SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Another mail request came back successfully this weekend, this time as NFL pro football Hall of Famer and former CBS color commentator Dan Dierdorf sent me a signed card back. As you can see, he also included his HOF 96 inscription which is always a nice touch to a signed card. I sent him a 1974 Topps card, thinking that it would look good with a signature on it. I'm happy with how this one turned out.

 I went to my local LCS recently and picked up a card I think has the potential to go up in value over the next year or two. Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt has been on a binge lately and moved up the prospect rankings, so I was happy to take a shot on this 1st Bowman auto /150.

 Today I received a card returned to me by NHL and hockey Hall of Famer Cam Neely. This guy was the ultimate power forward in his day, which happened to coincide with the years I grew up watching hockey. I always wanted the Kings to have a player like Neely. Unfortunately, injuries really derailed his career because his numbers would have been a lot better. As it is, he was still an elite player who ended up in the hall anyway. I am happy with the result of this request.

 To be honest, I don't know much about a few of these players I send autograph requests too. I just filter to Hall of Famers, see who has recently signed, and then look them up online to see what they were known for. It only applies to probably 2% of my requests, but one of those was in fact basketball Hall of Famer Bobby Jones.when I looked him up, I discovered he was an elite defender during his day. He was cool and sent me a card back. I'm not on board with what he inscribed but I'll never begrudge someone for their beliefs. He also included a little religious packet. Thank you Mr. Jones.

 I'm always watching signings that are going on. I go onto  Sportscollectors.net  at least twice a week to peruse two things. One, I check to see if any Hall of Famers are signing through the mail that I do not already have in my collection. Two, I go to the private signings page and look through the list of all the upcoming signings that people are running with athletes. At all times there are least 200 names on the list, even more when there is a big convention coming up like last week's National. I cannot recommend using that site enough and have probably harped on it on this very blog a dozen times or more. I wanted to bring it up again because it had been a while since I last mentioned it. It's $15 for the year. It gives you access to all of this information plus more.  One of the signings I decided to partake in recently was that of one being hosted with Larry Bird. Odds are if you're reading this blog you know very well who that is. He's one of the best NBA p...