SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Yesterday, I attended my third Front Row Card show down in San Diego. The previous two times lead to me selling cards to end up with autographs like a Jude Bellingham /99 rookie auto, a Vinicius Jr auto /99, a Steph Curry auto, as well as a Kylian Mbappe autograph. Needless to say, I've come back every time with some massive cards. This time was no different as I added yet another soccer icon to my collection by finding a card of Ronaldo Nazario, aka Ronaldo, fka R9. Even better, this autograph is numbered only to five!  To get the funds necessary to make this acquisition, I ended up trading some cards I'd had in my collection for a couple of years. None of them are autographed, but it was sad to part with five Lamine Yamal rookie cards. The good news is, I still have about 40 Yamal rookies so I could afford it. I've been wanting to add more and more soccer icons to my collection and I know I had to give up stuff to get it. I also ended up selling a bunch of soccer and foo...

 Two more autographs have been added to my soccer collection over the last week. The first is an absolutely beautiful blue shimmer Prizm auto of Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry. I have mentioned this many times, but I absolutely love blue shimmer autos. This is another one that was originally only available in First off the Line prints runs of 2024/25 Premier League Prizm, thus is extremely short printed. I just really like this card and am happy to add Henry to my collection. The other autograph is a card I acquired at a collectible card exchange that happened over the weekend here in Oceanside for the first time. There was unfortunately not much in the way of sports cards there but when I saw the above auto /149, I wanted to get it. The vendor gave me a good deal and it's cool because I am a Liverpool supporter and don't see many Alisson autographs out there. He is arguably the best keeper in Liverpool history. 

 For my birthday, I went to my local card store and bought a single. One thing I have noticed recently is that the prices of sealed product at this LCS are getting higher and higher but that they also seem to have fewer and fewer boxes for which to purchase. That has lead me to just finding a card or two here and there to buy instead, and I ended up getting this on card Howie Long auto numbered /75 for less than the price of a sealed blaster box. To me, that is just dumb.  Again, this is an on-card autograph of a football Hall of Famer numbered to a decently low number of 75 from a product that is considered high end. Meanwhile, a rookie auto of some very bad player that will never pan out will go for multiple times more than this card. It just will never make any sense to me from a value standpoint, but I'm definitely going to take advantage of it and add these legends to my collection when I see fit. A good example of what I am talking about is actually the next add I am goi...

 I got my first big card in 2026 back from a signing today. The signing was held in late December and it was one in which I'd sent a Shaquille O'Neal rookie card into a signing he was doing. I met Shaq along with Dr J back in 2012 and got him to sign a photo but this time I just sent a card in because it is easier. I'm happy with how this one came out and it's a real contender to be seen in my 2026 recap at the end of the year.

 A few days back I covered what has become an annual tradition where I discuss what my favorite autograph pulls from sealed product were over the course of the year. Today's list is an altered version of that (though there will be some overlap) as I want to go over my 15 favorite adds to my collection over the course of 2025. There is usually some added weight to the provenance of obtaining specific items which is used as tie breakers quite often. Starting with 15... 15. JJ Wehterholt I'm going with this card at 15 over bigger historical names strictly due to the fact I feel like I purchased this card for a cost that will soon be far surpassed in value. This is a 1st Bowman /150 auto of one of the best prospects in baseball, and as mentioned multiple times on this blog, Bowman cards can go for big money. I had to put this card on my 2025 top 15 list strictly to me thinking it was a smart business move if I ever I tend to sell. This is similar to when I bought a Lamine Yamal Roo...

 I've got a quick housekeeping post to make here about the other boxes I opened on Christmas Day, as my wife hooked me up with some great product. The big hit was clearly the Patrick Mahomes auto I discussed back on the 26th but I did decently well with the World Cup Prizm hobby box and the La Liga Select hobby boxes she also got me.  As mentioned on the Mahomes post, those two Revolution boxes yielded three total autographs, one being the Mahomes /15 and the other two being Carl Eller and Kayshon Boutte, both of which were to /199.  On the soccer side of things, I ended up with a few more autographs as well. The Prizm club world cup box netted a pretty solid autograph in Real Madrid and French national team midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni. This autograph was /99 and while it's not an end game autograph, it's a solid one because Tchouameni is a very good player and there are far worse names on the checklist.  My La Liga box wasn't as good from an autograph perspective...