RBI (221) Andre Reed at Dr. Alex Corbin Liu's 11/16/14

As I posted before, Dr. Alex Corbin Liu held an autograph signing with NFL Hall of Fame receiver Andre Reed at his practice. It was a great signing with everything affordable, well run and moving along quickly. 

Reed played most of his career for the Buffalo Bills and a lone season for the Washington Redskins. He's been inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame and the Bills Hall of Fame for his service. He is a 7-time Pro Bowler and 4-time AFC Champion. His 951 receptions went for 13,198 yards and were good for 87 touchdowns.

It was a nice day running into a few friends and I was more than happy to get this Andre Reed autographed 11x14 photo.

Autograph Opportunity, Andre Reed 11/15/14

Anyone looking for that rare opportunity to graph football in the Southern California area should be sure to take advantage of the upcoming signing at Dr. Alex Corbin Liu's practice happening November 15, 2014.

I've been to previous signings at Dr. Liu's and am looking forward to the opportunity to add an NFL Hall of Famer to the collection at an affordable price. Smalls are only $30 while larges are $40 and both include the "HOF 14" inscription from Reed. I think they're both a good deal considering average current players are signing for comparable prices as the Hall of Fame Bills receiver.

The autograph signing will be at:
The Optometry Practice of Dr. Alex Corbin Liu
19735 E. Colima Rd.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

RBI (220) Alec Martinez...

I made another pretty random purchase recently. My family has never been the biggest fans of hockey but the past Stanley Cup caught some serious interest at my house. The Los Angeles Kings were Stanley Cup Champions with the final game winning goal scored by defenseman Alec Martinez.

I knew I was going to be in the area of a signing he was having and in case I had time I put it in my car. I ended up having just enough time to make my way there and I got my copy of the Alec Martinez Sports Illustrated autographed.

Martinez gave me a head nod when I said hello and offered my hand to shake. My interaction with him literally lasted less than 10 seconds from nod to signature to him moving onto the next person he was signing for. Glad I was doing this just because instead of being the biggest fan or I'd have been pretty disappointed in his personality.

I shelled out the extra few bucks to have my Alec Martinez Sports Illustrated authenticated by PSA, I figured he has a simple enough autograph that if I had the option and convinence for a few extra dollars I'd prefer to have it done.

RBI (219) Jason Grilli...

It took a while, but I got a late spring training return that I had written off and assumed to be gone. I mailed Jason Grilli his Sports Illustrated when he was still a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates and after he got sent to the Angels I didn't think I'd get it back and it'd be lost in a box in the Pirates clubhouse. I was pleasantly surprised to open my mailbox and find my long lost return waiting for me.

Not only did he sign the magazine for me after Jason Grilli autographed his Sports Illustrated he inscribed "Grill Cheese" as well for me. When he was a member of the Halos it took a while for me to finally get Grilli's autograph but he was a nice guy and when he did sign he made sure to sign for literally as many fans as possible for half an hour at a time. Putting this Sports Illustrated of the former All Star closer in my collection is a nice pick up and I appreciate him following through on his mail requests 9 months latter.

RBI (218) Liz Carmouche TTM...

Recently I was browsing through the card section of a local big box store and saw a new product on the shelves UFC Champions. I decided to pick up a pair of blasters just to see the product and take a peek at the guaranteed hits. The hits themselves are fairly weak, there are supposedly relics in every box but the two that I got were manufactured belt replicas of former champions. The cards themselves looks cool but the hit guarantee was misleading.

Regardless, I do like how the cards are designed and the quality photos they use from the fights. As a UFC fan I'm always glad when I can put a fighter in my collection, but honestly the UFC roster is so big and fighters success varies so quickly printing 8x10's for everyone and sending them is a little pricier than I'd want so I wanted a staple of cards available if I could get a chance to graph MMA. I pulled a card I knew I could get signed pretty quickly since I sent ttm to her previously, Liz Carmouche.

Liz Carmouche autographed my 2014 Topps UFC Champions card and I'm actually really impressed with how it came out. Liz used a gold marker to sign in a dark spot and I think it actually came out really really well. She signed my photo nicely also so it's always great to confirm that someone cares about their fans and their autograph.

Carmouche signed and returned the card to me in 6 days.

RBI (217) Brett Hundley….

For those college football fans out there I made a foray in that world of sports at the end of the summer. It's always fun branching out from just getting baseball autographs and adding to my limited football collection of one of the top college quarterbacks in the game right now who has destroyed Pac-10 records is a nice addition for me.

UCLA star quarterback Brett Hundley made it onto the cover of two Sports Illustrated issues over the summer of 2014 and I was fortunate enough to make it out to the UCLA open practices to meet Hundley. He was very down to earth and despite the UCLA staff being very wary of anyone who wanted an autograph Brett himself was great.

I was able to get Hundley's first Sports Illustrated cover autographed and hopefully will see him lead the Bruins to a successful rest of the season and expect him to be drafted somewhere in the first round of the NFL draft at the end of this season.

Autograph Recap, Kole Calhoun at Stadium Nissan 9/16/14

So it's been a while since I've been slammed with work but I wanted to recap a few things that I've been able to graph since the summer came to a close. One event I made it to was the Kole Calhoun appearance at Stadium Nissan. It was a well run event and Kole knocked out a fairly large crowd, but he was strictly one autograph per person.

I ran into my buddies Al, Matt and David and we had a good time hanging out in line even though it was far too early in the morning to be waiting in a line. I went through the line and got this Kole Calhoun autographed baseball, I had one before but gave it away to a friend and wanted to replace it for my own collection. I asked Kole to inscribe "Red Baron" but he declined saying he wasn't inscribing that day.

After I got my ball signed Matt was kind enough to drop my photo and get this 8x10 photograph autographed by Calhoun. Defense is a big part of his game to go along with the underrated bat so I'm glad to have this photo of him flying for a catch in the collection.

It was a good signing and didn't take too long to get out of there so I was happy with my progress on the day to end up with two Kole Calhoun autographs.