Lost and Found, Part II

I'm in Ohio.  I went to my dad's house today.

I emerged with this.

This pennant was signed by nearly every member of the 2001-02 MISL All-Star and Alumni Game teams at their FanFest at the Cleveland SportsPlex in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

Give me a day or ten (I'm a bit busy with baseball 'graphing) and I'll try to have a clear ID of every signature on it.

Good news!

The MASL announced today the return of the Dallas Sidekicks for the 2018-19 season!

I'll be hitting at least a few games this season and my wife even floated the idea-- on her own, no prompting from me-- that we might look into season tickets.

Here's to hoping we'll see a return of the annual alumni game, plus of course a team card set at some point during the season!

Lost and Found: The value of networking

A month back, I lamented missing out on a much-needed eBay auction. After a frustrated Facebook post about missing out on it and cursing the universe for its timing in my being unable to buy it due to the upcoming trip to the National Sports Collectors Convention, I put out a call to find out who bought it.

It wasn't Rob, or Ray, or Doc; but Ray and I did email the seller asking him to pass our information on to the buyer if possible.

So then local collector and friend Brian messaged me on Facebook, asking me about the lot that I was interested in. And a day later as we were both getting prepared for 'graphing the NHL Draft (quite a fruitful weekend, I must say; if you're a hockey fan I recapped it on my other blog) I get a call from him.

He said after seeing my post and frustration that he was hesitating to tell me, but he was the buyer of it! Which actually was the best possible result I could have gotten from it. More than anything I just wanted to know where they were because of some set rarities, like the aforementioned Scoop Stanisic corrected version.

It was an amazing coincidence. I have an eBay saved search for any signed Pacific MISL cards, so any time some come up for auction I get an email notification. I didn't get one on this. Brian and I both happened to search on the same day for soccer autographs on a total whim, came across it, both put in offers a few hours apart, and his got picked.

Brian offered me even better-- there were some he wanted for his own collection, mostly any MISL guys that he didn't have anything from and the Dominic Mobilio sigs, but after that he was willing to give me a good deal on any that I might need that he didn't-- including most of the 1992-93 NPSL ones.

I'm still considering the 1992-93 Pacific NPSL set to be non-canon and a side project, but I have 2/3 of it finished it off thanks to his offer.

The moral of the story: get in good with your fellow collectors. You never know when they can help you out (and you them).

It DOES exist!

Was just hacking around through eBay a few minutes ago and found a nice lot of MISL autographs and non-autographs.

A while back I mentioned I was still doubting the existence of the Scoop Stanisic corrected version of the 1989-90 card, mostly since I had never seen one aside from a photo on a website. I figured maybe it was a fan-made custom, but a commenter on here told me it does exist and where I could find it.

So I tried. And got the error version.

Today, I found an eBay auction.  And the corrected Stanisic is part of it.

And signed.

Along with several others I need.

I put in an offer. There are over 200 signed cards, plus complete sets of all of the indoor sets. They wanted $140 shipped which I can't justify when I may only need half of what's in there, but for several that I know I need, I figure a lower offer might be worth a try. For all I know the seller may be desperate to move them for cheap.

My fingers are crossed, but at least I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Scoop card is truly real.

EDIT: It sold for $75 plus $35 shipping.  If you bought it and are interested in selling or trading any, please let me know. I talked to Ray in Baltimore and it wasn't him. Rob Parker? You perhaps?

Dammit...

First mailday in seven months

Wow, I've been pretty quiet, haven't I?

I keep on talking about buying the unsigned cards I'm missing but haven't yet. Still. My spare money is all going toward the National and the NHL Draft, so maybe I'll finally get around to it in August or September. That will mark three years since I started hitting it hard, so it's probably a good time to go for a final push.

That first batch was sent on September 5, 2015 to a total of 27 players. Some came back quickly-- Michael King and Wes McLeod in a week.  Some never came back-- Beto, David Hoggan, Steve Zungul (whom I later got), and Erik Rasmussen.

And one I just got back yesterday-- 1,017 days later. I mailed to Brian Quinn at San Diego Soccer Club and had given up; I was going to try him via University of San Diego, perhaps even a home address. Instead, yesterday I came home to six cards signed in black, with my letter folded up neatly around it for protection.

I'm not overly hopeful about finding any MISL stuff at the National, but I'll still be keeping an eye out and have my want list with me. I saw a bunch recently on eBay, but they're all ones I already have and have pretty high price tags; having gotten a 1987-88 Preki a while back for a buck or two, I couldn't justify paying the $12-15 price tags for him and others who are still alive.

MISL 40th Reunion Event?

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed the other day when a post from the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame caught my eye.

If it's too small to read easily, a group is trying to get together a 40th anniversary reunion for the MISL this December/January in Las Vegas.  Not sure yet if I'll be able to go, but I'm hopeful depending on price. I know among the shares and reposts of it on various groups, at least a few former players expressed interest in it (including Mark Kerlin; I have a few cards I need him to sign).  It may be my best/only chance at getting some guys like Kerlin, Brian Quinn, Carl Valentine, Kai Haaskivi, and Juli Veee. Maybe even knock out some of those multi-player cards.

I sent to the email address on it to ask about mailing in autograph items in the event that I can't make it. Haven't heard anything back yet.

Still here!

I haven't posted in about three months, mostly since I don't have a whole lot to report on the sets or even soccer 'graphing as a whole. The lack of a MASL team here means no Sidekicks Alumni event and the only MLS guy I need doesn't travel with his team (Carl Valentine on Vancouver's staff).

Hopefully that will change soon.  I've been talking to another collector, Brian in Kansas City, who has a bunch of stuff I need up for trade.

Indoor Soccer at the National?

If you ever read my main sports autograph blog, you may know I attend the National Sports Collectors Convention almost every time it's in my home city of Cleveland. When it was first there in 1997, I was 13 years old and went for a single day.  In 2001, age 17, I had the VIP pass.  Ditto on 2004 at age 20. I missed the shows in 2007 and 2009 because the travel would have been too much, but then made my triumphant return in 2014.

This indoor project really began about a year after that last trip, mailing my first gigantic batch of requests out in September 2015.  So I haven't really had a major reason to go looking for MISL memorabilia at the show until now.

I know back when CheapWax4U was around I probably could have found some boxes of indoor cards there-- I mean I once found AFL cards there for chrissake, and I don't mean the 1960s American Football League or the currently-barely-alive Arena Football League, I mean AUSTRALIAN FREAKING FOOTBALL. 1995 Select, I believe, as they still had the Brisbane Bears, Fitzroy Lions, and Footscray Bulldogs.

I could probably also find boxes of 1992 Score Serie A from Italy because I bought an entire case of it on eBay a few years back for like $45 (2/3 of which was for shipping), and probably some 1991 and 1992 Pro Set English Premier League boxes, plus some of the newer Panini stuff. And I'm sure I could find boxes or complete sets of the Pacific sets somewhere among some junk wax dealer. But have any readers ever seen any indoor autographs, regional sets, or non-card memorabilia at a National?

Cleveland, of course, has hosted six times in the show's history. Chicago has had eleven dating back to 1983, eight of which are post-2000 and a ninth coming next year. Baltimore has had two. In fact of the twenty shows from 2001 to 2020, only the three Atlantic City shows and one Anaheim show were in a non-MISL city. While indoor soccer is certainly a smaller group of collectors than the four major sports, you can find nearly anything at the National, so I'd think and hope that maybe there would be something there.

The all-time top two scorers and fourth-winningest goalie in indoor soccer history live close by. Why not get them as autograph guests? Are people really that much more interested in Jim Stillwagon, Joe Charbonneau, Kevin Mack, and Rick Waits? I did email Tristar about it, with an offer to get them contact info; we'll see if I hear anything back.

Anyways, what are the chances I'll be able to fill some needs on my Autographed Set Want List at the show?  I know I'll find some baseball ones I need, possibly some hockey and football, but anything indoor? I'm going to have a very busy week there, as I'm planning on trying to hit at least ten baseball games before, during, and after the National (Birmingham, Lexington, and Charleston on the way up; Toledo, Columbus, Lake County, Cleveland, and Akron while we're there; Fort Wayne, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines on the way back), plus looking around at all the tables for good deals, but a table with indoor soccer will attract my attention VERY quickly.

And the earlier I find it, the better: I might skip Sunday (the show's last day), and once in a while a local dealer might have some other items they didn't bring but can grab easily. That's what happened in 2014 when someone found out I'm a Cory Snyder collector, and had a game-used bat that he said he would bring the next day. He did, and it's now mine.

So if you've had any experiences (either good or bad) with indoor soccer collecting at the National, leave me a comment.

New Year, New List, New Price

You may have noticed the PayPal links to buy my autograph list have been taken down.

That's because starting here in 2018, all the info is FREE!

I just got to thinking that it's not worth it to charge even a few bucks for something that I do for free and quickly and unfortunately can't always guarantee the accuracy of. Getting a few to buy copies early on was nice, but getting the info out to help the hobby is its own reward. And it's not like there's a huge market of buyers out there for the list. Indoor soccer collectors are a much smaller group than many other sports.

So, it's free from here on!

CLICK HERE FOR THE ADDRESS LIST

Well that answers my question...

Back on August 16 I said...

"I also have in my notes that I mailed to Mark Frederickson on May 16 (second attempt, this one being via his home address), but yet I'm finding an envelope with his address on it, making me wonder if I actually tried him or not. I may have to see if I still have the cards or not-- that will be my best evidence."

Better evidence: Getting five cards back signed from him on November 24.

I also made a small trade with Ray in Baltimore a few weeks back-- picked up some 1992-93 Pacific sigs from him. I haven't officially started on that one, but I figure I'll trade for as many as I possibly can from other collectors. I don't have any unsigned ones, even.

Meanwhile, I haven't heard many/any rumblings on the Sidekicks for the 2018-19 season. The worst news in all of this is that they were very quietly removed from the Inactive Teams list on the MASL website.

Do any other MASL teams ever have alumni games the way the Sidekicks used to? I'd be interested in autographs from some players who might show up for games in Baltimore, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Tacoma. Maybe a few others like Harrisburg or Syracuse.