The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 5

"A certified autograph card of one of your favorite players."

It's not a pack pulled autograph, but it is certified and slabbed by PSA/DNA, so after scratching my head to come up with a card to post - I've settled on this 1996 Score Zenith Kirby Puckett #149 signed through the mail just about 20 years ago.

Puckett was one of the larger than life baseball stars from the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s - his cards came out through the height of the junk wax era, so it was easy enough to end up with his cards, even if they were your typical Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, Fleer Ultra, Leaf, Pinnacle, Pinnacle Select, Upper Deck, etc.

I think the fact that I occasionally ended up with his cards, in addition to helping the Minnesota Twins win a World Series championship in 1991 - made Puckett a pretty familiar national star, even if he didn't star for my hometown team.

He had a well earned reputation of a guy who did so much on the field to help his teams win and help the community off it - unfortunately his playing career ended when he was still surging strong in his 30s and post-career, his sterling reputation took a drastic hit.

Featured autograph - John Elway

I vaguely remember Elway sighing before signing this 1999 Topps card for me at a golf tournament - while there might have been chances to get a non-card item signed, I tend to be a 'card first' guy, so this was what I got scribbled on the last time I saw him.

Featured autograph - Drew Brees

I was able to get Brees to sign this 2006 Upper Deck Rookie Debut card years ago and dug it out to be slabbed - a good thing is that the trading card lists and pictures [wish it was a game action image] Brees with a New Orleans Saints since he has been the face of that franchise for 11 seasons.

Featured autographs - Hines Ward

I primarily collect baseball, so my collection of signed IP/TTM cards from other sports just doesn't run as deep - though I may have something loose to dig for like these cards I thought might look good once authenticated and slabbed.

I must have written Ward 10-15 years ago and I got my two cards signed - I'm not sure if he was a dominant player at his position on a year-to-year basis, but Ward was a longtime star and part of two Super Bowl championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Featured autograph - Jerome Bettis

Bettis has a unique autograph where it looks like he writes out the 'Rome' in Jerome and then draws out a caricature of a football - maybe it was because I was getting him on a trading card and it wasn't a paid signing, but I didn't get any of those unique qualities.

Though Bettis' autograph is a little messy, the scribble I got on a 1994 Fleer Flair Hot Numbers insert was definitely rushed - the autograph wasn't completely clean with just a bit of streaking and a blemish on the white part of his jersey in-between his number and his shoulder pads.

The slabbed PSA/DNA card ends up being a keeper in my autograph collection somewhere because I'm not into football collecting as much - where I'd try and find an actual certified autograph card [or non-card item].

Featured autograph - Jerry West

The only non football autograph in my PSA/DNA submission was a TTM signed card of NBA legend Jerry West - it may only be a card I randomly sent at some point within the past 15 years, but I'm amazed it came back to me signed, because I've always associated The Logo as a sporting great who may not have signed autograph requests.

Featured autograph - Jerry Rice

I got this 1987 Topps second year card signed in-person by the Hall of Fame wide receiver at some public appearance - the card might have been a card show pick-up 15-20 years ago when I was more open into at least dabbling in collecting other sports.

Though it was probably not worth much to begin with, I've always liked how the card looked and now that it has been slabbed - I'm pairing it with a PSA graded 1986 Topps rookie card I have in my PC.

Featured autograph - Terrell Owens

Owens was perhaps the biggest NFL 'personality / diva / me first' athlete in the past 20 years, but with all the drama, he forged a legendary NFL career as a wide receiver - the details are fuzzy, but I must have found this nice looking card of Owens and sent a request to him randomly TTM.

I got my card back signed, though he used a black pen and on a card that was just too dark for any autograph to really stand out - for some peace of mind, I wanted to see if the card would be authenticated and slabbed.

Second PSA DNA submission results

There was a package I picked up from the post office and I assumed it was my PSA/DNA order - since it’s really the only thing I’m waiting for in the mail.

Inspired by at least several YouTube videos, I wanted to follow suit to see if I could put together a PSA/DNA submission of my own - PSA/DNA’s January / February special is 50% off football/basketball players and while primarily a baseball guy, I put together 10 applicable cards / items for authentication.

I made a previous PSA/DNA order in 2013, though I'm still iffy about about throwing real money into something - that may be more of a subjective, arbitrary exercise.

Perhaps it’s just that Tommy Boy guarantee, but there is definitely the lure of having something you got signed at some point slabbed - making those loose autographed cards in my collection a little nicer in general, knowing someone deemed an authority has passed my inked up cards as good.

I’ve dreaded counting out the days left [I assume about 20 business days] before I realistically could look forward to receiving my order - so it was a relief it probably took only 10-11 days to go through.

However I was a little anxious about the results - there was some excitement as it was fairly bigger box, though it was probably because I’d sent a signed 4x6 index card of Peyton Manning [TTM circa 1998] and either way, PSA/DNA needed to ship it back to me.

I started working on opening the box - it was kind of hard to figure out where to cut through and open the box with scissors.

I just hope it wasn’t for nothing where I’d see my Manning autograph tagged with an ‘N4’ sticker - when I finally opened the box and dug out the contents [in bubble wrap], it looked pretty good otherwise with the Manning kind of crooked in a big honking slab.

I'll see if I can get at least a post out of the other items that were slabbbed - there was one unslabbed card sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard with a rubber band, so that obviously was an ‘N4’ card, which is not good.

N4s are something I may almost come to expect and reading going through posted results of logged in orders on the PSA forums - I think the ‘N4s’ are more interesting than the stuff that passes authentication.

The ‘N4’ turned out be a Troy Aikman card, which I definitely got signed in-person and not something I got TTM or purchased - I realize regardless of whether it's signed by the subject in-person, if it doesn’t look ‘good’ or if it looks ‘irregular,’ then it will not be passed otherwise.

Featured autograph - Dean Chance

I was doing a random search on eBay and spotted an autographed 1962 Topps PSA/DNA blue flip 1962 Topps rookie card [sold by Baseball Card Exchange] - Chance’s autographs may not be hard to find but I wasn’t able to secure his autograph before he passed away in 2015.

I was thinking of getting the RC as an impulsive, ‘scratch the itch’ purchase - so I don’t have to worry about not having an autograph of the former Angel who won the 1964 American League Cy Young Award.

It looks like BBCE had at least several slabbed autographs of Chance in their eBay store and decided I’d rather have the autograph on a larger 1964 Topps Giants card - which looks a little prettier and where Chance’s shaky but still readable autograph doesn’t look as crammed in like the one on the regular sized card.

There is another eBay seller with 1964 Giants Chance auto cards [selling for $14.99 each] - but the ones sold by BBCE come already slabbed, so there is a little peace of mind as far as far as authentication goes.

The Chance autograph will probably be triple counted as a signed card for my Angels all-time collection, for my award winners collection and finally for the regional component of my Top 50 common PC - as a side note, I’d like to really start putting TTM/IP autographs in my PCs, with the caveat they have to be PSA/DNA certified first.

First PSA DNA submission yields mostly slabbed goodness

I stopped at the post office Saturday morning because I had a package waiting for me - I was hoping it's my PSA/DNA order because I've been fretting over the status of a stash of six autograph cards I sent to PSA/DNA through their March 2013 special, which was $15 [plus insurance / shipping depending on the declared value of my total order] to have an item with a $150 declared value authenticated, graded and slabbed with a blue flip.

From what I've read, the biggest difference between PSA/DNA flips is blue is basically for authentication and grading of the autograph - while red flips is for the authentication / grading of the card and authentication of the autograph.

This might be a one time submission so I wanted some autograph cards that meant something in my collection - if I sent some oddball autographs cards for submission, I might be stuck with a reminder of something I don't really care for either way.

I decided to submit with two Mariano Rivera, two Derek Jeter and two Kirby Puckett autographed cards - through the special.

Though not perfect, PSA/DNA is the industry standard as far as autograph authentication is concerned - on a whim, I was looking to submit some cards that have been in my collection for the last 15 years and maybe looking for some validation.

After putting together the packaging I was mailing to PSA/DNA and hoping it would get to their offices safely, I realized I'd forgotten to sign and date the submission form I'd filled out - after someone from PSA/DNA contacted me through e-mail to resolve that little problem, I assumed my order was good to go, though I didn't know if it was going to take a while to process my order.

I was waiting around the clock, day by day, looking for any confirmation of my order and/or results being posted - maybe I was looking for a courtesy e-mail, but I didn't get anything at all and perhaps an option would be to give PSA/DNA a call.

I signed up with my personal info to create an account on the PSA Web site to see if I can get some kind of status check - however, I shouldn't assume PSA/DNA would process my order and tie it back with the account I just created on the PSA Web site after I'd already sent my cards in. THERE WAS NOTHING IN MY CREATED ACCOUNT TO INDICATE ANY ORDER AND I WONDERED HOW LONG I'D HAVE TO WAIT AROUND.

The small box I received at the post office after signing / writing my name / giving my address was from Newport Beach, so it had to be from PSA/DNA - it looked sturdy enough that I was hoping there would be slabs inside.

From all the lurking and reading I've done on autograph message boards - a possibility is not having everything I sent in authenticated and I wondered what my reaction would be if none of my cards were slabbed.

Eventually I tried to rip into the well packaged box as delicately as possible and saw what I'd paid $18 each [with insurance/shipping] for - for my first time, I was relieved to see five cards slabbed, though it became apparent soon enough that I had one clunker that failed to pass muster with PSA/DNA.

Results
Two Rivera autograph cards - I'm thinking both of these cards were sent through the mail in the late 1990's since I wasn't out at the ballpark for two or three years after 1996.

Both cards were slabbed with the autograph on the 1997 Score being graded a Gem Mint 10 - I like the 1993 Bowman second-year card though I wish I'd found a way to pick up his 1992 Bowman rookie card instead.

Two Jeter autograph cards - the one I got in-person back in 1996 was slabbed and the one I got TTM in the late 1990's was unslabbed and 'tagged' with 'N4' questionable authenticity.

Until now, I thought the Jeter I got TTM was good but then maybe Jeter used a clubbie to sign his mail back in the late 1990's - when he was started getting overwhelmed with fan mail.

Two Puckett autograph cards - which were both authenticated and slabbed with the autographs being graded.

I never had the opportunity to get Puckett in person but in the late 1990's - wrote to him a couple of times to get a couple of cards signed.

For all my worrying, my submission took about 20 business days then just these last several days to ship back to me - I was worried I'd have to wait at least a couple of months or longer to receive my order, but I got my autograph cards back, even though I don't know what to do with my supposed Jeter miss.