Cursebreaker

 After having two people pass away in the past couple weeks with their autographs sitting in my to-be-posted box, I intend to end that curse by posting all the remaining autos in that box, that I, for whatever reason, added to my COMC inventory at some point but haven't got around to posting until now.

Here's one that I intended to add to my True Crime mini-set. Seeing as I really don't want it to salute people arrested multiple times, it has people in it like Orlando Bowen, Linda Sobek, and now, James Shaw Jr. I don't think I can elaborate beyond the write-up on the card. But it is an interesting addition to the mini-collection.

I'm not really sure why I added this, the only hockey autograph in the box, to my collection. Maybe I was just in the mood to add a Chronology sig to my collection, and this was the cheapest one. But it is a nice legible signature from someone without a lot out there, so it still feels like a card that would be interesting to me.

Sure, it might be a stereotypically girly heart, but it still qualifies as adding artwork to your autograph, and that's enough for me. It might not be as massive as the one Franky Monet used, but it still counts. If only Aubrey shared her card with an adorable pooch.

What can I say I like vertical signatures on stickergraphs?

I really don't think it matters who gave you the nickname - it really takes nerve to sign Eazy E as your signature. I'll just say I hope that anybody who would be upset about that doesn't take things personally.

This was the same photo that was used on many of his rookie cards, and I immediately loved it as a rare interesting photo on a collegiate card. It's a very intimidating photo, and even better, Darrisaw is one of the great unloved (except by folks like me) on cardboard since he's an OL guy. If I were intensely following the NCAA, I'd probably cheer for the Hokies because Bruce Smith is my favourite all-time Bill. So, it also has that. And even abbreviated, a nice looking auto as well! 

This one was added exclusively because of the note COMC had on the card - (Incorrect Auto - Daniel Hamilton). One of these with the correct sticker attached is more expensive than the error version. Myself, I'd pay more for the oddity that is this one. Proper Daniel Hamilton autos from this set are also more expensive. I figure mine is a two-for-one deal.

Not only is he (in)famous for having an opposition player barf on him during a game, he also has this sentence on his wikipedia entry 

"Funderburk was charged with larceny property damage by university police after driving off with two car boots, damaging the boots and the concrete surface in the parking lot."

Which should bring back memories of Homer Simpson driving in New York.

At least it should. 

And I just liked his auto here. Probably just because the Roman numeral is on the autograph, but not on the card. 

This card could just as easily find a home in my penmanship binder as in my Expos binder. Even if his career was brief, at least he did reach the bigs for several seasons. The interesting thing about these is you can see if the signature deteriorated as he got deeper into the numbering scheme. It didn't.

Vinny Capra appeared in 8 games for the 2022 Jays. He's now in the Milwaukee system after a short stop in Pittsburgh. In a bit of an oddity for modern releases - this card out of Chrome Update, and its parallels were the only major releases he had. No base cards outside of anything but minor league team sets. But when you're a team collector, any card is a good card to welcome someone to your collection.

Here's someone else that could be in two binders. Given that he's now in the Reds system, and never made it above AAA in Toronto, he's probably bound for the penmanship one. That's likely a Buffalo Bisons jersey that's received the Panini treatment in this photo.

I'd like to think that Angel Ramirez is the reason people get "Sign Here" instructions with their cards. This wasn't just a one-off either. He also did this the next year in 1997.

Finally, the reason for this post.  I lamented in the Whitey Herzog post that Jimmy Key was in danger. Hopefully this ends it. Jimmy doesn't have a lot of post-career cards, but at least there seem to be more of him with the Jays as opposed to his other stops. Which makes finding an autograph of his slightly easier. And I'll repeat myself again - he could go into either the team binder or the penmanship binder. Here - probably the former. 

And there you have it!