Dinged Cards Challange: 3 On-Card Autos

As I prepared for this post, I was surprised to find that I have 88 autographed cards. Perhaps not a lot compared to others. Most are cards I bought on on eBay. If you're not too picky about who the player is you can get lots of cheap autographed cards on eBay. Many of these are sticker autos, so they don't count for the challenge. But it wasn't too hard to pick my favorites.

#3 - 1971 Topps Larry Bowa #233Back in the early 1990s sometime, a fellow worker dropped by my office and said, "You're a baseball fan aren't you?" I replied in the affirmative and he said "Would you be interested in this?" This turned out to be a ticket to a breakfast the next morning where former stars of the various Philadelphia teams were to get awards from the Boy Scouts of America. It was free. I said, "Sure I'm interested". I can't remember who else was there (I'm pretty sure the Flyers representative was Bobby Clarke) but the Phillies rep was Larry Bowa. I brought my Larry Bowa rookie card along with me just in case. The breakfast was very nice but there was no opportunity to approach any of the former players. On the way out, I ran into Mr. Bowa in the hallway. I asked him for an autograph and he kindly obliged.

#2 - 2005 Bowman Draft Picks Chrome X-Factor Autograph
I have this card on my list because bought a box of 2005 Bowman Draft Picks Chrome when it was new and pulled this card from one of the packs. It's one of my best pulls ever. At the time, Drew was a pretty hot prospect. The card has held it's Beckett value pretty well, currently booking at $150. Drew's having a pretty good career but it doesn't look like he's going to be a big superstar.

#1 - 1999 SP Signature Autograph Mike Schmidt #171
If you read my blog regularly, you know I am a big Mike Schmidt fan. This is the only Schmidt auto I have. I bought it through eBay in November 1999. Although I've bought a lot of cards on eBay since then, this is the card with the highest price tag. It's a beautiful card with a great signature. This past summer I saw the un-autographed version of this card on eBay and bought it too. It was a lot cheaper.