1958 Topps Purchase - 40 Cards

As I mentioned on Monday, I bought 40 signed 1958 Topps cards from Tom Orr's eBay auctions.

Most of these I won unopposed at $4.99 plus tax and shipping.  Only a few were more than that, and I think I paid over $10 for three of them.  The highest one was about $13.50.

I already have all of these cards signed, but many of these are upgrades to ones that I received ttm many years ago.  This is the second copy of the card for 31 out of the 40.  For nine of them, I already had two copies, and for one, I had three copies already.  So, I'm not exactly hoarding these cards.  Maybe, just a little though.

I know this set isn't everyone's favorite.  The background colors are kind of weird, and the rest of the card is pretty plain.  However, I think that the plain backgrounds make them an excellent choice for autographs, as opposed to the generally dark 1957s, the very busy 1955-1956, and the design of the 59s that take up too much of the card.

Also, the roster in this set is great for old-timers.  Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Harmon Killebrew, Stan Musial, Bill Mazeroski, Al Kaline, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, etc., etc., etc.

The one card that I already had three copies of is Bob Skinner.  I won these auctions on Sunday night, and he died the next day.  I paid $4.99 for it, plus tax and shipping, so about $6.  I wonder what it would have gone for if he had passed away on Saturday. His passing also resulted in every one of the cards I bought being of a deceased player.

This is a really strong copy of both the card and his signature. A little off-center, which is common for the set.  Even though at the time I bid on it, he was an automatic signer ttm, I felt $6 was a fair price for a nice example of his autograph on a card from this set.

When I first sent a request to Pete Daley in 2004, he wasn't personalizing them.  It looks like in about 2006 he started personalizing all of his cards. In 2023, I sent him a 1955 Topps and a 1958 Topps Red Sox team card.  I included $10 in my request, and asked him not to personalize the card if he was okay with that.  Otherwise, keep the money and personalize it anyway.  He was kind enough to not personalize it and even returned my $10.  

Anyway, I'm guessing this 1958 Topps that I just bought was signed 20+ years ago before he started personalizing.  I don't see any private signings ever having been listed for him, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one at some point.

For all of the cards I just bought, except one, I obtained at least one copy of it signed through the mail.  Walt Moryn passed away in 1996, seven years before I started collecting.  I had previously bought his card signed, but this one is a nice upgrade.

That's about all I wanted to point out on the lot that I bought, so I'll just dump the pics of the remaining cards here.  You'll notice that these are all players that were great signers ttm.

Whiles I was very happy to get these cards so cheap, I was also a little discouraged, thinking that the collection I've been working on for 23 years hadn't appreciated in value more than this.  The Hall of Famers have, of course, but I guess not the more common players.