SoCal Autograph Odysses

 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...

There is nothing extremely special to share about any of the following three hits but as this is an autograph blog, I wanted to post them on here. I'll start by saying 2024-25 Mosaic basketball mega boxes have been absolutely loaded. I've bought five boxes and in those five boxes I've pulled three autographs. I've also pulled ten numbered cards and a couple Genesis short prints as well. You definitely get a lot of value out of these megas. I posted about the Mike Miller auto on my last post so the other two are Detlef Shrempf and a rookie auto of Cam Spencer. Shrempf in particular is a cool one for me because he is a 3x All Star that played when I was growing up. The Spencer is a rookie auto so you never really know what can happen with those. Either way, a 60% autograph pull rate is pretty high end for retail. Throwing in two numbered cards per box plus a high SP hit rate makes them slam dunk buys. If I see more, I'll probably indulge a bit more. I already sold one...

 I'm going to start this post with a soccer legend auto, former Arsenal great Ian Wright. Some of these soccer legends still have insanely good value from a buying perspective as the US market is still slowly coming around to the sport. I do fully believe that someday in the not-too-distant future that soccer cards will be more valuable than they are, and they are already going up because of the Asian market as is. When the World Cup hits in 2026 there will be a lot of buy in. This Wright auto is a gold /50. Check out this cool little YouTube video from a few years back about Ian Wright and his former school teacher Mr. Pigden. I highly encourage you to look up the story behind it, especially in these crazy times we live in.  A couple more random autos I've pulled out of retail recently. I pulled an Anthony Gould rookie Select auto and a Mike Miller Mosaic auto. Each of these is worth about $5 tops but it's always fun to pull autos from retail when they aren't guarantee...

 One of the last few pending through the mail autograph requests I had sent out came back yesterday for about a five week turnaround time. This time, the success came from former WNBA legend and current South Carolina women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley. Dawn is a deserved member of the Naismith Hall of Fame as she was a multi time gold medal winner for team USA, she was a 6x WNBA all-star and a member of the all-decade team and is now a championship winning head coach. That is quite the resume. I sent her a rookie Skybox WNBA card back at the end of July and was happy to see it come back in my mailbox on Saturday afternoon. Always remember you can check my  through the mail tracker  to keep up to date with my current and former requests to see which athletes send back and how long it takes. It can be an extremely useful tool. 

 Another one of the signings that took place during last month's National Sports Collector's convention was with Hall of Fame NFL running back Jerome Bettis. It was one of a few signings I participated in by sending to third parties via Sportscollectors.net. I sent in a 1993 Topps draft picks card that I pulled as a kid and somehow still had laying around. I think the result was good.