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.

On Display!

First off, a big thanks to Ray for reminding me to post it on here. I think I promoted this everywhere but my blog!

After about a month of work throughout May, I have my site done for showing off everything in the sets I'm doing. It covers every sport, plus my writing and media work. Eventually I may add a page for my trade items or something. I'm not really sure yet.

But go ahead and check it out. It's best viewed on a computer rather than a phone or tablet. The tabbing that I had to do for the set pages' layouts doesn't translate well to smaller screens.

DFWGrapher.com

Knocking one out from New Jersey

About a week and a half ago I got another response the Facebook messages I sent out a while back (almost a year ago, I think!). Bobby Joe Esposito said I could just send my cards to his office and he'd sign them for me. So I did.

And he did.

So, that puts me at 103 signed and only ten left to go on the 1988-89 set.

I'm also working on a project right now dealing with all things related to my autograph collection, specifically my signed sets and a place to show off what I have so far. It's online already but only a few people have seen it so far; I don't want to really publicize it until it's completely finished. Once it's totally done, I'll promote it here. The tough part is linking all the photos to the site itself. It takes some repetitive work that gets to be downright mind-numbing. But it should be ready to go by next week if I can keep to my current pace.

It also has several articles I've written for various sites and publications over the years. So if you like what you're reading here, there's even more wide-ranging sports writing there.

A seller's market in the card and autograph hobby

In my last post, I mentioned that Ray in Baltimore was putting up a bunch of signed soccer cards for sale on eBay. Those started going up the other day, so make sure you check the link in my previous post here and see if he has what you need. Good prices on them as well.

I have my eBay account set up so anytime someone puts up a new listing up for any signed Pacific soccer cards (and a few other projects), I get a notification email. Typically I get a new listing every few days on the soccer stuff, and it's often the same ones over and over that are overpriced getting relisted since they didn't sell the first time (sorry random seller, but no one is paying $30 for a signed Tatu card or $10 for Peter Ward). At least a few from Ray were listed on there, but imagine my surprise when I got a bunch of new listings that weren't his!

Even more surprising, one is from Ray's town, but wasn't Ray. I found that it's a guy I've dealt with before though. That person has a couple singles I need as part of a couple lots, plus a small Cleveland Crunch lot I may snag. I messaged him and he wants to see my want list.

And in a posting that had me excited, then dismayed, and finally enraged, another seller has a lot of 104 1987-88 Pacific cards, including the Hugo Perez card I need to finish that set. Excited since the signed card is out there so I don't have to hope for a longshot TTM. Dismayed because the lot is $250. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone I know will pick it up and I can acquire Perez. There are a few others in there that would be nice condition upgrades, but again, I just can't do $250 right now when I'd need maybe 20 of them at most.

I put in a lowball offer that was predictably rejected, and asked the seller if they would be willing to sell the Perez alone if the lot doesn't sell. Adding to the disappointment the answer was no, that it would just go to a big auction house if it doesn't sell (though if it doesn't sell on eBay, do you really think it will sell there?).

And after looking at them very closely with input from two other indoor collectors, that's where the rage sets in: I have some questions about the authenticity of several in the lot. Similar pens, similar slant, similar placement, and at least two in the exact same handwriting (the same capital B which does not match the sigs I have gotten from reliable sources). What's weird is the toughest sigs in the lot all looked good. It was guys who are easier to get who have the questionable sigs. Sure, it's possible that signatures change over time (mine certainly has over the previous 20 years), but that drastically? Whatever it is, it's enough for me to question the Perez. Hard pass: back to the mailbox.

For better or for worse, it's definitely a seller's market right now. The card hobby and industry rebound/bubble has been making news nationwide. My mom up in Oregon said she saw a package on their news about it. Buying supplies like pages, sleeves, and toploaders has been near-impossible online without paying a premium. Junk wax boxes and packs have been going for prices that were unheard of a year or two ago. Grading companies have been forced to raise their prices in an effort to stem the tide of people sending in bulk submissions (45-day gradings are now taking 8-10 months).

So, perhaps the time is right for sellers of even a niche product like indoor soccer cards and autographs to come out of the woodwork and hope to capitalize. But caveat emptor. Do your homework on making sure what you're buying is good. If you ever have questions and want to see some examples for comparisons, feel free to ask me.

Personally, I don't sell any autographs (or at least VERY rarely) but seeing these prices any sane person would have to be considering it. Even with all the doubles I have the most I'll do is trade. I put up a trade post in a Facebook group and have gotten a few bites (one from Germany, one from Hungary). Maybe I'll be able to swing a trade somewhere for Perez and others.

Anyways, Ray's stuff is good, so go and check out his auctions now that he's getting them listed. I think he said he'll be putting up 20 lots every two weeks in what will likely be a multi-year process. Currently it's 5 women, 5 indoor, 5 USA outdoor, and 5 international.

Check out some eBay action!

Texas is finally returning to normal now after a week.

My wife and I were some of the luckier ones in all of this. Our electric bill won't hit $5000. We only were without power for 36 hours (got down to 35 degrees inside). And had our outage lasted longer, we had a plan in place to pack up the cats and live out of her office that had power, heat, internet, and TV still operating.

We still have no water right now but we'll survive that just fine. I try not to get overly political on my autograph-related places and try to maintain a fairly centrist approach, but Greg Abbott's unpreparedness and Ted Cruz's cowardice are bullshit. I can't say the last few years have made me a Democrat, but they have certainly guaranteed that I'm not a Republican.

Anyways, last time I was here I mentioned that I bought a lot from Ray who is liquidating his collection. He just emailed a group of us to let us know that he's going to start putting items up on eBay soon.

So go and check out his sales. His eBay is 02cruiser and the listings will likely start next weekend.

A huge bit of assistance!

Oh, the benefits of networking!

I've mentioned Ray in Baltimore a number of times on this blog. Nine days after I started this blog, he contacted me through Big Soccer about autographs. I've bought a few needs from him, he's given me a few items as well, we've assisted each other on addresses, and I try to help him get stuff signed anytime I can whenever I'd go to Dallas and Mesquite MASL games. He's one of the premier collectors (if not THE premier collector) of indoor soccer autographs over the years.

So when he emailed me to let me know he was selling off a significant chunk of his signed cards, I jumped at the chance to add some major needs to this project and upgrade the quality of a few sigs as well. The timing couldn't have been better: I hadn't used my January postage budget and I had a gift card left from Christmas, and those covered most of it.

Today they arrived: eight in the 1987-88 set, five in the 1988-89 set, three from 1989-90, thirteen on ten cards from 1990-91, seventeen on six cards in 1991-92, and fourteen in 1992-93. I also grabbed twenty Cleveland Crunch cards from the 1999-00 Roox set.

Also check out the stats on the right side: I am now only ONE card away from having the 1987-88 set kicked: Hugo Perez. I may start putting a list together of ones I'd like to upgrade as well-- anything smeared, signed on the back, personalized to Not Drew, or signed with a bad pen. I don't mind them as placeholders but I'm sure I can do better on some.

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.

Water water everywhere...

Not long after my last post, I got a message on Facebook from Damir Haramina.  My cards had finally arrived to him in Croatia... ten weeks after I had mailed them, and with severe water damage.

Amazingly this isn't the first time I've had this happen: my mailing to Dali a few years ago came back to me looking like it had chosen to swim its way from Bosnia to the US. Fortunately I had extras on Haramina so I remailed (this time with some plastic protection around them) and received them back this past weekend. One more down for the 1990-91 set!

I've also gone back to working on the (unsigned) outdoor sets I need. I bought a bunch on SportLots, so I'm down to just needing these to finish them off...

2016-17 Aficionado
24 Marquinhos

2018 Prizm World Cup
1 Lionel Messi
5 Gonzalo Higuain
10 Paulo Dybala
13 Eden Hazard
25 Neymar Jr.
31 Marcelo
36 Casemiro
38 James Rodriguez
54 Mohamed Salah
63 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
74 Paul Pogba
78 Hugo Lloris
79 Kingsley Coman
89 Jonas Hector
93 Leroy Sane
96 Mesut Ozil
127 Javier Hernandez
154 Cristiano Ronaldo
155 Andre Silva
185 Aleksandar Mitrovic
197 Andres Iniesta
202 Isco
229 Luka Modric
231 Mateo Kovacic
235 Emil Forsberg
242 Breel Embolo

2018-19 Donruss
40 Leroy Sane

2018-19 Donruss Dominator
D-7 Harry Kane

2018-19 Donruss Elite Series
ES-1 Lionel Messi

2018-19 Donruss Legends Series
LS-5 Diego Maradona
LS-6 Pele

2018-19 Donruss Magicians
M-10 Otavio

2018-19 Donruss Out Of This World
OW-9 Kylian Mbappe

2018-19 Donruss Optic
11 Paulo Dybala
18 Thomas Muller
22 Mats Hummels
24 Manuel Neuer
37 Sergio Aguero
38 Gabriel Jesus
47 Saul Niguez
52 Edinson Cavani
53 Kylian Mbappe
54 Angel DiMaria
66 Christian Pulisic
81 Youri Tielemans
92 Giovani Lo Celso
105 Roberto Firmino
120 Christian Eriksen
132 Kylian Mbappe
133 Paul Pogba
139 Toni Kroos
140 Julian Draxler
154 Memphis Depay
191 Kai Havertz

Oof, yeah, so there are some big names I still need in there. Prizm Messi, Neymar, Dybala, Coman, Pogba, and Ronaldo; the Optic Mbappe pair and Havertz; OOTW Mbappe... It'll probably take some good trading or a couple hundred dollars cash to land them all.

On the positive side, I have several big doubles I could hopefully trade (multiple copies of most of the Donruss base Rated Rookies, for example, and several of the base Mbappe).

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.