SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Back to the product that kicked off the card kick I've embarked on over the last few years! Panini Diamond Kings is not one of the favored products by the masses due to its being unlicensed and not having any MLB team names or logos. However, I still think the presentation of the cards is quite unique with the art style and texture on them. As such, during a brief trip to Target over the last weekend I picked up a couple blasters of the 2022 version of the product. My luck with opening new products continued, as I hit a numbered auto of Giants closer Camilo Doval. As you can see, I got the Jackie Robinson number 42/50. I still think this product is appealing to the eye. I'm always happy to pull an autograph out of retail product where it's not guaranteed, and I pulled one of the better up and coming closers in baseball to boot.

 We are going off the wall with this through the mail request and talking about one of the non major sports. It would actually probably be considered non mid-level sports, but I am one of those collectors that wants to go after the greats in every sport, and so I sent a request to one of if not the greatest all time bowlers, Pete Weber. Much like with the requests I have sent to swimming and Olympic great Mark Spitz, or with the all time greats in racing, this request was much different than what I typically would send out. However, Pete Weber is literally the only bowler I can name and every time I happened to see it on ESPN, he was the one competing. Look up his stats. He's won everything and widely viewed as the GOAT or damn near that status in his profession. There weren't many cards for me to pick from, so I knew when I sent a card with a dark colored shirt in the background it might cause the auto to be hard to see. Still, it's a solid autograph and not too hidden int

 I've been on a little bit of the original football (aka soccer) kick lately and added another Premier League and England football legend Wayne Rooney to my collection, by way of looking for some deals on eBay.  You might remember this type of  autographed card being pulled by me when I bought a Panini Mosaic H2 box a few months ago. On that occasion, I pulled a Fabio Cannavaro autograph out of the box, and I really liked the look of the card at the time.  The Mosaic Scripts autographs pop for me. Also hitting the David Beckham autograph a couple weeks ago out of Prizm got me wanting more soccer autographs in my collection. 

 I used sportscollectors.net again a few months ago to do a signing for a player I did not yet have in my collection. The signing was once again done via Tom Orr, and it was with former Kansa City Royal and current Hall of Famer, George Brett. I have noticed that he is a bit pricier than a lot of the other Hall of Famers that sign, but it's because he doesn't sign a lot and doesn't participate in many signings. As always, I'm happy with the quality of the card and the signature. The autograph itself stands out quite well on this card, and I did not send a rookie card into the signing because it was double the price. I currently have one more card out with Tom for another signing, but I'm not spoiling who it is because it's such a massive star.  Follow me on Instagram @ kingklong88 to stay up to date with all the autos I add. My next post will be about another soccer star. Thanks for reading. 

 One of the very first through the mail requests I sent six years ago was to Mavericks legend and future basketball Hall of  Famer Dirk Nowitzki. At the time I wasn't sending cards to anyone which I later realized was much easier and took up much less space. He had previously sent me back a signed 8x10 photo, which I still have  displayed . This time, I decided to send him a Topps rookie card, and about five weeks later I got this return in the mail. I'm very happy with this return, and it went straight into my NBA signed card case. I do currently still have two big private signing returns due to come back at some point soon as well as a few through the mail requests, though that number has dwindled to the point where I'm sure I'll be seeing fewer successes coming through. 

 I consider myself a pretty big fan of soccer. I watch every Liverpool FC game of the season (which this season was 63) and have done so for a bit over the last five years. I've become quite knowledgeable about all the different players and teams and just really have come to love the league and the sport. That love has trickled down to the sports cards realm, and recently I actually found some retail mega boxes of both Panini Prizm and Panini Mosaic on Target.com. They arrived today, and I opened the two Prizm megas first. The first box contained easily the biggest pull I have ever hit while opening a pack of cards.  You don't need to be a fan of soccer to know who this is. David Beckham is a global star on par with the likes of some of the biggest American sport stars. I compare pulling this card to pulling a LeBron James. Jordan level? Not quite but the next rung down. I was so excited when I did the slow reveal on the card and saw the CL-DBE on the back. I can't overstat

 Five years ago I bought a photo of both Bob Gibson and Al Kaline with the intent of having them both sign it. I sent it to Mr. Kaline first and he returned it signed, which you can read about  here . Unfortunately, I procrastinated on sending the photo in for a Bob Gibson signing (he did not sign through the mail) and he ended up passing away before I was able to complete the photo. As such, I ended up having nothing of Mr. Gibson's in my collection so I recently decided to look for a signed card on eBay.  I ended up choosing a 2019 Topps Museum Collection card. These are on card and since he was a pitcher, albeit an upper echelon Hall of Fame pitcher, his price wasn't exorbitant. I think he partook in so many signings that a lot of his stuff is out there, keeping the cost down. 

 An autograph request I sent about two and a half months ago came back back recently, this time in the form of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and former Minnesota Twins legend Tony Oliva. If you're a reader of this blog, you'll probably remember that I recently pulled a signed Tony Oliva card out of a Topps Heritage 2022 hobby box. That actually happened the day after I had sent this autograph request through the mail. When I got the card back, I noticed that Mr. Oliva at first had mistakenly signed the plastic sleeve the card was in rather than the card itself, but noticed that he had done that and signed the card as well. I'd heard about that happening to some other people in the past but this is the first time it has happened to me and I'm glad he caught it before sending it back.  As you can see, I sent in a 1972 Topps card because I ended up liking the look of these after having bought some 2021 Topps Heritage retail product and hit autographs out of them. Mr.