This week, before we get into anything else, I’d like to share some big news with everyone: 

I finally got the Leaf Reggie Jackson autograph/inscription that says “I must kill the queen.”

It was little over $100 with shipping. 

When I first discovered this card over a year ago (I bought a 2026 version; there’s a 2025 one in a couple Leaf lines — they seem to all be 1/1 variations) I researched prices on Reggie personalizations and appearances. There are a billion little restrictions and add-ons where getting him to sign something with that inscription would cost way more than the price I paid for the card. A ball alone on his website is about $150.00. Here are some of the rules if you want to see him live at Cooperstown:

If you’re wondering, a “premium inscription” is an EXTRA $100 and I’m still not clear if that means you’re limited to just three words. So…go up, get  “I must kill” and then you have to go to the back of the line, pay another $100, and get “the queen”? 

Anyway, getting this card may not seem like a big deal to many of you – and yes it has some flaws, including the airbrushed logo, the wrong team, it’s a sticker, etc – but whatever. It’s awesome. Shoutout to Leaf for getting Reggie Jackson to inscribe an iconic line from The Naked Gun. The fact he agreed to it is fortuitous. I haven’t seen a version of this card go this low yet, and frankly this is one I will never sell. It’s a “museum” piece for me — put it on a shelf next to my Allen Oppenheimer autograph, dust it a few times a year, and get a little nostalgia trip every once in a while. 

I want to add two quick nuggets to this story. 

First, this video above makes me sad for Reggie Jackson. The guy’s 80. I guess I’m also a little sad for the guy dictating what he should sign. Maybe he’s just taking orders, but this is Reggie Jackson. REGGIE JACKSON!! Reduced to following orders from post-it notes. Still, check ou the care he takes in putting the periods between “HOF” and adding the quote marks later. 

Second, the listing on the Cooperstown site charges $300 for a “full name inscription” – which is him signing as “Reginald Martinez Jackson.” I never knew this existed but there’s a tier of Reggie Jackson autographs that are his full name, and he kind of created an artificial scarcity for it that’s brilliant. Those versions are still cheaper online… but now I want one. And this whole thing led me down a rabbit hole of looking up baseball players’ full names and seeing if they all do this. 

Derek Sanderson Jeter? CHECK.

Michael Jefrey Jordan? CHECK.

Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez? CHECK – and it sold for under $250!!

William Roger Clemens? CHECK

Has this been a thing all along?? I’m putting a stick in this so I can finish the newsletter. But stay tuned. 

I’ve recently started following Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash — a comic book store down by the Jersey Shore owned and operated (as far as I can tell) by the famous director Kevin Smith. And he has a LOT of autograph sessions with Jay Mewes (aka “Jay”). Last week they held a signing for their “Jays of Future Past” Marvel title. The line was a mile long by noon. 

I don’t fanboy a lot, but I tried as hard as I could to get anyone to take the ride down to meet them and get a “Snoochie Boochies” inscription. “Clerks” was a formative movie in my teenage years; “Mallrats” and “Chasing Amy” are among the DVDs I still have today. “Dogma” I need to see again as an adult. Regardless, I couldn’t find anyone to go with me so I scrapped it. 

A few days later, they released copies online. For $20 you get a Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes combo autographed cover. That’s an increible price. Kevin Smith is a legend. And this is now the second thing I have bought since we last met that I will not be re-selling. Another museum piece!

Here are my new purchases, together, as they should be:

Here’s our obligatory “hey did you hear the guy who owns Mantel and guy who runs Mantel bought and are running ONIT cards?” section. 

JR Fickle is still here!! And we are admittedly filling Mantel ONIT CEO Evan Parker’s inbox with card ideas for the new venture — spoiler alert: “Marge Simpson Playboy cover card” apparently doesn’t fit the line’s audience, theme, taste, sense of decor, or moral standing. But we’re putting it here for the record anyway. Just in case. 

All jokes aside, much in the same way getting Kevin Smith to open a comic book shop is awesome because he loves this stuff, JR Fickle is officially confident that ONIT will be making news beyond our mandated 1x per month mention here (“or else I edit out ALL your Marge Simpson references”). I kid!

Can we take a moment to talk Panini stickers? $2+ for a pack of seven stickers is highway robbery. A 50-pack box should cost $49.99 at most. They’re taking the fun out of doing these albums with kids. I sound like a crotchety old man but so be it! Drop the prices you jerks, lest I take my business to DHGate, where the quality and realness of the stickers is questionable, at best. But the confusion is super-high! Still, it’s for the kids. So what if Lamine Yamal is misspelled?

Stay tuned. I’m going to try this and report back!