2022: Another Want List Update

Another turning of the calendar, so let's update what I still need on this project and see what I can knock out this year! I'd love it if I could finish off the 1988-89, 1989-90, and 1992-93 sets with some buying and trading.

1987-88 Pacific: COMPLETED!

1988-89 Pacific
2 Stan Stamenkovic
48 Frank Rasmussen

1989-90 Pacific
67 Error Chris/Kevin Hundelt (I'd like to get this signed by both of them)
67 Corrected Chris Hundelt

1990-91 Pacific
18 Mike Reynolds
29 Gregg Willin
34 Slobo Ilijevski
37 Claudio De Oliveira
39 Stan Terlecki
53 Steve Kinsey
58 Dennis Mepham
75 Nenad Nikolic
84 Barry Wallace
111 Pedro DeBrito
114 David Byrne
150 Greg Ion
159 SD Sockers
166 Majid Jay
173 Tacoma All-Stars
174 San Diego All-Stars
177 Wichita All-Stars
178 St. Louis All-Stars
189 Domenic Mobilio
192 Preki
204 West Goal
205 David Byrne, George Fernandez
217 Earl Foreman

1991-92 Pacific
20 Greg Ion
37 Keith Weller
40 Omar Gomez
41 David Byrne
56 Domenic Mobilio
68 Chris Simon
79 Pedro DeBrito
83 Dali
84 Marcelo Carrera
95 Carl Valentine
113 Rick Snyder
118 Claudio De Oliveira
140 Gregg Willin
155 KC All-Stars
158 Wichita All-Stars
2  Claudio De Oliveira

1992-93 Pacific
30 Teddy Krafft
63 Pedro DeBrito
80 Diego Mandagaran
87 Joe Kirk
102 Chico Borja
104 Dale Ervine
9 Kia (GOLD)

The multi-player cards (mostly team All-Stars) I may have partially-completed.

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.

LEVEL UP! Set completed!

 

When you get this far into a project, victories get to be few and far between. You've already mailed to the guys that are still coaching and therefore easy to find. You've even dug into LinkedIn profiles and Facebook searches, and attended events in Dallas and Las Vegas. You've even emailed former players to enlist their help in tracking some down. You've traded with and bought from everyone you could find.

The early explosion is long over. Now comes the point of frustration-- finding the wrong person with the same name, the dreaded yellow sticker telling they've moved and have no forwarding address on file with USPS, the ones who moved back to Europe, the ones who died, the ones who just don't want to be bothered.

It just makes the successes mean that much more when you do see them.

Hugo Perez was the last one I needed to complete my 1987-88 set. The problem is that his name isn't exactly uncommon. He's still in the public eye, but I don't know much about the postal system of El Salvador to toss out a letter via their National Team. He didn't answer me on Twitter-- either via direct message or public tweet. So, I found what I hoped was an up-to-date address, and threw caution to the wind and gave it a shot.

After five months I wasn't too hopeful. And then today, a couple weeks after the conclusion of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, my Hugo Perez card came back signed.

After getting my first card for it signed almost 20 years ago, the 1987-88 Pacific set... finally... is complete.

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.

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.

By request: an updated Want List

First up, big thanks to Ray in Baltimore for helping me out again with a few unsigned cards that I needed from my previous post.

Over on my YouTube Channel, I had a request from Rob, an avid blog and channel follower and collector of indoor soccer and hockey (and maybe other sports too? I know those two at the least...), asking if I had an updated Want List for this project.  So I may as well just go ahead and post it on up here. I also put in some notes on any recent communications and such, plus any specifics for multi-player cards.

Lastly, I mailed in the latter half of 2019 to Waad Hirmez, Greg Ion, Kia, Dennis Mepham, Omar Gomez, Pasquale Deluca, Jan Goossens, Steve Kinsey, Dali, Dale Ervine, Chris Hundelt, and Chico Borja without success. So, you can figure out the placement of "Tried TTM with no response" on the list below with those guys.

1987-88

36 Dennis Mepham (No response to Facebook message)

38 Pasquale Deluca

48 Poli Garcia

57 Hugo Perez

61 Waad Hirmez (No response to Facebook message)

88 Steve Kinsey

1988-89

2 Stan Stamenkovic (deceased)

8 Slobo Ilijevski (deceased)

12 Erik Rasmussen (No response to Facebook message)

25 Victor Nogueira 

36 Alan Hinton

48 Frank Rasmussen

60 Slobo Ilijevski (deceased)

62 Billy Ronson (deceased)

65 Carl Valentine (No response to Facebook message)

66 David Byrne (Mailed recently after a Facebook message)

68 Desmond Armstrong 

70 Terry Rowe 

75 Erik Rasmussen (No response to Facebook message)

92 Waad Hirmez (No response to Facebook message)

95 B.J. Esposito (No response to Facebook message)

97 Joe Papaleo

1989-90

6 Waad Hirmez (No response to Facebook message)

26 Joe Papaleo 

33 Domenic Mobilio (deceased)

47 Pedro DeBrito (deceased)

66 Greg Ion 

67a Chris Hundelt / Kevin Hundelt ERR

67b Chris Hundelt COR

100 Dennis Mepham (No response to Facebook message)

1990-91

8 Arturo Velazco

9 Damir Haramina (Mailed recently after Facebook message)

18 Mike Reynolds (deceased)

28 Terry Rowe 

29 Gregg Willin

31 Keder

34 Slobo Ilijevski (deceased)

37 Claudio De Oliveira

39 Stan Terlecki (deceased)

47 Dali 

53 Steve Kinsey 

58 Dennis Mepham (No response to Facebook message)

75 Nenad Nikolic (deceased)

78 Ed Anibal

84 Barry Wallace (deceased)

98 Waad Hirmez (No response to Facebook message)

104 Domenic Mobilio (deceased)

111 Pedro DeBrito (deceased)

114 David Byrne (Mailed recently after Facebook message)

147 Pato Margetic 

150 Greg Ion

159 San Diego Sockers Champions (Need signed by all players)

161 Domenic Mobilio (deceased) / Wes Wade (Need signed by both)

166 Majid Jay

173 Tacoma All-Stars (Need signed by all players)

174 San Diego All-Stars (Need signed by all players)

177 Wichita All-Stars (Need signed by all players)

178 St. Louis All-Stars (Have signed by all except the deceased Ilijevski)

189 Domenic Mobilio (deceased)

202 Haaskivi/Quinn (Have signed by Haaskivi; need Quinn)

204 West Goal (Have signed by Ingram; need Kia and Segota)

205 Byrne/Fernandez (Have signed by Fernandez; mailed recently to Byrne) 

207 Wright/Smith (Need both)

213 Joe Papaleo

216 St. Louis Arena (not sure who to have sign it; perhaps a former team owner)

217 Earl Foreman (deceased)

1991-92

2 Waad Hirmez (No response to Facebook message)

20 Greg Ion 

37 Keith Weller (deceased)

40 Omar Gomez

41 David Byrne (Mailed recently after Facebook message)

47 Terry Rowe 

56 Domenic Mobilio (deceased)

68 Chris Simon

69 Chris Haywood

79 Pedro DeBrito (deceased)

83 Dali 

84 Marcelo Carrera

95 Carl Valentine (No response to Facebook message)

98 Paul Peschisolido (No response to Facebook message)

113 Rick Snyder

118 Claudio De Oliveira 

140 Gregg Willin 

153 San Diego All-Stars (Need signed by all players)

154 Baltimore All-Stars (Have signed by all but the deceased Mobilio and Ronson )

155 Kansas City All-Stars (Need signed by all players)

158 Wichita (Have signed by all but the deceased Weller)

160 Earl Foreman (deceased)

1991-92 Bonus Inserts

2  Claudio De Oliveira

1992-93

1 Eric Dade

4 Doug Neely

16 Chris Szanto

22 Jimmy Daka

27 Alex Tarnoczi

30 Teddy Krafft

34 Russ Prince (No response to Facebook message)

37 Tony Csiszar (Responded to Facebook message; mailing this week)

39 Zoran Karic

60 Tim Schulz

63 Pedro DeBrito (deceased)

75 Saeed Bakhtiari

80 Diego Mandagaran

82 Jason Putthoff

85 Jim Gabarra

87 Joe Kirk

89 Rene Ortiz

93 Terry Brown

94 Daryl Doran

98 Doug Kriska (No response to Facebook message)

99 Dan O'Keefe

102 Chico Borja

103 Brian Enge (No response to Facebook message)

104 Dale Ervine

107 Kris Peat

109 Kim Roentved

1992-93 Gold Inserts

3 Fahmi El-Shami

4 Zoran Karic

6 Joe Mallia

8 Victor Nogueira

9 Kia

My Christmas List and A Podcast Appearance!

A rare non-indoor, non-autograph post!

First off, the podcast: I appeared on the awesome TTMCast with Jeff Baker. We mostly talked about other sports autographs, but I did touch briefly on the indoor soccer project for a bit as well, stuck in between a lot of hockey and baseball talk.  Check it out though, it was fun to do!

TTMCast.com is the site for all of his podcasts; mine is on the 12/22 episode.

And now, let's see if some of you can help me out. I'd like to try to finish a few unsigned soccer sets that I have. Got lots of doubles, inserts, and parallels to trade in these sets and a few others. Here's what I need...

1992 Score Italian: 392, 419

2016-17 Aficionado: 8, 24, 39, 46, 56, 66, 82, 86, 87, 98, 103, 108, 110, 136, 139, 144, 148

2018 Prizm World Cup: 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 31, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 55, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 74, 78, 79, 82, 88, 89, 91, 93, 96, 97, 101, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 133, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, 148, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 176, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 188, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 210, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 229, 230, 231, 232, 235, 236, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 268, 272, 273, 274, 275, 277, 278, 279, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289, 293, 299, 300

2018-19 Donruss Soccer
Base: 13, 40, 55, 83, 97
Dominators: D-7, D-8
Donruss 89 Tribute: DT-6, DT-8, DT-10, DT-16
Elite Series: ES-1, ES-2, ES-7, ES-11, ES-13, ES-18
Legends Series: LS-1, LS-4, LS-5, LS-6, LS-9
Magicians: M-2, M-5, M-9, M-10, M-17
Out of This World: OW-2, OW-9
Optic Base: 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 18, 22, 24, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 64, 65, 66, 69, 75, 76, 79, 80, 81, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 105, 117, 120, 132, 133, 139, 140, 151, 152, 154, 191

I'd prefer to trade rather than buy, though I know I can get several of these on SportLots. Let me know your needs in a comment or an email (drewpelto at gmail) and I can see what I have up for trade.

Let's Go!

The first batch has hit the mailbox. I held off on Kia-- I got the card I was missing for $1 including shipping; same deal on Tim Wittman's card. They should be here next week. I also have held off on Steve Kinsey (only because I forgot to stamp the envelope; it'll go out tomorrow) and Greg Ion. Turns out Ion was hired by Temecula United in California, so I'm hoping to hear from them about an email address or mailing address to reach him directly. The addresses I had found for him were all in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona-- I doubt those are correct now.

Also, I found David Byrne on Facebook. I tried messaging him about how I can mail him. We'll see if I get an answer. That would be a huge one if I hear back. Looks like he's still in South Africa, but no longer coaching Glendene United. I also emailed Hellenic FC, where he once played and his brother is currently Technical Director. They gave me his phone number, but I've never tried to make an international call before. I'm way better with writing anyway. I may try texting him.

A little more digging has found me Bobo Lucic's whereabouts, so I plan to try him soon, along with a second attempt at Dalibor Cvitanovic.  Related: I need Slovenian and Bosnian stamps. Canadian ones too so I can get my last Mark Karpun card signed, and hopefully try Pasquale Deluca again, along with Dale Mitchell and Carl Valentine. Maybe an Argentinian one to send to Omar Gomez. Probably some Italian ones too, since I'd like to try Roberto Baggio. And a Swiss one so I can send to Roger Federer. Okay, I'm getting off-topic now.

I also need to contact Stuart Lee about finishing my Sidekicks game program.

As of right now, the project is down to needing at least one signed by each of these guys.

TRIED WITH NO LUCK - 18
Arturo Velazco (2017), B.J. Esposito (2017), Chris Simon (2017), Desmond Armstrong (2016), Ed Anibal (2017), Erik Rasmussen (2015), Gregg Willin (2016), Hugo Perez (2017), Iain Fraser (2016), Joe Papaleo (2016), Keder (2017), Marcelo Carrera (2017), Paul Peschisolido (2016 RTS), Poli Garcia (2016), Teddy Krafft (2016), Terry Rowe (2016 RTS), Victor Nogueira (2016), Wes Wade (2016)

HAVEN'T TRIED - 20
Alan Hinton, Alex Tarnoczi, Brian Enge, Chris Haywood, Chris Szanto, Claudio De Oliveira, Dan O'Keefe, Eric Dade, Fahmi El-Shami, Frank Rasmussen, Jason Putthoff, Jimmy Daka, Joe Kirk, Joe Mallia, Majid Jay, Rick Snyder, Russ Prince, Saeed Bakhtiari, Shane Schwab, Tony Csiszar

DECEASED - 11
Barry Wallace (d. 2006), Billy Ronson (d. 2015), Domenic Mobilio (d. 2004), Earl Foreman (d. 2017), Keith Weller (d. 2004), Mike Reynolds (d. 1991), Nenad Nikolic (d. 1999), Pedro DeBrito (d. 2014), Slobo Ilijevski (d. 2008), Stan Stamenkovic (d. 1996), Stan Terlecki (d. 2017)

TRIED WITH SUCCESS - 10
Daryl Doran, Diego Mandagaran, Doug Neely, Jim Gabarra, Kim Roentved, Kris Peat, Pato Margetic, Rene Ortiz, Terry Brown, Tim Schulz

MAILED/PLANNING - 24
Bernie James (mailed today)
Bill Crook (mailed today)
Bobo Lucic (mailing once I get a Slovenian stamp)
Chico Borja (mailed today)
Chris Hundelt (mailed today)
Dale Ervine (mailed today)
Dale Mitchell (mailing this weekend)
Dali (mailing once I get a Bosnian stamp)
Damir Haramina (mailing once I get a Croatian stamp)
David Byrne (hoping to get an address and South African stamp soon)
David Hoggan (mailed today)
Dennis Mepham (mailed today)
George Fernandez (mailed today)
Greg Ion (mailing soon)
Jan Goossens (mailing once I get a Dutch stamp)
Kia (mailing next week)

Mark Karpun (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Mark Kerlin (mailed today)
Omar Gomez (mailing once I get an Argentinian stamp)
Pasquale Deluca (mailing once I get Canadian stamps)
Steve Kinsey (mailing this weekend)
Steve Zungul (mailed today)
Tim Wittman (mailing next week)
Waad Hirmez (mailed today)

CONDITIONALS/SPECULATIVES - 12
Zoran Karic (mailing once Fernandez returns)
Paul Wright (mailing once Hirmez returns)

Kevin Smith (mailing once Wright returns)
Brian Quinn (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, and Wright return)
Kevin Crow (mailing once Fernandez, Karic, Hirmez, Wright, and Quinn return)

Donald Cogsville (mailing once Hirmez and Wright return)
Jacques Ladouceur (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, and Cogsville return)
Rod Castro (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, and Ladouceur return)
Ralph Black (mailing once Hirmez, Wright, Cogsville, Ladouceur, and Castro return)
Bruce Savage (mailing once Dale Mitchell returns)
Carl Valentine (mailing once I get Canadian stamps and Goossens returns)
Jim Gorsek (mailing once Goossens and Valentine return)

I'm always looking for trades as well if it will help lighten my writing and postage expenditures.

Inspired for a restart

Returning from MISL40 has re-energized me a bit to get going one more time on mailing and researching addresses to try to finish off as much of this project as I can. Overall, I'm down to needing only 168 signatures to complete the project.  Of those, 142 are still alive as far as I know.

There are a lot of these guys that I haven't tried at all, or tried at a failed address but I've been able to update them. And some I had success with once already and just need to get on a few cards I was lacking at the time. So, let's see what I can do.

Headed for the mailbox this weekend:
David Hoggan
Steve Kinsey
Dale Ervine
Kia
George Fernandez
Bill Crook
Greg Ion
Dennis Mepham
Steve Zungul
Mark Kerlin
Waad Hirmez
Chico Borja
Bernie James
Chris Hundelt

If I manage to go a perfect 14/14 on these, I'll finish off three multi-signed cards, and it will leave me only three away from the 1987-88 set (I'd need Pasquale Deluca, Poli Garcia, and Hugo Perez, each of whom I have failed with by mail) and four away from the 1989-90 set (I'd need Joe Papaleo, Bobo Lucic, and the late Domenic Mobilio and Pedro DeBrito) being completed.

I'm not betting on it though.  I'm 100% on Ervine, Kia, Borja, and James at least. Had mixed results with Zungul and Fernandez. I have a giant 0-fer on Hoggan, Kinsey, Mepham, Hirmez, and Ion. And I have yet to try sending to Kerlin, Hundelt, and Crook.

I also have a Paul Wright envelope ready to go, but I'm hoping to get Hirmez back first. Both Waad and Paul are on the 1991-92 San Diego All-Stars card and the 1990-91 champions celebration card.  If I can go 2-for-2 on them with those, then the ASG card will go to Brian Quinn next, then Kevin Crow, and the celly shot will go to Ladouceur, Black, Castro, and Cogsville in some order.

I also need Nogueira (ASG) and Wade (Champs) on them, but I've heard of little to no luck with them TTM, so I'll be holding off on those until maybe someone can get them for me in-person. I may even try directly emailing some of the guys that are toughies to see if I can find a good address.

I also am in need of a few unsigned cards (or signed, I won't reject those!) as well. From the 1992-93 NPSL set, I'm missing card #87 of Joe Kirk, as well as several gold "Pacific Picks the Pros" inserts-- #3 Fahmi El-Shami, #4 Zoran Karic, #6 Joe Mallia, #9 Kia, and #10 Tim Wittman.  If I can find someone with a Kia for trade, I'll hold off on sending to him until I get it. I'd buy copies of them, but not at the $3 each I've seen on eBay.

Goal: Complete my first set

Sitting at nearly 80% completion on the entire project, my goal of finishing all the sets from 87/88-91/92 is certainly accessible.  However, sometimes it's best to break that big goal down into smaller goals.

For me, the first one will be to complete my favorite set of them all, the 1989-90 set.

Right now, of the 114 sigs I need to complete it, I'm only 13 away.  Let's give a rundown on what I still need...

#6 Waad Hirmez - I haven't heard of Hirmez signing via mail and had no success via his club in 2016, so I suppose I'll have to hope for a San Diego collector to catch him at an alumni game out there. I may also try via a home address.

#26 Joe Papaleo - In all the Dallas Sidekicks stuff I've acquired, I've never gotten Joe on any cards-- just a photo in an eBay lot I picked up.  I tried him by mail at the same time as Hirmez, also via a club, also with no response. Home address next?

#33 Dominic Mobilio - Mobilio tragically died in 2004, suffering a heart attack while driving back from a friend's house after an amateur game. I have seen a few of his autographs out there, but they are tough to come by.

#34 Scott Manning - I recently picked up the Scoop Stanisic wrong photo error signed by Scoop. I just need to get Manning on it as well. He signed for me in 2016 with a six-week turnaround. I can try him again soon.

#47 Pedro Debrito - Debrito was killed in a car accident in 2004, hitting a tree in a median on his way to work. Like Papaleo, I have a photo signed by Debrito, but no cards, and I haven't seen any signed by him either.

#52 Nenad Zigante - I tried Zigante with no luck via his club in the Carolinas in 2015. It may be time to re-try via home. I also need him in the 1988-89 set.

#66 Greg Ion - Having finally tracked down Chico Moreira a while back, finding Ion has been my tough one. Three attempts in 2016 resulted in two RTS via home addresses in Washington and Oregon and one non-return via a club in Washington. I suppose I'll keep searching...

#67 Chris Hundelt - I have the error signed on the back by Kevin. I just need it signed on the front by Chris, along with the corrected version. I haven't tried mailing Chris just yet.

#71 Bill Crook - I haven't tried him yet but probably should since I need him in here and the following two years' sets.

#76 David Hoggan - No luck on Hoggan in 2015, and I haven't found a home address for him yet. I'm hoping I can track something down since I also need him on four other cards.

#100 Dennis Mepham - Another tough one, I'm 0/2 on two different Lakewood, OH addresses. I might see if I can find a business address since I seem to recall hearing he's involved in Cleveland real estate.

#108 Bobo Lucic - I have a potential address on him in Slovenia. He was born in Mostar, currently part of Bosnia and Herzegovina near its border with Croatia. So I'm not sure if it's good or not, but I should give it a try once I get some Slovenian stamps.

I also came up with a few other international mailing projects-- I mentioned before I need to send to Roberto Baggio, and possibly a few other Italian players that I have loads of cards of. I also found two boxes of Australian Football League cards at my dad's place, so I might see if I can try some of those guys as well if I can find some addresses.