Bob Aspromonte and Bill Mazeroski TTM Returns and Another Mr. October Rookie

I was excited to see another old return in my Informed Delivery email this morning, which was obvious due to the Bonsai forever stamp on the sase.  Unfortunately, Jim Dickson returned my 1965 and 1966 Topps unsigned that I sent back in December of 2023.  I see another return on SCN today that was sent about a month after mine, but it was signed.  Maybe I'll try again and include $10.  Maybe it was just a mistake.  And maybe I'll lose $10...

I had two nice successes today, however.

87-year-old Bob Aspromonte signed another 1964 Topps Stand Up for me, as well as his 1971 Topps and a 1972 Mets team card.  He wrote a short note and signed it on his letterhead notepad.  Mr. Aspromonte, and his 94-year-old brother Ken, are very generous and reliable ttm signers.

And the ever-reliable Bill Mazeroski signed his 1963 Fleer and a couple Allen & Ginters for me for his bargain price of $10 per card.  I was surprised I hadn't sent the Fleer yet.  I need to take another inventory and make sure I'm not missing any other cards.  I have a TON of his cards signed, including a handful of duplicates.  Probably more than any other single player in my collection.  As well as a couple balls, a bat, two bobbleheads, an ice cream helmet, a photo, a magazine and a couple programs/scorecards.  I might be approaching 100 Mazeroski autographs.

I also received another Reggie Jackson rookie card I bought on eBay, but had to go through their "authentication" process despite already being authenticated and graded by SGC.  I've mentioned this several times, but for these vintage cards, I think the grades of 3 or 4 offer the best value, but you have to shop around a bit tom find a card that has the least offensive flaws.  This one is nicely centered (comparatively), has no creases other than a tiny corner crease, and reasonable corners.  It's very similar to the one I already sent off to be signed.  I will send this one off too, but didn't want my first two cards to arrive late and I didn't know when this one would show up.

I took a bit of a chance on this card since the photo on eBay had what appeared to be either a shadow across his body, or a stain on the card.  Based on the shadows around the rest of the photo, and assuming the card wouldn't grade a 4 with a big stain, I made an offer just about 10% below asking price and the offer was accepted.  I'm guessing some buyers may have passed it by due to the shadow in the photo.

Anyway, I'll crack this open and get it in the mail on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday) and it should still make it in time.  11 days is plenty, although a previous shipment of mine, with a Johnny Bench rookie card, didn't make it in 10 days and I missed the signing.  It didn't have far to go, either. 

I actually have one more of these cards on its way.  I found a pretty good deal on another PSA 3 copy.  Its centering is off a bit, but otherwise as nice as this one and $50 less.  So, if that one arrives in time, which I doubt, I'll end up with three signed rookie for Reggie.  Unfortunately, that one also has to go through the eBay authentication, so it is being shipped from the seller in Florida, to the eBay authenticator in California, and then back to me in Minnesota.  It's out for delivery to the Authenticator today, but we'll see if it makes its way to me in time.  I'd need at least 5 days to get it to the promoter.

Al Weis TTM Return

It's been very quiet this week.  I did win a BUNCH of bobbleheads at auction that should arrive early next week, including a few more early 60's minis and a 1961-1963 Roger Maris.  This month I bought some more non-sports nodders, including the Beetle Bailey set of four, a couple of Peanuts characters and one from the Knotts Berry Farms theme park.

I also sent out to a few signings, splurging with my justification that I'll regret it if these guys pass away before I get their rookies signed.  

I sent in a 1964 Topps Stand Up, 1975 Topps MVP already signed by Cepeda, and a Life Magazine for a Yaz signing.  The Stand Up was a short print, and despite being graded a 1 by PSA, it presents pretty well.  It was still stupidly expensive though.  About the same as a low grade 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson, which I also sent to a signing.  

Finally, I sent in five cards to a Ken Griffey Jr. signing, including two copies of his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card, his 1989 Topps Traded rookie card, a 2003 Topps Heritage and his 2008 Goudey.  After taking some time off from the set and even contemplating selling it, I guess I'm all in on the Goudeys.  I also sent one to the Reggie Jackson signing.  I will always regret selling my Ernie Banks from that set.

I'm also hoping for my last slabbing order to be complete, but it might still be a while before I get those back.  This was my biggest authentication order so far: 18 cards ranging from a 1948 Leaf signed by Bobby Doerr to a 1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. as well as several multi-player signed cards.  This time, I actually included a card I expect to fail because I think it's a spouse's signature, although I've seen similar ones pass.  I guess I'll be conflicted if it passes.  

Anyway, Tuesday I received a nice return from former-1969-Met Al Weis, who signed three of his cards and a 1964 White Sox team card already signed by Don Buford.  Although I already had one signed, I love the '64 Topps All Star Rookie Trophy card.

More 1971 Topps Purchases - Singer and Stange

I've bought a few lately, but added two more 1971 Topps via Main Line Autograph's eBay store.

Phil Regan - 1,725 Day TTM Return

I received a nice return to close out an otherwise slow week.  I could tell by the stamp on my sase that it was an old request.

Phil Regan signed a 1971 Topps and the 1987 Topps Mariner's Leaders card in 1,725 days, or about four years and nine months.  Since I sent this request, I participated in a mail-in signing to get the 71 Topps completed so this is a duplicate.  I also sent another request last June so I'm curious if that will show up soon as well.

This is my third longest success, with Art Shamsky coming in second at 1,785 days and Brian Dozier taking the longest time at 1,841 days.  My longest return was actually a failure.  Someone returned a request I sent to Kenny Rogers (the baseball player) after 4,760 days with my card unsigned.  I'm guessing it wasn't Mr. Rogers who bothered to return it, but some nice clubhouse worker.

I've been sending out requests for nearly 23 years and haven't moved in that time.  I am still hopeful that someday I'll get a 20+ year success.

Purchase From Fellow Twins Collector

I bought a handful of cards from my friend Randy, who has an amazing Twins collection.  He has a thread in the "Show it Off" section on sportscollectors.net that will blow you away.  He has lots of rare stuff.  He's helped me out a lot with my collection, selling me some of his duplicates, which become the highlight of my collection.

This purchase spans six decades from 1962 to 2016.

The 1962 card is from former-Twin Jose Valdivielso and looks nice with a vintage ballpoint signature.

I also got a couple great cards from 1965.  Both Vic Power and John Roseboro played for the Twins during their careers.  These nice-looking blue sharpie signatures help fill some holes in my 1965 set that I haven't really added to much lately.  I need 142 cards still from this 598 card set.

I added a couple cards to my 1982 set as well.  These two Ken Griffey Sr. cards bring me to 185 cards of the 792 card set, so still a long ways to go at 607 cards left to get.  

I've approached this set a little differently.  In the past, I've sent out mass mailings to the common (free) players to get an early, large number of cards out of the way.  With this set, I've been focusing on the All-Star and Hall of Fame quality players to avoid missing out on some of them while I work on the commons.  It will be easier and cheaper to buy the common cards of deceased players than the higher quality players, where the prices will rise significantly once they are done signing (or pass away).

So, I already have players like Reggie Jackson's three cards from the set, a Pete Rose card, and cards from Gossage, Gary Carter, George Foster, Harold Baines, Bert Blyleven, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Rod Carew, etc., etc., etc.

This 2013 Topps Heritage Vance Worley card is tough to come by in decent shape.  Apparently he holds a grudge against the Twins or something, and if he'll sign the card, he scribbles out the Twins name and their logos.

I got one from him ttm in the spring of 2014, which is nice but he personalized it. 

I took this opportunity to upgrade to a nice, blue sharpie signature without a personalization.  I just need a couple cards from Mauer (including one variation) and one from Oswaldo Arcia, to complete this team set.

And I added another Twins Heritage card to my team set with a 2016 Jose Berrios card.  I haven't created a web page to track this set yet, but I think I'm about 9 cards out of 18 or so.

In general, my Twins team sets from the Heritage and Allen & Ginter sets are missing a lot of Mauer, Santana, and Hunter cards.  I have caught up pretty well with Justin Morneau, although it wasn't cheap.

Bert Blyleven Metrodome Seatbacks

Today I received two Metrodome seatbacks from a Bert Blyleven signing.

I bought one seatback specifically with his jersey number, 28, and will leave it with just his signature on it.

I also sent the seatback that belongs to my 4-seat row.  While three of the chairs have the number of a former Twins Hall of Famer and are signed only by that player, the #5 seat didn't happen to match another Hall of Famer, so I decided to use it to gather the signatures of other Twins Hall of Famers.  So far, this seat has Jim Kaat, Jack Morris and now Bert Blyleven on it.

I'd like to add Rod Carew at some point to the #5 seat.  I don't have very specific criteria for who would sign the seats, other than Twins players in the Hall of Fame.  Molitor is wearing a Brewer's cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, and Morris wears a Tiger's cap.  The others wear a Twins cap.  I suppose I could add Jim Thome if I wanted, or David Ortiz.  Even Steve Carlton, even though he was only on the team a year and a half or so.  I think I'll focus on getting Carew, and probably leave it at that.

1971 Topps Purchases and a Doc Gooden Signing Return

I made two different, small purchases of some signed 1971 Topps.  One from an SCN member, who had their cards listed on eBay, and another via eBay itself.  Despite a total of only 13 cards between the two purchases, I bought duplicates of both Paul Blair and Jackie Hernandez.  Obviously I'm not paying enough attention to what I'm doing.

A couple of these are upgrades, but most are new and helping me knock some off my wantlist for this set.  I'm down to needing about 245 more to complete the set.

In addition to the 71s, I also bought a 1963 Topps signed by Billy Pierce, and a 1965 Topps signed by Al Weis.  I plan to send a few cards to Weis soon, to try to upgrade a few cards he previously signed in black, but bought the 65 on a whim since it was cheap and looked nice.

I also received 7 cards back from a Dwight "Doc" Gooden signing, including his 1984 Topps Traded rookie card, which I had authenticated.  I took the opportunity to have him sign some of the 1972 Topps awards cards including the Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Minor League Rookie of the year.

I also received a couple Metrodome seatbacks back from a Bert Blyleven signing that I'll post about shortly.