SoCal Autograph Odysses

 For whatever reason, Bowman has often been good to me when I open the product. From the Julio Rodriguez prospect auto /99 to the Harry Ford chrome auto /99 to the Colton Cowser rookie on card auto /99 I hit just this year. There have also been a dozen or so other autographs out of the product. Arguably the second best hit I've ever gotten out of the product last Friday, when I got one lonely blaster off a Target shelf and somehow managed to pull one of the biggest pitching prospects in decades, Pirates ace Paul Skenes. This is an on cars chrome auto. It's a great hit, and it was cool knowing an auto was in the box, slow rolling it by pulling the card in front of it down slowly to reveal what was behind it, and then seeing the Pirates logo followed by the mustache. My son and I knew right away who it was and we were both pumped. In a blaster a few days before this, we also hit this autograph card. I don't know much about this guy but it's always cool to pull a 1st Bowma...

 I don't know who has been watching any of the Euros this year, but if you have and have caught Spain play, then you will know that they have a 16 year old kid with a bright future who has been playing very well for both his country and his club team Barcelona. Lamine Yamal, who as you may  recall  I posted about a month or so ago, is someone I've become keenly interested in collecting since I think there is a tremendous amount of talent that he has and potential profit potential from a collector's standpoint down the road. I pulled two of his numbered rookie cards from a Topps Finest box I opened last month, and have since bought a few more on eBay. At my LCS in Carlsbad, CA I went back and saw that they had his rookie autograph in store as well. I decided I wanted it, and bought it.  It's possible that this kid plateaus and never becomes a star, so I hope this upward trajectory he has shown continues. Either way, it's a cool rookie auto of a coveted young player t...

One of the best players in the NHL during the era I grew up was American born Dallas Stars forward Mike Modano. Drafted by the Minnesota North Stars before their relocation to Dallas, I always appreciated Modano's grace on the ice. The man was an underrated star for a long time and rightly earned his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I participated in a recent private signing and sent in a rookie card of his from the 1990-91 season.

I recently tried my hand at some Topps products from my local card store,  Coastal Sports Cards & Collectibles . I bought myself a regular hobby box of 2024 Topps Series 2. These hobby boxes run for a bit over $100 and come with either a mem card or an autograph. I don't know what the percentages are but I know that most of the time that means you're going to pull a memorabilia card rather than an autograph. I somehow managed to get a box that had two autographs, one in the bonus pack that comes in every hobby box and one in the standard packs as well. Neither of these autographs is a big name but both are rookies, and one is on card.  The Johan Rojas was the pull from the bonus mojo pack, and the Jordan Wicks was pulled from the standard packs and is an on card autograph. Like I mentioned, neither of these guys is a star and in fact Rojas just got sent back down to the minors. However, I don't think it's very easy to pull an autograph from the bonus packs and I was...

 A couple months ago, former NHL outstanding goaltender and Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek had a signing and I sent into it. The reason I'm posting about this two months later is that it took that long for me to get my signed card back from the third party individual I used to get the card signed. This is the first time I've experienced this issue in my five plus years of using sportscollectors.net. I was told a few times afterward that he bad not yet gotten around to shipping but when I asked again for the last time, he mentioned I hadn't sent in an SASE with my request. An SASE is a self addressed stamped envelope and it's something I send with every through the mail request I send in whether it's directly to the athlete or through a third party like in this case. Of course I'd sent one in, so what likely happened here was a mistake on the other end where the SASE was misplaced or something else happened where things got unorganized. When I contacted the third pa...

 I recently got tipped off as to when Target gets their card deliveries from their vendor, so last week I went in and was able to purchase more product than I have ever previously been able to find. One of the products I bought was 2023 Panini Contenders football and in the first box I pulled this variation auto.  This is a rookie auto of Broncos rookie receiver Marvin Mims. This is a nice looking card and it's always fun to hit something good out of Contenders since it's so base heavy. This is the second time I've pulled a Mims auto out of retail. To check out the history of any player, just type the name into the search function.