being the real important thing for me when it comes to PJ! But, I always thought it would be the coolest thing to have picks from the band members. When I saw Tres Mts in NYC last March, I arrived early so I would guarantee myself a spot close to Mike. With my 10c number alone, I know unless I get the great fortune of winning the lottery, a pick reaching me is pretty much out of the question. Anyway, the waiting paid off and I was on the rail, front row in front of Mike! Now my chance at a pick from The Master was real! I couldn't have been more excited to see 2 members of my favorite band in such an intimate setting, so up close! The show just kicked ass and was kinda surreal! During 'My Baby', Mike and I had some eye contact and I can't even describe how cool that was to be acknowledged by one of my favorite guitar players! After he did a little solo, he kept motioning like he was going to give the pick to me, but then would start playing again. He did that a few times until I just held out my hand (which was something almost out of body and just completely instinctual--I'd never just shoot out my hand like that!), he gave me his pick, pointed, and nodded at me. I couldn't believe it!! Meeting Mike and getting a picture and autograph after the show was the icing on the cake. I think about that moment so often, it was by far one of the coolest things to ever happen to me! 1 pick down, 3 (and 1 drumstick ) to go!
"Sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith."
~not a dude~
2010: MSGx2
2012: Made In America
2013: Pittsburgh, Brooklynx2, Hartford, Baltimore
2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes, Detroit
2015: Global Citizen Festival
2016: Phillyx2, MSGx2, Fenwayx2 2018: Barcelona, Wrigleyx2
I think the most exciting PJ thing I have is my 98 Phoenix poster. My brother bought a poster at the show while I was spending all my cash on one of the soccer jerseys. I've been kicking myself ever since for not getting one and spending the extra $15-20 or whatever they cost.
Long story, short...Adam Hill hooked me up with a framed (kick-ass frame, too) Phoenix 98 that is now the centerpiece of my PJ room. Now I get to look at that and all the other posters from shows I attended and relive the fun with friends before and after the shows and the connection through the years with the band at and the years in between shows.
I was desperately searching for Binaural on vinyl a few years ago. Every potential trade fell through online. Last minute outbids on ebay (or some just going way too high for what I could pay). I was beyond frustrated.
During this whole ordeal I decided to one day stop into this old shopping mall that was big in the 70s and 80s but had fallen into disrepair after the "new" mall had been built 2 miles away. Most of it had been converted to a community college by then. The only store seemingly still open was a pet store. So i'm walking through there trying to remember where the stores used to be 20 years ago when at the very back of the mall i see a green glowing sign. Somehow the cassette/vinyl store was still open all these years later. They barely had any CD's for sale---just one small aisle of current artists (they still had some CD's in the long cardboard packaging that had NEVER sold). The majority was still cassettes and records. So i'm browsing around and there it is in the very back of the store. Binaural vinyl. Unopened. $24. Also picked up an Andrew Wood collection CD i had never seen before. I hadn't been to that former mall in at least 10 years. Sometimes boredom pays off. LOL
Awesome Giveaway Kayente...thanks! I've attained a lot of cool Pj stuff over the years but some things you just can't buy. For me, getting to be with my girl @ Pj20 when she saw Release performed live for the first time was simply incredible. We went thru soo much just to be there, drove 15+ hrs thru the night with a couple we had just met the night we left. Finally found our campground where we met the 2other people staying with us, 1 of which we had just briefly met at an Eddie show, the other a complete stranger also. Stood in the cold, pouring rain day 1 for hours but let me tell you, None of that mattered when the lights finally went down and those first few notes of Released were played. I was ecstatic. I look over to my girl and tears are running down her face. That was it for me. In that moment, I understood exactly how she felt and I can't even really explain how it made me feel. I was soo happy for her and it made everything.. all the planning and struggle, all the hours in the car, all the rain, totally, totally worth it. I hugged my girl tight and we sang our lungs out as we shared 1 of the coolest moments I've ever had. ...
Read all of your great stories to my wife, and though there were quite a few that really made us feel like we were part of the tale, Damien takes the cake, or bottle, as the case may be.
Thanks so much to everyone for making my first giveaway so much fun, and to connect with this community even more.
I know its too late,
It's a story I had to share when I saw the subject...
In Eighth grade(I am now 30!) I had spent hours and hours recording all the videos, clips and news exerpts on one VHS tape. I was heading to a friends house after school so I packed the VHS in my bag, in my locker, anticipating sharing my new additions to the video when we got to her house. After school I go to grab my backpack, wearing my "9 OUT OF 10 KIDS" tee, and feel the dampness immediatley. Yup, my Coke had exploded ALL THROUGH my bag/locker. I cried for 3 days straight. I actually didnt go to school the next day. I am getting teary now thinking about my emotions that day. The internet was not around like today. Access at 13 yrs old to your favorite band was extremely limited! To have spent hours and hours on this video tape of my favorite band, which still is today of course, and have it destroyed - destroyed me forever! I have a family and cannot spend hundreds of dollars on my devoted love for a band but I do the best I can. It is a day I will never EVER forget. And a very emotional lesson learned! I dont feel it's important that a collection is complete, but that you appreciate what you do have when you are dedicated to something so greatly!!
Thanks for a chance to share my story 17 years later!
Got the box set today, WOW!!!! A huge thank you going out to Gary, super pumped up and a great way to celebrate Record Store Day Eve!!!! Thanks and what an awesome community!!!
Comments
Me and my brother were able to "obtain" our song request for Brain of J., our favourite Pearl Jam song, at the Hamilton 2011 show in Canada.
I wrote up the story a while ago, and the link is here:
http://forums.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=170554
Since it is pretty long, I will not rewrite it here.
I will, however, write an addendum about a childhood experience which kind of relates to this one. This is a true story; I do not recall this event personally because I was too young, but I'm told this is what happened.
When I was two years old, my family took a drive from Toronto to Myrtle Beach for a vacation. On the car ride back, we stopped in Washington DC for the day to tourist around. As fate would (eventually) have it, one of the places we stopped was to see the grave of JFK.
As we were walking and the grave came into sight, something caught my eye. It was the Eternal Flame that was near JFK's grave.
And I wanted to see it up close.
I began to race towards it, and my parents and grandparents couldn't grab me in time. With my grandmother in hot pursuit, I ran across the cemetery, under the velvet rope, right across JFK's grave, stopped, and stared at the flame.
My grandmother followed my tracks across the grave herself, scooped me up and carried me off.
I don't know if there were armed guards or anything there. Maybe I should be grateful I'm still here today.
And so, I'm convinced, that's why I ended up liking the song Brain of J. so much, and why everything came full-circle when Pearl Jam fulfilled my request for it.
The End.
I checked the message boards that morning (my usual routine of getting coffee, looking at PJ.com and espn.com) and saw this thing was going for sale. My wife and I didn't get a good look of the finished billboard at Alpine, and the camera died when we tried to take a pic while leaving, so it made me want the print even more. I had just bought another poster a few days earlier from a fellow 10-clubber, thus I had to revert to begging my wife if I could attempt to buy the billboard print, much like Eric Cartman asking his mom for something (uhh, can I try to get this poster, pleeeease?)
Since the time frame was wide open, I had Munk's site, Maxx's site, and PJ.com F5ing all day long. About two hours before they went on sale, my CPU froze. I was freaking out, trying to reboot and get the sites back up, and my wife was at work so everything was up to me. I'm in a fast-paced environment, so everyone probably thought it was business as usual. After restarting the CPU twice, the mouse wasn't working. I kept thinking, "this is like buying tickets for Alpine all over again, how appropriate." So, after a good hour of trying to fix my CPU and get all the sites back up with a working mouse, I put in a bid to only find out they oversold. I didn't do any work that day, severely jeopardized a job I'm fortunate to have (I finally have benefits!) just so I could proudly hang #100 on my wall! Was it worth it? Totally
One of the most recent items I had to have was PJ20 on vinyl. I missed out via 10C because of work, and caught wind of it being sold on Amazon.ca for around $40 USD shipped. Needless to say I was pretty excited to be able to get a couple copies for less than one was going for one ebay (always need 2 copies - the needle doth wear on the wax). I placed my order without hesitation. A considerable amount of time went by before it became available to ship. One day I get a call from my wife telling me that my CC provider had called in regards to a supicious charge on my account to Amazon.ca. They promply placed a hold on the card. I had to call to clear the matter up. At that point it was too late. Amazon.ca had cancelled my order. Records heading to someone else's cart. I began by calling .ca and trying to have them reinstate the order. They said it was a matter for .com and I needed to contact them. Confusion ensued. I finally get someone who I think knows what they're doing and they send me what I believe is my order of two items. 2 weeks later a package arrives. Inside is the PJ20 book and cd. :deflated balloon: I call again. Love this CS time! Turns out they only had record of my previous order months back for the book/cd. They suspected that was what I never received and sent a replacement. Those records were nowhere to be found in their database. Poof.
So i'm without the wax I wanted and not really invested in the collectors' market values to obtain a new piece of wax. I find someone in search of a MMC M-S tribute shirt. (He'll rename nameless so as not to embarrass him with due praise). We go back and forth for a bit about what might be available to trade for my shirt. On my wishlist after knowing the value of the trade to him are the Ten and LO10L box sets and a sealed PJ20 vinyl.
After some time, I came to my senses and realized that vinyl had to be mine. And so it was. Canada came through in the end (no thanks to amazon.ca), as it shipped safely from way up north. And it cost me nothing. And I even got to keep that extra set of the PJ20 book/cd free of charge.
It'd be really cool to win this boxset as it was something I wanted when I made the trade.
Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum July 7, 1998
New York City, NY MSG May 20, 2010
Eddie Vedder Solo Albuquerque, NM November 9, 2012
Wrigley Field July 19, 2013
LA Nov. 23: 24, 2013
Denver 10-22-14
Obtaining the item i wanted the moment i saw it went as follows.
Log into 10c account
put item in cart
get cc out
checkout
greet mailman
open package
use the Backpack with a smile
1998 - West Palm Beach 1
2000 - West Palm Beach 1&2
2003 - WPB,Tampa,Atlanta,Camden 1&2,MSG 1&2, Boston 3,Hershey Park
2004 - Asheville, Kissimmee
2008 - West Palm Beach,Tampa,Columbia,Virginia Beach, Mansfield 1&2
2010 - Hartford,Boston,Newark, MSG 1&2
2011 - PJ20 1&2, Costa Rica
2013 - Wrigley,Brooklyn 1&2,Seattle
2014 - Denver,Mountain View 1&2
2015 - Bogata, Mexico City
2016 - Ft Lauderdale,Miami,Tampa,NYC 1&2,Telluride,Fenway 1&2,Wrigley 1&2
~not a dude~
2010: MSGx2
2012: Made In America
2013: Pittsburgh, Brooklynx2, Hartford, Baltimore
2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes, Detroit
2015: Global Citizen Festival
2016: Phillyx2, MSGx2, Fenwayx2
2018: Barcelona, Wrigleyx2
Keep the great stories coming....
I think the most exciting PJ thing I have is my 98 Phoenix poster. My brother bought a poster at the show while I was spending all my cash on one of the soccer jerseys. I've been kicking myself ever since for not getting one and spending the extra $15-20 or whatever they cost.
Long story, short...Adam Hill hooked me up with a framed (kick-ass frame, too) Phoenix 98 that is now the centerpiece of my PJ room. Now I get to look at that and all the other posters from shows I attended and relive the fun with friends before and after the shows and the connection through the years with the band at and the years in between shows.
Click to visit the Arizona PJ Fans Page
PJ
PHX 98|ABQ, PHX, Seattle 00|PHX 03|Arras 10|PJ20 1&2 11|Missoula 12|PHX, SD, LA 1&2 13|Denver 14|Telluride 16
EV
Vegas 1&2, PHX 12|Ohana 16
TOTD
LA 16
I was desperately searching for Binaural on vinyl a few years ago. Every potential trade fell through online. Last minute outbids on ebay (or some just going way too high for what I could pay). I was beyond frustrated.
During this whole ordeal I decided to one day stop into this old shopping mall that was big in the 70s and 80s but had fallen into disrepair after the "new" mall had been built 2 miles away. Most of it had been converted to a community college by then. The only store seemingly still open was a pet store. So i'm walking through there trying to remember where the stores used to be 20 years ago when at the very back of the mall i see a green glowing sign. Somehow the cassette/vinyl store was still open all these years later. They barely had any CD's for sale---just one small aisle of current artists (they still had some CD's in the long cardboard packaging that had NEVER sold). The majority was still cassettes and records. So i'm browsing around and there it is in the very back of the store. Binaural vinyl. Unopened. $24. Also picked up an Andrew Wood collection CD i had never seen before. I hadn't been to that former mall in at least 10 years. Sometimes boredom pays off. LOL
Thanks so much to everyone for making my first giveaway so much fun, and to connect with this community even more.
You're a great bunch of souls.
It's a story I had to share when I saw the subject...
In Eighth grade(I am now 30!) I had spent hours and hours recording all the videos, clips and news exerpts on one VHS tape. I was heading to a friends house after school so I packed the VHS in my bag, in my locker, anticipating sharing my new additions to the video when we got to her house. After school I go to grab my backpack, wearing my "9 OUT OF 10 KIDS" tee, and feel the dampness immediatley. Yup, my Coke had exploded ALL THROUGH my bag/locker. I cried for 3 days straight. I actually didnt go to school the next day. I am getting teary now thinking about my emotions that day. The internet was not around like today. Access at 13 yrs old to your favorite band was extremely limited! To have spent hours and hours on this video tape of my favorite band, which still is today of course, and have it destroyed - destroyed me forever! I have a family and cannot spend hundreds of dollars on my devoted love for a band but I do the best I can. It is a day I will never EVER forget. And a very emotional lesson learned!
Thanks for a chance to share my story 17 years later!
I was able to rebook hotel for November when the concert is rescheduled, so no money lost. You should come to Vegas...