Billy Cowan and Amado Samuel TTM Returns

The two returns that showed up in my Informed Delivery email this morning surprised me, considering I don't have that many requests out.

Billy Cowan signed three cards for me.  I have all these already, but the 65 is a nice upgrade over a previous one that he signed lightly in ballpoint 22 years ago.  I sent the other cards along because I had them. 

Here's the previous copy of the 65:

This request was sent after my previous one to him, back last November, was never returned.  Odd for someone who is as reliable as he is, but a trend I'm seeing.  Not sure if it's the players or the post office.

Amado Samuel signed his 1964 Topps, his only Topps card, as well as a 1963 Braves team card.  

I have three versions of the Brave's team card going around.  I've decided that my strategy years ago should have been to work on multiple versions of the same team cards simultaneously, as long as there are at least a handful of signers.  That prevents me from having cards sitting around waiting to be sent while waiting on other players to return them, only for others on the roster to either quit signing or pass away.  Also, if one of the cards goes missing in the mail or doesn't get returned for some reason, I'd still have other copies to keep working on, rather than starting over again and not being able to replace those that have passed away since.  I'm sending to these guys multiple times over the years anyway, so why not include a team card as well.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Here is the other copy of the 63 Braves team card I'm working on.  I've only sent them to a couple guys so far.

I lost the original copy of the card I was working on to a request to Amado Samuel in 2024, along with his 1962 rookie card that cost over $30.  Ouch.

Here was the progress to that point (Jack Curtis, Lou Klimchock, Hank Fischer, Ken Aspromonte and  Claude Raymond).

I'm also waiting on a copy of the Braves team card from Hank Fischer that I sent back in late March.  I'm assuming that's not coming back.  He was super dependable up until that time, but no returns have come back for anybody since.

I'm seeing several reliable players that didn't return my requests lately.  Players such as Bobby Richardson, Gene Alley, Larry Elliot, Bert Campaneris, Al Spangler and Terry Fox.  I'm starting to think that sending expensive cards and cash through the mail to elderly people may not be a great idea.