I received a tip a couple of months ago from a fellow collector that a place called Sports Gallery was holding a signing with Cesar Geronimo. Mr. Geronimo doesn't sign ttm, at least not since about 2009 according to the request tracking on SCN. He does do signings rather frequently, but Sports Gallery had a nice price on cards compared to those other signings.
My collector friend vouched for Sports Gallery, which is located in Ohio and appears to focus on the Reds, at least with their signings. I needed Geronimo for my 1971 and 1972 sets, so those are the cards I sent in. At $50 per, I didn't send in any cards from some of the "secondary" sets I collect, like 1973, 1975, and 1978 Topps. Previous signings listed on SCN show card prices between $59 and $65 in the last few years.
I received my cards back today, and they look very nice. I wouldn't hesitate to participate in another of their signings.
I also bought a 2000 Fleer Tradition Update John Santana from Randy, a local Twins collector and SCN member, and one of the few online friends I have in this hobby that I've actually met in person. It's been a long time since I've seen him though. But I have asked his advice on several Twins items I see on SCN or eBay, and have also bought several items from him, including the 1991 Kirby Puckett World Series poster a little while ago. Some of the highlights of my Twins collection were extras in Randy's collection :-)
Anyway, after agreeing on the Santana card, I asked if he had any other Twins Allen & Ginter or Heritage cards that he could part with. I was mainly looking for the more common players that I somehow missed, and wasn't looking for all the Mauer, Morneau, Santana and Hunter cards that are missing from my sets.
He came up with these four cards, which include a nice 2004 Topps Heritage Morneau card. No doubt Randy has upgraded this card in his collection to a blue sharpie signature, but he sold me these cards, three of which are signed in black, for a very reasonable price.
Today I packed up three Rod Carew bobbleheads and shipped them off to a Tom Orr signing. I was going to pack up a couple Brad Radke bobbleheads, but I was unable to locate the two Heritage cards I was also going to include. The cards are missing from the boxes in which I keep the rest of the sets, so I must have pulled them a while ago in anticipation of this signing but have now misplaced them.
I'm going to continue to look for them tonight but also ordered the cards from two different eBay sellers in case I can't locate them. They are cheap ($1 per), so I ordered from two sellers in case one is slow or gets misplaced or lost. I need to get these items to the promoter by mid-June, which is still plenty of time, but I don't want to cut it too close.
Today I also received a Return to Sender on my request to Sandy Koufax. Not unexpected, but it's worth taking a chance once in a while because you never know. Stranger things have happened. Luckily, I got my 1958 Topps back.
Informed Delivery is showing a sase of mine being returned with a stamp on it which I haven't used in at least seven months. It is postmarked from IL, but I can't tell from my records who this might be from, so I'm anxious to find out tomorrow.
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