SoCal Autograph Odysses

 Yesterday I compiled a list of my top five autograph pulls from sealed sports cards during 2024, so today I'm going to do a top ten list of all additions to my memorabilia collection that I added in 2024.  10. Pedro Martinez It was tough for me to come up with the bottom few items that make the list because I added so many big names throughout 2024. In the end, I decided on going with my Pedro Martinez rookie card I sent in to a private signing that happened earlier this year. It was an Upper Deck rookie card and it came out nicely. 9. Erling Haaland Soccer has become my primary focus in collecting and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add the best striker currently playing in the Premier League, Manchester City's Erling Haaland. This card was an auto/game used memorabilia combo from a set I like, Panini Select. Haaland is the first of many huge soccer autos that came my way in 2024. 8. Mark Messier Any time you can add one of the top ten players of all time in their r...

 It's the time of year to post my five favorite autograph pulls from sealed products over the course of 2024. I've made this an annual post for a few years now and have received feedback that it is well received by the people who read this blog.  5. Colton Cowser This card makes the top 5 by virtue of it being a numbered rookie on card auto /99 of the Baltimore Orioles outfielder who got second in rookie of the year voting. This was pulled from a 2024 Bowman blaster by my daughter and was pulled from our LCS.  4. Devon Achane You'll notice a theme here that to make this list, the autograph pretty much needs to be numbered or a hard to find insert auto that makes it more rare. In this case, it's the latter. Up until this birthday pull, I'd never pulled an on card Prestige Passport auto. This Devon Achane was pulled from a mega box my dad purchased for my birthday, and is a rookie card. The on card nature of the autograph as well as it being a rookie gets it the four ...

 My wife came to the (correct) conclusion a few years ago that for Christmas, getting me hobby boxes is a sure fire way to get an A on gift giving. This year, she went with a Panini Select Premier League hobby box as well as a Serie A (Italian League) Select hobby box. Both boxes are products I love and guarantee three autograph or memorabilia cards. The Serie A box in particular ended up being a great box as I actually got two autographs as well as two memorabilia cards. I got six numbered cards all numbered /49 or less as well.  The first autograph was of Italian legend Franco Baresi, who was one of the top 20 players of the 20th century. I now have autographs of Baresi, Maldini, and Cannavaro, all three Italian defensive stalwarts.  The other auto was a tie dye /15 autograph of former Roma forward Edin Dzeko. The reason for getting soccer many low numbered cards in this box is that the print run is much lower than it is for Premier League cards.  The Premier Leagu...

 I actually had two cards I sent into a recent signing via SportsCollectors.net, the first of which I posted about a few days ago. This card was also a rookie card and is of former NHL goalie and hockey Hall of Famer Ed Belfour. The card I sent in for this signing was an Upper Deck rookie card, and what makes it cool is I watched the entirety of Belfour's career. 

 I sent a rookie card into a signing of hockey Hall of Famer Jari Kurri. This was a guy I watched play for the Kings when I first got into the game as a kid but he's best known as being an Edmonton Oiler. Arguably the best Finnish player of all time (sorry Teemu Selanne) and member of the NHL all time greatest 100 players list, I'm glad to add this autograph to my collection. As you can see, Jari also added the 2001 HOF inscription which I appreciate.

 I mentioned this in the Kobe Bryant post, but I've recently been given the green light to add a couple GOAT level autographs to my collection. One was clearly the Kobe, and the other name I decided to land on was getting soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo.  My intent was not to add two autographs of Ronaldo, but some eBay shenanigans (not of my own doing) lead to me thinking I was getting a refund on one due to lack of shipping. Once a claim was opened, the original ended up being delivered to the authentication company the same day I was due to get a refund. Meanwhile, I'd already moved on a contingency card. I may be open to selling one if interested.  The first card is from Panini Select and the second auto is from Panini Mosaic and both the card and auto itself are graded as 9s by PSA as you can see in the photo.

 Today marked the return of a through the mail request I sent out back in July, so it totalled over four months of wait time. This request comes back to us from MLB Hall of Famer and former Chicago Cuba great Billy Williams. I sent a 1970 Topps along with Billy's requested fee during the summer so it was a pleasant surprise to open my mailbox and see a self addressed stamped envelope waiting for me. He was one of only a few outstanding requests I've sent so when I saw the envelope postmarked from Illinois I had an inkling it might be this card. I'm happy with how this turned out as it's signed in blue and is very legible, plus the signature placement is exactly where I'd want.   

There has been a bit of a shift to my rankings of my top 10 autographs as my newest addition is sure to push some others down a peg or two. I've always made it a point to keep an eye toward the direction I really would like my autograph collection to go and that is to try and consolidate some of what I have into obtaining autos from some of the greatest players in their sports. Chasing the GOATs if you were. That is definitely an overused term but you get what I'm trying to do here. Recently I added a Pele /10 auto and the newest arrival which I just signed off the delivery for came today. This is a 2017-18 NBA Hoops auto of Lakers great and NBA legend, the late Kobe Bryant.  As you can see this one has been slabbed by Beckett and the card itself was given an 8.5 grade while the auto got a 10. I shopped around in the Kobe world for a couple of weeks before deciding to go with this card and I'm happy with the choice I made.

 The second of four private signings I'm participating in was recently completed and the item sent back to me. I sent a 1991 Upper Deck rookie card to a signing being done with MLB Hall of Famer and one of the best pitchers all time, Pedro Martinez.  I like the way this card turned out, with a bold blue signature that stands out against the background.

 I'm going to compile all of the soccer autos that I've not yet posted about into one blog entry as there have been a lot over the past five to six weeks, some coming from direct buys of the single card and others coming from packs I've opened, etc.  The first card was a single bought off eBay of arguably the best defender of all time, Italian and AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini. The card itself was goofier looking in person than I originally anticipated so I'll know to avoid Merlin sorcerer's auto cards later. I liked the price though when I bought it to add someone of this stature.  Anyone that plays FIFA (now EAFC) or watched soccer during the 90's will undoubtedly know the next card. Bulgarian forward Hristo Stoichkov who was most known for his days playing with Barcelona and at one time was the Ballon d'Or winner as the best player in the world. Contrary to the Maldini card, I really like the way this card pops in person. Another eBay add comes in the for...

 I've recently sent a few cards through the mail to private signings that are going on and the first one of those came back to me yesterday in the form of NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith, of the Buffalo Bills. I sent a rookie card in for this signing and I am happy with the way it turned out.

 Another autograph came from Canada recently as I got an autograph return from Norm Ullman, hockey Hall of Famer. He is an old time hockey player that played from 1955 through 1975 for some huge teams like the Maple Leafs and Red Wings. He was kind enough to include his HOF 1982 inscription. I love getting autograph returns from these guys that played back in the day and on vintage cards.

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. 

 I recently talked about Topps not having the license for the NFL, and the same holds true for the NBA as well. That didn't stop people from buying up products and trying to hit a Victor Wembanyama rookie auto since Topps is the only company that had his autos in it. I'm not much of a basketball fan so don't buy a whole lot of the product but on a recent trip to Target I did see they had a mega box, which is rare to find locally. I tried my luck and ended up pulling a rookie auto of Brooklyn Nets forward Jalen Wilson. I heard it's hard to pull autos from this product, so I am happy to have had luck this time around. I don't know much about the player, so here's hoping he has a good career.

 Some more soccer autographs came through the pipeline recently, all colored autos, two of which also happen to be numbered. The first is another legend auto from the really nice Copa America set. It is another Green Wave auto. This is Javier Mascherano, Argentine midfielder who spent a good amount of time playing for Liverpool and Barcelona. The second auto is /199 from the new Topps Chrome set of former Liverpool forward Michael Owen. He was considered among the very elite goal scorers for a short period of time and still talked about often by Liverpool supporters. Lastly, I made a trip down to my local card store over the weekend and tried my hand at a hobby box of Topps Chrome. It was a dud of a box overall and my auto wasn't a huge hit, though Jarrod Bowen is someone I'm very familiar with in that he plays for West Ham in the Premier League and is actually a good player. This auto is numbered /199 as well, same as the Owen above.