SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I have previously made mention that I've gone to a few second hand stores in my area recently to see if I could find some signed books.  I bought a Dan Brown signed Origin book.  I saw a Jenny McCarthy signed book but left it on the shelf.  These books cost only a couple bucks.  One stop I made was to the Disabled American Vets store in downtown Oceanside a couple months ago and found a signed Billie Jean King. It is a pre-signed sticker, meaning she signed X amount of stickers and then the publishers stuck them into the books.  This was a $1 purchase.

 I found some signed NFL cards on Ebay, a couple of them costing only a couple bucks a piece.  The most expensive card, understandably so, was an autographed relic Antonio Gates card, with a little bit of the Charger's notorious powder blue jersey slabbed in the card.   This Gates card is numbered 37/50 and is from 2020 Panini Illusions.  It actually looks better than this in person, because the colors really pop on it.  The second card is from current Washington Football Team rookie back Antonio Gibson, who has arguably been the top rookie back from the 2020 class up to this point.  This is a 2020 Panini Elite card numbered 142/199.  This kid just tore up the Cowboys on Thanksgiving day so I wonder if it would have cost me more than $3.99 plus shipping if I had purchased it now instead of a couple weeks ago.  I considered this to be a cheap way of prospecting without having to deal with the exorbitant prices that the rookie QBs always fetch....

 I am going to work on a mini project, but to start off this project I needed to somehow find a Martin Short autograph, so I settled on a signed book.  If you follow along on this blog, you can probably see where this project is headed but this time there is a twist.  I'm going to cut the auto from the book, and then combine it with a Steve Martin signed book I'll be getting soon as part of a Zoom meeting I sat in on and watched in which Steve talked about a new book he has coming out. I want to do a joint cut signature ensemble with the two buddies, Martin and Short.  I will post photos from the auto I end up with from Steve Martin as well as photos of the Zoom call itself.  It's always fascinating to get glimpses into the mind of some of these celebrities.  I of course will follow up with a picture of the completed project too.

 My dad is in town, and since he happened to come in from Middle of Nowhere America, he was able to find some retail baseball card boxes for us to open at a Walmart he visited.  Here in San Diego county, there is almost never anything of importance on any retail shelves, and it makes me think the Panini Diamond Kings 2017 box I found (and pulled an autographed David Wright materials card from) was just a complete and utter fluke.  Unfortunately, the Ebay sellers know when the product is stocked on the local shelves and swoop in and buy everything so they can make a profit on Ebay.  It is frustrating as all hell if I'm being honest. Anyhow, my dad bought one blaster box of 2020 Topps Gallery, two boxes of 2020 Panini Contenders which guarantees one auto box, and two mega boxes of 2020 Bowman Platinum, which also contains one auto.  Going into the pack openings, we were well aware that the autograph check list is quite large, so it was likely we'd end up with some...

 In the last ten days I've hit big on my through the mail send out three times.  The first was NBA Hall of Famer and Lakers/UCLA legend Gail Goodrich.  The second was the greatest NFL wide receiver of all time, Jerry Rice.  The third was arguably my happiest hit.  I've tried sending to NFL QB (and great TV commercial guy) Peyton Manning three times.  The first time was a couple years ago and the second time was earlier this year around the time the pandemic first hit.  Every time I have found a cheap card on Ebay that lends itself to a better signature if he were to sign in black sharpie, which he tends to do.  This third time I sent the letter to his foundation again, with the requested donation again, and on a Colts card in which he is wearing the away whites for autograph purposes.  I sent my third attempt around ten weeks ago so did not know what to expect.  Needless to say I was excited to see that in the mailbox one of my letters h...

 Much like the Tim Raines autographed card, I found another bargain bin Hall of Fame buy for under $10.  I did not have anything signed at this point for the former starter/reliever Dennis Eckersley, which is a bit odd since he isn't stingy on signing.  Eventually I'll also get a baseball signed by him as well to add to that collection.  I like the look of the Topps Museum collection. #69/199

 I'm going to file this into the cheap, but a Hall of Famer nonetheless category.  I recently went on an Ebay binge where I was finding cheap auto cards left and right, and one of those was a Tim Raines auto for eight bucks.  Tim Raines isn't considered one of the elite Hall of Fame members, but despite his autograph being pretty saturated in the market I didn't have anything signed by him.  I missed him in person at the 2016 All Star Fan Fest (recap  here ), where he signed for a couple of people but quickly left an area where he was accessible.  I found a cheap alternative, and the on card auto looks good.  This one will go into my Hall of Fame card case, which is rapidly expanding via through the mail successes and cheap Ebay finds.

I mentioned a couple months ago that I had sent some through the mail requests to some major stars in their respective sports.  Today, I received one of them back. It's always more fun when you aren't real optimistic you'll be getting a signature sent back and then one day you check the mail and something unanticipated is sitting there. I know Jerry Rice does send back, but he isn't a guaranteed hit. When I opened the envelope I noticed it was thicker than what I usually get in return. There was a note in there stating that Mr. Rice was thankful for all the support but that he couldn't sign the card I sent. Instead, he had pre-signed cards and sent those out. I don't care that he didn't sign my exact card! I was stoked to get a return from the great Jerry Rice. I harp on this all the time, but it deserves repeating. I don't sell my autographs. I am always thrilled to receive anything from these athletes who take the time to sign for their fans. I don...

 I saw that NBA Hall of Fame and Lakers retired number member Gail Goodrich had been recently returning some through the mail autograph requests.  I took a shot and sent a Fleer UCLA basketball card to his address and hoped for a return.  Last night, I had a returned envelope in the mail and found this; I actually now have a lot of the elite Lakers in my collection.  Goodrich goes with Kareem, Shaq, Magic, and Jerry West. The other four are all signed photos, but I am running out of room to display many of those so have pivoted to card recently. 

As previously mentioned on this blog, I got a Tom Hanks signed book "Uncommon Type" book and wanted to put it together in a way reminiscent of the Jim Carrey signed book I did this summer.  I brought the cut of the auto, as well as a Forrest Gump photo I found on Ebay, to Hobby Lobby to frame.  I picked the colors for the mats, told them where I wanted the cut to be, and in ten days they did their thing.  The result of the process was fantastic.  I'm not really a collector of celebrities, but the outcome of both my Carrey and now Hanks cut autos was so good that I wouldn't mind doing something similar for someone like Robin Williams.

 I purchased a couple more Topps Museum Collection Champions League cards because I really like the look of these cards.  It's the same set that Virgil Van Djik came from.  Added were Senegalese defender and current Napoli star Kalidou Koulibaly. This guy is being pursued by most of the elite clubs in the world, and turned down a move to Manchester City during the past transfer window.  As you can see, this card is also a relic auto, containing a piece of game used jersey.  This card was numbered to 126.  It's kind of a random number as usually they are of 10, or 25, or 35, etc.  The other player I added was Real Madrid winger Lucas Vazquez, who also plays for the Spanish national team. I mostly added the latter card because it wasn't expensive more so than any knowledge of the player himself.  The extent of my knowledge of most players outside the Premier League is based on playing against them in FIFA. Also, the little white napkin piece on card...

 I think my second soccer auto will probably be my best get for awhile, until someday I decide to pay for a signed Messi photo or something similar.  To make matters even better, Liverpool Football Club are my soccer team.  I was able to find what I believe to be a bit of a steal on a Virgil Van Djik signed triple relic card.  VVD is the best defender in world soccer.  The three pieces of jersey are I assume from one of his Champions League games but I'm not sure.  

 I have many contemporary stars of Major League baseball already in my autograph collection, but one of the guys I wasn't ever able to get in person at Petco Park was Max Scherzer.  I actually often had trouble trying to get any of the Nationals when they visited San Diego, and think I pretty much always got shut out in my pursuit of Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, et al.  They used to always stay at the Hilton which is right across from Petco Park, and I'd park myself along with a lot of other collectors between both edifices in hopes I'd had good luck but always got skunked.  I did end up getting Strasburg through a family friend who happens to be friends with the Strasburg family, which you can rehash  here . Harper and Juan Soto are going to eventually be my targets, but I was successful in adding a fair priced Topps Max Scherzer memorabilia auto card.   Numbered 15/25

 This post will be my first about venturing out into a new realm of sports autographs.  Soccer is far and away the most popular sport on the planet, and it isn't particularly close.  Over the last five years or so it has gradually morphed into my favorite sport to watch on tv, tied with hockey.  I've never purchased any soccer products because it isn't readily available in the US like the other major sports, and because a lot of the products I see are MLS related.  I'll preface the rest of this post by saying you won't find MLS related autos being added to my collection, as it is approximately the 8th best league in the world and I like to focus on the elite.  I have been eyeing soccer autos (from a card standpoint) for quite some time now.  I haven't yet made the leap into signed photos or jerseys and the like because many of these autographs come from across the globe and it makes me more hesitant to pull the trigger on something without the authenti...

It's apparent to anyone that collects or likes to buy sports cards that the big name retailers (Target, Walmart, etc) are often pillaged of their sports cards by Ebayers.  It is almost impossible to find any type of good sealed products like hobby boxes or blaster boxes or even single packs.  People who sell the products on Ebay know when these stores are stocked and come in and wipe out their inventory before people like myself can come in and even buy one box of something.  On the rare occasion I do find something kind of cool, I may buy it.  On a trip to Walmart during the summer I found a Panini Playbook football blaster box.  I thought it was $20 but when I went through the register it was actually $30.  Walmart doesn't do a great job of keeping their card section organized. What made the box more enticing to me is that you are guaranteed one memorabilia (jersey patch cards most often) or better yet, autographed card per box.  When I opened the bo...