ballcards08@gmail.com

News:

February 10 , 2008

Since my last post I've obtained about 40 signed cards, mostly basketball. I also managed a few signed items from Neil Lomax who is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and former Cardinals quarterback. A buddy of mine from Lexington got some things signed for me as he was in town to watch his daughter play b-ball at the Univ. of Kentucky. I've also spent most of this time getting ready for the NFL Combine which starts on the 20th. I'll probably update this page during the Combine to let you in on what's going on.

Here are just a few scans of what I've been able to get over the past couple weeks. Michael Finley is definetely a bonus considering he's one of the tougher guys to get in the NBA. A buddy of mine and I have named him the #10th most difficult current player to get, according to our unofficial list. Darnell "Dr. Dunk" Hillman auto is one of my favorite.





Janurary 20 , 2008

Big update here with a lot of scans. First, I've updated my football trade page with a lot of new cards. Let me know if you're interested. Second is this rookie poster I've been working on. All eleven autoraphs were obtained in person this season: Chris Henry, Clavin Johnson, Dwayne Bowe, Greg Olson, Drew Stanton, Gaines Adams, Robert Meachem, Paul Williams, Anthony Gonzalez, Antonio Pittman and Garrett Wolfe. It's been a fun project so far, and it will be interesting to see where this project takes me. I managed to get all of these guys in Indianapolis with the exception of Antonio Pittman who was with the Rams while they took on the Bengals in Cincy.



Last night the Kings were in town and I was able to get 4 of the 6 set cards I needed. Artest did not sign at the hotel as he had 3 bodyguards with him. I heard he signed at the game though. I also got Quincy Douby, Beno Udrih and Kenny Thomas.



The remainder of these scans are from the Chargers vs. Colts game. Kind of a sad day here in Indy considering the loss and it also being the last game at the RCA Dome as the Colts are moving across the street to the new Lucas Oil Stadium. The RCA Dome was a great place to get autographs if you knew what you were doing. Unfotunately, there will be no access to the players at the new stadium.

A couple highlights of the Chargers autograph weekend: Managed to get 7 set cards signed; Former Lions Linebacker Jim Laslavic was really grateful that my friend and I asked for his autograph and mentioned that we made his day; Shawne Merriman signed several times yet LT and Rivers did not pick up a pen; Coach Ted Cotrell's autograph goes down as one of the nicest autographs I have in my collection; Colts tight-end Aaron Moorehead showed up at the hotel and I was able to get him to sign some obscure cards I had of him; I ended up with about 45 cards signed.

All-in-all, a pretty good weekend for autographs and not a bad way to end the football season of autograph hunting. Now I'm gearing up for hte NFL Scouting Combine which should be a blast as I've got a couple hundred cards I'll be bringing. Fingers crossed it won't be as cold as it is right now in Green Bay (I'm watching the game while I write this) during the week of the combine. Last year I had a ton of fun, hoping this time I'll have even more success. Until then, I'll have at least one more update with basketball scans. I'm also trying to put together private signings with former NFL players, so if anything happens with that, I'll make sure to post it here. Until then, have fun.







January 6 , 2008

The Titans were in town recently. I did pretty well, getting all of the base cards signed out of the 2007 Donruss Threads set which included LenDale White, Bo Scaife and Vince Young. It's wierd to think that Scaife was signing with a ruptured liver as we all found out the day after the game.

The Titans have a great crew of former players on their staff whom all of them signed for me. That included hall of famer Mike Munchak, Chuck Cecil, Sherman Smith, Marcus Robertson and Lake Dawson. I noticed Dawson in the line while he was checking into the hotel. I think I suprised him by recognizing who he was. He was very nice and talked with me for about 2 minutes. Most guys don't say a word to you when you ask for their autograph. I was also able to finish off a triple-player Colts card by getting Ben Hartsock. That one is pretty tough now considerng Bryan Fletcher is one of the hardest guys to get on the team and Hartsock is with the Titans now. Albert Haynesworth doesn't seem to be a pleasant man. I also got Charley Trippi through the mail this week who is also a hall of famer.





December 29 , 2007

Here are just a few scans of cards I've gotten in person and through the mail since my last post. This weekend I'm going after the Titans so I'll have another update in a couple days. A few highlights over the past 2 weeks are the set cards I was able to obtain (11 in total). I've been doing pretty well as of late and managed to get some of the more difficult guys out of the sets, including Andre Johnson of the Texans and Ben Wallace of the Chicago Bulls. That's probably one of my favorite autographs in my collection. But there's a new one I have which is definetely near the top. It's this Carl Erskine Topps Archive card I got through the mail with numerous inscriptions. I asked if he could add one of his choice considering there are so many impressive ones and he just loaded it up with a majority of the more substantial ones. What a nice a guy and one of Indiana's best.

At the bottom of the scans are signed multi-player 4x6 photos. The one to the far right is of my favorite Indianapolis Colt Antoine Bethea.

Check out my TTM page to see what else I've gotten in the mail recently. Also, I'll be updating my trade pages with my next post.








December 11 , 2007

I've gone after too many teams as of late to remember everything so this post will show just a few scans of what I was able to get. In total, I landed over 100 cards. Here's an outline:
1. Jaguars @ Colts
2. Cavaliers @ Pacers
3. Suns @ Pacers
4. Cincinnati Redsfest
5. Rams @ Bengals

I've added a few new TTM scans and a couple more trade items. I'm attempting one more set that will be the most impossible of them all, but I really like the way the 2007 Donruss Threads football set looks.

Here is a quick run-through of the past 2.5 weeks:
I managed to get a few cards signed for the sets I'm attempting. I also got some of my favorite players: Eric Davis (top five of all time!) and Aaron Glenn (one of the best to come out of A&M). I missed Steven Jackson, yet he did sign - I showed up one hour late. Managed to get Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire. I suggest to not attend the Redsfest alone, take a friend to stand in lines. I got Antonio Pittman to sign my rookie poster. Some pretty good autographs lately.








November 24, 2007

Here are two posts combined in one. I've been lagging behind. First is Lakers and Mavericks, and the other pertains to the week of the KC Chiefs and Celtics / Jazz. Last night I managed to get 3 out of the 5 I needed for the '52 set: Dirk, Eddie Jones, and Josh Howard (who I had never gotten before.) I also managed a card from the Bowman Sterling set I'm working on. The Nowitzki is in silver paint pen but I can't complain, it's signed. Have I ever mentioned how I hate most dealers? Grr, the worst are the kid dealers who bring 10 of their friends and family to help them. Not only do you have one idiot mistaking Brian Cook for Andrew Bynum, but you've got 10 people shouting out the wrong name. I'd think that if you're going to waste your time dealing autographs and ruining this fun "hobby," you should probably know who the hell is who. Below center is one of the gems in my collection: Kurt Rambis. "To Kurt, Kurt Rambis." I used to think that guy was awesome when I was a kid!

I also got Popeye Jones for the first time along with one of my favorite players of all-time Avery Johnson (I once lived in San Antonio so any Spur is a-o-k with me).



I've done some re-organizing to the website again. All of the sets or subsets I'm working on (now 7) have their own pages - broken down by sport - including some new sets such as the 2006-07 Bowman Sterling Basketball set (rookies only that are not certified autos-such as the Leon Powe below). Also, any post that I've made before November 22nd is now in an archive which can be accessed below. I've added scans of some new recently completed multi-player cards and newly acquired hall of fame autographs. Finally, I have a page of scans that catalogue my through the mail (TTM) successes. I won't post all of the cards if I got multiples back. Just one scan of every guy I get, not all 4 if I got four back, and no address information. I will be adding scans as of today on forward, starting with Terry Fox, 2 of 2.

Previous to those two teams, it was an eventful week. We had the Celtics and Jazz in town for basketball and the Kansas City Chiefs for football. Not to mention former NBA player Wayman Tisdale was performing with his band - but I did not attempt to get him. I also joined the band-wagon and sent my first request to Pat Neshek, relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. For those of you that didn't know, Pat was a regular autograph collector on the streets of Indianapolis while he pitched for the Butler University which is here in Indy. He signed 5 of 3, which included a signed photo that he wanted me to pass along to an old friend of his he used to graph with while he was here.

The Celtics are garbage. Like I mentioned in a post less than a month ago, whatever team Kevin Garnett is on, the team is destined to be a poor signing team. The Celtics of this year are worse than the Timberwolves of last year, considering Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Garnett are connected at the hip when in public. At the hotel, it's just myself and another grapher, yet all but 2 of the players leave together for dinner, not to mention its pouring outside with no cover! We managed to get a few guys when they came back. We've given up on Garnett - and you should too, along with LeBron and Vince- so I hit up some of the stragglers (Powe & Rondo). I also managed to get Tony Allen for my set the next day before the game at the hotel. He was the only one to sign! Oh, and we also got Danny Ainge the night before. We lucked out that he traveled with the team.



I haven't had the chance to get autographs from all of the current NFL teams, but out of all the teams I have chased around, the Chiefs are definetely the best signers. They were great last year and just as good this year. No one said no with the exception of Priest Holmes - and it turned out to be his last game in the NFL. Tony Gonzalez signed about 5 and I missed it. Yet, I was able to get a lot of guys. Even Len Dawson signed!!!

In other news:
1. Evertime I get a chance to get to say hi to Craphonso Thorpe (colts), I hook him up with cards he has never seen. I handed over another new one for him and he signed the other cards I had of him. It was kind of neat because he asked if I had a pen for him so he could sign my cards. I was just there to say hi and hand over what I had. Since then, I've come across some new cards so he'll be getting those too. You'd be amazed how nice some of these guys are when you show a sign of friendship by offering him some cards. Try it sometime.

2. I managed to get another rookie from the Colts on a card (Clint Sessions), and I thought he was the last rookie with a card but the new Leaf Rookies & Stars set is out and as far as I know Kenton Keith and Ed Johnson have cards in that set. I need to get on that.

3. I finally sent to Pat Neshek! Other than Neshek, it's interesting to see what guys will sign through the mail yet not in-person and what guys sign in-person and not in the mail. I've sent out to quite a few guys I enjoyed watching as a kid and I plan on sending out to hall of famers who sign for free or for a small, small fee.



4. I'm already getting prepaired for the NFL Combine that will take place here in Indy late-February. I'm thinking about putting together a custom card set, maybe 60 players, of guys who will be invited but probably won't get drafted until the later rounds. Anyone interested in a set? Also, I'm pretty loaded with coaches and executives' cards. Last year I was pretty well prepaired. This year I'm coming strong with reinforcements. There will be at least 10 hall of famers show up and this time I will have cards for all of them. I felt pretty stupid last year not having anything for Paul Warfield.

5. I finally got my Tony Dungy rookie card signed. I wasn't sure if I'd get it signed considering he hasn't signed for the grapher group since pre-season. It must have been my lucky day because I got Len Dawson and Bill Brooks within 10 minutes of seeing Dungy.

6. Finally, I got Dwayne Bowe to sign my Rookie Premiere poster. That guy is a stud on the field and pretty friendly and signed his ass off. Who knows, he may end up being this year's ROY considering Peterson is hurt for a while. There are two more guys on the poster with the Titans that we will see when they come to town. I'm pretty sure I'm heading down to Cincinnati for the Bengals v. Rams game. There are 4 guys on the poster from those two teams. Fingers crossed I can get at least one of them.

7. Below are, in no particular order: 2 former players, now coaches for the Chiefs along with commentator Steve Tasker, Ty Law, Jared Allen, Jarrad Page (who had never seen this card), Dwayne Bowe and two hall of famers.