SoCal Autograph Odysses

 I guess that vocalizing my lack of through the mail successes on my last post triggered something in the universe, because the next one came back just two days later. Former Broncos safety and NFL Hall of Famer Steve Atwater returned a card to me.  As you can see, it's a bit of a simple autograph but I'll never complain about a free autograph from a Hall of Famer, that's for sure. This request was actually sent to the Broncos stadium in Denver a little over a month ago. To keep track of all my requests, check out the link to the tracker on the first page.

 I knew it was bound to happen at some point with the amount of requests I have been successful with over the last few years, but the sheer number of returns I've been getting has slowly been dwindling down. It was to be expected as when I started out on this project I was specifically targeting the athletes that had the highest % of success rate and quick returns that were cheap. From there, I started going after some of the guys that were a bit pricier, and then when I figured out the Canadian mailing situation I started sending to players that resided there as well. When you combine all these facts with the main fact that 98% of the time I'm going to only send requests to Hall of Famers, then you start working with a limited pool of players. As such, the number of pending requests I currently have is smaller than it was during any point over the last few years sans the times I took some brief hiatuses. That being said, the dry spell was ended with a return coming back from f...

 Back in February, I sent a Tom Glavine 1988 Topps rookie card to a third party I found on  sportscollectors.net  that was going to be conducting a signing with Tom in May. Well, the signing recently happened and I got my item returned to me back through the mail yesterday. As you can see, I also paid for the HOF 14 inscription as well. It's getting to the point where there aren't a lot of living baseball Hall of Famers I have left to add to my collection. I currently have a couple of more cards currently out for two more private signings going on, both of which I will be excited to post about on this blog when I get them back. Again, for anyone interested in getting into this hobby, I cannot recommend sportscollectors.net enough. It is a one stop shop for all private signings and through the mail request rates/addresses etc.  

 May has been a slow month by recent standards, so it figures that what broke up the monotony of not getting any autographs was arguably the biggest name now in my autograph collection. Leo Messi, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time or at least on the Mt. Rushmore, has a contract with Icons.com in England. He has been their exclusive athlete for ten years, so they are rightfully seen as the apex of Leo signed memorabilia. I was recently perusing their website when I cam across some Messi signed artwork that they still had available. After communicating with my wife about this particular item and getting her stamp of approval (important when dealing with expensive items), I ordered one. Just a few days later, it was delivered to my home from England.  I am absolutely ecstatic with this piece, and like the fact that it was also signed by the artist and numbered 35/100. On the back is all of the authentication from Icons including the date it was signed (April 13th 20...

 I went back to the well that has been Topps Heritage product, as I have outlined many times on this blog that for whatever reason my luck with this set has been pretty good. I saw a hobby box of 2021 high numbered Heritage for sale for under $60 so took another shot. I received a mini Salvador Perez /100, a silver chrome Trevor Larnach rookie card /572, and a Hunter Renfroe base chrome /999. On top of that, I hit on another autograph rather than a memorabilia card again, which is what I prefer. To make the hit even better, for the second consecutive hobby box I pulled a Hall of Famer. This time, it was the "Dominican Dandy" and former Giants' pitcher Juan Marichal. I had previously sent in a successful through the mail request to Mr. Marichal at the beginning of 2021, so this is the second signed Marichal card I own. Again, I really like the look of these cards signed. Vintage style cards are nice, and this is a remake of the 1972 set. I've had so much success with H...

 As expected, I got a return from the other Sedin twin, Daniel, just a couple days after Henrik returned his card signed. As I explained on my post about the Henrik autograph, I wrote a cool letter to each brother explaining how I watched them get drafted and always feared them when the Kings played them. I'm telling you, the vision these two had while on the ice was all time NHL elite.  I wanted this autograph to match the one from Henrik so purchased another numbered to 99 card of the same Upper Deck set. I'm going to of course put both of these cards next to each other in my display case. 

 Retail cards are a huge gamble, and more often than not a losing proposition overall. It's rare that you will even pull the amount of value out of the cards equal to what it cost to get them. That being said, it's a fun thing to rip open new packs and see what you get and honestly, I feel like I actually have decent luck when it comes to retail product.  Over the past couple of days, I opened three products. One was 2022 Topps Heritage Baseball, and this time it was a mega box from Target. Autographs are not guaranteed in this product, in fact the odds are 1:216 packs. The box comes with 17 packs, so I'll let you do the math. Guess what? I pulled an autograph in the fourth pack. Matt Manning is not a huge name, but he was a highly regarded prospect in the Tigers organization at one point, and this is his rookie card. I always say I'll take any auto when it comes to retail, especially when one is not likely. I also pulled a silver chrome Walker Buehler (1:318 packs) num...