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The Product of the Year

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 I watch YouTube videos of people opening sports cards because it allows for a couple of things. One, I get to live vicariously through them as there is little chance I'll open some of the high end stuff they do. And two, sometimes I come upon a good tip that I get to act upon. One such occurrence happened last week when one of the content creators was opening 2025 Panini Revolution Football Premium boxes. To say these boxes are loaded is an understatement. You get one guaranteed autograph (numbered no higher than /299) plus multiple numbered cards in each box. The numbered cards are pretty consitently low numbered, as the worst is /99. That means this product has a low print run. These are technically retail products but they feel much more like hobby boxes in my opinion. In fact, I'd argue that you get more value in one of these for $130 than you would out of a $400 hobby box. To wit; My haul from the two boxes combined was as follows: Rome Odunze auto /50 Treveyon Henderson ...
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Topps Takes over NBA License

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 For some years, Panini has controlled the card market when it comes to NBA and NFL products. That means that anything produced by Topps in those two sports would not have any team names or logos. For many, that is a no go for collecting those types of cards because in all honesty, the cards do look a bit weird when they say Los Angeles instead of Los Angeles Lakers and only have purple and gold jerseys without the name 'Lakers' splashed across the front. Last month, that all changed for Topps as they were able to release their first licensed NBA cards in a long time. I bought a mega box of their flagship set, and ended up pulling a rather big hit, Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel. What makes this hit even better is that it is also an on-card autograph, meaning it's not on a sticker and then placed onto the card. Knueppel has gotten his career off to a rather good start as well, so the long-term value of this card might be on a steady incline for the foreseeable future...
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Harvey Elliott...again?

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 Opening packs is fun. I can't deny that in any way, shape, or form. It makes much more financial sense to purchase singles of cards you want, or if you're trying to make money on a player long term, to speculate on players with upside. However, it is a high to open a pack of cards sealed with the unknown and then pulling a huge card. That's why people participate in breaks and buy hobby boxes and retail. The chase of the unknown is a lot of the fun. Of course, there is much more downside to buying sealed product, as most of the time you don't come close to the value that you spent on the box. Last weekend I experienced another one of the downsides, the fact that my guaranteed auto ended up being of a player I already had an autograph of.  In my hobby box of 2024-25 Topps Chrome UEFA Competitions, I ended up pulling another Harvey Elliott autograph. Last time, it was numbered /75 while this one is /250. So I ended up getting a lower version of the same card I already ha...
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One last Bowman 2025 Hurrah?

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 Bowman Chrome was released at the end of September, and it's an update to the main set released in May. As you may recall I hit some decent stuff out of the flagship Bowman this year. The other day I was at the store and decided to try one Bowman Chrome mega box, and I ended up hitting an auto of whom many consider the potential number one overall prospect on this release's checklist, Cardinals prospect Rainiel Rodriguez. Who is he? Check out this blurb; Bowman Chrome 2025 Prospect Rankings This list has him at number one. As always, the on-card signature is a major positive of Bowman, and the cards always look so clean. I simply cannot complain about my Bowman luck as I always hit some good autos and numbered cards.  One interesting tidbit about mojo autographs like the one above. It is technically a 1st Bowman autograph even though the mojo refractors don't have the 1st Bowman logo for some reason. If this kid hits the ceiling of his hype, this card will be worth some go...
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Roberto Carlos

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 Sometimes it takes me a while to pull the trigger on getting an autograph from a player I've been eyeing to add to my collection. This can be for any number of reasons, for example, cost is too high, I don't like the cards currently on sale, etc. I have been looking into Robert Carlos auto cards for probably six months (maybe more) before I finally found one I liked at a price point I could live with. I need to point out, it's not like I am breaking the bank to get a Roberto Carlos card, but sometimes I just want to find a fair price on a player rather than just splurging. I found a happy medium recently and went with a 2024-25 Select FIFA red auto.  One curious sidenote to the Roberto Carlos autograph hunt. Most of the cards he signs are sticker autos, and as such, he went off the sticker on most of his autographs due to the size of his signature. That's another thing to keep an eye on when trying to get autographs via eBay. Some athletes sign so large that they use u...
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LA Clippers in Oceanside

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 As you can probably tell by the name of this blog, I am located in Southern California. I live in Oceanside, to be precise. Last year, we opened a new arena locally which hosts some cool events that we would not otherwise have access to unless we travelled to San Diego (45 minutes) or Orange County (1 hour). My family and I became season ticket holders for the professional indoor soccer league team the San Diego Sockers. One of the perks was that we got a good discount for the LA Clippers game that the arena hosted last night, October 9th. The NBA's G League has a team that plays in the arena, the San Diego Clippers, and in conjunction with their parent team, a preseason game between the real Clippers and a Chinese team was hosted. I've only been to one NBA game and it was also a preseason game about ten years ago in San Diego. My son and I went to this game because we got tickets so cheap, and we brought some cards for my son to try and get signed. This blog's roots actua...
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Two New Soccer Adds

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 It has been ten days or so since I last posted and that's because it has been mostly quiet on the autograph front. I do have a few autograph requests out via private signings happening in October but those are still later this month or keep getting postponed. I'd love to update the blog with some of those as well since we are talking about some big names but unfortunately, we are still in a holding pattern for those. I did, however, recently add two really nice legends soccer autographs from a newly released Prizm set, 2025 Panini Prizm Club World Cup soccer. I'd like to start off by saying I really like blue shimmer parallels. Blue shimmer autographs come only in what is termed '1st off the Line" boxes, or the very first batch of a new product being shipped out. Therefore, blue shimmer autographs are SP, or short printed automatically even if they aren't technically numbered.  As you can see, both of the players I added are Serie A legends. Gianluigi Buffon i...
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