SoCal Autograph Odysses

 March has been a very busy month from an autograph point of view, though over the last week it has slowed down a bit. Yesterday was the first request that came back to me for close to a week despite the fact that I have over ten requests currently pending. The request that came back was one I'd sent on March 7th, so it took about three weeks to come back. The return came from former Rangers and Red Wings goalie and hockey Hall of Famer Ed Giacomin.  As you can see, I picked a vintage 1971-72 Topps card, and Mr. Giacomin included his HOF 87 inscription. I expect I'll be seeing a slew of returns over a short amount of time with all of the pending requests that went out over the last few weeks. 

 My most recent through the mail return came from an athlete outside of the main American sports that I typically send my requests to. Usually I will send my requests to players in the five major sports, but in the past I have gone outside that realm and sent to some golfers and drivers. Yesterday saw my first success from an Olympic champion, nine time gold medal winner Mark Spitz, the American swimmer. For the younger crowd, Mr. Spitz was Michael Phelps before Michael Phelps.  As I have mentioned in the past, I like to send my requests almost exclusively to Hall of Fame athletes, and I consider Mark Spitz to be in that category. I found out that Allen & Ginter had a card of Mr. Spitz, and as I have in the past with Brandi Chastain and Mario Andretti, I chose this one to be signed. As you can see above, the result is a very solid looking card. 

 I mentioned on my Elvin Bethea post yesterday that I had some product being delivered from Target in the afternoon, and that I would post about it if we hit an autograph. The product was three hangers of 2021 Panini Mosaic Football, a product of which I've watched a few YouTube videos of people opening these to get a feel for what people are hitting. I did not see anyone hit an autograph, but I saw many people hitting excellent inserts like Genesis and Honeycomb Prizms. Well, in my third and final box yesterday I actually did pull an autograph.  It's not exactly a big name, as Cornell Powell was a rookie WR that got cut by the Chiefs and then re-signed to their practice squad. Nevertheless, it's always fun to hit an autograph in any product in which one is not guaranteed, especially one like Mosaic retail where it doesn't happen a whole lot. The same box that had this auto also had two of the three other best cards I pulled. See photo below; However, arguably the most ...

 The through the mail train continued it's roll in March with yet another success coming back through the mail yesterday. This time, it was yet another former Houston Oiler (the third this month and 4th this year) and NFL Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea. Elvin was an elite defensive end that had over 100 sacks in his career. Not only did Mr. Bethea include his HOF 03 inscription, he also included another signed card in the envelope. As you can see, the card I sent was the same set as the return from LeRoy Kelly, a 1970 Topps football card.  Stay tuned to this blog as more requests continue to roll in and as I get a couple cards back from some private signings. Today I also have some sealed retail product coming of 2022 Panini Mosaic Football, so hopefully I will have something to post about tomorrow.

 Another day, another through the mail request being successful, or at least that's how it has seemed over the last month or so. I mentioned a few weeks back that I had sent out many requests at once and it certainly seems as if I am getting all of those back. This time, it was NFL Hall of Famer and former Browns running back Leroy Kelly, who also included his HOF 1994 inscription. I chose a 1970 Topps for this request.

I have appreciated every single mail request I've received from every athlete that has returned one to me. Almost every one of the requests I send out goes to a Hall of Famer in their respective sport, or at the very least someone that is elite at what they do. That being said, every now and again I get a return that gets the heart pumping more than others, and I got one of those returns yesterday. NHL legend Bobby Orr signed and returned a card to me. By legend I mean Mt. Rushmore of hockey level of legend. Number two on the all time NHL list behind Wayne Gretzky. I had chosen a 130 pt thickness Upper Deck card numbered to 249.  I went to Bobby's website and prepaid for a send in card. They emailed me when the card was being mailed back and it took about five days from that point. As you can see, it comes with authentication from Great North Road with matching serial number. As an aside, I get a lot of questions about fees etc for certain athletes. I am constantly surprised ab...

 One of the many TTM requests I've sent over the last couple of months came back a couple of days ago in the former of NFL Hall of Fame linebacker 'Dr. Doom' Robert Brazile. The former Houston Oiler was also kind enough to add his HOF 18 inscription. The card I chose was the 1983 Topps AFC Pro Bowl card, but honestly the colors of the Oilers made it very easy to pick a card that would look good with the autograph.

 Anyone that has followed along with this blog may remember that I had pretty good success with Topps Heritage baseball 2021. One of the first couple of blaster boxes I opened contained a Vlad Guerrero Jr. auto and I really liked the way it looked on the product. I'd previously not really considered myself a fan of the vintage style product but the auto changed my mind. It also helps that Heritage is always one of the most affordable products on the market. Due to these factors, I bought a hobby box of the newly released 2022 off eBay over the weekend and it came in yesterday. In the very first pack, I pulled the indicator that it would be one of the 'hot boxes' that Heritage sends out. It was a purple chrome card and in these boxes, Topps will put one in every pack I opened. What I did not expect was that every one of the cards was either a star or a rookie. I even pulled the chase rookie, Rays shortstop Wander Franco.  The other guarantee you get from these hobby boxes i...

 As a Chargers fan, I was pretty happy to see the return that came back to me yesterday. Former Chargers tight end and pro football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow returned a real nice card back to me complete with HOF '95 inscription. This adds to my collection of Chargers, joining Junior Seau, Lance Alworth, Dan Fouts, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Philip Rivers, Charlie Joiner, Justin Herbert, and Drew Brees (if he counts). You can read about all of those players by using the search feature on this blog. As you can see, this autograph on the card I chose looks real good. I have a Mt. Rushmore of his sport big return coming back to me in the mail this week, so keep checking back to see who it might be. 

 Towards the end of this past December, I sent a TTM request to Jim Kaat. Actually, based on information I saw in a TTM facebook group, I saw that there was a third party person involved with all autograph requests for Mr. Kaat. It wasn't necessarily for a private signing, which I've done often in the past, but the note on the Facebook post specifically said this gentleman would now be handling all mail requests for Mr. Kaat. I sent it to the address requested along with the appropriate fee and waited for over two months. Yesterday, my 1966 Topps card came back signed.

 This past Friday, my second Canadian success came back through the mail. I sent this card to Hockey Hall of Famer Doug Gilmour back on February 9th, and it took just a bit under a month to come back to me signed. Mr. Gilmour was one of the elite two way centers of his time, winning the Selke Trophy in the 1992-93 season. Incidentally, that was the season my LA Kings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Campbell Conference Finals. The Campbell Conference was the precursor to what is currently the Western Conference in the NHL. In my letter to Mr. Gilmour, I told him my current favorite player Anze Kopitar reminded me of his style of play. The two way centers are still to this day extremely underrated as opposed to the offense first players.  I really like the look of this card signed; Knowing that I have been successful on a couple of my attempts north of the border has given me the encouragement to continue to send to more hockey Hall of Famers, many of whom do live in Can...

 A couple of weeks ago I posted on here some of the negatives that come with doing through the mail requests. Basically, you don't really have much control when it comes to what happens when you have items going through the mail. I mentioned that I had received a request back, but it had been split open and the card inside that had been signed by Jack Youngblood had been taken out. There was a 99% chance that someone at the USPS took it. If you want to read a recap of that situation, click  here . In the meantime, instead of buying another Jack Youngblood rookie card and sending him another fee, I just decided to purchase a signed card straight off of Ebay because it ended up being cheaper that way. This is a different style card than I have purchased in the past, as the card itself is actually metal. 

 To celebrate my blog hitting 40,000 views (not a lot for some, but a lot for me), I've decided to give away a signed card of NFL Hall of Fame running back, and member of the NFL's greatest 100, Lenny Moore. In order to be eligible, you must subscribe to this blog.  I will ship this card to the winner that meets the requirements. Thanks again to everyone that reads this blog, I do appreciate you taking the time to do so and humor me in my quest for autographs.  Subscribe by clicking on the left hand side of this blog. 

 I got another through the mail return two days ago, and this time it was former Quebec Nordique and Chicago Blackhawk forward Michel Goulet.  I could not find a vintage card that I thought would look good with his signature on it, so I settled on a modern card that had a cool look to it. I think the result is a good look. This is my 11th NHL TTM success, and I have a few more currently pending, including a few that went to Canada. 

 Another one of the many requests I have sent recently through the mail came back late last week. I sent a request to NFL Hall of Fame lineman and member of the (former) Washington Redskins 'Hogs', Russ Grimm.  As you can see, Mr. Grimm was kind enough to add the 'Hogs' and 'HOF 2010' inscriptions to the card. I've had a lot of TTM requests coming back lately with the HOF addition, which I do appreciate. Keep checking back with this blog frequently, as I have a lot of different irons in the fire currently.