Welcome to Autographed Cards

Over the summer, I've been reading 88 Topps Blog and have recently started reading A Pack A Day. 88 Topps is fun because it brings back memories from when I collected that set as a nine year old. APAD is fun because it makes me want to buy baseball cards at the strangest hours. But what these two blogs have in common is making me want to start my own blog. I'm not saying that I'm going to do one that blows these two out of the water. I just want to hopefully show people something that they may have never seen before or had forgotten about over the years. That's my goal. I also want to get used to this so that a buddy and I can start a blog about all of the ballparks that we've been to.

I first started collecting cards in 1985. I collected throughout the 80s and into the 90s before I started to lose interest in high school. During that time, I would send cards (only doubles though) through the mail for autographs. That was fun for awhile, but I also lost interest in this in high school. From 1995-2007, I would buy a few packs a year just to see what was out there, but never really got into anything.

When I got to college, I started going to twenty or more Kansas City Royals games a year. I would load up on MLB balls and get them signed at the games. Kauffman Stadium is one of the easiest places to get autographs. But after I turned 21, I spent more time tailgating than getting autographs (after all, a MLB ball started to cost as much as a case of beer) and I again lost interest. Plus, it wasn't much fun to spend $15 on a ball just to come away with Tony Eusebio's signature on it. After college, I joined the Army and was stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. From there, it was about a three hour drive to Atlanta (where I never got a single autograph) and four hour drive to St. Petersburg (where the only autographs I got were from Royals and Joe Nathan during spring training). So, it was nice when I got out of the Army and moved back home where I would be closer to a MLB team.

During the college and Army years, my Buddy and I would travel around the U.S. and Canada going to games. I started noticing something on these trips. I starting seeing kids with "autograph books". These books were basically spiral note card books with photo corners in them to hold cards in. Unlike binders with nine-card sheets, the cards in these books were open so players could sign the card while holding the book. These kids would put three to six cards per player in the book, hand it to the player, and he would sign all the cards. So, this year, I finally made one of these books. Now, I am having fun getting autographs again. I might only get two players to sign at a game, but I'll come home with six autographs. Why do I need three autographs of one person? I don't know. But I enjoy having different sets signed and a player with different teams. This has also got me into collecting again. But I only collect cards to hopefully get them autographed one day. It might sound a little weird, but that is the way I'm am.

I'm sorry this first post has gotten so long-winded, but I'm new to this and will cut to the chase. I plan on posting on this blog at least five times per week. Each post will contain all of the autographed cards that I have of a particular set (for some sets it may just be one card, others might be ten or more cards) starting with the oldest cards and moving forward. If I get new autographs on card sets that have already been shown, I will post them as I get them before moving forward. Every once in awhile, I throw in some random posts of other autographed stuff I have. With each post, I'll include little tid-bits about the card like how and where I got it and other comments that I may see fit. Hopefully I will make this blog worth a damn and will attract the attention of a few readers. The first card will be posted later today sometime and it's from 1960 Topps.

Enjoy!