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.

A Five Year Retrospective

Five years ago today, the first two successes of this project came to my inbox, officially kicking off the project.  I had always figured I'd just see how far I could get in it all. With several foreign players returning to their home countries, several more deceased, and countless others who may just not want to be bothered, I figured that completing this would be a hell of a trick. Furthermore, while indoor soccer has some devoted fans, the number of signed copies of these cards (or even unsigned copies) can't possibly rival many baseball, football, basketball, and hockey card sets, limiting trading opportunities. I thought maybe I'd get to 75% completion across the entire thing, ever.

Five years in, I'm past that 75% mark. Granted, I hit that three years in, but still, that's more than I figured I'd get to. I'm closing in on 85% completion, and that's even after adding in the 1992-93 NPSL set on a whim because I was able to get most of it for a reasonable price. I'm over that 85% mark on just the MISL sets.

I've reached out to several via Facebook with varying degrees of success. Shane Schwab and Mark Kerlin came back successfully. Tony Csiszar and Damir Haramina did not. My attempt to mail to David Byrne was RTSed thanks to South Africa postal restrictions during COVID-19; I'll try again once they're back to semi-normal operations. People who never responded include Carl Valentine, Erik Rasmussen, Russ Prince, Paul Peschisolido, Dennis Mepham, Doug Kriska, Waad Hirmez, Bobby Joe Esposito, and Brian Enge.

For the most part, it's starting to dry up. There are several that I've tried without success, some of those multiple times.  Check out the breakdown year by year:

2015: 88 mailed, 62 successes

2016: 98 mailed, 68 successes

2017: 59 mailed, 40 successes

2018: 6 mailed, 5 successes

2019: 28 mailed, 11 successes

2020: 5 mailed, 2 successes

There's not a whole lot more I can do without some help via trades, 50/50s, or some in-person luck. A lot of it is that these multi-player cards are absolute killers (I know I can get some of them; I'm just afraid of getting one signed by all but one, mailing it to the last guy... and never seeing it again). I'm hoping that this Indoor Soccer Alumni group that's on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere might be able to help me out.

I do at least have two nice updates from my last post: as stated above I got my Shane Schwab card back signed. I also had a big flash from the past end up in my mailbox as my mailing out to George Fernandez over a year ago came back to me on August 18, with him signing the last four cards I needed from him. So I went and updated my want list from the last time I posted it.

Overall, I can't say I'm in the home stretch on this, but I'm certainly starting to slow down. Maybe one final Hail Mary push soon. Ray in Baltimore sent me a big list of contact info on some guys, along with some of the unsigned cards I needed. I need to get in gear and try some emailing, I think. I have a new batch of stamps coming this week, so no time like the present to see what I can find.

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.

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.

One year of the project: a look back

So much has happened in the last year that it's hard to believe that this project is only 365 days old.

It was on September 4, 2015 that I started this blog and mailed out my first batch of 27 requests. Some took as little as a week to return to me, others still are out a year later, but overall the project has been a big success. In the ensuing 365 days, I've had 88 successes, 21 returns for an incorrect address, and only 21 went unreturned. And I haven't given up hope on those: I've had successes in other sports that have taken over a year to come back (30 to be exact, with one taking 7 years from baseball player Marty Barrett). I also have made a few trades and purchases as well.

So to celebrate a year of work, I mailed out another 14 requests this morning. Two are going to players who already signed for me but have a ton of cards in the sets (George Fernandez and Kevin Crow). I typically try not to send more than 6 cards per request so with those two I mailed in two batches a year apart. In addition to those, I took a flyer on Victor Nogueira who I haven't seen many successes from, along with Desmond Armstrong, Tino Lettieri, Waad Hirmez (another longshot), Joe Papaleo, A.J. Lachowecki, Gregg Willin, Gary Etherington, Dave Clements, Tom Kain, Mike Fox, and Terry Brown.

Also, I just noticed I failed to mention that I did get one of those early stragglers back recently. Mark Mettrick returned his cards signed back in August after about 10 months out. Like I said, never give up, those old ones can come rolling in at any time.

Who am I still waiting on?  Here's a breakdown, listed in order of when they were mailed out.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2015: Brian Quinn, Steve Zungul, Beto, David Hoggan, Erik Rasmussen

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015: Mark Frederickson, Steve Kinsey

OCTOBER 6, 2015: Dennis Mepham, Scoop Stanisic, Nenad Zigante, Gregg Blasingame, Andy Chapman

MARCH 7, 2016: Paul Wright, Preki, Kai Haaskivi

MARCH 10, 2016: Jim Gabarra, Kevin Hundelt

MARCH 14, 2016: Marty Templin/Herb Silva

MARCH 30, 2016: Pasquale DeLuca

MAY 25, 2016: Greg Ion

MAY 31, 2016: Iain Fraser