Win some, lose some (almost literally)

The last three weeks have seen a mailbox mostly filled with baseball autographs, fortunately for my 1972 Topps project: 12 additions to it! Also pulled in one for a hockey set and my first music-related autograph success, getting the legendary Booker T. Jones back.

Fortunately, there have been a few soccer ones as well. Steve Zungul signed the last card I needed from him. Just a note, I mailed to an address in California and it came back postmarked from Washington (Wenatchee, in the middle of the state). It looks like he has a residence not far from there; not sure if it is seasonal or permanent.

I also got back Mark Karpun on the last card I needed him to sign as well, so that finishes off two players that I'd had previous successes with.

Unfortunately I also had an odd failure with Kia. I mailed to his home address; a friend of mine had success there before so I figured I'd try it too after he signed for me via the Cleveland Soccer Academy back in 2015. I had a couple of multi-player cards I needed him on. My SASE came back beaten up and improperly sealed to where I didn't even have to tear it open to easily remove the cards. The cards ended up alright, just some corner wear on one, but they could have easily ended up getting lost on some post office sorting room floor and sent me back to square one. I figure I'll try it again, this time via Force Sports.

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.