SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I opened quite a bit of sealed product during the course of 2022, so I wanted to do a recap of what I think my five best autograph pulls were. To be on this list, it has to be a signed card. I of course pulled cool rookie cards and numbered cards, etc. but those don't count towards the making of this list.  5 Honorable Mentions: Juan Marichal - Any time you pull a Hall of Famer it's a bonus. I also like Topps Heritage autos. Tony Oliva -The exact reasons as Marichal. Fabio Cannavaro - Getting one of the all time great soccer defenders is always a plus. World Cup champ, etc. Travon Walker -Pulling the first overall pick in the NFL draft's auto out of retail is fun. Camilo Doval /50 - High upside closer in MLB numbered /50, which puts him slightly over the other cards that just missed being mentioned.  1.  David Beckham This was quite the easy choice. This is probably my biggest pull of all time, as it as an easy four figure card. It came out of a retail box, which ma...

 Darrell Green was one of the first elite cornerbacks I remember growing up and watching in the NFL, and he was also one of two through the mail autographs returned to me right after Christmas.  This time I sent a 1999 Topps card, and I had to include a donation to his charity. I did the extra minor fee and asked for him to include the HOF 08 inscription as well. One thing I appreciated a bit more on this return is the fact that this is a player I actually saw play while he was active, unlike many of my recent returns with players who played before my time. 

 Arguably the biggest name of my recent through the mail batch is former Lions linebacker and member of the NFL's Greatest 100, Joe Schmidt. This return came back yesterday and was probably the oldest card I have ever sent through the mail. It was a 1959 Topps card, and came back with a very clean signature and the HOF 73 inscription. His signature is very clean for a man that is 90 years old. 

 I'm going to knock these posts out before Christmas, so the next card I'm going to post about is actually two  cards that came back from me from Hall of Fame lineman Joe DeLamielleure. No, I don't know how to pronounce it either.  Anyhow, I sent him one card and he sent me two back, both inscribed with his HOF 03 inscription. The former Bills and Browns lineman came through.

 The recent batch of through the mail requests I sent out over the last few weeks has been having successes come think and fast prior to the holidays. I have had returns coming back for three consecutive days and four times this week. The second of the returns was from former Chiefs safety and football Hall of Famer, Johnny Robinson.  This is another clean autograph with the HOF 2019 also inscribed, which is always a bonus. As you can see, it's yet another card from the 1970 set. I still don't know if it's a coincidence that I pick this set a lot or it's just the fact that it makes for easy autographs. Either way, I'm happy with this one. 

 A couple of autographs were also added in the last six weeks via purchases on eBay, including one of the best soccer players on the planet, Robert Lewandowski. This autograph was from the Bundesliga set I actually opened hobby boxes of and posted about around a month ago. It is a gold chrome autograph numbered /25 so I am happy to add this big card to my growing soccer collection. The other card I added around the same time was more of the bargain bin Hall of Fame variety, former NBA star and Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes. Any time I can add a Hall of Famer for the same cost it would be to buy a blank card and send it through the mail, or participate in a private signing, I'm more likely to partake in just buying it flat out for a good value on eBay. 

I recently got another through the mail request returned to me, this time from 49ers Hall of Fame linebacker Dave Wilcox. I chose a 1970 Topps card, which looking back I realize I have picked quite often for getting cards signed from the guys from that era. That was not a conscious choice so I assume I keep picking them since they make for good autographs. 

 Thanks to  Sports Collectors  as usual, I was able to partake in a pretty cool signing for a current superstar in the NFL, Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson. When Jefferson was drafted I purchased a couple of is Panini Optic rookie cards to see if they would go up in value. News flash: they have.  As you can see, this is a chrome card so I had to prep it a little bit before sending it to make sure it wouldn't bleed with ink on it. Looks like it still did slightly, but I am overall pretty happy with how this turned out. I picked yellow as the autograph color since it is a Vikings accent color and thought it would look good on when contrasted to the purple and white of the Vikings' uniform. In my opinion, the yellow pops and makes this card look good.

 I recently made a couple of budget buys of two possible (probable?) NFL Hall of Famers in former Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers as well as former Rams receiver Torry Holt. I bought both of these on eBay, and for what in my opinion was a value, as I think both will likely end up in the Hall someday, bumping up their value.  The Rivers card is Upper Deck, which in and of itself drives the value down. Upper Deck is just really no longer a coveted company as it was in the mid to late 90's. The Holt is on the opposite end of the spectrum. This is from the Flawless set, the autograph is on the card itself, and it's numbered 6 of 25. Despite these facts going for it, this card was about $30, as was the Rivers. I'll take a beautiful card like the Holt and a probable future HOF QB for $30 many times over. 

 The second in my late November batch of through the mail requests came back recently, this time in the form of hockey Hall of Famer Bob Pulford.  As you can see, at what point Mr. Pulford was a player for the Los Angeles Kings, whom he later went on and coached, but his playing days were more known for his long stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also later became the architect of the Chicago Blackhawks as well as their head coach. He was kind enough to sign this card with the HOF 91 inscription. It's a very clean autograph for a man that is currently 86 years old. 

 I was able to find another small batch of Hall of Fame athletes that I have yet to include in my autograph collection who also return through the mail requests. I sent these items out a couple of weeks ago, and the first one came back in just one week. Former Chargers offensive lineman and football Hall of Famer Ron Mix, returned a signed card with his HOF 1979 inscription.  This has aesthetic appeal to me because I absolutely love the Chargers old uniforms. The fact that Mr. Mix still lives in the San Diego area is also what helped get the return back so fast.

 There aren't too many local card stores in my area, and the ones I do go to tend to be on the pricier side. That being said, I did mosey on over to one on Black Friday to see if they had anything discounted. When I walked in, I saw that they had a bunch of cards for 50% off, so I stocked up on a bunch of that. I bought two Panini Score 2022 Football H2 boxes, I bought four 2021-22 Topps UEFA Champions League Hobby boxes, and one 2005 Topps Baseball Hobby box.  I hit nothing in either of the football boxes from an autograph standpoint, but I did hit a big autograph out of one of the four Champions League boxes.  This is Barcelona youngster Ansu Fati, who has an immense upside, and it's numbered /99. I'll take a Barcelona hit every time when it comes to soccer, especially a numbered version. I also hit quite a few big numbered cards, including some rookies that have values well into the hundreds.  Out of the baseball box, I pulled my first ever redemption. However, th...

 I was participating in another private signing recently and got the return back late last week. One of the few modern Major League Baseball Hall of Famers that I did not have in my signed card collection, Eddie Murray, was doing another signing that I became privy to via Sportscollectors.net.  This time I actually sent a rookie card, and the placement of the autograph by Mr. Murray was perfect. As you can see, I also ponied up for the HOF 2003 inscription as well. 

 For a recent signing I participated in, I decided to send a somewhat different style of card. One thing about Ray Bourque and the Bruins is that it is difficult to find cards of theirs that have a lot of signing arear. Since black is a major color of the team, quite often a big portion of the card has black and that doesn't lend itself to a visible signature. As such, I went the Upper Deck route this time and chose a card from the Masterpieces set. Masterpieces are artwork cards and I thought getting one signed might look pretty good.  To be honest, I do like the way it ended up looking. The blue signature pops on the background, and it does look like a little piece of art with gold bordering. 

 I wanted to combine some product I recently opened into one post. I bought a retail blaster of the 2021/22 Topps Merlin Premier League, and hit what I thought was a big autograph. I was happy when I pulled a Manchester City midfielder (and one of the best players in the world) Kevin de Bruyne signed card. To me, getting any autograph out of retail is a good thing, especially when it's one of the elite active players in world soccer. Last week I also bought a masters box of 2021/22 Topps Finest Bundesliga. For those not familiar, the Bundesliga is the German professional league which is home to teams like Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. The master boxes have two guaranteed autographs and they are very affordable as far as cards go due to the Bundesliga not being as popular a league as the English or Spanish leagues. I have to say, it was a really fun rip. I hit twelve numbered cards which includes both autographs I pulled being numbered autos. Neither was a big name, but the cards lo...

 Yesterday I received the last of all of my recent through the mail requests, as I got a return from former St Louis Cardinals (before they moved to Arizona) cornerback Roger Wehrli. He was kind enough to include his HOF '07 inscription, and the card I chose to send him was a 1976 Topps. As mentioned, this is the last of the returns I expect to get back at this point. I have a couple of other pending requests but it has been months now so I will assume those ones are gone. I'm going to need to find a new batch of players that is signing through the mail, but it's getting tougher and tougher to find Hall of Famers I do not have yet in my collection. 

 I had the opportunity to send a couple of cards in to a signing with two hockey and NHL Hall of Famers, Brett Hull and Adam Oates. Both of these players played smack dab in the middle of the timeframe that I grew up watching hockey, so I have many memories of both. Hull was always a sniper that scored goals and Oates was a great passer and playmaker.  I've had that Brett Hull Upper Deck card for years and even as a kid always thought it lent itself to being perfect for an autograph. Turns out I was right, because that card looks great signed on the ice where he signed it. I now have both Hulls in my autograph collection, father and son. I purchased the Oates 1987-88 Topps rookie card because red is an easy color to see a signature over and because it was an affordable option. The interesting thing about sending in to hockey Hall of Famer signings is that they are always so much cheaper than all but the oldest baseball Hall of Famers. It is really easy to build a hockey signed...

 It's always a good success when you get a through the mail request returned, and even more so when it's a Hall of Fame quarterback. That's what happened yesterday, when I received my card back from former Miami Dolphins QB Bob Griese. Griese was the QB of the Dolphins team that went 14-0 for the first handful of game before getting injured and having to be replaced, but he did return to lead the team to the Super Bowl that season. I now have 10 signed cards from NFL Hall of Famers. Peyton Manning Brett Favre Drew Brees Sonny Jurgensen Roger Staubach Frank Tarkenton Warren Moon Dan Fouts Jim Kelly Bob Griese

 My last post of the day will be a guy that people my age will remember as "The Dream", NBA Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon. I was never a big NBA guy compared to the other major sports but I do remember watching Olajuwon play with a finesse seldom seen in big men in the NBA.  The card above is a 2020-21 Panini Mosaic auto that I added via eBay. A Pattern I've begun noticing is that a lot of Hall of Famers charger more to send a card to a private signing than their certified autos go for on the resell market. In other words, it was cheaper for me to buy this than to buy a card, send it in to a signing, and pay the fee for the signature. I've added a few Mosaic autos similar to the above over the last couple of years. A couple were cards I pulled from packs myself like Fabio Cannavaro and others I bought like Wayne Rooney. The shininess to the cards make the sticker autos harder to see in my opinion, which is a bonus. 

 Sorry for the information dump but I have accumulated quite a few cool autographs over the past six weeks or so and hadn't caught up on the posts until today. Three of those additions were Major League Baseball Hall of Famers. Well technically two of them are already in and one is expected to make it over the next few years.  The first autograph is of Mike Schmidt. I had not yet added Mr. Schmidt to my autograph collection and had considered either sending a request through the mail or via a private signing, which he does a few of every year. However, there are rumors (it's likely more substantiated than rumors based on how they look) that his TTM autographs are actually ghost signed. In terms of the private signings I noticed that buying a certified auto straight off eBay was actually cheaper than sending in my own card to get signed, so that was the route I took.  The second autograph I want to discuss is another Topps Heritage autograph, my  feelings  of whi...

 I posted about a month ago about finding two autographs out of one blaster box of Panini Prestige Football 2022, so I had to go and buy a few more boxes to see if my luck would continue. I did end up hitting a couple more autographs, including the number one overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Jags rookie defensive end Travon Walker. When you combine this card with the Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner and the Derek Stingley Jr. autographs from that one box I posted about before, that gives me three of the top four picks from the 2022 draft. Obviously they are all defensive players which have less value but there is a good chance at least one of these guys becomes a bona fide star in the NFL. Three rookie card autos out of the first four picks in the draft is something I was not expecting to hit. My luck did not stop there, however, as a few boxes later I pulled yet another first round defensive lineman autograph rookie card, this time of Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt. That mak...

 I received a through the mail return from a football Hall of Famer earlier this week, former Minnesota Vikings safety Paul Krause. This was a quick turnaround for my 1975 Topps card. One thing I've noticed about these vintage football cards is that they always had the players pose in goofy stances and there were never really any action shots. In looking through my collection I see that all of the older cards look either like the one below or just the player sitting there smiling like a yearbook photo. Modern cards are definitely cooler but I still dig the way the autograph looks on the vintage cards too. 

 I recently got a card back for a signing from yet another Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, this time from a player I've never had an item signed by. I am talking about the stolen base king Rickey Henderson. I am really running out of Hall of Fame baseball players to add to my collection, at least when it comes to guys who played in the 90's and before. The modern guys are a bit more expensive so maybe someday a lot of them will come down in cost to the point where it's worth adding a lot of them as well. 

 Former Major League Baseball commissioner, Milwaukee Brewers owner, and Padres  legend  Bud Selig was my most recent through the mail success. That last part is very tongue in cheek for Padres fans. If you don't believe me, check that link.  I picked an Allen & Ginter card to send to the former commish, and this was a very quick turnaround of about a week wait. He is the second baseball commissioner I have added to my collection, joining current commissioner Robert Manfred, who sent me a signed  baseball  two years ago. I know Mr. Selig oversaw the whole steroid era and the mistake of making the All-Star gar mean something, but he also helped usher in Interleague play. I am happy with this return because there aren't a lot of commissioners in baseball history, and I have autographs from two of them.

 I was able to add two more NFL Hall of Famers to my collection at solid prices, including one that I have had trouble trying to get in person in the past.  Marcus Allen has always been notoriously difficult at in person signing attempts, and I experienced that same thing at a few of the celebrity golf tournaments held here locally in San Diego. I decided to add him to the collection via another National Treasures card.  Michael Strahan was more expensive than Allen but I still found a price I was fine with for an older, less coveted version of his autograph, this one coming via Skybox from the early 2000s. 

 I'm starting to run out of still living Hall of Fame baseball players to sign items to for signings, at least when it comes to the guys that played in the 90's and before. Some of the more modern Hall of Famers are much more expensive because they made so much more money during their careers that it costs more to get them to even participate in a signing in the first place. I just received a card back from an Ozzie Smith signing, and as you can see it's a 1987 Topps, which is a set I really like the look of.

  This is obviously not a sports related autograph, but it's cool nonetheless. About a year ago I saw that Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, was doing a signing with SWAU, which is a company that hosts a lot of signings with big names actors in the Marvel and Star Wars worlds. They are often pricey as well, since sometimes they are huge celebrities. My wife loves Chris Hemsworth, so I decided to get her an autograph at the signing that was taking place. Unfortunately Covid restrictions and scheduling conflicts kept pushing the signing out, so when I finally saw that SWAU had finally sat down with Chris and have him sign, I got my hopes up. A week or so later, this photo came in the mail. We then took it to Hobby Lobby and had them frame the thing in the gold and red you see below.  Now we have to find a place to put this thing, which will probably be directly over my wife's head in her spot on the bed. 

 In a request that took about a month to come back, I got an NFL Hall of Fame kicker for the second time. This time, it was the "Great Dane" Morten Andersen. As mentioned, it's the second Hall of Fame kicker's autograph I've gotten, the first being Jan Stenerud in person at a celebrity golf tournament many years ago.  I've been spoiled with how much success I've had with through the mail autograph requests, so any time something takes over a month I do start to wonder if my card has gotten lost in the mail. As you can see in the above photo, I went with a 93 Fleer card since he was wearing the Saints white jersey, making it very conducive to a legible signature which is exactly what I got. I also like the little smiley face he added to the signature itself. Any time an athlete adds their little personal touch it gives an item a little something different.

 Quite often I'll see a signing going on and will look at the pricing, only to notice that there are signed cards available on sites like eBay that are cheaper than it would be to send a card in for said signing. As such, I frequently peruse possible additions and when I find a price I like, I make the move. Recently, I've added NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed and Liverpool FC midfielder Thiago Alcantara to my collection. As you can see, this is a Prizm auto, and it is numbered to /149. I bought this card for the price that it would probably cost to buy an unopened Prizm blaster box, which is quite another point entirely. It is much cheaper to buy singles of cards that you like than it is to buy unopened product from coveted sets like Prizm, Optic, Select, etc. I understand that you lose the allure of opening something where you might find a huge hit, but honestly if I had hit this Ed Reed auto from a box I would have been ecstatic anyway so buying this makes more sense to me.  The ...

  Prestige is not one of the glamour products in Panini's closet, but I have always bought a few boxes when it comes out because it's one of the very first products to have the new NFL rookie class. I'd also heard that some of the blaster boxes people were opening were stuffed with good cards, and one of the three boxes I opened definitely qualified. Not only did each box have two numbered cards, the box I am speaking of in particular also had not one, but two autographs in it! That has never happened to me in a retail product and I think this must have been some sort of QA issue at Panini. Not only did I pull two autographs, but both were rookies, and elite ones at that. I pulled the number three and number four picks in the draft, two highly promising rookie cornerbacks, "Sauce" Gardner and Derek Stingley. The Gardner card was a red ink version /199, while the Stingley was a base auto. I would have been thrilled with pulling one of these guys, so the fact I got ...

 This happened over a month ago but I forgot to post about it. I bought one of the Bowman baseball mega boxes off the Target website and I've had relatively good success with Bowman in the past. Last year while on the road in New Mexico my kids and I hit a huge  Julio Rodriguez  green auto out of 99 out of a Bowman cello pack. It was a big hit then, and even bigger now since he looks like a legitimate super star. In this particular box, I hit another Mariners prospect auto, this time a green chrome on card auto also out of 99 of prospect Harry Ford, one of the Mariners' best prospects. Oddly enough, about a week before I pulled this card, my son and I attended a game in Lake Elsinore, California to see the Storm play the Mariners affiliate, and we both noticed Harry had a good approach at the plate. Hopefully down the road he ends up being a good major leaguer and this card will gain value like the Rodriguez did.  Sitting first row behind home plate.

 Six months ago, perhaps a bit longer, I received a return from Jack Youngblood that had been ripped open and the card missing. Last week I opened the mailbox and saw an envelope that had a huge rip down the middle of it, so you can imagine my surprise when I felt that there was still a card in it. As you can see, Mr. Smith signed the card in what looks like ball point pen and also included his HOF 94 inscription. The fact this card was still in the envelope with the card intact makes this a win regardless of what the autograph itself looks like.