Some More Help From My Friends

Autograph collecting is a lot of fun to do in-person. I love spending the day at the park and trying to add some signatures to my collection. But sometimes it can be frustrating, time-consuming, and unrewarding, as you can never say who or how many people will sign in any given day. I've had some times where I was able to get 10-15 MLB autographs but not a single one of the players I was really targeting, so while it was successful to an extent, it can still be disappointing to miss out on the autographs you really wanted to add to your collection.

This is why it's so helpful to have a network of collectors to help each other out, and my preferred site is SportsCollectors.Net, or SCN for short. I don't know how many autographs I've been able to add or upgrade in my collection from that site over the last five or so years, but I can comfortably say that number is in the 100s. Whether via private signings, trades, consignments, or 50-50s, it's amazing what a country-wide group of collectors can do to help each other out. I highly recommend the site for any other autograph collectors out there. I think it's only like $15/year, and while you still run into some scumbags/shady dealer types, by and large the feedback scores will largely give you an idea of the type of collector you are working with.

Here are some of the autographs that I've been able to add or upgrade using SCN over the past six months or so. Not too bad.

Bruce Chen 

Jason Grimsley

Ramon Hernandez

Jim Hoey

(Your eyes do not deceive you, that's the same signed card, both personalized to me. One obtained IP, the other via SCN, pretty much simultaneously, hence the double down)

Charles Johnson

Matt Lindstrom

Bob Melvin

Scott Moore

Request Week- Charles Johnson

Request week continues to roll along as blog reader Sharon requested a post about Charles Johnson, who she says that he is her favorite player. She didn't mention why that is, but I hope to touch on it during this post. Let me know how I did Sharon!

Charles was a catcher in the Majors for twelve seasons from 1994-2005 and played for six teams over his career. He is best remembered as a Marlin, and rightly so as he spent seven seasons representing the teal and black. He was known for being a great defensive catcher and appropriately caught three no-hitters, all with the Marlins; Al Leiter in 1996, Kevin Brown in 1997, and AJ Burnett in 2001. There are very few other catchers who can say there were behind the plate for that many no-no's and only Jason Varitek(4) has caught more.

During his time with the Marlins, Charles also won four consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1995-98, made two All-Star squads ('97 & '01) and was a member of their 1997 World Series Championship team. I would certainly think that he deserves a spot in the Marlins Hall of Fame, if they have something like that: considering the team has only been around since 1993, I doubt that many players have done more for the franchise.

On December 1, 1998, Charles was traded by the Dodgers to the Mets, who flipped him that same day to the Orioles for Armando Benitez. He spent the next season and a half as the O's everyday catcher and he was enjoying the best offensive season of his career in 2000 when the Orioles traded him and Harold Baines to the White Sox for Brook Fordyce and three minor leaguers (who never made it to the big leagues). Sure seems like a clunker from where I sit.

I purchased this Orioles signed card online. I previously had an in-person autograph from Charles in my collection, but it was on a Marlins card and I needed an upgrade. Charles signed for me in 1994 or 1995 when the Marlins were playing the Pirates and his signature looked more like the pre-printed one on the card than the abbreviated version that it devolved into, but that's a pretty standard occurrence.