SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I bought a couple of hobby boxes yesterday and the result ended up being one of the best openings I've done. I went to one of my local card stores where they actually consistently have soccer product and decided on two products that I have personally seen hit a lot in breaks. First was Ligue 1 (French soccer league) H2 hobby box which guarantees one autograph and one memorabilia card plus three additional numbered parallels. When I've seen these opened, they have often been loaded and for $199 it seemed like a good gamble for me. Well, it paid off. In my first pack of twelve I hit an excellent autograph of a soccer legend, Marseille forward and former Ballon d'Or winner Jean-Pierre Papin. It was his gold autograph /5. In the very first pack! In this same hobby box I somehow got a second autograph and it was a bonus because these boxes only guarantee one. Somehow, this autograph was ALSO a gold /5 autograph. This is of OGG Nice, and current Juventus forward, Jeremie Boga. H...

  A few more autographs to catch up on here. First, I hit a redemption in a Topps Chrome UEFA Club Competitions break. It was a rookie auto purple Refractor /75 of Kendry Paez. Paez is an uber talented young player whose head is full of rocks, so the potential he has oodles of will likely be underutilized. Nonetheless, Topps got this fulfilled and sent back to be incredibly quickly. The latter two autos are from my latest foray into the new 2026-27 Topps Flagship Premier League. I took Leeds in a case break for $22 and ended up with five numbered cards plus the two autographs above. It ended up being a great value pickup. The autos are Anton Stach /150 and Wilfried Gnonto /199.

 Another card from my favorite autograph insert set Marks of Excellence was delivered on Friday, and this time it was Roberto Carlos /10. I've said a lot about these cards already, but I think the aesthetic of the on card autograph plus the design of these cards makes these cards beautiful. I also think long term these will be more valuable due to the hard signed nature of the signature.

 It's been a couple of weeks or so since I've found time to post some new additions. A new product came out last week, 2026-27 Topps Premier League Flagship. These are affordable breaks to participate in since they aren't the premium chrome stock and there is some great hit potential. I took Manchester United in one break by taking four of ten serial spots and it paid off. A serial in a break is when the breaker can't get anyone to buy the full team so they break that team down into ten spots. Each spot is randomly assigned a number 0-9 and whomever has that number gets the corresponding hit on the card itself. For example, if you have serial number 4 for Man United and then an autograph numbered 34/50 comes up, or 4/10, or 184/250 etc, that card belongs to the 4 spot. You're essentially getting a piece of the pie rather than the whole pizza at 1/10th the cost. I had 4 of the 10 pieces and got four autographs from it. The Peter Schmeichel /25 was one I was particula...

 Cards have been coming and going thick and fast as I sell some cards to purchase others. Essentially, I am taking many of my non autographed cards and duplicate autographs and selling them to gain funds to get into more breaks, purchase product, or buy singles. This past week alone I traded two autographs for the below Lilian Thuram Select autograph. I also took part in a Serie A Select break by taking Calcio in a case. I took Calcio with the distinct intention of hitting one of the legends on their autograph checklist. It worked, as I hit the below Hristo Stoichkov auto. I also received a Patrick Cutrone autograph, which you can see below the Stoichkov. I'm not sure who that is really, but I'll never say no to hitting an autograph in any break. Lastly, I took a gamble on what's called a "filler" in a break. Essentially, what happens is a breaker will not be able to fill ALL the spots individually, so they take all the remaining spots and then charge X dollars pe...

 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 ...