SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Another beautiful card was hit for me in a break a couple of weeks ago, this time in the form of Francesco Totti on another Marks of Excellence on card autograph. I mentioned I'd had insane luck recently, to the point where I hit two MOE in a six day span plus other great hits like the Fernando Torres /5 and Kenny Dalglish. This particular card was the card I wanted in the AS Roma spot, so to actually then hit the exact card was a great feeling. Totti is one of the all time Italian greats, and played his entire career with Roma. He's a national hero and this card is just really cool. 

 I've discussed at length already about my infatuation with on card soccer autographs and where I think the long-term value will be in collecting them. To recap quickly, they are essentially scarce in the soccer market since it's harder to coordinate in person signings with athletes overseas and logistically more of a pain to ship cards back and forth in these scenarios. It's much easier for Topps and Panini to ship the player a sheet of stockers that they sign and then place signed stickers onto cards. In the other major sports, sticker autos take a bit of a hit in the value game whereas in soccer they take less of a hit due to the acknowledgement that sticker autos have to be more prevalent due to the aforementioned logistics involved. However, that means that the rare cards that do  actually have hard signed autographs on them, like the Marks of Excellence subset that Topps has been inserting into various soccer products, have a very high premium placed on them. I also j...

 The last ten days is probably the best luck I've had yet in terms of hitting really good autographs multiple times and without spending ridiculous sums of money. While celebrating my wife and I's anniversary, we were having really good luck at a casino and I wanted to see if that would translate into my breaks luck. Spoiler alert: It did. I hit a Marks of Excellence on card autograph of Andriy Shevchecnko /50 in one break where I took AC Milan for like $35. I don't have that card in hand yet so will post it whyen I do. I also took Liverpool in a break where they were auctioned off and I got them for $47. I hit two massive autographs for my collection, one a red refractor autograph numbered 4/5 of Liverpool legend Fernando Torres. This card is worth likely over $800. In that same break, I hit long time chase and top three Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish in an orange /25. Dalglish is a rare autograph to hit and I don't think I've ever seen his autograph come out of a...

 One of the Premier League greats that I had yet to add to my autograph collection was former England and Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes. Scholes' autograph itself is all over the place, so believe it or not, the below example is one of the better ones I have seen on Topps Chrome products. 

 Topps Merlin Premier League ended up being okay for me though not as lucrative as Topps Chrome Premier League was.  There were a few breaks where I got completely skunked and just ended up with a solitary numbered card or two. There was also a break or two where I got a bunch of stuff. My last batch of autograph hits from the product were delivered and are listed as below. Funny enough, all three players are guys I've already got autographs of in the past, so will likely be posted up on eBay to recoup some of the money spent on the breaks. The first two cards were Newcastle midfielder Bruno Guimaraes. For those of you watching the World Cup, he also starts for Brazil. The gold is numbered 36/50 and the green is 56/99. I hit a pretty cool color match(ish) purple refractor of West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen. Unfortunately for Jarrod, West Ham got relegated this season so we will see if he stays and tried to help West Ham get back to the Premier League or leaves for a better team....

 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.