So the other day, I made what is essentially my monthly trip to Valley Sports Cards. I desperately needed some storage for a major card purchase (next post), and no place in my area carries the card supplies that I need. I really don’t ever need to be reminded that Alex and Lona are special people but I am every time that I walk in the store and am greeted like family. Anyway I want to brag because they gave me a great deal on a card that immediately becomes one of my favorites.

A quad Panthers card, need I say more. Alex could have held out for a different seller, especially because the Super Bowl will be the one time Panthers stuff will be in demand, but he hooked me up. I am thankful. He knows it’s in the hands of a diehard Panthers fan. I will probably keep it displayed in my room for a while.

After I won the Tommy Lasorda autographed baseball, it got me thinking: what autographs do I want? I put together the following list and am curious how many I can cross off by the end of the year.
Making this list has a few benefits. It will force me to be narrow minded and thus more budget friendly when I do buy cards. This won’t stop me from grabbing amazing deals, perhaps as trade-bait for a list item, but it will give me a focus. With the exception of my Prestige collection, bid boards, and boxes/packs, I have little intention to deviate from it.
I have broke it up into several sections. The top is cards that are attainable given my budget constraints. The bottom is dream autographs that are probably unattainable to me. I have been known to surprise myself and get a few of these items: for example players like Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Jerry Rice, and Steve Young are the most prized items in my collection; the 49ers I just named would easily top my unattainable list. The list is also heavy on my favorite teams and locals: so you will see a lot of players with SoCal, specifically San Fernando Valley ties, Dodgers, Carolina Panthers, and Connecticut Huskies. I also love collecting coaches.

 

Attainable:
Basketball
Andre Drummond – UCONN player
Marc Gasol
Nick Van Exel
Randy Foye
Josh Shipp – former UCLA star
Charlie Ward – Heisman winner and decent NBA point guard, how could I not want his autograph?
Jeff Green
Danny Ainge
Dino Radja – former Celtic, falls in line with my enjoyment of collecting Euro stars

Football
Jamal Anderson – the Dirty Bird, he actually graduated high school with my sister
Michael Oher
DJ Hackett – CSUN (I can call it my alma mater now) dissolved it’s football team about 15 years ago and DJ was the last Matador who made it to the NFL & Panther
Gino Torretta – Heisman winner. As a kid, he was the first college player who I idolized.
Ted Ginn – gotta be honest, a player that I hated until he became a Panther
Brandon Weeden – for Dodgers prospect
Ron Rivera
Ryan Tannehil
Jeff Fisher – he went to high school at Taft in Woodland Hills, my high school’s rival
Marvin Jones
Jason Pierre Paul – went to the community college that I graduated from
Jim Everett – and I want him to sign it Chris Everett
Troy Nolan – apparently I went to high school with him, Texans draft class 2009
David Carter – Bears vegan, I know 90% of you just rolled your eyes at this
any Panthers player 2010
Flipper Anderson
Brandon Mebane
Daryl Talley
Jeff Hostetler

Wrestling
Bret the Hitman Hart
Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson – the last 3 are former PWG guys who I saw live and are not huge stars.
El Generico/Sami Zahn
Seth Rollins/Tyler Black

Baseball
Hyun-Jin Ryu
Adam Laroche – we share the same birthday
Tim Wallach
John Olerud

Hockey:
Zdeno Chara
Frederik Andersen x2 – x2 means that I want 2 autographs. You will notice that all of these players with that are born in Denmark and that is because my best friend is from there so I want one for him as well
Brendan Shanahan
Janik Hansen x2
Lars Eller x 2

And now for the possibly unattainable:
Vin Scully
Cam Newton
Kobe Bryant
Ronald Reagan
Wayne Gretzky
Bill Walsh
Jim Calhoun
Emmitt Smith

Probably attainable if I put my mind to it and do a thorough search:
Jeff Kent
Jonathan Quick
Daryl Suter
Mike Piazza
John Elway
Howie Long
George Seifert

Would be cool to have but I can live without:
Prince Fielder
Sparky Anderson
Sedin Twins
Barry Melrose
Triple H
John Smoltz
Drew Doughty
Rickey Henderson
Dan Marino
Tim Brown
Kurt Angle

I wanted to make my first entry of the year a positive one. I started this site because I was so fed up with the industry but couldn’t turn away because I love the hobby too much. I encountered a lot of rude people in the hobby and didn’t feel like there was a place for a small budget collector like myself. While I still feel like the card companies have a long way to come, I feel that the people in the hobby do not. I was used to be treated like dirt by others in the hobby, and while that is still the case at times, I am gradually moving to a place where I have more positivity about it. I have more faith in collectors but am losing faith in the companies. I get that it is tough to survive but I really question if they truly appreciate their fans like they say they do. It feels like companies care more about the case breakers and high end collector than average Joe collector.

As for what’s next with this site, I don’t know. I plan to post content once a week and do giveaways when I can. As I have stated, I just finished college a few weeks ago and don’t know what my future holds. Obviously I would like to have a steady high paying job that becomes my primary focus before I start a family. In the meantime, I would like to grow the site and have no plans of slowing down. In a perfect world, the site would get the attention of companies so I can review products and thus have more content, and even giveaways, to provide you readers. I plan on doing this site as long as I buy cards.

It’s going to be a great new year. I wish everyone a great year.
-Daniel DuBay

PS: I promise that you will see cards in the next post.