Mail-In Signing Returns and a Few Purchases

This Rod Carew signing return took quite a while to get back.  The signing was completed in mid-December but it took a while to get the two items I wanted authenticated done.

I am pretty disappointed with the results, too.  I guess Mr. Carew's health is just too poor to provide a good signature.  The last time I sent in something for him to sign, I sent in bobbleheads.  The results were poor, including some smearing, but I chalked that up to bobbleheads being more difficult to sign than a flat item.

The first item I pulled out of the package was the second Grand Slam print I've had him sign (different images).  The signature is very thick and all the letters sort of run together.  I had requested that a blue sharpie be used, but this looks even thicker than a regular sharpie.  I'm glad I got this authenticated.  I don't have any plans to sell it, but if someday I change my mind, or if my kids sell it after I'm gone, I can see some people questioning its authenticity.

I also sent in four cards.  The first one was his 1967 Topps rookie card.  A real splurge for me.  Luckily, there was no upcharge to sign rookies at this signing, but I set my all-time high record for the price of a card.  This one actually turned out quite nicely, and if I could choose just one to turn out, this would obviously be it.  So, I'm very happy with this one.

The next three cards were meant to be upgrades over my current ones.  My current ones are fine, except they are all signed in black.  I've posted my current signed copy of the card after the new ones below.  I could have saved myself hundreds of dollars (yes, hundreds), if only I had made sure he used a blue sharpie when he signed my first cards at TwinsFest years ago.  So much regret.

You can see how they turned out.  Not great.  The 1972 Topps cards are high numbers and I splurged on graded cards (which graded as a 7 PSA and 7.5 SGC).  The In Action card is okay, I'm just not thrilled with the placement.  I had a sticky note at the top of the card asking that he signed across his legs.

His 1972 individual card is the worst of the bunch.  Again, same instructions, but he signed low and to the left.  I actually think I like the black sharpie copy better.

The 2008 Goudey also isn't too bad, and I guess it's as good as I could hope for given the current state of his signature.  I can't decide which one I like better.

I guess I am left feeling very underwhelmed by this return, which cost me a lot despite the reasonable signing fee.  I had considered selling my old copies to help fund these replacements.  But now, I can't decide which are better and think I'd regret selling any of them.  Maybe I'll look for signed copies to replace all of these with and sell these to help.

I think I am done sending in to any of Carew's signings.  I think his signature suffers even more when he's sitting down and cranking out hundreds at a time.  From this point forward, I will try to purchase anything I need already signed.  Even if it's a newer signature, you will know exactly what you're getting rather than rolling the dice on sending it in.

Despite the overall negative tone of this post, I am really happy to add his rookie card to my collection.  A couple years ago I would probably have told you that I'd never own one because it's too expensive.  But, I've loosened the purse strings quite a bit as I consider how much I will regret not adding these types of pieces to my collection after these players pass away.

I also received a few cards back from a Craig Swan signing.  He signs through the mail for a small fee.  I paid a few dollars more per card by sending in to this signing, in hopes that I get a good blue sharpie signature.  His history on SCN shows a lot of ballpoint and black sharpie signatures.

And finally, I bought four cards from Twins-Collector-Extraordinaire, Randy, including a nice 78 Topps Gene Mauch and a beautiful 1971 Topps Red Schoendienst.  (True collectors can spell "Schoendienst" and "Yastrzemski" from memory.  I still struggle with "Pierzynski" and "Mientkiewicz" though.).

The 61 Pagliaroni and 63 Landrum help fill some holes in my set collections.

Frank Robinson 1969 Sports Illustrated

I came across this magazine on Ebay a while ago and although it's a nice Frank Robinson signed piece, what caught my attention was the inside flap which has a picture of Boog Powell.

I am going to be sending in a few items for a Powell signing and thought this would be a great piece to add to.  The PSA sticker on Boog's picture is actually authenticating Frank's autograph on the front.

I love these magazine from the 60's and early 70's. This one also had a great picture of Harmon Killebrew at bat.

I also love the car ads.  This one has several, mostly big boats from the 1970 model year, but has a cool tire ad featuring a Charger, and although the photo is bad due to the centerfold, it has a cool ad for a Buick GS455.

If you ever come across old magazines like this at an antique store or flea market, they're usually worth a few bucks just to page through.  I have a stack of late 60's car magazines with great reviews of "new" cars of the time: Camaros, Mustangs, Firebirds, Road Runners, etc., which are fun to browse through if you have any interest in cars.

Bernie Allen TTM Return and a Joe Torre Purchase

I've mailed off quite a few requests the last few days, including to paid signings.  Almost all of the ttm requests I sent directly to players over the last week included pens and were shipped in bubble envelopes via Pirate Ship.  So, rather than a 78 cent stamp there, and a 78 cent stamp back, it's about $5.50 there and $5.50 back.  Plus about $2 for the pen.  It adds up quickly, but it helps increase the chances of getting a good signature.  I've still had some players not use the pen I included, and sometimes the signatures get smeared, but there's only so much you can do.

Four of the requests included a Grand Slam print.  I've slowed down on sending those out a bit and want to get going on them again.

Today I received a nice return from former-Twin Bernie Allen, who signed his 1963 and 1964 Topps.  Mr. Allen sometimes signs with a ballpoint pen, which doesn't look all that bad on vintage cards, but I have sent him a couple requests with a pen to be sure I get some nice, blue sharpie signatures on his Twins cards from the early to mid Sixties, like these two cards.  I lucked out this time, and he used a nice, fine point blue marker.

I also received a 1963 Topps signed by Joe Torre to add to my set collection.  I stumbled across this card on eBay while looking for who-knows-what, but it's a decent signature and the price was less than half of his current show price for signing cards.

I'm waiting for some items back from paid signings, and one in particular, Rod Carew, is stressing me out.  It includes a Grand Slam print and his rookie card, and the tracking has simply said "Moving Through Network" for the last five days since hitting St. Louis.  I hope it just shows up any day now.

Bill Mazeroski Has Passed Away at 89

I normally try to stay away from posting about player deaths because it just gets too depressing for someone who focuses their collection on the old timers that played in the 1950's - 1970's.

But Bill Mazeroski is especially noteworthy for this blog.  Not just because he was one of the best Second Basemen to ever play the game, or because he hit one of the most famous home runs, but because he was especially fan-friendly and a generous signer.

Even at 89 years old, he continued to answer his fan mail, signing whatever his fans sent his way for a nominal fee ($10 for cards) and always did a great job.

I believe his grandson, Billy, helped him with his mail and ran his eBay store.  I communicated with Billy only once.  I purchased a signed bobblehead from their eBay site.  It arrive broken.  Both legs cleanly broken off at the ankles.  I sent Billy  a note and a picture of it via eBay, and he immediately refunded my money and apologized.  It still sits on my windowsill in pieces since I haven't gotten around to try to glue it back together.

I've never heard a negative comment about Bill Sr., or read any anecdotes about him being anything but extremely friendly and pleasant to his fans.  These days, I think that has to be extremely difficult, since there is definitely a subset of the collecting world that is quite crazy.  They are impossible to satisfy and complain about every little thing.  I would think somewhere along the way I would have heard one of these collectors share a story in which they felt disrespected, shortchanged or somehow abused.  But, I haven't.

I never had the opportunity to meet him in person, but I participated in several mail in signings and sent directly to him through the mail.  Often.  Really often.  If you scroll through this blog, you'll see returns from him arriving about monthly over the last year or two and the vast majority of my requests occurring in the last five years, which is when he really became a consistent signer.

I sent to him 40 times over 23 years.  The very first request was never returned.  He wasn't always a reliable signer.  He was pretty spotty for many years and a successful return from him was a pleasant surprise.  My first success came in September of 2004 when he signed his 1958 Topps for my newly-started set collection.  I had enclosed $5 with my request and  was thrilled and amazed to get it back!

His returns were so spotty that I didn't bother sending him another request until 2021!  Looking through his history on sportscollectors.net, it was as if someone flipped a switch and all of a sudden he started returning every request.  It is very obvious while looking at his history.  From 10/27/2020 on, he was automatic.

I have a good variety of items signed by him.  A couple baseballs, a bat, and a 16x20 photo of him hitting his famous home run in 1960 (also signed by Johnny Blanchard, who was catching at the time).

One of the more recent items I got signed was an early 1960's souvenir Pirate's bobblehead.  These are made of paper mache  and are very fragile.  I was happy to receive it in one piece when I bought it originally, then happy it survived the handling by him and the promoter as well as the round trip via the USPS.

I have a more modern bobblehead signed (not the one that was broken during shipping which I don't have a picture of).  I sent this one to him ttm, but to make it easier on him and to avoid damage, I removed and sent just the head.   It's kind of like sending a small baseball rather than a whole bobblehead.

I sent him a few magazines and programs.

In late 2024, I purchased a signed ice cream helmet from his eBay store.

He was the first player to sign a Grand Slam print for me.

He signed a Hall of Fame plaque postcard for me ttm in the spring of 2024.

And all sorts of cards.  I believe I have every Topps card from his playing days and a bunch of oddball cards such as the East Hills Shopping Center, Kahn's Weiners, an Exhibit card, a 1961 Bazooka, a 1964 Topps Stand Up, and some modern Heritage relic cards and some Allen & Ginters. I'm just going to dump them here in no particular order.

Mazeroski really made collecting fun for me by always providing a timely, quality autograph for a very reasonable price.  He is on so many cards that it was fun to discover cards I never knew existed like the Kahn's Weiners and East Hills cards.

He was part of not only a great baseball team in 1960, but a great signing team.  The Pirates of the early 60's were, and are, great friends to autograph collectors.  Guys who have passed away include Gino Cimoli, Bob Friend, recently deceased Elroy Face, Dick Groat, Clem Labine, Bob Oldis, Dick Schofield and Bill Virdon.

There is still a few great signers left from that team.  Bennie Daniels, Vern Law and Bob Skinner are still around and are great to their fans.

Between 2003 and 2006, I worked on a 1960 Pirates team ball through the mail.  I ended up with 16 signatures on the ball, with Mazeroski being the last.  I got too scared to send it out after that, fearing it would be lost or damaged in the mail.  Here are the pictures of the ball as it progressed and in order of who signed it.

The signatures include (in order):

1. Bob Skinner
2. Dick Schofield
3. Elroy Face
4. Bill Virdon
5. Bennie Daniels
6. Gino Cimoli (signed in red ink first, then signed over that with blue.  Every project has at least one weird anomaly).
7. Hal Smith
8. Vern Law
9. Bob Friend
10. Bob Oldis
11. Mickey Vernon
12. Dick Groat
13. Joe Gibbon
14. Clem Labine
15. Rocky Nelson
16. ...and then 18 months later, Bill Mazeroski.

That's more than enough of my Bill Mazeroski autograph collection.  I'm sure I had way more fun writing this up and reminiscing about my collection than you did reading about it.  But, if you hung in there and read the whole thing: Thank You!