SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Clearly I've diverted my attention and resources predominantly to breaks since early January 2026. I feel that the return on investment is just so much higher than when I buy retail products or even my own hobby boxes. All that being said, I still partake once in awhile in retail or sealed hobby, especially when said hobby boxes are cheap. That case happened to me over the Labor Day weekend as I found 2024 Topps Chrome Women's Champions League hobby boxes for $70 a pop. For context, mega boxes in which you aren't guaranteed anything will often cost just about the same. I bought four boxes. All four had one autograph per box plus five numbered parallels. The four autographs and my favorite hit are all posted below. What I really appreciate about the women's sets is that they have big names on their autograph checklists. The Vivianne Miedema /25 auto is a great example. She's one of the best female players in the world and it's a low numbered auto. Dianni /35 is ...

 I wanted to get completely caught up on all my recent additions so am doing this one post to be as up to date as possible.  I recently bought another Rookies and Stars preferred box from Target. The first time I bought one, my autograph ended up being a Peyton Manning /50. This time, I got one of the best rookies in last year's class, Tetairoa McMillan of the Panthers. This rookie auto is numbered /349. I also took part in a couple of Premier League Merlin breaks where I took West Ham since they were lower end pricing. I got two autographs of the same player, Konstantinos Mavropanos, the Greek defender. One autograph was the black to /10, and the other was gold /50. Not bad! Lastly, I also bought a card off eBay of one my favorite Liverpool players Andy Robertson. This was from the Topps Pristine set and feature a jumbo cut of a match worn jersey from 2020. What makes that even cooler as a Liverpool supporter is that is the season Liverpool was the Premier League.

 One thing about the 2026 World Cup Prizm set is that Panini went way too hard, in my opinion at least, with how many different versions of the product they made. There are blasters and hangers and megas and preferred and hobby and on and on. Then, each one of those formats has its own version depending on what store it is available in, be it Target, Walmart, Dick's, etc. It's way too much Panini. That being said, of course I did purchase some retail versions of it so I could open my own stuff and see what I pulled. Over the last ten days or so, I have been lucky to pull three autographs, all of legends.  The first auto is Eric Cantona, the French icon who plied his trade for some time with Manchester United and then go into acting. The latter two autographs are from a set I find particularly attractive, the 2012 Prizm throwback autos. Oliver Kahn is one of the top 10 goalkeepers of all time and Benni McCarthy, while I did not know who it was until I looked him up, was arguabl...

 I don't need to spend much time going over my recent preference for on card soccer autographs, particularly of the Marks of Excellence variety, so instead I'll just post an update that I've added the tenth such card from this set into my collection over the last week. This time it was an eBay purchase of former Barcelona and Spain icon, Xavi. He was one of the elite players of his era. This autograph is also the gold /50 version of the card. When you search for Marks of Excellence, there typically is not a lot of each player available because it is a very short printed subset. 

 I've got some catching up to do on all of my recent additions since the two big names in Messi and Maradona. I've been real busy and in the midst of a new job so haven't quite gotten around to it yet. However, at the same time I added the Messi and Maradona autos with my Kobe Bryant sale funds, I also added a third all-time legend, Romario. This is a Topps Chrome auto /25. You probably have noticed that when I have the option, I've been focusing on adding lower numbered autos of the greats in addition to the names I am targeting in the first place. I like keeping the long-term scarcity low in my collection. These are all aspects of my collection that I've honed over the long time I have been in the hobby and, frankly, as I've gotten older and more established, I have the means to be able to be a bit more picky. 

 The other half of my acquisitions that stemmed from my Kobe Bryant sale was none other than the best player in soccer history, Lionel Messi. This auto is numbered  /99 from the Road To the World Cup Select set.  Being able to add both this Messi auto as well as the Diego Maradona auto for the price of one base Kobe autograph felt very worth it to me. In terms of financial values long term, it is yet to be determined whether I made a good choice or not but I'm happy with my PC which is really what matters. Plus, I'll likely add a different Kobe back to my collection in the future.