I wonder why print "\@retval contains $#retval \n"; returns 0, when $itm exists... Any ideas?

#=============================
sub my_execer($)
{
    my ($sql) = @_;

    my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql) || undef;
        $sth->execute() || die "sth->execute: $DBI::errstr";
    my @row;
    my @retval;

    if (@row = $sth->fetchrow_array)
    {
        my ($id, $prod) = @row;        
        my $itm = new Item;
        $itm->id($id);
        $itm->type($prod);

        print Dumper $itm;
        push (@retval,\$itm);
    }

    $sth->finish;

    print "\@retval contains $#retval \n";
    return (\@retval);
}
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