SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Rogie Vachon is a Hall of Fame hockey goalie that plied his trade for four teams, most notably my favorite team, the LA Kings, but the Montreal Canadiens as well. I'd actually tried doing a through the mail request for Rogie a couple years back but never received a return, so tried again a couple of months ago. I was excited to find this in the mail... As you can see, the card turned out great and I am happy to add another hockey (and Kings) legend to my collection. Rogie has his number retired in LA, so now I have autographs from all of the Kinbgs retired numbers. 

 This is probably my favorite post to write about every year. This top 10 consists of my favorite pulls from sealed product in 2025. It doesn't necessarily mean the ten most valuable, though that kind of thing does tend to push a card up my favorites list. Let's get started with 10 and work our way to one, then list out a handful of honorable mentions.  10. Rainiel Rodriguez  Bowman cards have a tendency to be high on these lists since I usually have pretty good luck with them. This one in particular is a 1st Bowman mojo on card auto. What made this card cool for me was the fact I didn't realize I had pulled one of the uber prospects from the set when I first saw the card in my pack. It was only upon further research did I realize that Rainiel is one of the chase prospects from this checklist. This card has the potential to skyrocket in monetary value, but it also has the potential to crater. That's the thing about baseball prospects. For now, this card comfortably fits...

Anyone that has read my blog before probably figured that I'd be posting about some product I ripped over Christmas, and they'd be correct in their assumption. I mentioned a few weeks ago that Panini Revolution had "premium" boxes only available through Walmart.com. I also mentioned at the time that, for me, it was the product of the year. These boxes were absolutely loaded with numbered cards /99 or better, and you're guaranteed one auto pee box. They were essentially hobby boxes masquerading as retail, but for half the cost. My wife took advantage before they sold out and ordered me a couple more of them for Christmas. Neither box was particularly spectacular like the first two until out of nowhere I hit arguably my biggest autograph pull to date in second box.  As you can see, I pulled a Patrick Mahomes autograph, and it is really low numbered /15. It is just a ginormous card to get, arguably the biggest chase card in the entire set. Not only does this card cle...

 I've been taking advantage of some of the recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Thanksgiving week deals that pop up this time of year before the holiday rush. As such, I wanted to post a few of the hits I've pulled in various products. The first two hits came from a 2025 Panini Prizm Club World Cup blaster case. Meaning, I found a big deal on a case of blasters and the auto I pulled was Brazil international, defender Thiago Silva. A good, well-known player is a pull I'll always be happy with. The better pull was not even an autograph but a huge case hit, a Kaboom. These are insanely hard to pull so I was stoked to finally get one. I wish it was a bigger name, but I can't be unhappy with either of these two hits. The Kaboom alone pretty much covered the cost of the case.  I added this CWC Prizm auto of former Uruguayan star Diego Forlan. Again, I am a sucker for the blue shimmer autograph parallels as this one is below. When I saw this one for cheap, I jumped on it. Blue shi...

 A few months ago, I sent a card in for a signing with Julius "Dr. J" Erving. I have actually met Mr. Erving before at a public appearance he did along side Shaq ten plus years ago. You can recap that  here . This time, I wanted a card signed and I am happy with the way it came out.  This signing was actually delayed a few times from the original date I signed up for so I am glad it actually came to fruition. I've got another card out there for a James Worthy signing that kept getting postponed until it was eventually canceled altogether. Of course I'll get refunded but what a bummer that is. Sometimes it is the nature of the hobby though. 

 I watch YouTube videos of people opening sports cards because it allows for a couple of things. One, I get to live vicariously through them as there is little chance I'll open some of the high end stuff they do. And two, sometimes I come upon a good tip that I get to act upon. One such occurrence happened last week when one of the content creators was opening 2025 Panini Revolution Football Premium boxes. To say these boxes are loaded is an understatement. You get one guaranteed autograph (numbered no higher than /299) plus multiple numbered cards in each box. The numbered cards are pretty consitently low numbered, as the worst is /99. That means this product has a low print run. These are technically retail products but they feel much more like hobby boxes in my opinion. In fact, I'd argue that you get more value in one of these for $130 than you would out of a $400 hobby box. To wit; My haul from the two boxes combined was as follows: Rome Odunze auto /50 Treveyon Henderson ...

 For some years, Panini has controlled the card market when it comes to NBA and NFL products. That means that anything produced by Topps in those two sports would not have any team names or logos. For many, that is a no go for collecting those types of cards because in all honesty, the cards do look a bit weird when they say Los Angeles instead of Los Angeles Lakers and only have purple and gold jerseys without the name 'Lakers' splashed across the front. Last month, that all changed for Topps as they were able to release their first licensed NBA cards in a long time. I bought a mega box of their flagship set, and ended up pulling a rather big hit, Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel. What makes this hit even better is that it is also an on-card autograph, meaning it's not on a sticker and then placed onto the card. Knueppel has gotten his career off to a rather good start as well, so the long-term value of this card might be on a steady incline for the foreseeable future...

 Opening packs is fun. I can't deny that in any way, shape, or form. It makes much more financial sense to purchase singles of cards you want, or if you're trying to make money on a player long term, to speculate on players with upside. However, it is a high to open a pack of cards sealed with the unknown and then pulling a huge card. That's why people participate in breaks and buy hobby boxes and retail. The chase of the unknown is a lot of the fun. Of course, there is much more downside to buying sealed product, as most of the time you don't come close to the value that you spent on the box. Last weekend I experienced another one of the downsides, the fact that my guaranteed auto ended up being of a player I already had an autograph of.  In my hobby box of 2024-25 Topps Chrome UEFA Competitions, I ended up pulling another Harvey Elliott autograph. Last time, it was numbered /75 while this one is /250. So I ended up getting a lower version of the same card I already ha...

 Bowman Chrome was released at the end of September, and it's an update to the main set released in May. As you may recall I hit some decent stuff out of the flagship Bowman this year. The other day I was at the store and decided to try one Bowman Chrome mega box, and I ended up hitting an auto of whom many consider the potential number one overall prospect on this release's checklist, Cardinals prospect Rainiel Rodriguez. Who is he? Check out this blurb; Bowman Chrome 2025 Prospect Rankings This list has him at number one. As always, the on-card signature is a major positive of Bowman, and the cards always look so clean. I simply cannot complain about my Bowman luck as I always hit some good autos and numbered cards.  One interesting tidbit about mojo autographs like the one above. It is technically a 1st Bowman autograph even though the mojo refractors don't have the 1st Bowman logo for some reason. If this kid hits the ceiling of his hype, this card will be worth some go...

 Sometimes it takes me a while to pull the trigger on getting an autograph from a player I've been eyeing to add to my collection. This can be for any number of reasons, for example, cost is too high, I don't like the cards currently on sale, etc. I have been looking into Robert Carlos auto cards for probably six months (maybe more) before I finally found one I liked at a price point I could live with. I need to point out, it's not like I am breaking the bank to get a Roberto Carlos card, but sometimes I just want to find a fair price on a player rather than just splurging. I found a happy medium recently and went with a 2024-25 Select FIFA red auto.  One curious sidenote to the Roberto Carlos autograph hunt. Most of the cards he signs are sticker autos, and as such, he went off the sticker on most of his autographs due to the size of his signature. That's another thing to keep an eye on when trying to get autographs via eBay. Some athletes sign so large that they use u...

 As you can probably tell by the name of this blog, I am located in Southern California. I live in Oceanside, to be precise. Last year, we opened a new arena locally which hosts some cool events that we would not otherwise have access to unless we travelled to San Diego (45 minutes) or Orange County (1 hour). My family and I became season ticket holders for the professional indoor soccer league team the San Diego Sockers. One of the perks was that we got a good discount for the LA Clippers game that the arena hosted last night, October 9th. The NBA's G League has a team that plays in the arena, the San Diego Clippers, and in conjunction with their parent team, a preseason game between the real Clippers and a Chinese team was hosted. I've only been to one NBA game and it was also a preseason game about ten years ago in San Diego. My son and I went to this game because we got tickets so cheap, and we brought some cards for my son to try and get signed. This blog's roots actua...

 It has been ten days or so since I last posted and that's because it has been mostly quiet on the autograph front. I do have a few autograph requests out via private signings happening in October but those are still later this month or keep getting postponed. I'd love to update the blog with some of those as well since we are talking about some big names but unfortunately, we are still in a holding pattern for those. I did, however, recently add two really nice legends soccer autographs from a newly released Prizm set, 2025 Panini Prizm Club World Cup soccer. I'd like to start off by saying I really like blue shimmer parallels. Blue shimmer autographs come only in what is termed '1st off the Line" boxes, or the very first batch of a new product being shipped out. Therefore, blue shimmer autographs are SP, or short printed automatically even if they aren't technically numbered.  As you can see, both of the players I added are Serie A legends. Gianluigi Buffon i...

 I make a point to stop at any local Walmarts or Targets whenever the family and I take a trip anywhere. I do so in the hope of finding some sealed retail cards that we don't get access to as frequently here in Southern California due to the sheer number of people that collect cards. To be honest, I've had pretty good luck pulling autographs from random places across the country, the most notable being the Julio Rodriguez prospect /99 auto you can read about again  here .  The family and I had to make an unfortunate trip to wetern Arizona due to a death in the family recently but during some down time I did still try a couple Walmarts and a Target. The Target had nothing that appealed to me and just one of the Walmarts did. I bought two Panini soccer boxes, one premier League Prizm and one Premier League Select. I hit nothing crazy and no numbered cards to speak of. However, I did hit a pretty good auto of former Manchester United defender Wes Brown. I checked with my bud...