SoCal Autograph Odysses

 A few months ago I saw that Reggie Jackson was doing a private signing with the same guy that hosted the Johnny Bench signing before that.  The Jackson signing was pushed back a few times, as these things often are, but my card came back from the signing yesterday. If you recognize the card style, it's because it is from the same set as the Brooks Robinson through the mail autograph I got earlier this year, which you can recap  here .  The card looks good, and the signature itself is a strong one. Thanks for reading, I know the returns have slowed down a bit. 

 I made two recent pickups from Ebay, and both are now in my possession.  The first is a big one, and a guy I've been wanting to get something from for some time.  If you watch baseball you would have seen him in the recent Homerun Derby, where he bested crowd favorite Shohei Ohtani.  He has also won a World Series and projects at this point in his career to be an all time great.  I'm talking of course about Nationals phenom Juan Soto.  I found a nice on card auto from Topps Finest.  It's not the most glamorous set but this card was affordable compared to some of Soto's other stuff, and this guy's memorabilia will only go up in value from here. The other thing I bought is more of a speculative piece, and one based solely on what I know from fantasy basketball going into the 2020-2021 season, and that was that Detroit Pistons rookie Killian Hayes had a lot of upside but was very raw.  In fact, the rookie class this year in general was mostly a crap...

 I'm going to do something different, and post photos of autographs I have from all of the members of the 2021 MLB All-Star game that I have currently in my collection.  This will include the guys that were initially picked but had to opt out because of injury or some other reason. Let's start with the National League. Fernando Tatis Jr. Nick Castellanos Adam Frazier Max Scherzer Trea Turner Manny Machado Jacob DeGrom Yu Darvish American League: Vlad Guerrero Jr. Mike Trout Carlos Correa

 A few days ago I posted my through the mail success of Martin Brodeur, but the other piece of mail I came back from vacation to find was a card signed by Braves Hall of Famer and former pitcher John Smoltz.  I had arranged for this to be signed through a private signing using SCN, and sent an Upper Deck rookie card to the signing to be signed.  It came back looking good. I don 't currently have any other TTM requests pending that I am expecting to get back, but I do have a couple more private signings that should be coming within the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open on that front.  

 By using the through the mail feature on SportsCollectors.net, I saw that a few people had success with former NHL goaltender and all time legend Martin Brodeur. I quickly bought a Score rookie card of his and sent it out to the Devils facility in New Jersey.  Upon coming back from my vacation, I saw that I had two returns in the mail, one of which was a return from Mr. Brodeur.  This is a pretty great return from an inner circle hockey Hall of Famer.  The sharpie he used clearly struggled at the beginning, but overall, it's a pretty clean signature. 

 So, I pulled something pretty cool out of a random Bowman value pack I found in a Walmart in New Mexico. My intent in going to Walmart was to restock on travel supplies for the family, but as is custom, checked the sports card shelves.  All that was left was two solitary 2021 Bowman baseball value packs. The packs with two packs inside and five camo variants.  My kids and I wanted to open something but I did not expect to pull what my son found. Mariners top prospect Julio Rodriguez green paper auto numbered to 99. It's not a Chrome and it's not a 1st Bowman (his first was 2019) but it's an amazing hit out of a random value retail pack. Another pack also had a speckle Jake Vogel 1st Bowman, numbered to 299.   

I have a new record for longest wait on a through the mail return, and it's MLB Hall of Famer Harold Baines.  As you can see on my through the mail tracker, I initially sent this request towards the end of February, so the total wait was about four months.  To be clear, I am definitely not complaining, and I'm always happy when any athlete returns something signed.  They don't have to do this.  More than anything, I kind of just expected not to see this again after the first couple of months went by.  Based on recent reports on SportsCollector's.net, Mr. Baines has been very hit and miss with his returns over the past few days.  There was a big gap in time between him returning requests, so I wasn't the only one waiting, and based on what I saw, most of those waiting got their requests back unsigned.   I only have one other pending TTM request out there right now, and I sent it a few months ago.  I don't think I'm getting that one back, and I...