SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I went back to the well that has been Topps Heritage product, as I have outlined many times on this blog that for whatever reason my luck with this set has been pretty good. I saw a hobby box of 2021 high numbered Heritage for sale for under $60 so took another shot. I received a mini Salvador Perez /100, a silver chrome Trevor Larnach rookie card /572, and a Hunter Renfroe base chrome /999. On top of that, I hit on another autograph rather than a memorabilia card again, which is what I prefer. To make the hit even better, for the second consecutive hobby box I pulled a Hall of Famer. This time, it was the "Dominican Dandy" and former Giants' pitcher Juan Marichal. I had previously sent in a successful through the mail request to Mr. Marichal at the beginning of 2021, so this is the second signed Marichal card I own. Again, I really like the look of these cards signed. Vintage style cards are nice, and this is a remake of the 1972 set. I've had so much success with H...

 As expected, I got a return from the other Sedin twin, Daniel, just a couple days after Henrik returned his card signed. As I explained on my post about the Henrik autograph, I wrote a cool letter to each brother explaining how I watched them get drafted and always feared them when the Kings played them. I'm telling you, the vision these two had while on the ice was all time NHL elite.  I wanted this autograph to match the one from Henrik so purchased another numbered to 99 card of the same Upper Deck set. I'm going to of course put both of these cards next to each other in my display case. 

 Retail cards are a huge gamble, and more often than not a losing proposition overall. It's rare that you will even pull the amount of value out of the cards equal to what it cost to get them. That being said, it's a fun thing to rip open new packs and see what you get and honestly, I feel like I actually have decent luck when it comes to retail product.  Over the past couple of days, I opened three products. One was 2022 Topps Heritage Baseball, and this time it was a mega box from Target. Autographs are not guaranteed in this product, in fact the odds are 1:216 packs. The box comes with 17 packs, so I'll let you do the math. Guess what? I pulled an autograph in the fourth pack. Matt Manning is not a huge name, but he was a highly regarded prospect in the Tigers organization at one point, and this is his rookie card. I always say I'll take any auto when it comes to retail, especially when one is not likely. I also pulled a silver chrome Walker Buehler (1:318 packs) num...

 For my latest through the mail success, I actually had a bit of fun in writing to the athlete, in this case Vancouver Canucks legend and future Hall of Famer Henrik Sedin. The reason being that since I am an LA Kings, I watched many playoff games between the Canucks and the Kings, who developed a bit of a rivalry in the earlier part of the 2010s. I explained to Henrik in the letter I wrote that I was at the playoff games and booed the crap out of he and his twin brother Daniel, but that I actually always respected them and their goaltending teammate Roberto Luongo. I said in the note that one of the best memories of being a Kings fan was actually watching Dustin Brown demolish Henrik on a clean hit in the playoffs.  That being said, I let him know that he and his brother were always class players, and I loved watching them get drafted together, then their entire careers, and then retiring at the same time. On the power play, these guys were deadly. I actually picked a numbere...

 I have been wanting to add an Albert Pujols signed card to my collection for some time, to go along with the Rookie of the Year inscribed baseball he signed for me years ago at a public signing you can read about  here . I had been keeping an eye in particular on the 2021 Topps Heritage Pujols auto because it was the set where I pulled the Vlad Guerrero Jr. auto last year that looked so good. The issue I ran into was the pricing on Pujols autos are a bit prohibitive for the obvious reason that he will be a first ballot, slam dunk hall of famer.  However, I made an offer on one of them for a cost I was comfortable with, and the seller accepted it. I really, really like the look of this card. This is now the seventh auto I have from this set, and easily the biggest name. It joins the Vlad Jr, Christian Yelich, Pete Alonso, Starling Marte, Patrick Corbin, and Luis Patino I have previously acquired in different ways. 

 I took a detour from all of the hockey returns I have been getting lately and went back to where my biggest collection lies, the sport of baseball. I had seen over the last few months that Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley was returning a lot of through the mail requests, and I also saw that there were a lot  of requests being sent to him. I decided to jump on the train before it was too late because I am starting to get the inkling that Dennis is getting so swamped with requests that he might just stop signing altogether. I have no evidence to support this notion, just a gut feeling. As such, I did as I pretty much always do and sent only one card, plus paid a bit over the "fee" that was notated on the Eckersley TTM page. I figured that would be enough to get the autograph back, and it came back just 13 days after I sent it in.  The result of this signature on the 1984 Topps I chose was a good one. This looks clean and visible and looks good on the vintage card....

 The stream of hockey Hall of Famer through the mail successes continued to flow this week as one of the greatest defenseman of his time, Brad Park returned a card signed to me. If you read up about Mr. Park, you will see that he was a many time runner up for the Norris trophy, awarded to the league's best defenseman, because he played at the same time that Bobby Orr did. Either way, he was a great, great player and I am happy to add him to my collection.  Per what has become my usual modus operandi, I picked an older Topps card with a lot of boards/ice in the picture to make the signature look better. 

 A request I sent a couple months ago to Canada for hockey and NHL Hall of Fame speedster Mike Gartner came back successful yesterday. I sent another older Topps card that looks good with an autograph, and I am happy with the result. I've noticed that some of the requests I've been sending to Canada have taken quite a bit longer, which makes sense with customs, etc. Oddly, this return was postmarked from Florida. Mike Gartner was the first player I remember being blown away by his speed while watching the NHL skills competition as a kid. He could fly, and I told him as much in the request letter I wrote. Actually, this brings up a good recommendation if you're interested in this hobby. When sending letters of request to athletes, always write something, make it personal, and make it short. I've had tremendous success in my returns thus far and I think my strategy works. 

 Another hockey hall of  fame TTM success came through this week, and this time it was former Bruins forward Johnny Bucyk. This request was actually sent to the Bruins alumni association at the TD Garden in Boston. I picked a 1976-77 Topps hockey card to send to Mr. Bucyk. Receiving this card makes me wonder when I'll be getting the other athlete I sent to at the same address, so that is a major hint for the guessers. 

 I received another hockey Hall of Famer through the mail signed card towards the end of last week, this time in the form of former Red Wings and first Czech to come to the NHL, Vaclav Nedomansky. His stats aren't the greatest in the world and would probably not be worthy of the Hall of Fame but any time you can get the autograph of a trailblazer in their respective sport, it means a bit more. There weren't a lot of his cards to choose from so I went with the 1979-80 Topps version of his card. 

 We will start April off by discussing a couple of signed cards I have opened recently through sealed products. The first product was one in which I was guaranteed an autograph, and that was an H2 box of 2020-21 Panini Mosaic Euro Soccer. These boxes come with 18 packs and many of the people I saw opening this product were getting multiple numbered parallels. Overall, I'd argue that my box came in under value as I only received one numbered blue card /99 (Thiago Alcantara) but my auto was a pretty good one.  It is a base auto but Fabio Cannavaro was one of the best defenders of his time, if not all time, and actually won the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA player of the year which defenders almost never do. He captained Italy and helped them to a World Cup in 2006. In terms of renowned players of his era, Cannavaro was up there so I could have done a lot worse with the autograph pull. Also, the card itself is pleasing to the eye.  I pulled another auto card and this time it was ...