SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I haven't ever participated in buying any hobby boxes from Panini Contenders, so instead recently decided to just get a couple singles for rookie wide receivers I like. If you aren't aware, Panini doesn't have agreements with many of the NFL rookies, so the rookie auto list is pretty bare. Topps (and therefore Fanatics) has the agreement with a lot of the big-name rookies so you have to look at Topps cards to get autos from some of these guys. Of course, the downside to that is then that Topps does NOT have the NFL license, so the autos you pull do not have team logos or team names on the cards. As such, I went with what is considered by some to be some of the cooler rookie NFL autos you can pull, Panini Contenders. Both of these are on card autographs, meaning they aren't on stickers. Ladd McConkey had a fantastic rookie season with the Chargers and his card is the red variation. The Brian Thomas Jr. is numbered 005/149. I think both of these autos look good and go wi...

Last year, I had a lot of luck with my Bowman blasters. I pulled nine autos out of ~30 or so blasters and hit some big names like Paul Skenes and a Colton Cowser rookie auto /99. I also hit quite a bit of color last year with 1st Bowmans and the like. Bowman is always one of the biggest baseball products of the year because it's where you can pull the coveted '1st Bowmans' of prospects which, if they pan out, can lead to some very valuable cards down the line. The consensus every year is that there are a select few high-end ceiling players that people want but the reality is with baseball, you never truly know which players will go boom and which bust.  As you can see, the three autos are all 1st Bowmans, which is nice. The top card is numbered /99. I've opened about 20 blasters and three mega boxes this year and only pulled these three autos. I believe I heard somewhere that they increased the print run and I can believe it based on how many fewer autos I have gotten i...

 One of the few remaining old time baseball Hall of Famers that are still living and whose autograph I don't yet have, Tony Perez is a guy I've been looking to send a card into for some time. I came across a signing recently that he did that was cheaper than I had seen in the past so I decided now was the time.  This was a vintage 1960s second year Topps card and even though I didn't get the HOF inscription as anticipated and paid for, I'm happy with the result. 

 I sent a card in a couple months ago to a signing with one of the best hitters of his era, future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera. I bought a Topps rookie card off eBay and used it as the card I sent into the signing. I'm very happy with the result.

 I attended a card show a few weeks ago but haven't had the time to post about it yet. The card show was called Front Row card show and I bought a VIP to enter the venue an hour earlier. However, I severely underestimated how many people would be there and even though I showed up 45 minutes early, I couldn't find parking near the venue and had to park a few blocks away. I then stood in an entrance line thst had to be 1000 people long to get in. I still got in earlier than the general admission though. My intent was to drop some Lamine Yamal rookies off with PSA but instead I ended up selling a couple cards and buying a couple soccer autos for less than what I sold my cards for. I sold the Ethan Nwaneri rookie auto /50 I posted about on here as well as a downtown Marvin Harrison rookie I finally pulled from Optic. I bought these two cards which I'm happier to have in my collection.  A Jude Bellingham Merlin rookie mojo auto /99 and a Vini Jr auto /99 from Topps Finest.

 For the first time in a long time, I attended an in person signing. This one was held with Padres young star and last seasons rookie of the year runner up, Jackson Merrill. The signing was hosted at Honey Hole collectibles in Mission Valley, San Diego which is about 40 minutes south of me. The signing was to start at 6 and my brother in law showed up at about 4:45. The line to check in and get our tickets was already quite long. We ended up about halfway back in line, maybe a bit more, so we didn't actually get up to meet Jackson and get our cards signed until a bit after 8pm.   He was in a good mood, was talking to everyone, and taking a lot of photos so the line was moving pretty slow until a few of the Honey Hole employees came out and saw just how many people were still waiting. As you can see above, I used a Topps Chrome /199 rookie signed in yellow paint pen as well as a Topps Chrome sapphire rookie signed in yellow paint pen as well. I'm not super thrilled with ho...

 I splurged on a new product release recently and ordered myself a jumbo hobby box of 2024-25 Topps Chrome UEFA Club Competitions, which is one of the best soccer products of the year. Jumbo boxes come with three autos guaranteed plus a lot of numbered parallels, so the hit ratio is very high and you can pull some very valuable cards from the product.  I ended up pulling an absolute banger of an auto on my third auto. I got one of the chase rookies (chase rookie meaning most sought after in the set) Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal, on an auto parallel that seems to be a fan favorite, the Blake Lazer Auto. It is a black lazer gold parallel numbered /50. This Nwaneri auto easily covers the cost of the box and probably actually doubles to triples it. That is how big of a hit this card is and if the kid continues on his trajectory, we could be talking an even bigger value. I also hit a numbered auto of one of the players from my favorite club, Liverpool. This Harvey Elliott auto is of pu...

 I haven't been posting all the cards I've pulled out of packs or added via eBay recently, so I'll use this post as an opportunity to do so. In the soccer realm, I added a few more autos from a set I really liked from 2024, Panini Prizm Copa America.  The Marquinhos is one of the green wave varieties that I like with the Brazil colors and the Amari'i Bell and Luis Sinisterra are not big names but both numbered to ten. I obviously like gold autos numbered that low and these were cheap. I also got this numbered /25 tie dye auto from Panini Select of former England and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole. I also made a bit of an investment (another cheap one) in a signed rookie from Topps Merlin of Alejandro Balde, the left back for Barcelona. This auto is numbered /99 and I think it has the potential to rise in value.  The Eugenie Le Sommer auto above was pulled from a Topps Chrome UEFA Women's Champions league blaster. The biggest name in this post is probably former Portug...

 I recently took part in sending an Upper Deck rookie card into a signing that was taking place with hockey Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg via a third party. As usual, I used sportscollectors.net. It continues to be my go to for finding reputable third parties to use for these signings. Also, as mentioned before, hockey players tend to be much cheaper than their counterparts in other sports.  I'm happy with how this one turned out as Forsberg was one of the dominant two way forwards during his time in the league and was at his peak while my NHL fandom was at its highest. 

 Fanatics has taken over the sports memorabilia world, and while I think that's mostly a bad thing, one of the cool things they do is product drops. You essentially see that a new product is being released, enter your name into the drop which is raffle style, and if you're chosen they charge you and ship you the product.  I've participated in quite a few of these but only get picked 25% of the time or less. However, this time I did get an email notification that I was among those chosen. The product was 2024-25 NHL Under Wraps Emanate and what the product is is signed 8x10s from NHL stars that aren't flat 8x10s but kind of a thick paper stock with a glossy finish and sheen. The base autos are numbered /50 and then the variations vary up to 1 of 1s. There are also select multi signed versions. My initial take was that the presentation of the product definitely was nice. The packaging and sturdiness of the boxes felt like an upper echelon, high end product. The two player...

Over the years I have acquired quite a few Trevor Hoffman autographs but that did not stop me from sending in a rookie card to a signing he did during Spring Training. This is the second Hoffman signing I've participated in but the first time I sent a rookie card. I used to get Hoffman frequently at Petco Park during his playing career As you can see, I sent a Bowman rookie and asked for the HOF 18 inscription as well. I'm happy with the way this card came out.

 This was definitely the hardest list for me to put together as I have nearly 500 autographs from major leaguers. This list consists of my favorite ten items in my baseball collection so I put a lot of my arithmetic into how I obtained these items, who the player is, etc. It isn't necessarily the list of my ten highest valued items from the sport. 10. Bobby Witt Jr. This was a cool through the mail request I received back from Witt before he made the big leagues and became one of the five best players in the game. It was a prospect card and I actually sent it to his parent's house in hopes it would get to him (his dad was a MLB pitcher). It took some months, but I ended up getting this card back; 9. Julio Rodriguez The second biggest auto I have ever pulled from any product, I had to get this Julio Rodriguez on my list. As a recap, check out this  link . A middle of nowhere New Mexico Walmart cello pack while on vacation for the win. A Bowman prospect auto /99. Just a massive ...