Chipping Away

Not a whole lot to talk about here over the past few months.

I did finally get my second Pato Margetic knocked out at least, this one being for the 1990-91 set. It was about an eight-month wait, but hey, it's done at least. Considering he signed just one of two for me several years ago and I had seen a few unsigned returns, I was kind of wondering if I'd get the second one done or not.

Others that I forgot to mention since my last update in September: Kevin Crow, Branko Segota, and Brian Quinn all signed my 1990-91 San Diego All-Stars card; Tim Schulz on my 1992-93 NPSL card (mailed to New York City and returned from Colorado); Jim Gorsek signed a team All-Star card; and Terry Rowe and Erik Rasmussen each signed multiples through addresses in Europe.

Unfortunately I'm still waiting on a few that were mailed around the same time as these guys: Carl Valentine to the Vancouver Whitecaps, Preki to a home address, and Zoran Karic to a home address. Karic is the aforementioned San Diego All-Stars card, so clearly I'm highly hopeful for its return. I'd rather not have to restart yet another All-Star card project.

I'll be making a trip all over the east coast this summer mostly for minor league baseball autographs and the National Sports Collectors Convention (NSCC) in Atlantic City. So if any of you like baseball and happen to be in the places we're stopping, come on out, let's meet up. Here's my schedule:

Friday July 22: Huntsville, AL
Saturday July 23: Indianapolis, IN
Sunday July 24: Toledo, OH
Monday, July 25: Sandusky, OH
Tuesday July 26: Akron, OH
Wednesday July 27 through Sunday July 31: Atlantic City, NJ (NSCC)
Saturday July 30: Wilmington, DE
Monday, August 1: Cooperstown, NY
Tuesday August 2: Portland, ME
Wednesday August 3: Worcester, MA and Manchester, NH
Thursday August 4: Scranton, PA
Friday August 5: Baltimore, MD
Saturday August 6: Harrisburg, PA
Sunday August 7: Norfolk, VA
Monday, August 8: Williamsburg, VA
Tuesday August 9: Durham, NC
Wednesday August 10: Greensboro and Winston-Salem, NC
Thursday August 11: Chattanooga, TN
Friday August 12: Little Rock, AR
Saturday August 13: Frisco, TX
Sunday, August 14: RIP Drew. Cause of Death: Exhaustion and Autograph Overdose

My want list (from my previous entry in January) is fully updated. I'm hoping by some crazy outside chance I can find something from it at the National, but I'm not too hopeful. All I've ever found are a few complete sets and boxes.

I don't think so, Tim

I had an interesting success today from Diego Mandagaran.

As with my request a few years ago, Diego included several additional items, namely two signed photos. But as I looked at them, one was personalized to Tim.

Along with it, there was a hand-written letter, also to Tim.

And I then realized the card in there (1990-91 Pacific MISL) was not the one I sent (1992-93 Pacific NPSL).

So, I believe that Tim may have the card I sent and need for my project.

Tim, if you're out there and somehow happen to see this, please contact me so we can swap our items!

And if anyone reading this knows who Tim might be, let me know or let him know. I already messaged indoor soccer video guru Tim Nichols via Facebook to see if it might happen to be him. Other ideas are appreciated!

New arrivals and the six year mark

Finishing off the 1987-88 set and grabbing a few needed ones from the 88-89 and 89-90 sets in a trade with a collector in Virginia has put a bit of a spring back in my step, and I dropped twelve requests in the mail a week and a half ago. Four already came back today: Jimmy Daka, Terry Brown, and Alex Tarnoczi for the 1992-93 set, and Yilmaz Orhan, who I asked to sign the 1990-91 St. Louis Arena card. He scored the first MISL goal in the arena's history while playing for Hartford. I also have a 1989-90 Dennis Mepham headed my way, courtesy of a collector in Canada. My other mailings include Erik Rasmussen after I emailed and asked him about signing, and Terry Rowe with an address from a Wichita Wings fan who has been in recent contact with him. On the domestic side, Tim Schulz, Pato Margetic, Diego Mandagaran, Branko Segota, Kevin Crow, and Jim Gorsek were asked to ink their last remaining card-- or add ink to some already-signed multi-player cards.

This week marks six years since I really started this project. At this point, it's getting down to the real nitty gritty-- guys with only one card (Chris Simon, Marcelo Carrera, Rick Snyder), guys living overseas (Jan Goossens, Ron Fearon, David Byrne), guys I can't find at all (Claudio De Oliveira, Steve Kinsey, and all together now-- Majid Jay), the deceased who I can possibly trade for (Keith Weller, Pedro DeBrito, Domenic Mobilio), the deceased who may never have even signed their card at any point (90-91 Mike Reynolds, Stan Terlecki, Nenad Nikolic), and the tough ones needed to finish off a multi-player card but I'm too paranoid to send to because I don't want to risk losing it a second time and starting over again a third time (George Fernandez, Kia, and Dale Ervine).

I've been doing far more lately via trades and purchases than any other method. A little peek at some numbers...

Stats	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Received	62	68	40	5	11	5	6
Sent	88	98	59	6	28	9	17
Pctg.	70.5	69.4	67.8	83.3	39.3	55.6	35.3

Clearly I've slowed my output of letters since 2017, and my rate of success has dropped vastly since 2018. And that's what makes the home stretch of this whole project tough. It sucks to mail one out that you haven't gotten... and then never receive it back at all.

But it's worse when you mail off something already signed by a few players and never see it again. I've lost count of how many times I've had to retry a multi-player card. It's why that success percentage on the right side of this blog has fluctuated a bit on the 1990-91 and 1991-92 sets. Get a card signed by three of four, send to the fourth... and if it disappears you're back to a card signed by zero of four.

And that's why-- especially in-person-- I try to get several copies of a multi-player card signed. You never know when you'll have to try again, so it's nice to have a head start.

When I first started this project out, I never really thought completing it would be a possibility. I knew that there were a few who were dead, a few overseas, and probably would be a few who don't want to sign for whatever reason. In my mind, 75% was going to be a nearly unattainable goal. Instead, I hit that in three years. A year ago I said "I'd like to get to 90% overall in the next year. I'm only six away from having the 1987-88 set kicked; let's see if I can finish that one off too." I achieved both of those goals this year.

So what's my goal for September of 2022? I don't really know. I'd love to have this whole thing finished by then but I know that's a pipe dream-- it's tough to complete a set that has one "white whale" in it (in hobby parlance, it's THE card/autograph/item you need that-- if it exists-- may be a true one-of-a-kind), but the 1990-91 set has at least two in Jay and Nikolic.

The final two 1980's sets are doable. So, I think that's my 2022 goal: finish off the 1988-89 and 1989-90 sets. If my mailings all come back successfully, then I'll be left needing only a 1988-89 Stan Stamenkovich, a 1989-90 Chris Hundelt, and a 1989-90 Chris/Kevin Hundelt error signed by both players. I know there's at least one copy out there of the Stamenkovich signed. And I had an error Hundelt signed by Kevin at one point (before it disappeared in mailing to Chris). I need a few unsigned corrected Chris versions-- I'm tapped out on that one.

LEVEL UP! Set completed!

 

When you get this far into a project, victories get to be few and far between. You've already mailed to the guys that are still coaching and therefore easy to find. You've even dug into LinkedIn profiles and Facebook searches, and attended events in Dallas and Las Vegas. You've even emailed former players to enlist their help in tracking some down. You've traded with and bought from everyone you could find.

The early explosion is long over. Now comes the point of frustration-- finding the wrong person with the same name, the dreaded yellow sticker telling they've moved and have no forwarding address on file with USPS, the ones who moved back to Europe, the ones who died, the ones who just don't want to be bothered.

It just makes the successes mean that much more when you do see them.

Hugo Perez was the last one I needed to complete my 1987-88 set. The problem is that his name isn't exactly uncommon. He's still in the public eye, but I don't know much about the postal system of El Salvador to toss out a letter via their National Team. He didn't answer me on Twitter-- either via direct message or public tweet. So, I found what I hoped was an up-to-date address, and threw caution to the wind and gave it a shot.

After five months I wasn't too hopeful. And then today, a couple weeks after the conclusion of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, my Hugo Perez card came back signed.

After getting my first card for it signed almost 20 years ago, the 1987-88 Pacific set... finally... is complete.

Knocking one out from New Jersey

About a week and a half ago I got another response the Facebook messages I sent out a while back (almost a year ago, I think!). Bobby Joe Esposito said I could just send my cards to his office and he'd sign them for me. So I did.

And he did.

So, that puts me at 103 signed and only ten left to go on the 1988-89 set.

I'm also working on a project right now dealing with all things related to my autograph collection, specifically my signed sets and a place to show off what I have so far. It's online already but only a few people have seen it so far; I don't want to really publicize it until it's completely finished. Once it's totally done, I'll promote it here. The tough part is linking all the photos to the site itself. It takes some repetitive work that gets to be downright mind-numbing. But it should be ready to go by next week if I can keep to my current pace.

It also has several articles I've written for various sites and publications over the years. So if you like what you're reading here, there's even more wide-ranging sports writing there.

A new year, a new post

2020 was a strange year.

Also the sky is blue and water is wet.

I got an email from Ray in Baltimore the other day and realized I hadn't updated anything here in a while, so, here goes. It's probably good to have something in here for the start of 2021.

On a personal note/issue, I contracted Covid around Christmas. I was fortunate that most of my symptoms were minimal: a lot of coughing that still is affecting me now but no other breathing difficulty. My fever only lasted 3-4 days, same with body aches and loss of appetite. I had a day with hives on my feet, and another with a mild loss of taste. No nausea. My wife had it too around the same time: worse hives and nausea for her but no fever. I still have a cough now, and from what I'm seeing it may last a while. But no other symptoms and nothing indicating potential contagiousness. It didn't kill me but I can certainly see how it would kill a person. It wasn't fun. I'm still wearing a mask; and I did before-- except around the person we caught it from (oops). You should wear yours too.

I closed up my main sports autograph blog in October because it just wasn't worth maintaining anymore. Most of my autograph updates are going on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and several Facebook groups, and it had largely outlived its purpose. When I first started writing it, it chronicled my in-person outings deeply, I had interviews/profiles of other collectors, I covered what I'd send through the mail... Over time, it was just a list every month. Then maybe every two months. It just wasn't worth keeping up with it.

This blog, however, will remain open and in use. Autograph collecting is a big hobby and it has thousands of resources, maybe even millions. It has grown vastly over time, and especially since 2013. Indoor soccer collecting is a small niche. And I believe blogs are at their best if they are dedicated to a niche group or activity. Some of the best autograph blogs out there are dedicated to collecting just a specific set.

I sent out 600 requests in 2020, but only 9 were in the soccer world. Of those nine two failed on my first try: David Byrne got RTSed due to pandemic restrictions in shipping between the US and South Africa, and Damir Haramina said my cards arrived with severe water damage. So that puts me at seven requests besides those. Mark Kerlin came back successfully in July, as did Shane Schwab in August, and Damir Haramina in October: these were covered in recent previous posts.

I still haven't gotten Tony Csiszar back yet, and I retried David Byrne about a month ago. I checked in to make sure they had received them, or in Byrne's case to give him a heads up that they hopefully will be there soon. The Trump/DeJoy "reforms" (read: sabotage) at USPS have been really awesome for this hobby.

Two additional successes have arrived though: I heard back from Waad Hirmez on Facebook and he gave me an address to send to. Speaking of those awesome reforms, I sent the cards to him on November 30 and he messaged me December 10 to let me know he signed them and was sending them back. They finally got postmarked 11 days later and arrived here on December 26. I'll be glad when Wednesday gets here.

Lastly, you may remember a few years back I picked up a nice eBay lot of autographs and cards and other MISL collectibles. Among it was a 1987-88 Dallas Sidekicks playoff game program signed by everyone on the team except for three players-- Tatu, Victor Moreland, and Stuart Lee.  I got Tatu and Moreland to sign at the NASL 50th Anniversary event in 2018, leaving me with just needing Lee.

We can count it off as completed: I emailed him with the youth soccer organization he works with in Washington, and he hit me with an address. So I mailed the program off along with a card from the Sidekicks Coca-Cola set, and got both back signed right at the end of the year.

So, here I sit entering 2021 still needing 138 sigs to complete this project. I'm hoping some trades/purchases will fill in at least a few gaps along the way since I really think I've hit a major brick wall by mail. And with the Covid pandemic still raging, who knows what will happen with in-person signing. Besides, I don't know of any events that would fill in the gaps I have.

Hopefully though, I'll have more to post more here in the next year than I did in 2020. Maybe I'll be able to finish off the 1987-88 and/or 1989-90 sets since I'm so close on those. Maybe I'll get the want list down under 100. We'll see what happens.

Water water everywhere...

Not long after my last post, I got a message on Facebook from Damir Haramina.  My cards had finally arrived to him in Croatia... ten weeks after I had mailed them, and with severe water damage.

Amazingly this isn't the first time I've had this happen: my mailing to Dali a few years ago came back to me looking like it had chosen to swim its way from Bosnia to the US. Fortunately I had extras on Haramina so I remailed (this time with some plastic protection around them) and received them back this past weekend. One more down for the 1990-91 set!

I've also gone back to working on the (unsigned) outdoor sets I need. I bought a bunch on SportLots, so I'm down to just needing these to finish them off...

2016-17 Aficionado
24 Marquinhos

2018 Prizm World Cup
1 Lionel Messi
5 Gonzalo Higuain
10 Paulo Dybala
13 Eden Hazard
25 Neymar Jr.
31 Marcelo
36 Casemiro
38 James Rodriguez
54 Mohamed Salah
63 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
74 Paul Pogba
78 Hugo Lloris
79 Kingsley Coman
89 Jonas Hector
93 Leroy Sane
96 Mesut Ozil
127 Javier Hernandez
154 Cristiano Ronaldo
155 Andre Silva
185 Aleksandar Mitrovic
197 Andres Iniesta
202 Isco
229 Luka Modric
231 Mateo Kovacic
235 Emil Forsberg
242 Breel Embolo

2018-19 Donruss
40 Leroy Sane

2018-19 Donruss Dominator
D-7 Harry Kane

2018-19 Donruss Elite Series
ES-1 Lionel Messi

2018-19 Donruss Legends Series
LS-5 Diego Maradona
LS-6 Pele

2018-19 Donruss Magicians
M-10 Otavio

2018-19 Donruss Out Of This World
OW-9 Kylian Mbappe

2018-19 Donruss Optic
11 Paulo Dybala
18 Thomas Muller
22 Mats Hummels
24 Manuel Neuer
37 Sergio Aguero
38 Gabriel Jesus
47 Saul Niguez
52 Edinson Cavani
53 Kylian Mbappe
54 Angel DiMaria
66 Christian Pulisic
81 Youri Tielemans
92 Giovani Lo Celso
105 Roberto Firmino
120 Christian Eriksen
132 Kylian Mbappe
133 Paul Pogba
139 Toni Kroos
140 Julian Draxler
154 Memphis Depay
191 Kai Havertz

Oof, yeah, so there are some big names I still need in there. Prizm Messi, Neymar, Dybala, Coman, Pogba, and Ronaldo; the Optic Mbappe pair and Havertz; OOTW Mbappe... It'll probably take some good trading or a couple hundred dollars cash to land them all.

On the positive side, I have several big doubles I could hopefully trade (multiple copies of most of the Donruss base Rated Rookies, for example, and several of the base Mbappe).

Back at it again in July!

Good news, better news, and bad-becoming-okay news.

Good news is that I heard from a few more players-- David Byrne, Shane Schwab, and Tony Csiszar and mailed to them along with my sending to Mark Kerlin and Damir Haramina. Still nothing from Brian Enge, B.J. Esposito, Waad Hirmez, Doug Kriska, Dennis Mepham, Paul Peschisolido, Russ Prince, Erik Rasmussen, and Carl Valentine yet.  I also got a list from Ray in Baltimore of a few pages that have some emails for me to try on guys I haven't found on Facebook. I'll be trying those out soon.

Better news: I got Mark Kerlin back the other day, signing both of my cards. So I'm now down to just six left on the 1987-88 set. Still 55 to go on the 1990-91 set though.

Bad news: Byrne just got returned to me today with a yellow RTS-Refused sticker.  I saw on the back though that there was another yellow sticker-- Mail Service Suspended. And sure enough, South Africa has a pretty tough COVID-19 lockdown in place including major limitations on postal service with nothing international coming in or out. 

Okay news: I'm just glad I got my Byrne cards back at least so I can try again later.

Non-set IP 'graphing

Been pretty slow on the mailing front lately. Since my last post I had a significant couple of car repairs, bought a vintage guitar amp, and had to make a few repairs on it as well. So about $1400 later, it meant my schedule of attending games and even mailing requests has been zero.  I got Bruce Savage back on December 21, but aside from that, nothing received. And nothing sent in ANY sport since my last four went out on January 2.

I did finally manage to get out to a couple games this past weekend to help Ray out with some cards he sent my way. I hadn't been to a single game in Allen since late last season (and that was the lone game I attended that season; the lack of an alumni game has been a killer for me) and hadn't yet gotten out to any games in Mesquite.

Well, I picked a good game to go to for Mesquite. With their starting goalie out with a foot injury and their backup on tour with the US Futsal Team, the Outlaws brought assistant coach and one of the all-time greats, Edilson "Sagu" Xavier out of retirement on an emergency basis. Now age 46, his last pro game was in January 2015, a 9-5 win at Brownsville for the Sidekicks.

Sagu looked like he hadn't lost a step. Aside from a disastrous second quarter, he was 17/19 in goal including a clean sheet in the opening quarter. Outlaws took home a 11-7 victory. Sagu's 177th career win keeps him at 10th all-time in all indoor leagues. Amazingly, this was the first time I ever saw him play in-person.

Indoor soccer's tenth-winningest netminder...

The Outlaws do the same as the Sidekicks with an on-field postgame signing, so I was able to knock out several of the cards that Ray sent down: Rio Ramirez, Mitchell Cardenas, Brenden Lee, Jorge DeLeon, Jay Jay Oteze, and Ramon Nunez, plus a Cody Ellis card that I still had left from the Sidekicks.  Had I thought about it, I would have brought a Sidekicks or Blast logo card for Sagu to sign.  Tatu was also signing on the field afterward. I have several items left for him, but the line near him was always long so I didn't want to hog it with my stuff, so I just got a photo with him. I also ran into Dave and Mark, two 'graphers I hang out with a lot at Sidekicks games.

... and its third-leading point scorer.

Sunday was a trip out to Allen to see the Sidekicks. Kind of the opposite game: Sidekicks led 6-1 late in the second quarter before going on to lose 8-7. Can't even blame Bozas' coaching for this one: he's serving a two game suspension. On a more positive note, I had cards for ten players who were in the Sidekicks' lineup. Signing a pair each were Lipe DeAndrade, Andy Ordonez, Chris Sendejas, Felipe DeSouza, Josh Hernandez, Kristian Quintana, Raul De La Gala, Dario Joya, and Victor Almendariz.

Mesquite and Dallas are both out of playoff contention so my IP 'graphing season is over just as soon as it started.  Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get back to mailing soon. I have a lot of IP baseball outings coming up, but I'll try to fit in whatever I can both timewise and moneywise.

State of the Project Address

Before we begin, I got Bill Crook back on Saturday-- five cards via his home address in about 2 months.

Wow, four years ago today was my first post here, kicking off the project in earnest. I had gotten several cards signed before this, but really didn't have a goal besides "1. Get stuff signed; 2. ?; 3. Profit." Four years ago today, it began with a goal and some sort of shape.

I didn't really know what to expect when I started this whole thing. I knew that with a few deceased players-- and especially with some on multi-player cards-- that completing this whole thing was unlikely, perhaps impossible. I wasn't even sure that I could ever get a single set totally done. I didn't know if I might get a response of "Who the hell are you?!" from a few players.

And now, here I am only nine cards from finishing the 1987-88 set, and eight cards from completing the 1989-90 set.  The 1987-88 set will be the easier of the two: all nine remaining are alive at least, and as a number of collectors have said, it's still doable if they're all alive.  The 1989-90 set is still lacking the late Dominic Mobilio and Pedro DeBrito.

I've managed to finish all the 1987-88 spelling errors and color variations, and am only one short on the various wrong-photo errors (and that one in the mail to Chris Hundelt).  Even on multi-player cards, I've finished off a handful (one of the 1990-91 Sockers Champs cards, the Nogueira/Toth, the Sidekicks, Comets, and Crunch All-Stars, several 1990-91 ASG action cards, the 1991-92 Borja/Clavijo, and the Crunch, Storm, and Stars All-Stars).

Through this project, I've gotten to meet plenty of fans and a ton of players and coaches: Tatu, Doc Lawson, Kai Haaskivi, Willie Molano, Dev Reeves, Krys Sobieski, Billy Phillips, Marcio Leite, Dave MacKenzie, Mike Sweeney, David Doyle, Rod Scott, Mike Powers, Terry Woodberry, Rusty Troy, Gordon Jago, Victor Moreland, Perry Van der Beck, Alan Willey, Brad Smith, Alan Mayer, Godfrey Ingram, Juli Veee, Gerry Gray, Zoltan Toth, Gus Mokalis, Kenny Cooper, and Roy Turner.

And the number of "Don't ever bother me again" reactions has been... well, zero. A few haven't responded, but that's to be expected. I don't know that every address is correct, and some may have moved with the new occupants just dropping the letter in the trash. And some may just not want to be bothered.

But with the project sitting at over 80% completion, I'd say I've been largely successful.

Keep 'Em Rolling In

Saturday brought another project hit back, with Tim Wittman coming back to me after about three weeks.  I had just gotten his 1992-93 NPSL gold card to go with the base set card, and I added in his 1991-92 Soccer Shots card as well.

Monday: looks like nothing coming today, just part of my order of baseball cards to mail off courtesy of a purchase from SportLots.

I likely will write something this weekend on the four-year anniversary of this blog and project as well. Hopefully I'll have a few successes to cover too...

TUESDAY EDIT: Well, I spoke too soon on the "nothing coming today" comment as one came in that didn't show up on Informed Delivery. Bobo Lucic signed all three I sent to his team in Slovenia. He also returned the $2 I sent to cover return postage.

Signs of Life

The biggest thing I hate about an empty mailbox is the uncertainty.  Did the player just throw my letter away? Did I have a wrong address and the new occupants threw it away? Are they just taking a while? Did the USPS manage to destroy it? Did a sticky-fingered employee see what it was and grab it? Are they just done signing?

That's why as frustrating as the Return To Sender sticker is, at least it's certainty.  So when my attempt at Dennis Mepham by mailing via his wife's office came back with the address covered and RTS stamps all over it... well, at least I know where my cards are, even if it's back in my hand unsigned.

It's been a little over a month since I started mailing again and I've sent out 22 requests. So far, I have two successes, two RTS failures, and 18 somewhere out in the ether.

Well, soon to be 17. Dale Mitchell appears to be in my inbox today; I had emailed him about sending cards up to him and about a week ago he told me they were signed and on their way back. Informed Delivery shows an envelope with Canadian postage coming in.  I hope this triggers a deluge of international returns. Typically mail takes three days within the US from dropping in the outbox to delivery day. International mailing has usually been a week for me. Looks like it may be 9 or 10 days now.  Seven of those remaining 17 are international ones. And this time I didn't have the right stamps for each country, so I had to put cash in for the return postage. So that inconvenience may add a little time to the response.

Last Saturday I got to go to a card show where Tatu was signing. I had gotten most of what I needed signed over time with mailing and trading and a couple of in-person outings, but it's always good to upgrade to cards signed in blue and in-person.  He was awesome, commenting on the photos on the cards, reminiscing about his days with the Sidekicks. I told him about the Vegas event, and he was glad to know Doc Lawson and Godfrey Ingram showed up to it, plus a lot of guys he used to play against like Kai Haaskivi and Alan Mayer. He had been contacted but was unable to go as he was doing a lot of work to get things together for the new Mesquite MASL team that he's coaching.

It's definitely a different Tatu from the first time I met him, and I found out why. The first time I met him was when I tracked him down at the 2002 MISL ASG Skills Competition. He didn't do the postgame signing, but I was able to find him on his way out to the parking lot (I knew the building quite well: it was my high school's home hockey arena so I knew all the exits from the place). I asked him to sign a card, which he did, and then my pennant. He seemed incredibly annoyed by the second request.

It turns out there was a reason for that: I told him I had seen him at the Skills Competition but I didn't mention our paths crossing besides seeing him play. He says he couldn't play as well as he would like since he was dealing with a foot sprain. He tried to get out of participating because of it, but they pushed him into it, and admittedly, he wasn't playing his best. So I'm sure being in pain had a LOT to do with his response that day, because every time I've seen him since, he's been incredibly nice and signs a ton via mail.

I also have some more stamps coming in today-- a bunch of 5 and 10 cent fillers so I can use the rest of the 20 and 25 cent ones I have. So I'll likely crank out a few more domestic mailings if I can.  I also have some baseball and hockey ones I'd like to do.

All Quiet on the Grapher Front

I opened my mailbox yesterday and a tumbleweed came out of it.

Hey, this is Texas, it could happen. Though it took me close to seven years of living here to see my first one (on a random night in early December 2012 on a bus back to Wichita Falls from Amarillo).

Okay, it's not too bad: I did get David Hoggan back on August 1, and he signed all five cards I sent. Nice score, and major thanks are due to Dave MacKenzie for helping me find him. And I just mailed out Tim Wittman and Kia today.

As of right now, I have eleven cards sent out that have at least one signature from another player already on them (nine of those are part of this project, while two are just extras I had and wanted to complete). This is where I try not to get concerned, but it still slips in. It's only been 27 days since my first mailings post-MISL40, and my average on this project so far is 45 days. So I'm probably jumping the gun massively.

My fingers remain crossed. There's nothing worse in this hobby than losing a multi-signed card, but when you have no other option to get it signed sometimes you just have to take that chance. I do have something coming in the mail today that doesn't have a photo on Informed Delivery. I'm hoping maybe someone decided to put in something extra and sent it in a large envelope. I just don't want a postal body bag with some destroyed cards (which has happened only once this whole time, thankfully). More than likely though, it's a catalog or magazine that's unrelated to this project.

Finishing with a sure thing

An important lesson I've heard on multi-player cards: Get the hard ones done first.

Of course, flying blind on a project like this as I have been, it's hard to know who the hard ones are going to be. You may send to a guy early and find out he's easy to get and then discover someone else is tough. Or sometimes an easy signer might turn tough out of nowhere. There's nothing worse than getting a few and then never seeing it again: a 1991-92 Kansas City All-Stars card that disappeared on its way to Iain Fraser with Gorsek, Goossens, and Roentved sigs is my biggest tale of woe. I reacquired it with Roentved's sig, and it's currently off to Goossens to try it all again; then Valentine, then Gorsek, and then maybe someone, somewhere, can get me Fraser in-person.

And so with the 1990-91 Cleveland Crunch All-Stars card, how was I to know Kai Haaskivi would be the toughest one to get?  Not that it mattered: I've gotten him a couple times in-person and he was the third one I got on the card out of four. And I actually did it right: I mailed the completely unsigned card off to him first... and never got it back.

I reacquired the card already signed by Michael King via a trade (I thought it was part of my mailed success from him, but as my entry on it proves, it was not; I likely got it from either Ray in Baltimore or Brian in Kansas City).  Mike Sweeney, a solid TTM signer, signed it in-person at the NASL50 event in Dallas back in October. Kai Haaskivi signed it as well there (and signed a few singularly at the MISL40 event in Las Vegas too; good in-person, he's just not accessible TTM as my two mailings including one written in Finnish have shown).

I did it right on the last one at least. I knew Bernie James was a good signer since he had signed his individual cards for me in 18 days back in 2015, not long after King.  This time, it took him only 13 days to return it, finishing off the quad.

This is the first team where I've completed both their 1990-91 AND 1991-92 All-Stars multiplayer cards.  The Sidekicks didn't have one for 1991-92 for unknown reasons (Tatu, Wes McLeod, and Kevin Smith were their All-Stars, and I would have completed this card easily), and Baltimore didn't get one in 1990-91 (Savage, Manning, and Valentine would be gettable now; sadly, Dominic Mobilio would not).

I'm glad this one came back and I hope it starts the ball rolling on more. Considering the number I've gotten back in under two weeks (75 out of 180), I was starting to get a little concerned since I hadn't received anything from my most recent batch yet. Clearly patience is not always my strong suit.

Cashing in?

I tried something different on this batch of international mailings.

It's tough sometimes to get international postage. Paying face value for the appropriate stamps is almost impossible since someone somewhere along the line has to eat the shipping costs to get the stamps from their original country. If I buy direct from Canada Post, South African Post Office, Correo Argentina, Royal Mail in the UK, Post NL in the Netherlands, BH Pošta in Bosnia, Pošta PBS in Slovenia, Croatia's Hrvatska Pošta, or ЈП Пошта Србије in Serbia, I'm not only paying face value for the stamp, but also the cost to ship that stamp over here, essentially paying double. Even if I buy from a stamp dealer who buys in bulk, it'll still be slightly higher to disperse shipping costs and likely have a premium added on so that they get their profit.

So, why not cut out the middle man?

This time when I sent to Dale Mitchell in Canada, Dali in Bosnia, and Bobo Lucic in Slovenia, I just slipped in some cash to cover the postage. Around $2 in USD should cover a stamp from any of these. Slovenia's postage costs €1.17, about $1.31. A few years ago, Bosnia's was 2.15 BAM, about $1.23. Canada's is currently C$1.33, approximately US$1.02.

I plan to do the same tomorrow with Damir Haramina, Jan Goossens, Omar Gomez, and Pasquale Deluca; then Mark Karpun once I get a couple more singles (pro tip: don't send coins), and once Goossens returns Carl Valentine.  I know another collector had success just including cash for postage from Goossens.

We'll see how it goes. Trial and error is about all you can really do in this hobby sometimes.

Let's Go!

The first batch has hit the mailbox. I held off on Kia-- I got the card I was missing for $1 including shipping; same deal on Tim Wittman's card. They should be here next week. I also have held off on Steve Kinsey (only because I forgot to stamp the envelope; it'll go out tomorrow) and Greg Ion. Turns out Ion was hired by Temecula United in California, so I'm hoping to hear from them about an email address or mailing address to reach him directly. The addresses I had found for him were all in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona-- I doubt those are correct now.

Also, I found David Byrne on Facebook. I tried messaging him about how I can mail him. We'll see if I get an answer. That would be a huge one if I hear back. Looks like he's still in South Africa, but no longer coaching Glendene United. I also emailed Hellenic FC, where he once played and his brother is currently Technical Director. They gave me his phone number, but I've never tried to make an international call before. I'm way better with writing anyway. I may try texting him.

A little more digging has found me Bobo Lucic's whereabouts, so I plan to try him soon, along with a second attempt at Dalibor Cvitanovic.  Related: I need Slovenian and Bosnian stamps. Canadian ones too so I can get my last Mark Karpun card signed, and hopefully try Pasquale Deluca again, along with Dale Mitchell and Carl Valentine. Maybe an Argentinian one to send to Omar Gomez. Probably some Italian ones too, since I'd like to try Roberto Baggio. And a Swiss one so I can send to Roger Federer. Okay, I'm getting off-topic now.

I also need to contact Stuart Lee about finishing my Sidekicks game program.

As of right now, the project is down to needing at least one signed by each of these guys.

TRIED WITH NO LUCK - 18
Arturo Velazco (2017), B.J. Esposito (2017), Chris Simon (2017), Desmond Armstrong (2016), Ed Anibal (2017), Erik Rasmussen (2015), Gregg Willin (2016), Hugo Perez (2017), Iain Fraser (2016), Joe Papaleo (2016), Keder (2017), Marcelo Carrera (2017), Paul Peschisolido (2016 RTS), Poli Garcia (2016), Teddy Krafft (2016), Terry Rowe (2016 RTS), Victor Nogueira (2016), Wes Wade (2016)

HAVEN'T TRIED - 20
Alan Hinton, Alex Tarnoczi, Brian Enge, Chris Haywood, Chris Szanto, Claudio De Oliveira, Dan O'Keefe, Eric Dade, Fahmi El-Shami, Frank Rasmussen, Jason Putthoff, Jimmy Daka, Joe Kirk, Joe Mallia, Majid Jay, Rick Snyder, Russ Prince, Saeed Bakhtiari, Shane Schwab, Tony Csiszar

DECEASED - 11
Barry Wallace (d. 2006), Billy Ronson (d. 2015), Domenic Mobilio (d. 2004), Earl Foreman (d. 2017), Keith Weller (d. 2004), Mike Reynolds (d. 1991), Nenad Nikolic (d. 1999), Pedro DeBrito (d. 2014), Slobo Ilijevski (d. 2008), Stan Stamenkovic (d. 1996), Stan Terlecki (d. 2017)

TRIED WITH SUCCESS - 10
Daryl Doran, Diego Mandagaran, Doug Neely, Jim Gabarra, Kim Roentved, Kris Peat, Pato Margetic, Rene Ortiz, Terry Brown, Tim Schulz

MAILED/PLANNING - 24
Bernie James (mailed today)
Bill Crook (mailed today)
Bobo Lucic (mailing once I get a Slovenian stamp)
Chico Borja (mailed today)
Chris Hundelt (mailed today)
Dale Ervine (mailed today)
Dale Mitchell (mailing this weekend)
Dali (mailing once I get a Bosnian stamp)
Damir Haramina (mailing once I get a Croatian stamp)
David Byrne (hoping to get an address and South African stamp soon)
David Hoggan (mailed today)
Dennis Mepham (mailed today)
George Fernandez (mailed today)
Greg Ion (mailing soon)
Jan Goossens (mailing once I get a Dutch stamp)
Kia (mailing next week)

Mark Karpun (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Mark Kerlin (mailed today)
Omar Gomez (mailing once I get an Argentinian stamp)
Pasquale Deluca (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Steve Kinsey (mailing this weekend)
Steve Zungul (mailed today)
Tim Wittman (mailing next week)
Waad Hirmez (mailed today)

CONDITIONALS/SPECULATIVES - 12
Zoran Karic (mailing once Fernandez returns)
Paul Wright (mailing once Hirmez returns)

Kevin Smith (mailing once Wright returns)
Brian Quinn (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, and Wright return)
Kevin Crow (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, Wright, and Quinn return)

Donald Cogsville (mailing once Hirmez and Wright return)
Jacques Ladouceur (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, and Cogsville return)
Rod Castro (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, and Ladouceur return)
Ralph Black (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, Ladouceur, and Castro return)
Bruce Savage (mailing once Dale Mitchell returns)
Carl Valentine (mailing once I get Canadian stamps and Goossens returns)
Jim Gorsek (mailing once Goossens and Valentine return)

I'm always looking for trades as well if it will help lighten my writing and postage expenditures.

MAIL CALL: And then there were nine...

It took a few tries, but I managed to track down Heinz Wirtz.

I had heard of my original address on him getting a RTS, then I found one that got a success and a RTS before I tried it and got RTS'ed.

But after some searching, I found a new one, tried it, and yesterday received two cards signed.

With that, I now have every single error and variation signed from the 1987-88 Pacific set. It puts me down to nine remaining for that set, and down to needing only one on the errors and variations across the entire series (I need Chris Hundelt on his 1989-90 error with Kevin listed).  And it's soon to be eight on the 1987-88 set: Brian in Kansas City has a Desmond Armstrong set aside for me.  I can also add a 1990-91 soon too as Ray in Baltimore is sending an Angelo Panzetta sig to me.

I went through and did a few updates to the address list. I've been helping out Doug Verb a bit whenever I can for the 40th Anniversary so I figured it was time to do some more digging and correcting.

Speaking of which, I don't have any new additions to the list of people who will be there just yet, but I did get all my cards sorted last night. I'm able to fit everything into three boxes and a binder. I'd like to limit my baggage to a single carry-on if I can. It'll be tough, but I might be able to pull it off. I might even look into seeing if I can grab some old team sets on the cheap somewhere. I know the Kansas City Comets had a Pizza Hut sponsored set, Wichita had their Burger King sets, and the L.A. Lazers had some as well. Cleveland used to do some postcard sized ones with various sponsors-- Oh Henry and Smuckers off the top of my head.

I also bought a couple shirts for it today that should arrive in the next couple of weeks. I'll wait to show them off though...

End of year sigh of relief

On the last day of the year, the Scott Manning cards I mentioned in my last entry found their way into my mailbox-- 4 months, and finishes a dual and adds to another multi-player card.

2018 was a lighter year for soccer mailing, but my targeted attempts were successful-- six mailings, five successes with one RTS from Heinz Wirtz. Plus I pulled in a long wait from Brian Quinn, and added several needs in-person at the NASL 50th Anniversary event in Dallas. I also found my 2002 MISL All-Star Game pennant, purchased a large lot of sigs I needed, and though I haven't gotten to a game yet, the Sidekicks are back.

Got one!

I'm a little concerned that my Scott Manning request has been out for three months now with no return. I've seen returns of six weeks and ten days from another collector, and I sent one myself in 2016 that took six weeks. I'm really hoping it didn't get lost, as it was the 1991-92 Blast All-Stars signed by Kenny Cooper, and the 1989-90 Scoop Stanisic error...

Positive note though: I did get Nenad Zigante back after three months! I had mailed him originally in 2015 with no answer to a team he coached (Wake FC). I tried again through a home address in September and got these back. It was postmarked from Las Vegas, which surprised me. It seems he has worked in the past with the Las Vegas Surf club for some camps and clinics, so perhaps he was out there for one.

Still no news on the potential Las Vegas MISL 40th reunion. I'm keeping my ears open, though...

A success, a failure, and some waits

Starting again with the good, former Dallas Sidekick Beto signed for me in a two-week wait, and also wrote a short note back asking where I got the cards of him from. Unfortunately I've gotten then from so many places over the years I don't really have a single source. So if anyone out there has a bunch of unsigned cards of him, please let me know, as it seems he might like some copies of them.

On the bad side, Heinz Wirtz got RTS'ed. I have a couple other addresses on him to try so if anyone has any intel on which to use, please let me know.

I have a few others still out: Scott Manning, Nenad Zigante, and Preki. Manning at least I'm reasonably sure will come back. Preki I'm at least hopeful on. Zigante, I have no idea.

Looking back through history, requests I never got back...

JANUARY 2013
Tatu - I later got everything signed by him so all is good!

SEPTEMBER 2015
Beto - Again, I later got everything from him (see above, haha) so all is good
David Hoggan - No luck via TyneCastle FC
Steve Zungul - Later got all but one (1987-88) signed by him
Erik Rasmussen - One of my few international failures
Mark Frederickson - No answer via a business address, but got him later at home
Steve Kinsey - Still haven't had luck with him

OCTOBER 2015
Dennis Mepham - No luck via a home address
Scoop Stanisic - No luck via Columbus Crew, but got everything later via trades
Nenad Zigante - No answer through Wake FC

MARCH 2016
Kai Haaskivi - Despite being a fellow Finn, I got nothing back
Preki - Just missed him as I had seen a success less than a week before I mailed
Paul Wright - I had an old address for Speed To Burn and never even got a RTS sticker
Jim Gabarra - Missed him with Sky Blue Soccer; but I got him later, we're cool
Kevin Hundelt - Got him in trades later; now I just need to track down Chris...
Pasquale Deluca - Another rare international failure

MAY 2016
Greg Ion - I cannot track this guy down! Two RTS, then this one unreturned...
Iain Fraser - No answer at San Juan Soccer Club

SEPTEMBER 2016
Desmond Armstrong - Nothing through Sporting Nashville
George Fernandez - Nothing via his home address after success a year before
Waad Hirmez - Southwest Soccer Club? No luck...
Victor Nogueira - West Coast FC? No luck...
Joe Papaleo - Syracuse Development Academy? Nothing...
Gregg Willin - Nothing from a home address...
Wes Wade - No answer from the Tucson Soccer Academy...
Ted Krafft - No luck from a home address, but later got him via trades
Mike Brady - No answer via Duke

NOVEMBER 2016
Poli Garcia - Tried a home address without luck

MAY 2017
Marcelo Carrera - No answer from IMG
Bobby Joe Esposito - No answer from BCSA
Dennis Mepham - No answer from a second home address
Hugo Perez - No answer from the LA United Futbol Academy
Gyula Visneyi - Nothing from a home address
Steve Zungul - No answer in my attempt for the 1987-88 card
Ed Anibal - No answer through home
John Klein - No luck, but later got in trades
Arturo Velazco - Nothing via home
Keder - Maybe I just need to avoid mailing to West Coast FC; No Keder, no Victor Nogueira.
Frank Klopas - Nothing via home, but got him in trades later
Greg Muhr - Nothing via home
Angelo Panzetta - Nothing via Allegheny
Chris Simon - Nothing via home

AUGUST 2017
Danny Pena - Nothing from the Beach Futbol Club

At a little over three years into the project my percentage is great overall: successful with 176, RTS/unsigned on 34, and 46 unreturned. Of all the sports I collect, only baseball has a higher success percentage for me-- but soccer involves a lot more rolling the dice and trying addresses that no one else ever has tested before, while with baseball I can research and know who signs and who doesn't.