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.
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