SoCal Autograph Odysses

Hey!  It's been awhile since I've done something through the mail, but here is another post about mail I received yesterday from TTM legend Wade Boggs.  I talked about this  before  but if getting autos through the mail is something you want to try, sending stuff to Wade Boggs is a good place to start.  About ten days ago or so, I sent two cards in the mail to Mr. Boggs asking if he'd sign them and send them back.  This is what I got; The top card is one I got as part of the same Panini Diamond Kings packs I bought when I got the David Wright pull.  The second is an 84 Fleer that I found in a box in my garage.  If you have any questions on how to do something like this post a comment and I'll help you out.

Recently, I had an idea that for some reason I hadn't considered before, probably because I have never really cared about collecting cards.  It's also probably because recently a Mike Trout signed rookie card went for over $900,000 in an auction.  That's a lot of zeros.  I like owning items in my collection that have lots of zeros.  I did a little online sleuthing and realized that right now the sports card market is booming and that there some shrewd investors buying into the market to make some money.  It then dawned on me that reading two articles now made me an expert.  Actually no it didn't, but I do know who the best baseball prospects are and which ones have the highest ceilings to become superstars, so I decided to go prospecting for cardboard gold.  The first up was Jo Adell.  This guy sometimes gets Mike Trout comparisons, so I figured why not start with him? Note the top right, where this particular card is numbered 16/20.  Lo...

It has finally happened.  My posts over the last month have mostly been getting better and better.  The names bigger and bigger.  The values higher and higher.  Alas, there was no where to eventually go but down.  Don't get me wrong, adding any HOF baseball player to my collection is always awesome.  I recently added this HOF 09 inscribed baseball from Jim Rice. This brings my Hall of Fame baseball collection to....a lot.  I don't actually know the exact list, so let's see what I have; Baseballs: Bagwell, Jeff Baines, Harold Bench, Johnny Berra, Yogi Blyleven, Bert Boggs, Wade Brock, Lou Carew, Rod Carlton, Steve Carter, Gary Cepeda, Orlando Dawson, Andre Doerr, Bobby Fingers, Rollie Fingers, Rollie Fingers, Rollie Fisk, Carlton Gossage, Goose (HOF Ball) Griffey Jr., Ken Gwynn, Tony Gwynn, Tony (WS Ball) Hoffma...

Topps Dynasty is a set for people that want to spend a lot of money.  These things come in boxes of one card only, and go on the secondary market for well over a few hundred bucks for an unopened box.  Don't believe it?  Check  these  out.  The reason for this is that every single card comes with a piece of game used memorabilia and an autograph of the player.  The "low" level cards are the standard /10 set they release.  Then they do a set of /5, and even a 1/1.  They have old time greats, they have modern stars.  Some cards have a piece of a bat, some have game used batting gloves.   Here  are some of the pricier individual cards if you want to take the gambling out of the equation and purchase the cards you want.  I currently own eight of these cards, but did not buy any of the unopened boxes.  I targeted players on Ebay that I felt were being undervalued and bought them, hoping that someday the prices would g...

The family and I decided to brave Target this past weekend and pick up a couple of items.  Since I was there, I swung by the card section and looked for something that might be kind of cool.  Let me preface my choice by saying I have no idea what is coveted in the card world.  I don't know what sets people like.  I don't know what sets are supposed to have good finds. I also almost never buy sports cards. Not having any coherent plan, I decided to look for an item that I found the fewest of, which turned out to be a box of Panini baseball cards dated 2017.  There was one box of these stuffed in the very back of the shelf behind a bunch of Topps 2020 opening day stuff.  I thought to myself that someone must be trying to hide these, so these must be the ones I should buy!  My logic seemed sound, though it could just as easily have been the lack of oxygen penetrating my face covering.  After I purchased the box, booked it out the store with my family...

This will be my third Mike Trout post in about 18 months, so I was beginning to think I had an addiction to Mike Trout signed items.  That was until of course I became a member of the Mike Trout collector's group on Facebook and found that there are people out there with dozens of autographed baseballs, multiple bats, a few jerseys, signed photos, etc all of Mike.  It made my collection of the 11x17 photo, two baseballs, and (you're about to read about this) bat seem puny in comparison. Neverless, this is a blog about my stuff and I'm happy to show off the new piece of mail that came in via Major League Alumni Marketing, who is affiliated with Mike Trout and all of his signings.  As do all Trout signings through MLAM, this item came with authenticity guaranteed through the MLB hologram program.  One quick side note.  I learned through the aforementioned Mike Trout collectors group that at a certain time after the All-Star game in 2012, Trout's signature ...

In the pantheon of baseball autograph royalty, Babe Ruth obviously reigns as king.  However, when it comes to being coveted by the collector's community, Mickey Mantle resides in a place reserved for very few of the greatest baseball players ever to grace the earth.  Not only was he one of the all time great talents, but his being a member of the Yankees played into his becoming one of the most publicized athletes of his time. These factors paved the way to him becoming one of the best baseball players for autograph hounds to add to their collections.  Up until this point, I never had anything signed by him.  In the past, I would have preferred autographs from the upper echelon guys to be on major league baseballs.  However, I've had some recent instances where some of the baseballs have faded a bit, or bled into the ball.  When you start getting into the financial stratosphere of chasing after some of the all time greats, you want to to make damn sure your...

So, I mentioned a couple posts back that I was anticipating going after the Mantles, the DiMaggios, the Williams, and the Aarons.  I already have a Willie Mays ball, but a collection of photos including the biggest names in the sport was really enticing to me,.  The Ted Williams photo was added a few weeks ago, which you can go back and read.  Today, another one of the names came in the mail. Hank Aaron.  I found a photo certified by PSA, a seller who was on the trusted sellers list, and then for added measure ran the signature by a few of the experts on a autograph forum I am a member of.  The opinions came back loud and clear.  "Authentic".  "Beautiful signature".  "Looks good to me!".  That was all I needed to hear, so I pulled the trigger.  I'm going to frame this with a navy blue mat and put it up on the wall next to the Williams and Trout photos.  I'm going to be saving a space for another giant addition coming my way some tim...

I found another a good deal on a hall of fame baseball signed this time by Orlando Cepeda.  I did not have anything from Cepeda yet so jumped on the opportunity. I'm keeping this post short because I'm going to have another big addition posted here in a few days.  Thank you for reading as always.