SoCal Autograph Odysses

Part three of this installment has some pretty awesome items in it.  The first part I want to show will be a wall with six photos and a Larry Bird signed lithograph.   This wall consists of acquisitions done in person, through the mail, and ordered via private signings. 

Here is our second video, and my son's first through the mail attempt and success.  Watch here to see the unveiling. I suppose this is also a going prospecting post since the acquisition was Anthony Volpe and he is still a young prospect. He was cool enough to add the inscription of 2019 1st round pick as well.

The success of getting two signed cards back from Mike Mussina earlier this month encouraged me to use my last unsigned Major League Baseball and send it to Mike in hopes of getting another Hall of Famer on a baseball. Mike is so good about signing that it was more of an expectation than a hope, and sure enough today I got this beauty back in the mail.  HOF 19 Sending to Mike does require a donation and doing autographs through the mail does require postage to be paid both ways 99% of the time so keep that in mind if you're wanting to do this. Feel free to comment and ask more how it works.  Thanks for reading.

I tried something new today and had my oldest son film me opening a through the mail return. There is no narrating. My hands aren't the prettiest. But hey, it is my first try at this.  Also, I had to cut 70% of the actual video because my address was all out there for public consumption and well, we can't have that! After watching this it's also apparent I had it recorded from an elevation that a sherpa couldn't reach, so I'll work on that next time. For those who only have 20/20 vision, here is a photo of the new acquisition. Hall of fame pitcher Goose Gossage!  It's a nice success and ended a bit of a cold streak on my through the mail gets. Thank you for reading and more to come.

The last of my small purchases of rookie/prospect autograph cards came in the mail today, and it is Kyle Tucker of the Astros. The kid has been a prospect for what seems like ages now and I realize the Astros aren't exactly fan favorites at this point of time. Like the Chris Paddack posted yesterday, this comes from the 2019 Topps Chrome set, is a rookie card, and is a refractor numbered to 499. I keep promising some through the mail autographs coming but that has been extremely quiet this week, so I am hoping I didn't jinx myself by talking about it here. Also if you haven't yet done so, please subscribe to this blog to be eligible to win the signed Sterling Sharpe card I mentioned a couple posts ago.

These Topps Chrome cards are pretty nice looking.  I found a numbered refractor Chris Paddack rookie card auto on Ebay.  It's a big number, out of 499, but that's still a bit better than the standard base auto card.  Obviously the rookie card aspect of the card was also enticing. 

Arguably the least known of the recent Ebay pickups I have made of is that of Daniel Lynch, the Royals top prospect and a young left handed pitcher.  I've noticed that a lot of the Topps Chrome and Bowman signed cards tend to be more expensive than the Leaf or Panini cards, making it quite obvious that they are more coveted and therefore more difficult to find deals on.  My strategy with this pick was looking for a nondescript team (Royals:check) and see what their prospects cost.  This card cost me $10.  I think there may be potentially quite a bit of profit margin in there if he pans out, and if not, it's $10. It's his 1st Bowman and a Bowman Chrome card and these tend to be pricey so I'm happy with the get. 

Whether or not this blog would be considered a success by most, I don't know.  For me personally, I was never expecting more than a dozen or so views by people.  I'm creeping close to 30k and to do something fun, I want to give away a signed Sterling Sharpe card that I had signed in person close to 20 years ago at a celebrity golf tournament here in San Diego county at Morgan Run.  To be eligible to win, I just ask that you subscribe to my blog (click the link under the blog name), and then comment on this post.  I'll announce the winner and then mail the card out to them when within the month.  If no one responds?  Oh well! Thanks for reading anyway.  I figured I would do something more interactive for once.  UPDATE: A winner has been picked and notified via Twitter.  Thanks to all those who participated. 

In an effort to find as many of good deals on signed HOF baseballs as possible, I acquired the following signed Tom Glavine ROMLB with the HOF 14 inscription. For anyone in the hobby, I highly recommend getting into some of the Facebook groups like TTM Autographs, Autographs 101, etc.  There are a lot of good deals and trades to be made on these groups at prices much lower than you'd find retail.

As I've hinted a few times recently, I am expecting a few more items to come back to me through the mail over the next few weeks.  Some of the names are pretty big so I don't want to jinx anything by mentioning them.  This past Friday, this card came back to me. I already have an Andre Dawson ball that I got from him in person during batting practice at Petco Park while he was a coach or maybe working in the front office of a team that I can't recall 100% but I believe to be the Marlins. The interesting thing about the card above is that he signed it pretty small with a fine pen.  He has a nice autograph and I think the signature looks pretty cool like this honestly.  Here is a picture of the signed baseball from 15 or so years ago.  He signed this before he made the hall of fame.

For the second installment of my tour, I wanted to move to the wall immediately adjacent to the last post and show off some of the mega baseball stars populating this wall.   This kind of shows a brief overview of the area.  The two frames barely visible on the right hand side are the Lemieux and Rodman photos from the last post as a point of reference.  We will start with the big names on the wall.  Mike Trout, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron.   I don't talk about them much, but in the foreground are a few of the bobbleheads I've put out just to give a little bit of a different feel to the room.  There is a set of the 2018 Padres giveaways commemorating their 1998 World Series trip (yes this team is so bad they celebrate getting swept in a World Series). There are four cool Trout bobbles, and a couple others mixed in.  The Trout photo above was from the private signing he held a couple of years ago.  As his signature has evo...

The vast majority of people reading this will have no idea who this is, but a knowledgeable hockey fan will.  Olaf 'Olie the Goalie" Kolzig was one of the better netminders in the NHL in the late 90's into early 2000's, even winning the Vezina Trophy as top NHL goalie once.  I saw his name pop up as a recent 'ttm' success so found a rookie card of his that I already owned and sent it to him to see what would happen.  I asked for the Vezina Trophy inscription.  Yesterday in the mail, this arrived; Olaf wrote the Vezina inscription on the card, and it looks good signed in blue in my opinion.  This through the mail stuff is fun and allows me to obtain some signatures to players I'd never otherwise have access to.  

I realize I said I wasn't going to dive into the signed rookie/prospects card racket again for the foreseeable future, but that future lasted less than a couple of weeks.  I was scouring Ebay again when I came across a couple of cards I felt were worthy of purchasing.  The first was a signed Austin Meadows Bowman's Best rookie card.  Austin has already established himself as a potential perennial all star, so when I found the card for less than expected I bought it.  You can see the 'RC' in the bottom right corner designating it as his rookie card. The second card is one of the top pitching prospects in the game, Nate Pearson.  The card I found was for under $10, so I figured why not?  It's not technically a rookie card but I think would be considered a prospect card. This particular card is a Panini Elite Extra Edition autograph.  Both autos were on the card and not on stickers attached to the card which I do think looks nicer but not particularly bia...

I distinctly remember in 2011 when Mike Trout was having a signing up in Orange County for like $30 or $40 an item and I talked myself out of it since he was just a prospect, albeit an elite one.  At the time, my line of thinking was that most of these prospects flame out and aren't worth anything in the long run so do I really want to be spending money on an unknown?  In hindsight, even Helen Keller would recognize that as a big miss.  Recently, I was put into a similar situation and this time acted, receiving a signed baseball of the number one prospect in baseball, Wander Franco.   We will see what becomes of the career of this kid, but he definitely has perennial all star potential written all over him.

Since my collection additions will likely slow a bit here soon unless I get an influx of through the mail returns, I thought it might be kind of interesting to do a tour of what my memorabilia room currently looks like.  I figured I'd start with certain sections and gradually work my way around the room.   I figured I'd start in the corner with the baseball Hall of Famer case.  This case consists entirely of members of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame plus Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, and Derek Jeter.  I'd say 60% of this case was obtained in person either at paid signings or at ballparks around the country.  Another 30% would be through paid private signings that the athlete did.  The last 10% would be from reputable sites (Steiner, Tristar) and people, all of which I vet first. This is not all of the hall of fame baseballs I own either, as I have begun removing the ones that show any signs of fading.  I do have them in a UV case and the ligh...

I picked up a Cal Ripken Jr. signed baseball on an American League Baseball.  Quick history lesson before we get to the good stuff.  Baseball used to split the use of baseballs with both the National League and American League having their own baseballs with the president of their league being the signature on the ball.  Since interleague play began, baseball started using one official major league baseball with the commissioner being the signature on the ball.  This Ripken Jr. signature is an older version, so fits nicely with the OAL ball. 

The last three cards I purchased just to be able to get some youngsters in my "portfolio" varied in value.  I got one for just a few dollars.  Only one of these cards is technically a rookie card, but the other two are prospect cards since neither have yet made the show.  I'll start with my favorite team.  Anyone that follows baseball knows that Padres prospect MacKenzie Gore is the best pitching prospect in baseball. I found a Bowman's Best certified auto card for Gore. The second card is a very speculative purchase since Marco Luciano is only 18 years old and at that age prospects flame out more often than they pan out.  However, the kid has an elite talent level so if he pans out I expect this card to spike. The Luciano is a Panini Contenders card serial numbered to 15.  This is card 9.  I really like the way the light reflects off this card.  Finally, the cheap card in the bunch was a Topps Chrome rookie card for Brandon Woodruff of the Brewer...

I have mentioned many times in the past, and if you're a semi regular reader of this blog I apologize for the redundancy, but my favorite sport is actually hockey. My favorite team is the Los Angeles Kings, and I grew up watching certain players that I became hugely fond of. So much so, in fact, that my son is named Blake after former King and NHL hall of famer Rob Blake.  I recently sent Mr. Blake a card through the mail in hopes he'd sign it for me, and even went so far as to explain the above in my letter of request to him.  Less than two weeks went by, when this came through my mail yesterday.   I had actually received a signed card from Rob through the mail when I was ten years old or so, but since at the time I wasn't as seasoned at getting through the mail autographs, I sent my request with a soft plastic covering that smeared the auto by the time it got back to me.  Thank you for reading.

I recently made a trade with someone from the Facebook group I mentioned a couple of posts ago and acquired this 2009 World Series baseball signed by Hideki Matsui.  As you can see, this ball comes with the 2009 WS MVP inscription.  It is an official MLB baseball but also added a couple of graphics on the side panels of the ball.

The second success of my recent through the mail push came back yesterday in the form of Hall of Fame pitcher Mike Mussina.  I had nothing signed from the former Yankees/Orioles great so when I saw people were getting hits with him, I acted on it.  I sent one 92 Score rookie card I found and one of the Topps cards from the 90's.  Those cards all blend in to me.  The junk wax era of sports cards! Anyway, I was happy when my son came jogging back from the mailbox with an envelope addressed to me.  Inside were these two beauties.    He kindly added the HOF 19 inscription to the cards and the blue sharpie really stands out in contrast to the background. I do believe I will be sending a Major League baseball since the success rate with Mussina is very high. Thank you for reading.

I am a member of some Facebook autograph groups and often times on these groups you will see people listing items they have for sale.  There aren't many ways to go about getting good deals on signed sports memorabilia, especially as the market currently stands (hello Stimulus checks and people making more on unemployment than employment).  The market for both signed stuff and sports cards in general is on the rise.  However, there are always people in the hobby looking to move inventory for a myriad of reasons and it is here that the discerning eye can find some deals on stuff.  I purchased a Matt Kemp ball from one such autograph guy because the Matt Kemp ball I had signed in person was on the side panel of the baseball.  To compound that, the signature itself started to bleed.   I also picked up a couple of basbealls inscribed with player MLB debuts.  I picked both up for about the price of a non signed MLB baseball, so I figured why the hell no...

I started this going prospecting series with an actual prospect in Jo Adell the other day.  If you need a recap it can be found  here . This post will be about the same type of thing, but in this case two of the three players have already established themselves at the highest level of the game so they aren't really what you'd consider to be prospects.  However, I still found prices on these cards that in my opinion would be considered good, and that have the potential to increase in value down the line.  First up is a pretty sleek looking Topps Chrome rookie card of  Washington Nationals young stud Victor Robles.  The purple in this means it is a purple refractor, and this card is serial numbered to 250.  The second card is Josh Hader, who has already established himself as an all-star and likely the best reliever in baseball.  I found the base Topps rookie card auto of this guy for under $10 on Ebay.  I thought that was cheap, and this gu...