SoCal Autograph Odysses

 My fifth autograph from Topps Marks of Excellence set just arrived in my mailbox yesterday, in the form of former Chelsea legend and England international Frank Lampard. As a reminder, what makes this set so coveted is that the autographs are all on card, which is rare in the soccer world as most of the athletes are overseas and therefore more difficult to make signing arrangements with. The below card is the gold version numbered 48/50. I have mentioned it before, but I think these on card soccer autographs hold a lot of potential long-term value as the soccer market grows.

 The inaugural set of Topps Merlin Premier League dropped last week, and as has been my norm, I jumped into some breaks on release day. I ended up hitting six autos, all listed below. The biggest autograph was a Carlos Tevez Merlin's Ink gold autograph /50. The funny thing about getting this card from a break was that I just purchased a dual autograph with Tevez on it last week since I didn't have any of his autographs yet. Well, now I have two and the one below is quite cool looking in person. As I tend to do, I also took Burnley in a few breaks because I got them for $10 in one case, plus free in two other cases since I had store credit. I ended up getting two Kyle Walker gold autographs /50, which brings my Walker autograph haul to five over the last couple of months. I will likely sell a few off to recoup some money to put towards something else.  I also took Liverpool in one case and ended up hitting two Conor Bradley autographs to throw into my Liverpool collection. The ...

 I wanted to do a quick overview and show some of the recent additions to my collection that have been coming in, as it has been pretty consistent lately.  The above card is a dual Prizm scope autograph of two former Argentine legends Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. Since it's a Premier League Prizm set, they are in their West Ham kit, which is a bit weird. Nonetheless, I really like this card as it's a dual and they are hard to come by.  The below card is a Panini Select purple Prizm /49 of AC Milan and Dutch legend Marco Van Basten. I picked this exact card because the signature is as clean as one could ask for. This card really pops in person. I've mentioned before that I really like to add the Topps 'Marks of Excellence' autograph set to my PC when I get the opportunity to, as these are low printed and feature signatures that are actually on card and not on stickers. I think long term as the soccer card market grows and catches up to the other sports (as is ...

 I hit six autographs in a recent player break of Topps Finest Premier League, though for some reason my shipment was missing two of them. I took some retired legends for cheap, and three of them ending up hitting autographs in the break, including the two autographs that didn't get sent to me. I hit these two nice Gary Neville autographs, one of which is /25 and the green which is /75. Those were both excellent hits and paid for the whole break for me.  I also took Tom Watson in the break since he's a lower key rookie and seems to hit autographs a lot, which he did in this break with a blue /99 auto.  Lastly, I took two former Liverpool studs, Jonh Arne Riise and Dirk Kuyt. I took Riise because he seems to come out of this product and sure did this time, with the blue /99 auto. I also got a base autograph of his that did not ship. The Dirk Kuyt auto was the other autograph I did not receive.  I also found a cheap Alessandro Nesta auto /49 on eBay, which I wanted to ...

 For the first time in quite some time, I actually opened some hobby boxes. As you can probably tell if you read this blog at all, I've switched to the breaking platform to acquire a bunch of good autographs. However, I recently had the chance to purchase a Topps Chrome Premier League hobby box (my favorite product) as well as a Topps Chrome Women's Champions League box, both for cheaper than they usually sell. I ended up hitting a Hugo Ekitike autograph /75 from the EPL box, which is great because I am a Liverpool fan. On the women's side, I pulled a Khadija "Bunny" Shaw green auto /99. Shaw is one of the best players in the Women's version of the Premier League so it was a solid pull as well.  

 Over the last six months, I've made a concerted effort to add autographs of the biggest names in soccer history to my collection before the market catches up and bumps the prices up in line with sports that are more popular in the US. In my opinion, there has been a big market inefficiency when it comes to the soccer market in that the prices for global icons were not commensurate to their stature on a global scale. In other words, a signed card of Josh Allen (Bills quarterback) would be the same price as a signed card of Cristiano Ronaldo. With no disrespect meant on Allen, it frankly makes no sense. However, it has definitely led to a buying opportunity for me as I accumulate as many of these names as I can. Along that line of thinking, a couple weeks ago I purchased this Kaka autograph numbered /25. Kaka is a Brazilian legend and one of the premier players of his era. I should also note that I've also taken to trying to acquire autographs with lower print runs, as well. 

Taking AC Milan in Topps Chrome UCC breaks ended up being a solid play because I ended up with four legend autos from these breaks. Keep in mind, Milan was a bit cheaper than some other teams due to the fact that they did not have any current players in the set as they were not in the Champions league this season. Therefore, the only cards you can actually get are autographs of club legends. This works out perfectly for me as this is 95% of what I collect anyway, and it keeps the cost down. This last batch of autographs I got consisted of two stars, one being an all-time great. Andrea Pirlo blue wave auto numbered /150 as well as a Filipo Inzaghi purple wave auto numbered /75. The Inzaghi is also first on print, meaning it's number one in the batch. 

 Sometimes, it's not necessarily the all-time great of the greats that become the happiest pulls. Sometimes, it's really cool to pull an autograph of a player that played for your favorite team and was pretty close to being a club legend. In my case, I took Liverpool in a case break of Topps UCC Breakers Delight, and they ended up pulling this really cool Sadio Mane purple /75 autograph. I was thrilled with this hit, as much as I would have been for legends of the game.

 Another big soccer legend was recently added to the collection, as I had an opportunity to purchase a Neymar Mosaic autograph. As my collection has grown, my list of soccer legend names that I want to add to the collection has dwindled (and not coincidentally gotten more expensive) so I have to pick when and how I choose certain players. Some of the big names I have yet to acquire from a card standpoint are Messi, Maradona, and Beckenbauer. I do have a Messi signed artwork piece which is awesome, however. 

 Yesterday was probably the biggest mail day I've had in my time in this hobby. Via some breaks on Fanatics Live as well as a couple direct purchases, I had no fewer than six autographs delivered to me. Starting with hits from breaks, I got the following two AC Milan legends. Andriy Shevchenko orange auto /25 as well as one of the greatest defenders of all time, Paolo Maldini black lazer blue auto /150. I took AC Milan in quite a few breaks because they have such a big legends checklist.  Another hit from a break was this awesome gold /50 dual autograph of Newcastle legends Alan Shearer (the all time Premier League goalscorer) and Les Ferdinand. It's a really beautiful card in person as well. Finally, the last hit from a break in this post was from a Juventus spot I purchased, in which I hit David Trezeguet numbered /199. My two direct purchases were also huge autographs. The first is a Samuel Eto'o Panini Select green auto /5.  The other was Barcelona and Spain legend An...

 A couple of weeks ago, a new Topps soccer product came out so of course I joined into some breaks that happened on release day. Here's a secret for anyone trying to get into breaks for the first time as well. If you buy break spots on release day, the spots will be cheaper than they will be at any other point in time for a couple of reasons. One, competition. All the breakers have the same product and want to open it on the same day, so you will have multiple options to shop around on and find the best price on a team. No one breaker will charge exorbitant prices because no one will buy their spots. The supply drives the pricing down. Second, there is a lot of supply when the product comes out so the scarcity and the FOMO doesn't kick in. Breakers will 100% take advantage of FOMO a couple weeks later and they are the only one opening a specific product. People will want to jump in on those last breaks before the product is hard to find. Lastly, breakers have no idea what is re...