SoCal Autograph Odysses

Posting this new addition to my collection has to be one of my personally most anticipated blogs I've ever written. A couple weeks ago I pulled the trigger on an absolute monster of a card, soccer legend and one of the all time greatest players in his sport, Pele. One word name. One word title to this post. That's all it needs because just about anyone with a pulse has heard of this guy. What makes this card even bigger in my mind is it is a jersey number match 10/10 and Brazil team color match. Yes, that means there are only 10 of these cards in existence and I've got number 10 of 10, which is his jersey number. The gold also looks good with his Brazil shirt. This comes from the Copa America prizm set that I pulled the Rivaldo green wave prizm auto out of. I have really enjoyed opening this set but no, I did not pull the above card from a box. I purchased this from some other lucky person. It went through the eBay authentication process which is where PSA validates that it

 I had a third TTM success come back to me not long ago. David Duval, former number one overall PGA tour player and winner of the Open Championship signed an Upper Deck card for me. It has been nice getting back into the mail game again as I've recently found a few athletes that I'd not yet sent to that I wanted to add to my collection.

 Last week I had two through the mail requests returned to me on the same day, both from NHL Hall of Famers. I already discussed the Mark Howe but the other card came back from Frank Mahovlich. Mahovlich played for the Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Red Wings over his career and accumulated 1103 points, good for 66th all time on the leading scorers list. This request went out to Canada and came back with Mahovlich's HOF 81 inscription. Any time I can get an old timer's autograph on an older card I am happy with the success. Thanks Frank!

 A hockey through the mail success came back earlier this week on the same day as another one, but this post specifically is about the card I got signed by Mark Howe, hockey hall of famer and Gordies' son. Mark was a Hall of Fame defenseman who played for the Flyers, Whalers, and Red Wings throughout his career. This request took about a month to come back to me and as a reminder, you can check the TTM tracker on this blog for any and all information on requests I send. Thanks for reading.

 One of the best hockey players of all time, former Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers center Mark Messier recently had a signing. I saw this one advertised months ago and decided to participate and send a rookie card to get signed. I think the result was really solid, and I'm always glad to add a huge name on a rookie card.

 We're going on a bit of a throwback journey with this post in the fact that this autograph harkens back to the earlier era of this blog when a lot of the additions to my collection were acquired via the through the mail part of the hobby. As I've added most of the active Hall of Famers that sign through the mail to my collection already, I've had fewer opportunities to send to athletes that I don't have in my collection yet. The athlete I'm about to discuss here isn't a Hall of Famer but does play goalkeeper for the US Women's National Team as well as her club team, the Chicago Red Stars. Alyssa Naeher, one of the better keepers in women's US soccer history was kind enough to send an autograph back on a Pitch Queens card I got out of a pack. This card will go straight to my daughter's collection of soccer autographs, and I appreciate Alyssa taking the time to respond to fan mail.