SoCal Autograph Odysses

 It was inevitable that I would eventually have to post about an autograph I have in my collection that turned out to be fake, and that day has come.  Back in 2012 I purchased a Willie Mays ball from a dealer at the TriStar show in San Francisco. Keep in mind, I have been in the hobby for 25 years so even 10 years ago I was pretty knowledgeable. That did not stop me from getting hoodwinked though! The ball in question had both 'Say Hey' and JSA authentication, meaning it is in the JSA database as authentic and had Mays' own authentication sticker as well so I assumed I was pretty safe, especially considering the signature itself was close to examples I had seen. Ten years on, I've gained a lot more knowledge as my collection has increased, and I'd recently come across some discourse about fake 'Say Hey' hologram Mays baseballs saturating the market. When looking over a lot of the examples of these baseballs I noticed that mine looked pretty much spot on when

 Over the last few years I've been adding autographs to my collection at a pace that has allowed me an insufficient amount of time to go back and post some autographs that I got in the distant past.  Of the three autographs I'm about to share, I actually think all of them predate 2004, the year that Petco Park opened here in San Diego.  I am 90% sure I got all of these signed while the Padres still played at their previous home, Qualcomm Stadium.  All three were also signed in person during batting practice.   The first autograph is of former Diamondbacks 50 homerun hitter and World Series hero, Luis Gonzalez.  Gonzalez had some very good seasons for the DBacks in the late 90's and into the early 2000's.  It's possible this autograph was obtained in person at Petco Park but I want to say it was circa 2002 at Qualcomm.  Gonzalez is under PED suspicion since his career before his breakout in the desert was a journeyman type of player.  Over 350 homeruns gets him into

 This list will consist of cards I either bought off fellow collectors or found on Ebay throughout the course of 2021. Listed will be the players name as a link so that you can go back and read the original post if you want.   #5. (tie) Ryan Mountcastle #5. (tie) Onyeka Okongwu I couldn't decide between young guys with upside in different sports.  Ryan Mountcastle is probably the better card overall because it is numbered and Oknongwu is in the NBA and those cards tend to be more valuable when the player is good.  Both are rookie cards.  Either of these cards could end up being a bust however the price point was low enough to where the upside long term bumped them both into a tie for the fiftgh spot.  #4.  Pete Alonso This card was added as part of a group of Topps Heritage 2021 autographs I purchased in a short amount of time.  That list also includes Christian Yelich and Starling Marte, but Alonso seems to have more value due to his homerun prowess.  I started the year not really

 The second of my four recent through the mail requests came back the day after Tom Mack, which I posted about yesterday.  This time, it was another NFL legend and Hall of Famer, plus member of the NFL's all time top 100 team, Ted Hendricks.  He might be familiar to older Packers, Raiders, and Colts fans, but he played long enough ago where the NFL wasn't quite as popular so even though he was an all time great, he may not be a household name.   I chose an older 1972 Topps card.  I typically tend to go with the vertical cards for ease of display, but in this particular case I had a tough time finding a vintage vertical card that I thought would look good with an autograph.  This also happens to be his rookie card. Thanks for reading. 

 After a hiatus of a couple months, I received a through the mail request back from NFL Hall of Famer and Rams' lineman Tom Mack.  I had no pending TTM requests sent out for close to two months before sending four requests out in late December.  This one from Mr. Mack was the first of the four to be returned. The card I purchased for this autograph was a 1971 Topps, and the result was nice.  Mr. Mack was also nice enough to add his HOF 99 inscription.  I recommend using the TTM tracker on this blog to see all current and past requests, with insights as to how long you can expect returns from specific athletes.  

 I got my second return from a private signing this year, this time by way of a signing done with Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar.  I bought an '88 Donruss Rated Rookie card of Roberto while he was still a member of the Padres. I originally sent this card out in early November because the signing was to have taken place around Christmas.  I am happy with this result, and as you can see I had him add the HOF 2011 inscription.    

 For the first time in 2022, I opened some sealed product.  It started over the Christmas break when my wife got me a H2 box of 2021 NFL Panini Classics and some Prizm Premier League.  I didn't find any autos in those boxes (but I did find plenty of numbered cards in the Classics box) so I did not post about them.  I recently celebrated my birthday and my gifts consisted of another Classics H2 box plus some other retail products I got off of Target.com.  As a side note, the Panini Classics football cards are really fun to rip because they have so many numbered parallels.  I pulled a lot of big numbered cards, including three cards numbered to 10.  My brother in law actually pulled a 1 of 1 Tom Brady out of a box about six weeks ago.  The cards I bought off of Target consisted entirely of NBA products, which I have found difficult to find in the past.  I was able to procure a mega box of Panini Chronicles and Illusions.  I also was able to get a blaster box of Panini Flux.  Of all t

 My first autograph addition of 2022 came back yesterday, and it was a big one.  In October I sent a Greg Maddux Topps rookie card to a private signing that would be happening over the holidays.  I was expecting the card to look good with a blue autograph on it, and when I opened the mail and saw the result, I was definitely happy with it. This was one of those instances where getting the rookie card was financially doable as well as a situation where the card itself would not hide the autograph.  This was a good start to 2022.

 The following is a recap of all the autographs I added via paid signings events over the course of 2021.  I actually got to attend an in person autograph signing in Las Vegas with Emmitt Smith, which was the first public signing I have attended in a few years, mostly due to Covid. The rest of this list all came the way of private signings that I shipped things to.  As you will see, all of the items (sans one Justin Herbert 11x14 photo) were done on cards.  The past two years I've made quite a shift in the type of items I am requesting to be sent, as baseballs tend to bleed and fade a lot and photos take up a lot of space if you want to display them.  As far as the baseballs, I've personally noticed that bleeding has become an issue with the modern baseballs more than the older Bud Selig baseballs.  Without further ado, here is the list of athletes I added to my collection through these signings.  If you want to look up the original blog I posted for each signing, please use th

 I'll preface this post by saying this is strictly related only to autographs I pulled from sealed products I bought throughout 2021.  I'm not counting any non autographed cards.  I don't usually buy a whole bunch of sealed product, so my list won't be as grandiose as some others you might see in the hobby.  Most of my autograph collection (at least the more recent additions) comes from doing through the mail requests or by going through signings.  That being said, it's always fun to look back at some what I pulled.  I'll list these in reverse order of what I believe are my top 5.  You can click the name to see the original post. #5.  Bayron Lora I was debating between this card and Luis Garcia (numbered to 499) but went with the Lora card, since I still think the long term upside is higher with this.  It's his 1st Bowman auto and was pulled from an expensive Bowman Chrome box.  We will see how this pans out long term but for now I think it slides into my fi