SoCal Autograph Odysses

 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 ...