Frank Linzy TTM Return and a Bunch of Allen & Ginter HOF and Star Purchases

I made another attempt to upgrade a few of my set cards by sending along a blue sharpie to a signer that typically uses black.

Despite my attempt with the pen and a little cash to help encourage him, Frank Linzy used a black marker like he typically does.  The pen didn't work well on the Giants team card appears a little weak on the 1971 Topps but is pretty strong on the 72 Topps.  He also returned my $10, as he doesn't normally charge.

Since the beginning of the year, I have sent blue sharpies to 10 players along with my requests, which requires that I sent the request in a bubble envelope, which along with postage, costs about $5 (plus the cost of the pen, which I ask them to keep).  Seven of the players used the blue sharpie and three did not.  Of the three that didn't use the sharpie, they still went ahead and signed my cards.

I'm not sure if there is some reason that they cannot use the blue sharpie.  The sharpies are thicker, and maybe harder to hold for an older person, especially if they have arthritis or some similar issue.  I've wondered if I've offended them by asking for a different type of pen, as if their normal signature isn't good enough for me.  Maybe most likely, they just didn't see the pen at the bottom of the bubble envelope until after the fact and have already signed my cards and don't really read the letters?  I don't know.  Any ideas?

I ordered some Staedtler blue medium pens from Amazon.  I will try to use these for my next several requests since they aren't as fat as a sharpie and might be easier to hold.  I may also put a sticky note on the cards to ask that they use the enclosed pen.  That way, if they haven't noticed the pen by that point, they'll look for it.

Tom Orr (Atommic Sports) had a lot of auctions ending last Sunday, which I bid on.  He didn't have too many vintage cards (pre-1973) this week, but he did have a lot of Allen & Ginter cards signed by stars and Hall of Famers.  I bought too many, but for the most part the prices were ridiculously low.  I bought four Robin Yount-signed cards for about $21 each.  Two Dave Winfield cards that averaged $20.  Two Jack Morris cards for $17 each.  The Reggie Jackson was about $60.  I compared that to his signing fees for cards over the last few years which has been running at about $180 - $195.  Anyway, despite the large purchase, it was larger than I expected because I won more auctions at lower prices than I expected.

I'll still bid on more of his auctions, but my prices will come down a bit to only buy even bigger bargains (in my mind).  I did end up buying a couple cards that I already own including a Jack Morris, an Eddie Murray and an Edgar Martinez, because I won at a price I didn't really expect to win, so I'm happy to have a dupe at that cost.

A few months ago, I bought a couple 1971 Topps Leaders cards from one of Tom's auctions.  Each card included Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Billy Williams.  The sum of those three signing fees, if I include Tom Orr's Johnny Bench fee which is lower than most promotor's fee, equals $229.  I bought one of the cards at about $96, and the other at $127.  

He sold the same cards in subsequent auctions, at prices ranging from $134 all the way up to about $210.  Basically, the same cards, with some slight variation in card and signature quality, but you just never know how these auctions may get run up or go for less that you'd expect.

I often fall into the trap of, "I don't really need (another of) this card, but I'm not going to let someone else get it so cheaply".  It's an expensive attitude.

Enough rambling.  Here are the pictures of the 16 cards I bought in this week's auctions.