Successes in brief

Been busy-- I made a trip to Cleveland for Game 7 of the World Series and now joined a band.  But the mailing continues!

NOVEMBER 14: Steve Pittman, c/o son’s team, 2/1, 1 month to the UK (also signed my letter)

NOVEMBER 18: Mike Dowler, c/o work, 9/4, 1 month to the UK (wrote letter back and signed both the front and back of cards)

NOVEMBER 23: Dominic Feltham, c/o work, 3/2, 1 month (wrote note back)

NOVEMBER 28: John Stollmeyer. c/o work, 1/1, 1 week

International Success

Got my first of the most recent international batch back last week while in Ohio-- Gary Stanley signed his 1987-88 card in about two weeks via his current workplace. He signed it on the back of the card, but I can't complain much-- I have a few that are signed that way.

Definitely one I'm glad to get as a Chelsea fan, where Stanley plied his trade throughout the 1970s.

Aside from that, the mailbox has been slow. I hope to hit the mailings hard soon though-- I should be grabbing another roll of stamps this weekend.

International Mailings: A tutorial

My international postage finally came... sort of.

Unfortunately the place I bought my stamps through didn't tell me that they ran out of several of the stamps I needed. They didn't charge me for them, but it would have been nice to know and I would have bought some different ones. So, my mailings to Italy (Roberto Baggio), Croatia (Damir Haramina), Slovenia (Bobo Lucic), and South Africa (David Byrne) won't be happening just yet.

But now, a little info on how to do this most effectively.

With soccer being the most international of all the sports played in the US, collecting soccer autographs may involve a lot of mailing around the world. While it's true that all of the Big Four have had international players as well (MLB has plenty from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia; the NFL once in a while has a few European and Central Americans, usually kickers; the NBA had over 100 foreign-born players on active rosters at the start of the 2014-15 season; and the NHL is nearly one-third European), none of those sports are played anywhere near as much as soccer worldwide.

With my MISL project, a significant portion of the players in the sets were foreign-born (just looking at a random roster to give you an idea, the 1990-91 Cleveland Crunch had 24 players; 13 of them were born outside the USA and eight had citizenship only in a European country-- two had dual citizenship and three were Canada-only). Many gained citizenship and stayed in the United States after their playing careers, but a handful did return home.

The toughest part of mailing out autograph requests internationally is getting the proper return postage. American stamps won't typically do you any good in getting it back. I've had success with them before, but I wouldn't recommend it. And International Reply Coupons are expensive and hard to come by.

Once you have an address, you then know where to send, and postage to get your letter over to the player is the easy part-- right now it's $1.15 to mail a standard one ounce letter internationally (one ounce is approximately a SASE, a letter, and up to about 8 cards, so you should be good to go on most players). The USPS sells International Forever stamps that cover the cost even with future rate increases.  Unfortunately my local PO doesn't always have them. On the positive side, standard first-class stamps are 47 cents, and a two-ounce stamp is 68 cents.  What happens when you put those together? Bam, $1.15. So that's what I did. Unfortunately the only two-ouncers they had in stock were wedding themed. Great...

Knowing the price of a return stamp can be tricky as it varies from country to country. Not only because of differences in monetary exchange rates, but also due to different prices post-exchange. Just because it costs $1.15 to mail a letter internationally here in the US doesn't mean it'll cost €1.05 to mail from anywhere in Europe, or £0.95 from the UK, ¥118.94 from Japan, or 10.17kr from Sweden.

Most countries' postal websites could tell you this info. But unless you're semi-fluent in a few languages, you may be sunk as translations are not always available, and even Google Translate isn't always the best.

Fortunately, there is a site that lists mailing rates from every country-- their domestic rates AND their international rates AND an approximate cost conversion. So you can find out that it costs 60 Lek to mail from Albania, and that a US dollar is approximately 104 Lek: so it's about 60 cents. Meanwhile, it's 50 Argentinian pesos to mail from Argentina to the US-- nearly $4!

For the MISL sets, that means I'm mailing to...
UK - £1.05
Croatia - 13 Kuna
Serbia - 70 Dinar
Netherlands - €1.25
Argentina - 50 pesos
South Africa - 6.60 Rand
Slovenia - €1.26
Bosnia-Herzegovina - 2.15 BAM
Canada - C$1.25
Denmark - 30 Krone

So once you have it all set as to what cost you need to cover, the next step obviously is buying stamps. K4HB recommends a guy named Bill Plum, who can be contacted via an email address listed on their site. I didn't notice that until just now. Herrick Stamp Company is who I used. You may have to pay a bit of a premium, but once you realize that you are not getting charged much for shipping, not having to deal with multiple exchange rates, not having to buy a ton of extra stamps that you don't need, not having navigate a bunch of websites in multiple languages, and not having to wait different amounts of time for them all to get to you, it's not that bad to pay a little more. My only wish is that I had been told they were out of a few I needed. I would have gladly bought some different ones. I may give Mr. Plum a try next time.

So from there, just put your American postage on the outgoing envelope, the appropriate foreign postage on the return envelope, and then just treat it like any other TTM request. Make sure to put USA at the bottom of your address on your return envelope.

If you don't want to bother with international stamps, you can always toss in a couple dollars to cover postage. It's worked for me before (some have even sent back my cash), but I prefer making it as easy on the other person as possible. I once heard of a baseball player writing an angry note back to someone for enclosing cash instead of stamps on a ball, basically saying he doesn't have time to go stand in line at the post office and that he was never signing again; and so far he hasn't. So, I don't want to be That Guy.

We'll see how this goes. I had success with my Netherlands and Canada requests (except one), all of which had postage rather than cash, and I've had decent success with hockey requests across borders, so I have high hopes for these as well.

Mail Call: October 5-11

Still no foreign stamps yet. This is killing me.

On the positive side, I have gotten back 6 more in the last week or so.

OCTOBER 5
Nebo Bandovic, c/o work, 1/1, 1 week
Bandovic only had one card in the Pacific sets, but he signed it pretty quickly for me.

OCTOBER 7
Mike Fox, c/o home, 5/4, 3 weeks
Fox wrote a short note back saying it had been a while since he had been asked for an autograph. He signed the four I had (I picked one up in a trade earlier).

Terry Nicholl, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks
The importance of double-checking! The original address I had for Nicholl was through a high school he was coaching. Key word: was. He's no longer there so I had to dig a bit to find a different address but fortunately I found it. He signed two on the back and one on the front.

John O'Hara, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week
O'Hara was RTS'ed to me from a Minnesota address recently. Fortunately some digging netted me his current location-- just outside Cincinnati, OH. He also wrote a short note back.

OCTOBER 11
Tim Schulz, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks
Great response from Schulz, who even took the time to write a full letter back to me telling me about what he's up to in coaching and development in Colorado.

Paul Krumpe, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks
Got both versions of his 1987-88 cards signed. Krumpe currently is a college coach in California.

Here's to hoping I have some stamps today. And if not, at least a mailbox full of successes. I currently have 10 mailed in September that are still out. Fortunately 24 have come back successfully (with three that were RTSed before being successful). Total on the year so far, I'm 53/79, and 116/172 all-time.

Mail Call: October 1-3

I got a RTS from John O'Hara, but found a new address to mail out to, so we'll hope for the best from there. I'm also just waiting on my foreign postage to get here and then I'll have a decent overseas batch to mail out (14 MISL, one outdoor, and two hockey).

In the meantime, I got a few more back.

OCTOBER 1
Tom Kain, c/o work, 3/3, 1 month. Kain works with Nike, pretty high up in the company. He signed all three cards I had of him. I was pretty happy to see this one come back, as if memory serves me correctly a previous attempt to him on SCN went unreturned.

Branko Segota, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks. This is the second time I got Segota and it finishes off all the cards I need him on (and then some). He typically signs in pen, just as a heads up.

Duncan MacEwan, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week. Second time is the charm! He signed the David Doyle card that features his photo in blue pen, and also signed my letter.

OCTOBER 3
Theo Kulsdom, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks from the Netherlands. I had mentioned before how Kulsdom got returned to me with a note from the current occupant of his former address saying he was no longer there, but to try finding him on Facebook. So I did and he said to send them on over. He signed them and wrote a short note as well.

John Bain and Jeff Cacciatore, each c/o work, each 2/1, each 1 week. A pair of former St. Louis teammates signed their 1987-88 cards and wrote a short note back.

So, as I said I'm just waiting on my foreign postage to arrive. As soon as it does, here's who will be getting requests...

Craig Allen, UK
Dominic Feltham, UK
Paul Peschisolido, UK
Steve Pittman, UK
Terry Rowe, UK
Gary Stanley, UK
Mike Dowler, UK
Godfrey Ingram, UK
Ron Fearon, UK
David Byrne, South Africa
Dalibor Cvitanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Damir Haramina, Croatia
Nenad Markicevic, Serbia
Bobo Lucic, Slovenia

I'm also sending to Roberto Baggio in the world of outdoor soccer (to Italy), as well as hockey players Pavel Vorobiev (to the UK) and Borje Salming (to Sweden).

Speaking of Salming in a roundabout way, I got my FA Sápmi jersey in the mail the other day as well. For those who don't know, FA Sápmi is a CONIFA team composed of Sámi players from the areas of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. I believe I'm part Sámi as my family originally came from this area. I still have relatives in Tervola, Kemi, Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, and Sodankylä in Finland, as well as Karasjok, Norway. I haven't been able to prove it 100% yet, as documentation of this is hard to come by; but I have been told that it is accepted that anyone north of a line from Oulu to Pudasjärvi has a lot of Sámi ancestry. Other past ancestors of mine came through Jukkasjarvi, Sweden as well. So I wanted to get something to represent that part of my background and after talking to the team's president, I was able to buy a jersey. It even has #21, which I typically have worn for floorball (along with #52 and #11). Salming is part Sámi, and it was via reading about him that I became more interested in finding out more about my background in that area. In fact, if the research on geni.com is all correct, he and I are 11th cousins once removed through his dad's side of his family, who I believe are 100% Sámi.

I plan to write a foreign request tutorial very soon as well.

Mail Call: September 20-27

I re-mailed MacEwan, and also sent out Terry Nicholl, Mike Brady, Nebo Bandovic, John Bain, Jeff Cacciatore, Tim Schulz, and Paul Krumpe.  Also I'm going to finally buy some international postage this week and get crazy on some requests overseas. Once I do so, I likely will write a short tutorial on it as I found a few nice resources for it.

The mailbox was nicely full this week, including a few big names...

SEPTEMBER 20
Gary Etherington, 3/3. This one was a different one-- Gary signed all three cards I sent, but signed the two 1987-88 cards on the back-- possibly due to the Etherington/Ethernigton error? Took about two weeks.

SEPTEMBER 22
Steve Zungul, 7/7. WOW. I was a little shocked by this one since my attempt on him a year ago went unanswered. Fortunately this time I had a good address and he signed everything I sent. Finally, I have all of the top five all-time goal scorers in indoor soccer history (Marinaro, Zungul, Tatu, Karic, and Michael King). I didn't have the 1987-88 card at all, unfortunately. Took about a week and a half and is my 100th all-time indoor soccer autograph success via mail.

SEPTEMBER 26
Daryl Doran, 5/5. This is my second time ever writing to Doran, having gotten him a few years ago before the project began, and also getting him back in 2002 IP at the All-Star Game. Two weeks.

Steve Eise, 1/1; Thomas Strunk, 2/2; Chris Kenny, 3/2. A trio from Missouri that each took a week.

Currently I'm at a 60.8% success rate all-time via mail (104/171). However 23 of those were hit with the Dreaded Yellow Sticker of RTS Doom, and 22 were sent less than a month ago. So only 26 are (currently) outright failures.

To go along with that, I need to update my percentages soon. As of right now, I'm at something like this (slightly off due to disappearance of multi-signed ones)...

1987-88: roughly 62%
1988-89: roughly 67%
1989-90: roughly 79%
1990-91: roughly 56%
1991-92: roughly 57%
TOTAL: roughly 62%

A 1987-1992 Pacific Soccer Error and Variation Compendium

Normally when I work on getting a set completely signed, I won't bother with most of the error cards or even the variations. The only ones I would mess with are any wrong photo errors. Everything else I'd let go.

But with the soccer sets, I decided I'd go for the whole thing. After all, which version of the 1987-88 Chicago Sting cards are correct, the white text or the black text?

So even with true errors, I'm getting them all signed. Cards with the wrong photo I'm going to get signed hopefully by both the listed player and the depicted player. Here's a full list of corrected errors, uncorrected wrong-photo errors, and variations. I'm not going to list things like wrong birthdates or incomplete stat lines; only errors that affect the front of the card. Fortunately Pacific got it together and the final two sets had no problems. But the first three were loaded with them.

Cards I have signed already have no note, cards I need either signed or unsigned are notated, as are ones I have but not signed.

1987-88
#2 ERR - Krys Sobiesk
#2 COR - Krys Sobieski

#4 ERR - Willie Molino
#4 COR - Willie Molano

#17 ERR - Rickey Davis
#17 COR - Ricky Davis

#43 ERR - Victor Nogueria
#43 COR - Victor Nogueira

#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, black text
#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, white text

#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, black text
#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, white text

#76 VAR - Ben Collins, black text
#76 VAR - Ben Collins, white text

#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, black text
#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, white text

#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, black text
#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, white text

#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, black text
#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, white text

#80 VAR - Batata, black text
#80 VAR - Batata, white text

#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, black text
#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, white text

#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, black text
#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, white text

#84 ERR - Tino Lettieri, green border
#84 COR - Tino Lettieri, red border

#85 ERR - Gary Ethernigton
#85 COR - Gary Etherington

#92 ERR - Ken Forgerty
#92 COR - Ken Fogarty

1988-89
#53 - David Doyle, photo actually Duncan MacEwan
#67 - Mike Sweeney, photo actually Dave MacKenzie
#84 - A.J. Lachowecki, photo actually Kris Peat

1989-90
#34 ERR - Scoop Stanisic, photo is Scott Manning
#34 COR - Scoop Stanisic, correct photo

#67 ERR - Kevin Hundelt, photo is Chris Hundelt (got it signed by Kevin; need it signed by Chris)
#67 COR - Chris Hundelt, same photo but correct name (need it signed!)

Mail Call, 9/19/2016

Got four in yesterday as well as a RTS.

SEPTEMBER 19
Tino Lettieri, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks - In addition to both the red and green versions of his 1987-88 Pacific card, Tino also signed my letter via his pizzeria in Minnesota.

Dave Clements, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks - Two cards from him, he even put in cardboard piexes to prevent bending and paid extra postage on it via his cotton candy vending business

Terry Brown, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks - Nice one here, signed three cards and even wrote a short note back thanking me for following his career.

Chico Borja, c/o work, 5/5, 1 week - Speedy response from a multi-time All-Star who now coaches soccer and golf while working as a high school assistant principal.

Unfortunately the failbox delivered Duncan MacEwan with the Yellow Sticker of Doom. I did find another potential address for him though, so I'll likely give it a shot tomorrow, along with writing out a few more.

Back to the grind

I figured I would have a couple fast ones roll in from my most recent batch.

In two weeks, both A.J. Lachowecki and Kevin Crow came back to me, signing two and four cards, respectively. Lachowecki signed the back of the 1988-89 error card (Kris Peat is depicted; he signed the front).

I also mailed out to Steve Zungul, Daryl Doran, Wes Wade, Duncan MacEwan, Chico Borja, Theo Kulsdom, Ted Krafft, Steve Eise, Thomas Strunk, John O'Hara, Sean Phillips, Mike Fox, Branko Segota, and Chris Kenny. Fox is a second attempt: my try a week and a half ago resulted in a note back from a different Mike Fox (owner of M&M Paper) saying he was not the soccer player. I found a new address in Colorado I plan to try.

Kulsdom took some work: a former Cleveland favorite, I tried an address in the Netherlands earlier this year with no luck, getting a note back from the woman now living there that he wasn't there-- she suggested I try Facebook. So I was able to find him there and messaged him asking if he could sign my card.  He answered a week later that he would love to, and included his address. Fortunately I have a couple of Dutch stamps left so I can cover postage just fine.

Speaking of foreign postage, my batch for October has been selected. I plan to buy international stamps around the first part of the month, writing, mailing, hoping, and waiting. I also have about 8 more domestics to write this week and am already planning my November group as well.

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

Slowing down

Typically when I send cards out to be signed, I like sending multiples. While I can't complain much about spending 94 cents per request (47 cents each way), if I can maximize my return on that money invested, I'm going to do what I can to ensure that.

And that's why the requests have slowed a bit. Most of the players I have left are guys who only had one card. I also hate mailing doubles if I can avoid it, so I haven't sent a whole lot lately. My concentration for the time being has gone to other sports.

However, I did get one back this past week as Dave Boncek signed three cards and wrote back a short letter. It was my second attempt on him, this time successful after a RTS through what I'm assuming is now an old work address.

Also, after giving it some thought, I'm going to start making my address list free starting in 2017. While I put in a lot of work and did at least get a little compensation for it from people who bought it, I also realize we're a small, niche group of collectors. I might as well provide as much info as I can. The work put into it at first was a bit daunting, but so much of it can stay the same over the years that it's kind of pointless for me to continue to charge. So the 2016 edition is still at a low $7, but the 2017 edition will be free. And it likely will remain so, provided my resources remain free.

Catching Up: The April and May Mailbag

I've fallen behind as usual, but with good reason. I haven't been mailing as much, I've been 'graphing baseball a bit, playing floorball, and doing music with my church (Oak Cliff Unitarian Universalist) every week. And I want to add more music to the schedule. Plus my Cavs and Penguins are alive in the NHL and NBA playoffs. So most of my focus has been elsewhere.

On the positive side, the older ones I sent out have been trickling their way back in...

APRIL 6
Freddie Thompson, 4 cards and a short note, 23 days

APRIL 7
Esse Baharmast, 2 cards and a note, 24 days

APRIL 11
Eddie Radwanski, 2 cards and a note, 32 days
Jean Willrich, 4 cards, 28 days

APRIL 14
Tony Glavin, 3 cards and a note, 31 days

APRIL 18
Paul Dougherty, 4 cards, 39 days
Tasso Koutsoukos, 1 card, 19 days (to Canada)

APRIL 22
Mark Simanton, 2 cards, 43 days

APRIL 27
Drew Ferguson, 1 card and a note, 28 days

MAY 6
Batata, 2 cards and a note, 57 days

MAY 14
Scott Manning, 6 cards and a note, 45 days

MAY 19
Jim Gorsek, 5 cards, 73 days

I'm really happy especially to get Gorsek back. He was mailed the same day as Preki, Paul Wright, and Kai Haaskivi. A friend of mine got Preki back quickly while I'm still waiting, so obviously I was getting a bit worried that maybe that whole batch got lost in the mail. My paranoia is unfounded though: in addition to Gorsek, I had already gotten Tatu and six out of the nine baseball players I had mailed to in that March 7 mailing.

I have a roll of stamps and a list of football (as in NFL) players I'll be sending to in the next few weeks. I likely will add some soccer to that list too.

Mail Call: The Early April Inbox and Outbox

Most of my recent mailings have been for other sports-- lots of baseball and hockey (and even a non-sports-related request to the great singer Bill Withers), but there have been a few for this project that have gone out as well.

On March 30, I mailed out to Greg Ion (new address; got RTS'ed on my previous attempt) and Scott Manning. Also got my Canadian stamps out and sent off to Pasquale Deluca, Drew Ferguson, and Tasso Koutsoukas. I was going to mail to Frank Klopas as well, but he's back in the States, so that'll save me a buck or two. Note that I mailed to a different address for Koutsoukas than what was in my 2016 Address List. If I get a response from it, I'll let everyone know and also change it up on the List.

I've gotten nine arrivals since my last update on here, in chronological order...

March 22: Gino D'Ippolito signed 2/2 (both on the back of the card in blue pen), and Stan Cummins also did 2/2, personalizing both cards.

March 24: Alan Mayer signed a pair and wrote a short note back. Cool thing about Mayer's sig that reader and local 'graphing colleague Brian pointed out to me, he draws goalposts around his sig. I'll post a photo or two later if I remember to once I'm home.

March 26: Kelly Mock signed 2/2, while Tatu did 7/7. One of those seven was the 1990-91 set's Dallas All-Stars card, which was already signed by Doc Lawson, Mike Powers, and Krys Sobieski, so it's the second All-Stars card I've completed besides the 1991-92 Cleveland card with Zoran Karic, Hector Marinaro, and George Fernandez. Also that day I got a message from Stephanie Ferretti via Facebook. She wanted to let me know that Bruno received my cards and letter-- I had mailed them to a house that she owns and rents out, but she received them and he would sign them and send them back. She said he really liked my letter, and that he does get out to a few Sidekicks games every year, coaches youth teams, and owns a tile and granite business in Farmers Branch. I looked up the address for it and changed it on the Address List.

March 29: Doug McLagan signed 4 cards and sent a letter back to me, saying I should try to get out to the Sidekicks game when the Comets come through-- he does travel with them and always likes meeting fans. I actually had hoped to go when they came through this season, but it was a midweek game so I couldn't do the 45-minute drive each way and be up for work the next day. Hopefully it'll be a weekend this season.

March 31: As expected, Bruno Ferretti's cards came in, three signed in black and one in gold. I love the way gold Sharpie looks on cards. If you find a good one, go with it. The bronze ones are nice too. Silver is just so unpredictable, some are great, some are terrible.

April 1: No fooling, Doug Neely came in, my longest success time yet on this project. I mailed to his home on October 27 following a RTS from his business and got it back about five months later. I'm certainly not complaining, as it beats the alternative.

April 4: Brian Hall signed 2/2 in about 3 weeks. Since he's head of a refereeing organization I hoped he might have a lead on Majid Jay. He didn't: he said NO ONE knows where Jay is now. So needless to say, any help in tracking him down would be greatly appreciated.

As of right now, here are the requests I have outstanding and when I sent them.

SEPTEMBER 2015: Erik Rasmussen, Brian Quinn, Steve Zungul, Beto, David Hoggan, Mark Frederickson, Steve Kinsey

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

MARCH 2016: Paul Wright, Preki, Kai Haaskivi, Jim Gorsek, Batata, Jim Gabarra, Paul Dougherty, Eddie Radwanski, Mark Simanton, Kevin Hundelt, David Boncek, Marty Templin/Herb Silva, Tony Glavin, Freddie Thompson, Jean Willrich, Greg Ion, Scott Manning, Pasquale Deluca, Drew Ferguson, Tasso Koutsoukas

I certainly haven't lost hope on the 2015 ones: with Neely coming in recently it's certainly not hopeless and in other sports I've had seven that have taken two years or more. I'm planning on doing another big mailing in May since I already blew my April stamp budget on doing some mailings to Canada; hopefully I'll be able to start on some of the guys I only have one or two cards of. I hate sending just one card per request but that's the way it goes. Either that or I'll get crazy on the international requests. Regarding my comments last post about it, Ray in Baltimore recommended I just put a couple bucks in to cover return postage. I've had success that way sometimes so it may be worth a shot on guys I can't get stamps on. Looks like I can buy British ones relatively easily at least.

Mail Call: A series of quick successes, and a return to the failbox

In my last post I mentioned that I had mailed out a few, had more to come, and then tacked on even more on top of that.  Since restarting this month, my mailouts have gone to...

MARCH 7: Paul Wright, Preki, Tatu, Kai Haaskivi (written in Finnish), Jim Gorsek, Bruce Savage

MARCH 10: Don Popovic, Doug McLagan, Batata, Jim Gabarra, Paul Dougherty, Greg Ion, Eddie Radwanski, Mark Simanton, Kevin Hundelt, Charley Greene, Chico Moreira

MARCH 14: Alan Mayer, Stan Cummins, David Boncek, Kelly Mock, Brian Hall, Gino D'Ippolito, Esse Baharmast, Marty Templin (with Herb Silva), Ricky Davis, Ted Eck, Tony Glavin, Freddie Thompson, Jean Willrich, Gerry Gray

The results have begun trickling in this past week, with a deluge of four yesterday.

March 18, Don Popovic came rolling in, as he signed three cards and even wrote a short note on my envelope, saying the league needs more fans like me. Awesome! Popovic gives a small, vertical sig on the cards but it looks pretty cool.

The next day I got Charley Greene, as he signed three cards and wrote a short note back as well. Always glad to see the former Cleveland Crunch guys returning. I actually met Greene at the 2002 All-Star Game in Cleveland where he played in the Alumni Game.

Yesterday came Bruce Savage on five cards, Ricky Davis on two cards plus a note back, Ted Eck on three cards, and Gerry Gray on two cards plus a note back.

I'm planning on buying international stamps in April. I have a few hockey mailings to go to Canada and Slovakia, and I might see if I can send off a few soccer ones to Canada as well-- Carl Valentine, Drew Ferguson, Pasquale Deluca, Frank Klopas, Tasso Koutsoukos, Dale Mitchell, and Mark Karpun are all up there. No Slovakian players that I've found just yet.

I also need to look into getting postage for returns from the UK (£2.25, it appears? Looks like I have ten to mail out, so at least it's a nice round number), Bosnia-Herzegovina, Argentina, Croatia, Slovenia, and South Africa too. If anyone knows the prices or where I can buy stamps for the return envelope, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I also got RTS'ed by Chico Moreira. That's my third attempt and third failure on him so I may be done trying him unless someone else reports a success somewhere.

Mailing out!

Bought a roll of stamps, and it's time to get back to mailing.

Most of my requests will be soccer-related ones with a few baseball and hockey ones that will go on my main autograph blog.  A quick rundown, here's what I've sent so far and what's coming next...

MAILED MARCH 7
Paul Wright, Preki, Tatu, Chico Moreira, Kai Haaskivi, Jim Gorsek, Bruce Savage

UPCOMING
Don Popovic, Doug McLagan, Alan Mayer, Batata, Jim Gabarra, Paul Dougherty, Greg Ion, Eddie Radwanski, Mark Simanton, Stan Cummins, Kevin Hundelt, and David Boncek

I also have others who will be going out soon too, including most of the referees in the 1990-91 set. Brian is hooking me up with an extra card on each, so those will get written and sent as soon as they arrive.

I wrote Kai Haaskivi's letter in Finnish, so I'm hoping that might help things. I'm half Finnish myself and with a little (lot) of help from Google Translate, I got a letter cranked out. Here's to hoping it works, as I haven't seen many successes from him.

A Visit To Allen

I made another trip out for the Sidekicks last night since it was their final regular season home game and thus the last chance to get my (and Ray's) team set cards signed.  I ran into Brian as well-- as expected-- and we finally saw Gordon Jago up in the press box so he signed for us and chatted for a bit-- five cards for me. He did confirm that the Sidekicks will be back again next year. Apparently they didn't know for certain if they would have a team until about three weeks before the start of the season this year. Brian also gave me a bunch of extra cards of the local guys-- those came in handy later.

During the game, Brian messaged me that he was pretty sure he saw David Doyle talking to Jago but wasn't certain. We took a walk at halftime hoping to find him, but no luck.  We did however run into Terry Woodberry who signed the four cards I had from Brian's stash.

After the game, Mike Jones signed a card I had for Ray and Brian told me he did indeed see Doyle, who signed the four I had. His signature was different tonight. I'll post a comparison later. On the field Dejan Milosevic and Patrick Shamu each signed two cards-- one for me, one for Ray. Unfortunately I missed out on David Kamali, didn't see Rubencho signing at all, and never saw the other four I needed (Fernando Garza, Michael Grba, Paul Hason, and Franck Mbemba). To finish off the night, Brian gave me one of the team logo cards from the 1991-92 Soccer Shots set, which Nick Stavrou and Doyle both signed. It looks pretty sharp signed in gold.

This week, I'm planning on getting a roll of stamps and sending out a good 50 requests. Most will be soccer with a few baseball and hockey sprinkled in.  I'll post a list of who I send off to. Also Ray said he'll send me a few as compensation for getting most of the Sidekicks team set signed for him, so I'll certainly post what I get from him as well.

Buy, Sell, and Trade

It's rare that I buy autographs. Part of it is that you can't guarantee authenticity without seeing something signed right in front of you. The top authenticators say up to 90% of what's on eBay is fake. Granted, they have a stake in that: by their fear-mongering, it makes people likely to flock to them even though the science of authentication is an inexact one at best and puts more money in their pockets.

Fortunately, fakes are rare in the indoor soccer world, if they even exist. When the top scorers of all-time are all VERY willing signers, there is no reason for fakes to exist. And so I don't hesitate to buy from other collectors if they have something I need.

This week I picked up a few major needs from another Baltimore-area collector, Jeff, who is a friend of Ray's whom I have mentioned on here before. Getting a Slobo Ilijevski, a Billy Ronson, a Preki, a Kai Haaskivi, and two Tatu certainly helps to lighten the load of big names and deceased players. I also grabbed a few others to whom I had written once and didn't include every single card of them in Gary Heale and Fernando Clavijo.

He also tossed in a 1992-93 NPSL Victor Nogueira. So I guess that means I need to start on that set next! Hell, maybe I should go for that 1991-92 Soccer Shots set eventually too.

Brian sent me an eBay auction for a signed Stan Stamenkovic card from the 1987-88 set. But at $50, I'll have to pass on it for now. If I'm too cheap to pay $5 for Ryne Sandberg for my baseball sets, I can't see myself spending $50 on Stamenkovic just yet. Maybe once I'm down to the last few...

I'm finally getting prepped to mail out all the 11x14 hockey photos I mentioned in my last post. So March 1 should be the next grouping of soccer mailings. I'll likely post a list later this month of who I'll be sending to.

Keeping on top of things...

Anyone who says hockey players are the most gracious signers in pro sports is full of it. It's indoor soccer players. And I say this as one who collects hockey first and foremost.

Sure, the MASL isn't one of the Big 4 Leagues (nor were the NPSL or MISL) but I'm sure most would put the NHL as a very distant fourth among those Big 4-- almost to the point of a Big 3-- and some might even argue to put Nascar or the MLS or even the PGA as the fourth.

But the attitudes of the players is night and day with most others.  Saturday night, I went out to Allen and saw the Sidekicks get stomped to the tune of 13-4 against the league's top team. Afterward, the players still came out and signed at two tables set up on the concourse. Other players who weren't scheduled to be at the table signed as well while walking around. And several more signed out in the parking lot as they left. And I even ran into a much-needed alumni player inside.

Saturday night was trading card night, with Panini sponsoring a 20-card set of players in their Donruss design. Looks sharp-- and I'm not just saying that as a Panini employee, then genuinely look good. After the game, I was able to get 12 signed for myself and also for Ray in Maryland. Clint Ritter, Juan Gamboa, and Cody Ellis were at the first table, with Gamboa even apologizing for the bad scoreboard result. I told him it happens, as a goalie myself in floorball I've been on the short end of a 15-2 score in a tournament. While waiting for them, VcMor Eligwe and R.J. Lauvano signed as well while walking around. On my way to the other table, I ran into Willie Molano, who signed six cards I had of him. This made up nicely for me misidentifying him four weeks prior on Alumni Night.

The other table had Arthur Ivo, Ray Aguayo, and Ricardinho. Cameron Brown, who got hit cheaply from behind resulting in a concussion was even still there, chatting with and signing for fans despite the injury. I was surprised, I thought for sure he'd be in a dark quiet place but there he was. I've gotten a concussion before in hockey-- but that was with a helmet and cage and even with it I was still a bit loopy after the game. My best friend at the time came to the game and afterward I asked when she got there... she rode to the rink with me. She swore she'd never go to a hockey game again.

Anyways, after that the group of us there headed outside and to the back where Jamie Lovegrove, Mike Jones, and Fabinho all signed. Jones was battling a shoulder problem as well-- same guy who took out Brown caught him with a bad hit. At least that one got whistled for two in the box instead of just a free kick. And the guy later got thrown down right in front of the ref with no call.

Meanwhile today I got my first success via mail in a few weeks as Zoran Karic completed my 1991-92 Crunch All-Stars triple, my 1990-91 Karic-Goossens ASG dual, and three others.  I'm planning on getting crazy with the mailings again pretty soon. Not sure who I'll go for first; Brian recommended referee Gino D'Ippolito, so I may try all the referees. I also need to find an address for J.P. Dellacamera to go on my other checklist.

Mail Call: Kim Roentved

My first attempt to Kim Roentved a few months back got RTS'ed, but I can't complain much.

After all, even though it took a while to get back to me, I got Jan Goossens back in that time from the Netherlands. And he signed the two All-Star cards you'll (hopefully) see below. I then was able to send these along to Kim and add his signature to them as well.

It's a little blurry at the edges. My phone's camera lens
cover shattered this week and instead of forking over $112
to have it repaired, I found out I can do it myself for
about $6 in a few weeks.

If I feel like taking a chance on Dale Mitchell soon, I'll send the 1990-91 card to him next.  The 1991-92 card could go to Carl Valentine, Jim Gorsek, or Iain Fraser next.

I also got a card sent to me this week from Mike Powers. I spoke to him at the Sidekicks Alumni Game and he got my address and set me a team card from the 1986-87 Sidekicks Championship squad and signed it. He tossed in a couple extras as well and asked me to pass them onto Mark and Dave. I don't have a photo of it due to the aforementioned camera issues, but I'll hopefully post one up soon.

More in the Mail, and a cross-town venture

Thanks to the holidays and battling an ear infection, I never got around to putting up photos on my previous entry. And I likely won't on this post either. But I'll try to stay on top of things in 2016.

First up, a run through the TTMs...

DECEMBER 22
Homer Screws, 3/3, 2 months

DECEMBER 23
Diego Mandagaran, 7/3, 2 months - he also sent four signed photos and a couple unsigned ones

DECEMBER 26
Tim Wittman, 6/6, 2 months
Peter Ward, 4/4, 2 months

DECEMBER 28
Kia Zolgharnain, 4/4, 3 months, also sent along some coupons for Dick's Sporting Goods

JANUARY 4
Jan Goossens, 8/7, 3 months, also sent a short note and returned my postage money from the Netherlands

I also got a RTS from Theo Kulsdom-- or the person living at the address I had for him. She recommended I try Facebook and it looks like he's now in England.

On January 7 I re-sent to Bruno Ferretti (third time is the charm, I hope), re-sent to Kim Roentved, and sent for the first time this go-around to Zoran Karic. Zoran was very fast for me a few years ago so I'm hoping for a similar response time this year.

Right now, I'm at 57/88 from my 2015 mailings. Once I remove the RTS's and such, I'm still waiting on 14: Erik Rasmussen, Brian Quinn, Steve Zungul, Beto, David Hoggan, Mark Frederickson, Steve Kinsey, Andy Chapman, Dennis Mepham, Scoop Stanisic, Mark Mettrick, Nenad Zigante, Gregg Blasingame, and Doug Neely.

I got out across to Allen for the Dallas Sidekicks' Alumni Game, and got a few guys to sign there. Doc Lawson signed 6 cards for me, Mike Powers signed 6 as well, Dev Reeves 3, Terry Woodberry 1, David Doyle 2, Rusty Troy 3, Krys Sobieski 7, Billy Phillips 1, and broadcaster Norm Hitzges 1 (I decided I'd get a broadcaster on each 1990-91 set checklist-- Norm on one, and maybe JP Dellacamera on the other). I missed Mike Uremovich, Willie Molano, and a few I was hoping to help Ray in Maryland with, but aside from that, not a bad day. I have addresses on Molano and Uremovich at least.

Hopefully I'll be mailing more in the next few months. I'm also planning on buying some from a friend of Ray's soon as well.