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.