SWAU PROFILE-THE YIPSTER

"Greetings, SWAU!  We're back with our third feature, Anthony Yip (THE YIPSTER).  Ant is a great dude who's an asset to the community.  We're trying something different with a proper feature this go round.  I hope you all enjoy it!" - Tom

“You got about forty-five minutes,” I asked via Facebook Messenger.

I’d been trying to nail down an interview time with Anthony Yip, (or the Yipster, or Ant…or per Andy, “loser”), for about a week.  Little League Baseball schedules and graveyard shifts got in the way.

“Right now, my daughter is giving me a hard time falling asleep.”

It was 9:07 p.m. Central on a Sunday night. 

“I’ll text you when she’s out.”

I leaned back on the couch and began to think about the friendship I’d developed with Ant in the last year-plus.  He’d entrusted me with his Alien cast poster, (which included Sigourney and Ridley, among others).  I’d shipped him my Walking Dead poster.  Thousands of dollars and years’ worth of sticky notes passed each other on the roads and airways between New York and Texas.  There was Gal Gadot in Rhode Island, and Peter Mayhew in Dallas.  Oh, and a certain Harrison Ford Celebrity Authentics poster that helped kick start one of the great graphing controversies of the last few years.

“Ok. Mission accomplished.  Ready when you are.”

I plugged in Ant’s number, and for the first time ever, spoke to the man who’d I’d trusted with thousands of dollars worth of stuff for the first time.

We knew each already.  Sort of like hobby pen pals that instead of mailing letters, we sent text messages and autographs.

“I used to go to card shows with my dad growing up.  Growing up in Queens, like the Elk Club and one of my dad’s friends in 1998 got me my first autograph, which was Chewie, Mayhew, on an 8x10 and Bulloch on an orange carded Power of the Force figure,” he said, his New York accent standing out from the jump.  “Ever since then, I just slowly started accumulating things.”

Slowly, maybe.  Accumulating?  Understatement.  Star Trek, Aliens, Kevin Smith, Ninja Turtles, Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shaquille O’Neal, Star Wars Hasbro figures, Harley Quinn (the Margot Robbie kind)…but Aliens.

“I’m not even joking, I could probably recite the entire 1986 Aliens film without even watching it.  I can do both the special and the theatrical editions and tell you differences between both.”

So while the other kids were swinging plastic lightsabers, or yelling, “Cowabunga,” Ant was screaming, “Game over, man!”, and firing Nerf darts off at Xenomorphs on the back porch.

Seventeen Sigourney Weaver autographs.  Seven.  Freaking.  Teen.

“I got her when she was on Broadway and she totally racked it out.  She did both my posters, like six or 7 8x10s for us, then I think I had two 11x14s for her,” he said.  “One is Ghostbusters, though.”

Like many of us, though, the marijuana gateway to Star Wars graphing, Mayhew and Bulloch quickly spiraled into the LSD of everyone else.

“Then I got Daniels at a New Jersey con, I don’t even know the name of it.”

Daniels story from Ant?  Nope. 

“He was nice.”

First Hamill?

“Celebration 5 in Orlando?  (I’m Ron Burgundy?)  Official Pix had a Metallix exclusive of him on a Tauntaun, I think.  Then a bit later I got another Hamill on Official Pix from Celebration Japan on Rebelscum that I got for like forty bucks.”

First Guinness?

“My biggest acquisition?  A color 8x10.  I just posted on Rebelscum, “WTB Alec Guinness” and this guy from London sold me one for like, $175 (!).”

Everyone else?

“Celebration Three,” as a volunteer for Official Pix.  “Prowse was actually there.  But he wasn’t signing, “is Darth Vader.”  Pre-LFL spat for Dave.

Browsing through Ant’s two-decades of collecting, he’s notched quite a few key Star Wars pelts on his bedpost.  Like most, he needs Cushing and Shaw, but those tend to take a backseat to the here and now.  The here and now means Anthony is a dog chasing its tale in the four-lane streets of graphing.

“I have a lot of projects going on.  I have a Kevin Smith collection, Clerks I & II, Mallrats.  I have a Harold and Kumar poster.  I have a Guardians of the Galaxy poster I want to finish this year.  Bradley Cooper is the only big one left then it’s finished.  I’m trying not to get into Marvel stuff, but that movie, (Guardians), I loved it so much.  The soundtrack, the movie is amazing.  I have things lined-up on trying to get a Vol. 2 poster going.  Alien Covenant is going to be huge for me.  I’ve got people working on that for me.”

Then there’s his unhealthy thing for Margot Robbie, and her portrayal of Harley Quinn in last year’s, “Suicide Squad.”  He’s got seven signed thus far, and has very POP figure except for one of the chase versions.

“If she ever did a con, that would probably be the one photo-op I’d actually pay for.”

Anthony works nights as an Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant, where he helps to save people.  He’s on the late shift and sleeps most of the day.  His career, while rewarding and something he loves, isn’t the passion that graphing is.

Anthony and Teddy Ng have been hitting the convention circuit for a while.  Teddy is Robin to Anthony’s Batman.  Or maybe it’s the other way around.  Regardless, they have both fallen so helplessly in love with the hobby that they want to become the new Con Men.   Not like Maz or Rob (a different kind of con).  More like helping collectors and friends grab sigs from cons that they wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to get.

“I really love autographing.  There’s just nothing like it.”

Future career?

“I mean if it happens, but I don’t know because right now it’s fun.”  He added, “We’re doing five cons in April alone.”

While fun, sometimes it’s, well…not.  So far, in addition to helping folks out of years, Anthony and Teddy both set-up signings with Spencer Wilding and Peter Mayhew.  Wilding was great, switching pens, hitting spots and telling stories.  Mayhew, however, in Seattle despite plenty of dialogue with Mayhew’s handler and a long trip, didn’t go quite as he’d foreseen.

Weeks before the con, Ant and Ted had been negotiating prices with Mayhew’s representatives.  They settled on prices, advertised the signing and started to collect items.  When they got there a room was arranged off the convention floor where items were organized by pen color to minimize time and expenditure by Mayhew.  About one-third of the way through the signing, a line began to form by Mayhew’s table that wasn’t expected.

“The decision was made to do what he could, then take a break and handle the line on the floor.  There’s no one to blame.  The convention was just busier than we all thought it would be.”

“I was extremely nervous.  I was afraid people would think we couldn’t handle a signing of this size and my reputation would be ruined.  But everyone has been super kind and supportive and just…awesome to be honest.”

Autograph send-ins aren’t like dusting crops (boy).  For Monstermania, Anthony spent 3 hours to sort and prep 50-60 pieces.  Mayhew took days.  Everyone agreed to let the Wookiee finish the signing at home in Dallas, but Anthony and Teddy made sure to get all of the high-end stuff done at the con itself.

“Hats off to everyone that manages a send-in,” he said.  “It’s extremely, extremely hard work.”

Anthony sends me a few pics of his displays.  Sideshow Aliens pieces.  Vintage Aliens figures.  Lots of Funko POP figures.

“I still collect my toys every now and then,” he says kind of chuckling.  “I’m a mint-in-box guy.  It’s gotta be mint-in-box.”

It’s getting late..for me not him.  It’s 11 p.m. central, and I’m on fumes.  He’s just getting started. 

“I’m going to play some Super Mario Bros. 3 when we get off the phone,” he said as noises shuffling in the background.  Then I remembered his fetish for classic videogame systems.

“Right now, in my main TV room, I have 9 systems hooked up.” 

Classics like Conker Reloaded and Mario Party.

“I’m a Nintendo guy at heart,” he says, even though he owns the Xbox One and Playstation 4.

We get ready to wrap up, and after we firm up some plans for conventions we’re attending, I ask what advice he has for people starting the journey (obsession) of collecting.

“It’s going to overwhelming to begin with coming into a hobby with no pieces or nothing going on.  Or not knowing what you want to do.  You should try to start off with a focus.  That’s the cheapest and easiest thing to do.  If you’re like me and you like so many different things you’re just going to end up spending tons of money.  Just focus on something.  Get what you really, really want and get it on a quality item, make that your prized possession and go from there.”

Anthony with pot and kettle sort of advice.  Basically, do as he says, not as he does.

#17sigourneyautos

Check out Anthony's collection:  http://yipsterscollection.weebly.com/star-wars-autographs.html