Moose Skowron and More Vintage Bobbleheads

I picked up a 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game card singed by Bill "Moose" Skowron.  He was a pretty reliable signer and despite not having an enforced fee, most people sent him $5 or $10 per item., which is about what I paid for this card.

I was able to have him sign a few cards for my vintage 58 and 65 sets before he passed away in 2012.

I also had him sign a 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game since I also collect that set.

The last time I sent a request to him before he passed away, he signed his 1954 Topps.

The second box of my latest bobblehead purchase arrived today.  Here are the baseball themed bobbles:

I love the little blue-base Twins version from 1961.  I have 9 of these now.  I buy them up whenever I see a good deal on them.  It's not that I want another one, I just don't want someone else to get a good deal on it.  Eventually, I will corner the market on Twins bobbleheads from 1961.  If you want one, you'll have to go through me.

I bought a handful of football ones too.

Vintage Bobbleheads

I bought another batch of vintage bobbleheads.  As usual, they were shipped in two boxes at exactly the same time and location, and one of them is taking several days longer than the other.

The baseball nodders I received in the first batch include the Royals, Phillies, Dodgers.

 

There will be several more in the second box, including an Angels mini.  I also bought a few football and some oddball ones like Paul Bunyan and Disney's Goofy, but I won't bother posting them here.

Five TTM Returns

My requests finally starting rolling in as I had been expecting, with five ttm returns today.

Denny McLain signed his 1969 Topps All Star card, and added his 1968 season record inscription.  I'm not collecting this set, but I do like the All star cards in it.

Steve Garvey signed both of his 1982 Topps for me.  In my letter, I asked about the Grand Slam print I had previously sent and never received back, but he didn't mention anything about it with this return.

Joe Moeller signed his 1967 and 68 Topps, as well as a 1980 Fleer Laughlin card commemorating the 1966 World Series.  He also included a signed religious pamphlet, as he often does.

Bob Skinner signed a couple Pirates team cards for me, as well as a 62 Post and 70 Fleer Laughlin of the 1960 World Series.

And finally, I sent my first Bucky Dent request ever, and received a signed 1972 Babe Ruth Award card in return.  At $20 per, his fee is a bit steep.  I do plan on sending him his 75 Topps, which includes the Topps Rookie Trophy, but that might be about it for him.

I dropped off 26 cards to be authenticated by JSA/CGC at the post office today.  Sending that many of my favorite cards to be at the mercy of the USPS really makes me nervous.  I added $4500 in insurance to the shipment, so it cost over $50 to send it.  But, I'd kick myself if I didn't buy the insurance and something happened.  This shipment includes Harmon Killebrew's 1955 rookie, which makes me especially nervous.

Ron Darling Grand Slam Print

This Ron Darling Grand Slam print was the only return today.  This came from another smooth Guy Puglia signing.

This makes 48 different Grand Slam prints signed since I got my first one, Goose Gossage, back in July of last year.

I sent out a half dozen requests today as well, including to Reggie Smith, who I need to sign a couple multi-player cards, Dick Estelle, to finish off the 65 Topps card with Murakami I got back yesterday, and a few players and their 1963 Milwaukee Braves team.  I'm trying a different strategy with team cards, where I have two or three of the same card, and then send them out simultaneously to various players, and then rotate through them to eventually get all players on all the cards.  This helps to continue making progress when a player takes a long time to respond, and also helps mitigate the scenario where one of the cards gets lost, which seems inevitable these days.  We'll see how it works.  I'm running out of time and players to send these vintage team cards to, sadly.

A Big Start to the Week

I received a bunch of mail-in signing returns, a couple ttm successes and some purchases to kick off the week.

I added two more Grand Slam prints to my collection with signings returns from Robin Yount and Trevor Hoffman.  I continue to really like these prints.  I wish there were a few more non-Hall of Famer options.  The Bobby Richardson and Jerry Koosman-type players, for example.  I have a Don Kessinger print on the way, which is another good example.

My first ttm success came all the way from Japan.  Masanori Murakami signed my 5th copy of his 1965 Topps, as well as a 1978 TCMA.  I sent this request before receiving another card I had ordered on eBay so I'll need to send that out at some point.

This request took less than a month to make the round trip, which is amazing considering some of the times my domestic shipments have taken.

My other ttm success came from Mike Andrews, who signed four cards for me, including a 1970 Topps Buy Back and a 1980 Fleer Laughlin commemorating the 1973 World Series.  The 1967 Topps will be off to Reggie Smith next.

I bought a couple duplicate cards from Tom Orr via his eBay auctions.  I already have both of these, but the prices were pretty low and the 1970 Topps leaders card, with both Carew and Oliva, is a favorite of mine.  I wouldn't mind filling up a 9-pocket page with this signed card.

I also ordered a few cards from Past Pros while they had a sale.  This included a couple Vicente Romo cards to help replace the ones I got at a recent signing but were returned pretty smeared.  Apparently, he smears about 50% of the cards as he has trouble due to his old age.  I wish I had known that prior to sending in.  At this point, you're probably better off trying to find cards already signed.

I sent in some cards to a Luke Keaschall signing.  This Twins infielder has a lot of potential.  I just hope he can stay healthy, which seems to be a continuing issue with the Twins.  There were two signings with him posted on SCN for the very same day.  One of them was charging an extra $10 for signing his Topps Living Set card.  I chose the other signing, of course.  This was with Guy Puglia, who always does a great job.

I was considering sending in a baseball to be signed too.  When I was on eBay though, I saw what his signature looks like, and decided I wasn't going to pay $35 for that signature on a baseball.  I can tolerate almost any chicken scratch on a baseball card, because it's obvious who signed it.  But I'd like to be able to know who signed a baseball without having to label it.

I wonder if I'm not the only one who feels this way, and if so, how much does it cost him in lost autograph requests.  In other words, how much more would he make signing autographs if he had a nice, legible signature.  And, does he care?

I'm gathering some cards to send in for a JSA/CGC authentication/grading submission.  I think I've got them all identified.  I just need to finish documenting them and ship them off.  I'm anxious to get my last order back.