As a Vikings fan, I hate the Packers, and I consider it against my religion to support anything Packers related in terms of my buying habits. That particular tendency has led to a number of issues when trying to acquire a Brett Favre auto to fill in the spot it should hold in my Vikings collection. I have wanted a Favre auto for a while, but it was nothing more than adding to my collection of autos from the greats of each sport. Now that the greatest QB in Packers’ history is wearing (or wore depending on future decisions) my purple and gold, I feel his auto has reached a higher spot on my autograph bucket list.

A long time ago, I commented on the list of players I want to get autographs from to make my collection complete, a list that has some odd names on it for someone who rarely buys players not related to Minnesota. I have already obtained some of the players that I want to get, but there are sure a lot more that I will need to complete the task at hand. I have Walter Payton, a player that Im sure Vikings fans hated forever, but still someone you need to have in a “Football Greats” collection. I also have Hank Aaron, a player I have admired since I read a biography of him in elementary school. I now have Emmitt Smith, which is funny for a Vikings fan, because his superstardom will be forever tied to one of the worst trades in NFL history. Lastly, I have recently acquired Sandy Koufax as well, a player I sought out due to his dominance of the game in a time where dominance didn’t come easy. After all of that, still no Favre, mainly because of how many of his cards feature Green and Gold.

I started looking for one over the weekend because I had some extra money to throw around after some ebay sales did well, and I was shocked at the prices for his cards. Not the VALUE of his cards, but the prices people thought they should go for. When ending in auction, Favre’s cards rarely top 200, even for the lower numbered ones for high end products, but that doesn’t stop people from posting auction after auction at higher than three and four hundred. It basically prices them out of my consideration, and I am forced to wait for something better to come along. I was considering purchasing a mini-helmet, but I am out of space to put anything but a card on my shelf. Because of that, I am quite limited in my purchases. To tell you the truth, I would actually want a Vikings sticker auto above anything, but the hoard of Vikings fans prevent that from being anywhere even close to affordable. I assume with the backlog of Panini and Topps stickers, this year it will become much, much easier to accomplish.

So, with that, I assume you are all waiting with baited breath who is on my autograph bucket list, and I am definitely going to give you what you want. Natch.

Football

Walter Payton – DONE
Joe Montana
Jerry Rice
Barry Sanders
Emmitt Smith – DONE
Brett Favre
Dan Marino
Johnny Unitas

Baseball

Hank Aaron – DONE
Sandy Koufax – DONE
Mickey Mantle
Ted Williams
Willie Mays

Basketball

Michael Jordan
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – DONE
Magic Johnson
Larry Bird
Wilt Chamberlain

Golf

Tiger Woods
Jack Nicklaus – Have somewhere, but lost for lack of a better term
Arnold Palmer – Have what seems like pre-printed TTM, still need

Boxing

Muhammad Ali

I have a few Peterson autos including my 2008 Exquisite Auto /10 that I am debating whether or not I should trade to get more of these cards. Sadly, I now have more Peterson stuff than I can display, and the two I have taken down (including the Sayers dual) are not important for me to keep. Who knows, maybe coming events at work will give me more disposable income to play with. San Antonio living has definitely put us in a great position financially and thanks to a few great investments, I have had a lot of luck crossing names off this list.