White Whale Has Been Found!

Here it is. 11:59 pm. We are one minute away from a New Year and I had to publish this one final post before the clock strikes midnight.

As many of you know, for years I have been trying to hunt down my Rodney Hampton white whale ,the 1997 Stadium Club Co-Signers autograph card with Anthony Johnson. You have followed the story along the way and know how far I went to try and find it.

Out of all of this measures I took, nobody, especially myself expected it to just show up at my door. Yes, it just showed up.

Let me tell you a story.

So in my search along the way, I asked for some assistance from Wes over at Area 40 blog who has been the Magic Genie and Bounty Hunter of finding cards. He kept telling me all along that it will show up at some point online. It had to. I on the other hand had started to lose faith despite Wes showing me his magic.

It was an average day when I went over to get my mail not expecting anything to arrive. Inside of my mail box a package sat there with Wes' return address on it.

I thought well, he did set some other cards aside for me so maybe that is them.

I opened it up and found this white PWE inside. It felt thick which would lead me to believe it was one of the cards he had mentioned  mailing to me.

 

Boy, was I wrong.

I opened up that PWE and literally almost dropped its contents to the floor and came close to going down to the floor myself. Inside of that white but golden envelope was the card I had been searching for so long in a one-touch.

Front:

Back:

 

I was so stunned it was hard for me to even begin to thank Wes for this. I couldn't even type as my hands shook. It almost brought me to tears as well as it was an amazing moment. It's amazing what a piece of cardboard can do for you. When I finally got the hands to stop shaking I finally messaged him thanks and had to ask how he did it.

He used Google and typed the card in differently than any way I would have thought of and actually found a copy and took a shot at it. Well, it was the greatest gamble taken. Can't believe I was holding it still. I feel like I owe Wes my life for this one.

Here are the three 1997 Stadium Club Co-signer autographs fronts and backs next to each other

 

And here is the card finally off my checklist,

It was the final autograph I needed of Rodney. I had them all. Well, until Panini released 2018 Panini Illusions football where five more appeared. However, once again I find myself with one more from that product to find. Will that one become the new white whale? Most likely. And I think the odds of finding a 1/1 will be much tougher than the search I just had.

Wes, you are a great friend. I owe you so much and am so glad to have you as my friend for many reasons. Thanks for all that you do.

To everyone else, Happy New Year!