Different Point of View

When my life gets hectic and tumultuous... sometimes I like to take a step back and look at things from a different point of view.

Back in December of 1968 the Apollo 8 crew became the first astronauts to reach the moon's gravitational field, orbit it, and successfully return home.  During the mission, William Anders took the famous photograph known as Earthrise which captures Earth and part of the moon's surface from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968.

Twenty-four years later, Space Shots produced a special hologram which they inserted into their 1992 Space Shots Series 3 factory sets and wax boxes that captured part of the famous photograph:

1992 Space Shots Hologram #1

Space Shots also had James Arthur Lovell Jr., the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 8, sign 1,000 of these holograms.

Over the summer, I watched Apollo 13 (one of my favorite movies)for the umpteenth time... and started looking for certified autographs of Lovell (who was played by Tom Hanks in the movie).  I found a few PSA/DNA slabbed copies, but none were within the budget I set aside for his signature.

Fast forward a few months and I stumbled across this hologram on eBay:

I started to do some research and unfortunately, it looks like the only difference between the unsigned holograms and the signed holograms is the signature itself.  That obviously made me worried, because anyone could take an unsigned hologram and forge Lovell's signature.  However after comparing his signature to certified copies, I decided to risk it and ended up winning this card for $89.95 (+ $4.50 shipping and $8.32 in taxes).  After applying my $52.98 eBay Bucks coupon, I ended up paying $49.79 for this card.

Assuming it's authentic, this is a huge addition to my non-sports collection.  When I was a kid, I remember getting so excited to watch shuttle launches.  And even fifty years later, it's still mind-blowing that we managed to send people to the moon.

A few years before Anders photographed the Earth and the moon, the Lunar Orbiter 1 captured this famous photograph:

1967 Henerle #110

This vintage card was generously donated to my collection by Ryan (author of Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko) and after two years it's still one of my favorite non-sports cards.

What about you?

What are some of your favorite non-sports cards?

Well it's time to step back into the real world and move forward one day at a time.  I hope all of you are having a great week.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!