SoCal Autograph Odysses

 The day after my two returns yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find I had yet another success in the mail today.  Hall of fame pitcher and Giants great Juan Marichal returned a signed card to me that I had sent less than three weeks ago.  You can see by looking at the photo that Juan is starting to get to an advanced age and the autograph is a bit shaky.  Nonetheless, I am excited by this return and thankful as always that athletes continue to take the time to sign autographs for people through the mail. I've seen some conversation on autograph forums and in autograph groups that some people like to only have valuable cards like rookie cards signed.  My method is different than that in a few ways.  First and foremost, I look for cards that will allow a card to be signed visibly and have a nice aesthetic.  Usually that means the card needs to have a lighter background.  I also like to find cards that have a lot of space for an autograph, like the Marichal card above. Secondl

 I mentioned in my Lance Alworth post that I actually received two returns yesterday.  The other was also a Hall of Famer, former Cardinals cornerback Aeneas Williams.  Williams is now a pastor in St. Louis, so that's where I sent this request.  The one slight bummer was the sharpie he used must have been pretty new since it didn't completely dry by the time he put it back in the mail.  That's okay, I am still happy with the result. He also inscribed a bible verse on the card.  All in all, a very cool return from one of the NFL's best.

 Today I received two hits on my through the mail requests, and one in particular was very exciting for me.  Former Chargers wide receiver and one of the all time greats Lance Alworth signed a card for me, and inscribed HOF 78 and "Bambi".  The return took ten days, which was helped by the fact Lance only lives twenty minutes from me.   Please check out the through the mail tracker on this blog to keep up with all current requests I have sent, days they are returned, etc.

 Since getting autographs through the mail became quite the success for me and I've started doing more of them, I decided to make a page dedicated to tracking them.  You will now notice on the left hand side of the blog, it is something you can click on.  It is the Through the mail Tracker. I will update that as my requests come and go.  If any of my readers or followers of this blog come across any questions they want to ask, please post them.  I hope this can be somewhat of a tool for others that are interested in getting into the hobby who might want help.   Thank you as always!

 My second recent batch of through the mail requests came back today, and it is yet another Hall of Famer.  This time, I was happy to open my mailbox and find former Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice had returned my request.  The card is signed nicely in blue and the signature really stands out.  Mr. Rice has a nice signature to boot, which makes the visuals on the card better, in my opinion.

 I've recently sent out a good sized batch of through the mail requests, all to Hall of Famers in different sports. The first one to come back to me is former St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog.  As usual, I looked for a card with a lighter background so the autograph would stand out more, and the blue sharpie in this case looks good.

 As you may recall , a couple months ago I participated in a Zoom meeting with Steve Martin in which he discussed a new book he had co-created with New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss.  As part of that meeting I was shipped a signed version of their book "A Wealth of Pigeons".  Since I was aware Steve Martin is also good friends with Martin Short, I also went in search of a book signed by  Short .  I found one, and decided to do something I had seen being done by other autograph collectors, and cut the signatures out of the books to frame them as part of a photo.  I have had success in doing the same thing with Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey.  Click around in my blog to find those, or use the search feature up top.  If done right, these can look really nice, and I don't think the Martin/Short one came out any differently.  As this was the first combo cut I have had framed together. there was less space to use. As you can see, I chose a darker navy blue with a textured finish to t

On a recent trip to Target, I actually found sealed baseball product.  It had been so long since I had seen anything still on the shelves that of course I purchased a few of the boxes.  The product was 2020 Leaf Metal Draft baseball, and each box contained two autographed cards.  If this sounds familiar, it's because it is the giveaway I am doing, which you can read about  here .  All you gotta do is subscribe to this very blog.  The autographs that I got were all players who were just drafted in the 2020 Major League Baseball entry draft.   I believe the intent of this product was to make an affordable option available to collectors.  I am not sure if the product was still on the shelves due to the lack of big names in it or because I was actually lucky, although I tend to think it's the former. If any one of these kids pans out and becomes a big league star, then I think the purchase will have been worth it.  

 I'm going to be giving away a 2020 Leaf Draft baseball sealed blaster box.  Each box includes two autographs inside of draft picks from the 2020 MLB draft. All you need to do to be eligible is subscribe to my blog. You can do that by going to the top page on the home site and clicking Subscribe! You will get a follow up email asking to confirm the follow, so please do so.  I will randomly pick a winner on February 1st so please make sure to subscribe for your chance to win. 

 My first cheap Ebay buy of the year is reigning AL Cy Young winner (and more importantly still Cleveland Indian) pitcher Shane Bieber.  I don't have a whole lot to add here other than I like the on card signature as opposed to the sticker autos if a gun was pointed to my head.  Another interesting aspect of sport cards is that in baseball, there are clear cut deals when it comes to pitchers. Position players are almost always much more expensive to buy, even all the way down to the prospect level and up to the Hall of Fame level.  If you're someone looking to get into the hobby or add to your collection on the cheap, I'd recommend starting with pitchers and working your way up.

 2021 is off to a blazing start from a TTM autograph point of view.  I wasn't sure if my Roger Staubach request would actually work, so I relied on a true story written to him and a donation of $20 to his charity to see if I could add this great QB.  The story centered around my family meeting him at the Hotel Del Coronado when I was just a teenager and how my brother asked him to sign a napkin because we had nothing else on us at the time.  I told him truthfully that it would be cool to come full circle and politely asked him to sign the card I sent in the envelope.  Luckily, he obliged, though I am sure the bigger than asked for donation amount did not hurt.  Today, I pulled this great signature out of the mail. Again, the best tip I can give people is to pick a card that will lend itself to allowing the autograph to be as visible as possible.  If I had picked a card with him wearing the Cowboy's navy blue jersey, it would have been tougher to see the black sharpie.  I know i

 One of the good things to come out of 2020 from a personal standpoint was my newfound interest in ramping up my through the mail autograph game.  I spent about half of 2020 looking at Sports Card Forums and signing up for Sports Collectors.net to hone in on some of the athletes that have the most success with through the mail returns. My success rate was a hit on everyone except for two; Wayne Gretzky and Phil Jackson. My successes are as follows; MLB Wade Boggs 2x cards Mike Mussina 2x Cards 1x baseball Andre Dawson Goose Gossage Anthony Volpe (my son got him as well) Ryne Sandberg Carl Erskine Xavier Edwards Paul Molitor Rafael Palmeiro Jim Palmer Rob Manfred  Bobby Witt Jr. NFL Charlie Joiner Dan Fouts Eric Dickerson Jerry Rice Peyton Manning Bob Lilly NBA Bob Cousy Robert Parish Gail Goodrich Lenny Wilkens NHL Rob Blake Olaf Kolzig Chris Pronger Here are some photos of my favorite hits; Obviously public signings were non existent, and privately held signings waned a lot especially