SoCal Autograph Odysses

I follow some of the more reputable sports memorabilia companies on Twitter and other social media platforms, because there are times when doing so will lead to good finds.  One such instance was Steiner having a flash deal on 42 Mariano Rivera signed baseballs last week.  They sold these at 70% off of their normal price.  It was a deal too good for me to pass up, especially considering Rivera is affiliated as an exclusive Steiner athlete, meaning what you get will be the genuine article.  Even being a Padres fan, I can admit that Mariano Rivera is the creme de la creme of closers in the history of Major League Baseball.  Check Steiner out  here

Major League Baseball inducted its class of 2018 last weekend, which provided an opportunity for me to post some stuff I have from a couple of the newly enshrined players.  First off is former Padre closer Trevor Hoffman.  I've had many things signed by Trevor over the years, half of which I have given away to other Padre fans.  He was always very accommodating to his fans and is deserving of his HOF accolades.  The first photo is something I had my little brother ask Trevor to sign from his truck as he drove off after a Padre game at Petco Park.  This was shortly after his 400th career save, which he was good enough to inscribe. The next is an all star baseball he signed for me from the 2002 all star game in Milwaukee.  I believe he signed this ball for me during the final season the Padres played at Qualcomm Stadium, which would have been 2003. Finally, it's just a regular MLB baseball he signed for me at some point during his career.  I thin...

I mentioned on my last post that I was going to have a huge name added in my next addition to my collection, and I was not exaggerating. Mike Trout was doing a private signing with Major League Alumni and the OC Dugout in Anaheim announced they'd be having items available through this signing.  The price was high, but it will only go up.  I paid for a ball to be signed with the 2012 Rookie of the Year inscription. The signing also came with authenticity from Major League Baseball. Here is the result; I slotted this ball into my Hall of Fame case since I don't quite have enough current Hall of Famers to fill up every spot yet.  It looks good next to the Albert Pujols ROY ball.  If you forgot about how I came across the Pujols ball, you can read about that  here . Thank you for reading!

The latest in my collection comes from a signing I saw being conducted by AJ's Sports World, found by clicking  Here .  If you go to the site and look on the right hand side, they have a big list of upcoming signings with (mostly) NHL players, which makes a lot of sense saying that the company is based in Canada.  As mentioned previously, and made more obvious by a glut of my recent posts, I've started in on the signed NHL official game puck collecting.  Hockey has long been my favorite sport, though when it comes to collecting autographs I've long leaned towards baseball.  Keeping an eye out on signing events going on, including the private ones in which you don't meet an athlete, can be a boon for adding reasonably priced items.  Despite the fact that meeting the athlete tends to be the the main impetus of having an autograph collection in the first place, there are times in which the athlete is not accessible to you since they either never do public sign...

I added another puck to my collection, this one of the game used variety courtesy of Steiner Sports.  The puck I received was of former Rangers (and now Tampa) defenseman Ryan McDonagh.  I know for many people that read this blog, hockey is far down the list of their sport favorites, but McDonagh is a good player that also played for Team USA.  What I found most cool about this particular puck is that the tape on it shows it came from a game in February 2017 against another "Original Six" member, the Montreal Canadiens.  I liked this particular puck because it came during the 90th anniversary season of the Rangers, which is reflected on the logo. 90th Anniversary season.  McDonagh signature. NYR vs MTL 2/21/17 Game Used 1st period NHL 100th Season official puck Again, I'm a hockey guy first and foremost.  The fact I was able to find a good deal thanks to Steiner Sports on a game used puck was something I did not want to pass up....

Hockey is my favorite sport, though when it comes to collecting memorabilia it's long been baseball that was my major focus.  There's something that really draws me to a case full of signed baseballs.  Maybe it is the history of the game of baseball that drives my desire to collect from that sport, I'm not real sure.  It very well could be my proximity to the San Diego Padres just made it real easy for me to delve into that realm and add quickly.  Regardless, I recently decided to try adding some signed hockey pucks to my collection, and get a case to display them similar to the two cases of baseballs I have.  I always keep my eye open for deals with reputable companies, in particular companies that have associations or deals with specific athletes.  My searching brought me across two deals I felt difficult to pass up, as I received about 50% on both of these pucks. The first is a puck signed by Jaromir Jagr, easy first ballot NHL of Famer and likely a top ...

There are some deals to be had during the holidays, and this year was no exception. I have posted in the past about a baseball I obtained during a private signing even with MLB hall of famer Bill Mazeroski.  That event was organized through Total Sports Enterprises, a Pittsburgh based company that is affiliated with the Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins.  Since I've done business with them in the past, I like to keep an eye on notifications coming through, alerting me to possible deals.  This year I saw that they had an offer that was too strong to pass up, so I decided to buy a photo signed by Le'veon Bell from a signing he just conducted with them.  Again, I prefer to get my autographs in person, but it's not possible to have this access to  many athletes not based on the west coast.  In these scenarios, always do your research and make sure the stuff you are buying is genuine, and when you see that a particular company has an agreement with a particular at...