Towards the end of February, my brother-in-law asked me to find him a used Weber Performer. I found one rather quickly on CL and after installing a new burner assembly and a metal table, it had been sitting in my garage waiting to be delivered. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions in place here in California, yesterday was the first time I felt comfortable making the trip to deliver it. My wife and I left at 8 AM and made the two hour drive to my sister and brother-in-laws house. We visited with them for most of the day and arrived home around 6 PM. While my wife was making salads, I started cleaning up emails. This is the first CL email alert I opened:
Looking at the posting time, I see the add had been posted for 6 hours. I figured this baby was long gone but then I remembered it was Mothers Day. Checking the reply button, I found the seller had listed a phone number. Gave him a call and told the seller I was responding to his CL add and I could come right then as I live in the same town. He told me I was more than welcome to come look at it for "fun" but he already had a person coming to pick it up the next day at 2 PM. Dejected, I politely thanked him, hung up and sat down to eat the salads my wife had made.
While eating I began thinking, how many times will I have an opportunity to see one of these NFL Edition MT's in person. Maybe I should call the guy back and see if he'd let me take photographs for the Forum. Heck, I should bring my NFL Edition Smokey Joe Raider kettle and get photos of the two together. What the heck, the worst that will happen is the guy will tell me no or hang up on me. I call him back say I would like to take him up on his offer, asking if I can come right then to take some photos. He says fine and gives me his address. I grab my Raiders SJ and tell my wife where I'm going and what I'm doing. I'm sure you all know the eye roll, head shaking response I was met with but out the door I went.
Pulling up to the house (exactly 1.3 miles from my house), I find the seller in front. He greets me, we introduce ourselves and he walks me into his backyard. There sitting on his back patio is indeed a Raiders NFL Edition MT kettle. I set my Raiders SJ next to it and start taking photos.
While taking the photos, I find out he is the original owner and had acquired the grill in 1995, competing in a BBQ contest held prior to a Raiders game. He won two tickets and entry into the BBQ competition from a "call-in" contest held by Bay Area Country Music radio station KSAN. He was caller number 10. Since 1995, he has been BBQing on the kettle but always keeps it covered or stored in his garage. BTW, just like the Raiders, KSAN is no longer in the Bay Area.
I compliment him on his add and find out as I expected, that he obtained the information for the add from the Weber Kettle Club website. I ask him how many inquires or calls he had received on his add and he responds:
"Here's the funny thing. I have two CL adds posted and when you called the first time, I thought you were calling about the add for my car trailer". Say WHAT!!!!!!!!!! I actually had a hard time processing what he had just said. To clarify I ask him "So your saying I still have an opportunity to purchase the kettle?" He says " Yes. You were the first to respond. I just posted the add today you know". He tells me after finding out how rare the kettle was, he preferred it go to someone who would appreciate it. Heck, he's not even a Raider fan. He's a 49er fan. For a year after winning the kettle, he tried contacting Weber to see if he could trade this Raider one for a 49er kettle. He gave up after a year of trying and has been using it ever since. To him, it was just a Weber kettle to cook on. He would just go out and buy a new one once it sells.
After a short negotiation, we reached an agreement for a sale. The seller got a brand new green Weber Original Kettle Premium and some cash and I got one hell of a story and the NFL Edition Raiders MT.
These two will never be separated as long as I'm still around. My plan is to get a couple of cooks in on this baby before I do any restoration to it. I have found once I do a full, complete restoration, I tend to not cook on them again.
I will be writing up a article for the WKC Grill Gallery with more historical facts as told to me by the seller regarding the BBQ competition.
Topic: NFL Edition Raiders Master Touch Kettle (One that almost got away) (Read 2155 times)