More Gladden and Some TTM Returns

I already posted about the ball and bobblehead I received back from the Dan Gladden signing, but my poster shipped separately due to its odd size, and I received it yesterday.  I only need Scott Erickson and Greg Gagne to complete the possible posters from this set.  Puckett is the only one not possible to get signed.  If I ever decide to frame and/or display these posters, maybe I'll find some cut signature from Puckett to include on his poster.

Yesterday, I also received a nice return from Wilbur Wood, who signed my cards exactly as I requested.  I had sticky notes on the team cards since they are getting pretty full.

In fact, the Pirates card is so full now I've decided to retire it.  It could probably hold another signature or two, but I'm too afraid to lose it now.  Bob Priddy has passed away since he signed it.  Gene Alley was the first to sign it, returning it to me in July of 2023.

Today I received a return from Rick Reichardt.  I've sent to him a couple times in the past, going all the way back to 2006.  He always signed in fine black ink, which appears to be the case for most returns, according to what I saw on SCN.  I decided to send him a blue sharpie to get some better signatures.  He signed his 1966 and 1971 Topps as well as the 1965 and 1966 Angels team cards.

He also included a signed picture of him in a Senators uniform with a Rays Fan Fest logo.  I'm not sure what his connection is to the Rays.  I couldn't find any mention of him coaching or working in their front office.

I also received a return from Gene Leek, who signed his 1961 Topps and a 1963 Angels team card.  It's rare these days that I get a ttm return from the 1961 set since I think I've got all of the good, remaining signers.  I think there are a couple more good signers with high-number cards that I just haven't splurged for yet.  A George Thomas card from that set will cost me about $35.  I paid $18 for Mr. Leek's card.

Finally, I received a 2003 Topps signed Dusty Gomon to add to my Twins set for that year.  I've been working on that set because that's the year I started collecting autographs.  I don't even know how many more I need, but I need the big names: Mauer, Morneau, Santana, etc., and there are many other higher-priority things I'd like them to sign so I may never get this set complete.

Gentile, Gladden and Richardson Returns

Today was a good day at the mailbox.

I received one ttm success.  Bobby Richardson signed the 1956 Topps Yankees team card and added his years with the team as an inscription.

He is one of three surviving players form the 1955 Yankees team, but I don't think I'll try to send it off to anyone else. One of the two players signs, but that is Art Schallock, who is 100 years old, and I've had mixed success with him so I will not bother him again.  The other is Billy Hunter, who has been a good ttm signer, but has been returning cards unsigned since February.

I received four cards back from a signing with Jim Gentile.  Mr. Gentile is 90 years old and recently lost his wife.  He has fallen behind on his ttm but an SCN contact arranged a signing to help him out.  He also helped try to return the existing outstanding ttm requests, which can then be sent to Mr. Gentile for his new fee of $10 per card.  I sent some signed team cards, so I'll have to decide if I want to send them to him again.  There is some risk that I may get them back if he decides signing is just too much for him.  According to the SCN contact, it is quite an effort for him now.  He did a nice job signing these cards, and even was able to sign very small on the two homerun leaders cards I sent.  I committed to send four cards but then had trouble rounding them up, so I sent two of the leaders cards.  That would be an amazing card to have completed!

Finally, I received a bobblehead and baseball back from a Dan Gladden signing.

The bobblehead is the season ticket version from 2009 (I think).

The baseball is my last HHH Metrodome logo balls.  It has some toning, but not as bad as the scan makes it look.

Manny Mota TTM Return and Yet Another Mill Creek Purchase

I received another 1966 East Hills Shopping Center card.  This time it was from Manny Mota, who always does a nice job signing and doesn't charge a fee.

I also received a Mill creek purchase which included several 1971-1973 Topps cards for my sets.  All these players are deceased, except Ron Hunt, who currently seems to want $50 to sign.  I paid $10 for this one. 

George Altman and Art Schallock TTM Returns

I received two rather odd returns today.

First, George Altman returned four cards, including a couple team cards.  The 1966 Cubs team card was one I bought from Mill Creek Sports with an Ernie Broglio signature on it.  I thought I'd jumpstart this card by having a deceased player having already signed it, then send it out ttm to other players.  Mr. Altman was the first ttm, and he signed right over Broglio's signature, even though it was the only one on there and the rest of the card is blank!  In his defense, Broglio's signature was in light ballpoint, so he probably didn't even see it.  It's kind of funny though.

Also, this return was sent in his own envelope and with his own postage.  Inside, the cards were in my sase, which was sealed and then sliced open on top.  A similar thing happened with a Pete Craig request earlier this month.  I wrote back to Mr. Craig and included a book of stamps to say thank you for getting my cards back to me.  He replied to that letter and stated that my sase was sealed when he received it, probably due to the high humidity they had been experiencing in North Carolina.

I suspect this was the same issue with Mr. Altman, who lives in Missouri.  I think it's been humid enough in most of the country to cause this to happen.  Tomorrow I am sending him another letter thanking him for the return, including a book of stamps as well as a 1961 Topps I'd like him to sign with a little extra than his normal fee.  In that request, I cut a piece of waxed paper the size of my sase and place it under the flap of the sase to try to prevent it from sealing.

The other option is to use the peel-and-stick envelopes that many collectors use.  However, I don't want to use those because I think too many players don't realize they are peel-and-stick, and they get sent back unsealed with cards that go missing.  Anyway, I'll try this until the weather cools down and see how it goes.

The other odd return was from 100-year-old former-Yankee Art Schallock.  Mr. Schallock is the oldest living major leaguer.  He only played in 58 games in his five-year major league career, so he didn't get his own baseball card.  About a year ago, I sent him a 1980 Fleer card that commemorates the 1953 World Series in which the Yankees played the Dodgers.  He pitched a couple innings in the series, giving up two hits and one run.

He signed the back of that card in black ballpoint.

I wasn't thrilled with that, and as such an old-timer, I hoped for a nicer signature on that card.  So, I sent him another copy of that card, with a sticky note on the back requesting that it be signed on the front.  He used ballpoint again, but it didn't work.  The card isn't exactly glossy so I would think a ballpoint should have worked okay.  But the ink didn't roll and all I can see is the indentation that the pen left, with little-to-no ink appearing at all.  Unless you hold the card at an angle to the light, you can't tell it's been signed at all.  You can just barely see that there is a mark on the hands of the Dodgers player on the left.

Oh well.  I'll leave him alone now.  At 100 years old, I'm not sure if he enjoys getting fan mail and autograph requests or not and don't want to burden him again.

I also received the two Claude Raymond cards from the signing I participated in recently that didn't show up with the first part of my order.  The promoter fixed this for me quickly.  I did have to send back a card that I was sent erroneously, and I chose to use tracking on that just to avoid any further issues, so that cost me about $4.  I suppose I could have just sent with a normal first-class stamp, which is how the promoter sent me the missing cards, but I didn't want the hassle of missing mail.

And I forgot about a couple purchases I made and received yesterday.  This included a 1958 Topps Athletics team card signed by Tom Gorman, and a 1972 Sport Magazine cover signed by Tom Seaver.

Gorman's signatures can be a little expensive just because he died relatively young at age 67 in 1992.  After I received it, I decided to look up who else from that team is still around and sign ttm.  Sadly, none!  I couldn't believe it.  The only other player still alive is Billy Hunter, and he hasn't had any successful returns on SCN since February.  He has either moved with no forwarding address or is simply done signing.

I'm not sure if I realized it at the time I ordered it, but the Tom Seaver Sport Magazine was just the cover, not the whole magazine.  That's what happens when you're up at 2:00 a.m. with excruciating back pain and take pain medication.  I end up receiving things I forgot I even ordered.  That's maybe an exaggeration, but not much of one.  It's also a pretty light ballpoint signature, but was relatively cheap and I didn't yet have a Seaver autograph in my collection.  It looks better i person than in this small scan.

I've been sending out a fair number of requests, so I expect things to pick up a bit in the near future.

Jim Perry and Jim Small TTM Returns

I received two ttm successes to kick off the week.

I sent a 1965 Topps to Jim Perry nearly 20 years ago and he signed it lightly in ballpoint.  I decided to send him another to see if I would get a nicer signature, and I did.

And Jim Small signed his 1956 and 1957 Topps as well as the 1958 Tigers and 1959 Athletics team cards.

Tommie Sisk TTM Return

I received a quick ttm success from Tommie Sisk, who signed the 1965 and 1966 Pirates team cards as well as the oddball 1966 East Hills Shopping Center card.  You can see that Roy Face signed over John Gelnar's signature on the 1965 Topps despite it having been the only signature on the card.  My guess is that Mr. Face is having some vision problems.

I already have Bill Mazeroski's autograph on his card from the East Hills set, and have cards out to Vern Law, Roy Face and Manny Mota.  There are 25 cards in the set.  I think there are only three more possible to get ttm above what I have and what is in-process.  Unfortunately, most of the players have already passed away.

I have sent requests to Mr. Sisk four times including my first request to him in 2005.  He has always used a fine, black marker.  I have seen comments on SCN about him using a blue sharpie, but I just haven't been that lucky.  I suppose I could request it in my letter, but I hate to sound pushy, especially when a player is signing for free.

I just sent a request to Rick Reichardt, who always seems to use a black ballpoint pen.  I included a blue sharpie with my request as well as $10, along with the four cards I requested he sign.  He doesn't charge a fee, so I'm hoping this shows that these cards are for my collection, and not to be resold.   We'll see if it works, or if he continues to use his ballpoint.  I think some players may use less-desirable pens when signing for free through the mail and reserve the blue sharpie signatures for paid signings.  I can't say this is the case here.  He might not put any thought into it at all, or maybe he thinks the black ballpoint looks best.  Who knows.

I have plenty of blue sharpies.  There was a time many years ago when someone posted on SCN that Staples (I think) had a super low price on a box of blue sharpies.  Like, ridiculously low.  Under a dollar for a box of 12 blue sharpies.  I ordered 10 or 12 boxes, thinking that the order would probably get canceled due to a pricing error, but they honored it.  I still have six boxes of these pens left.  They are probably 10 or 12 years old but appear to work just fine.  I always test out the pen before sending it and haven't come across any that appear to have had any problems.

However, the issue with sending a blue sharpie for the player to use is the postage.  I paid $4.11 to send my request to Mr. Reichardt.  And I included a return bubble envelope with my request with a Pirate Ship return label for another $4.11.  So, I paid $8.22 just in postage, plus $10, two bubble envelopes and a blue sharpie for a player that signs for free.  

I mainly wanted to upgrade the 1971 Topps he signed for me in 2021 using his black ballpoint that is nearly impossible to see.  I also bought one from Mickey's a few years ago that is signed in blue ballpoint.  It's better, but still not great.  I also sent a couple team cards, and many players use a ballpoint on these even if they use a sharpie on their individual cards.  I appreciate the effort, since it's hard to write small with a normal sharpie, and it shows that they care about how their signature looks.  However, I personally would rather have a large blue sharpie signature on a team card, than a difficult to read, small ballpoint signature.

However, at the risk of contradicting myself, one of the cool things about a full team card is the variation of signature styles and pens.  If everyone on the card used a blue sharpie, it would look fake.  Here's a very full 1965 Mets team card that only has a couple blue sharpie signatures.

Here is the 71 Topps he previously signed for me:

And here's the one I bought from Mickey's:

      

If I were being pessimistic, I would predict that ironically, Mr. Reichardt will use my blue sharpie, but it will get badly smeared.  Anyone want to bet?  I just sent it two days ago, so I'll have to wait 10-12 days for it to get returned if all goes well.