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.
