Monday, March 18, 2024

Lou Piniella TTM Return - 1970 Topps All-Star Rookie Trophy (Upgrade)

That's a pretty long title for just a single ttm card return today and it pretty much tells the whole story.  I'll elaborate anyway.

Mr. Piniella's returns have been very spotty since late last summer until very recently.  And the worst kind of spotty: sometimes you get an RTS but sometimes you just never hear back.  Not hearing back isn't fun when you're including cash ($5 per card) with your request.

The last time he was dependable ttm was December of 2021, which also happens to be the last time I sent to him.  At that time, I was focusing on the Topps All-Star Rookie Trophy cards.  I sent this single card to him along with $5 and he signed it in just 11 days.  Unfortunately, the very last letter of his last name smeared a little bit.

That sent it to my upgrade list.  I have several stacks of cards by my desk representing some common issue per stack.  This card had been sitting in the "Send out once this player starts signing reliably again" stack.  I flip through the stack occasionally and check SCN for recent signing habits.  Once I saw he was signing again, in the mail it went, along with another $5.

This time it came back in 19 days with a nice, unsmeared signature.


This card joins five other 1970 Topps All Star Rookie Trophy cards already in my collection.  I need to take another look through my list to see if there are more I can send out.  The players actually won the award for the year prior, so Lou Piniella won the award for his performance in 1969.






Saturday, March 16, 2024

Multi-Signed Purchases

My ttm returns have been very slow lately which is disappointing.  Especially considering I sent out 25 requests to spring training and have only received four back.  I know spring training returns aren't what they used to be, but I was hoping for 7-8 returns, considering that I sent to some pretty reliable signers and only a couple longshots.

Today I received three multi-signed cards that I bought from an SCN member.

I already have this 1970 Topps signed by Don Buford, but this one also has Brooks Robinson on it.  I don't know why I didn't send it to Robinson when I had the chance, but I'm happy to have it now.

The 1972 Topps N.L. Strikeout Leaders card is signed by Fergie Jenkins and Bill Stoneman.  I believe I also have this card in to a Jenkins signing, which I sent before I knew I would buy this one.

When I scanned in this 1973 Topps Oakland A's manager card, I noticed some scribbling on the back.  Upon closer inspection, this scribbling was actually a very neat signature of Vern Hoscheit, who had a long career in baseball, playing in the minors and coaching and managing for decades and passed away in 2007.  This card wasn't advertised as having his signature on it, so I reached out to the seller to see if he was aware of it, and if not, if he wanted it back.  Hoscheit's signature seems relatively rare, but not in really high demand, so the very few eBay listings for it vary widely with few to no sales.

The seller said he wasn't aware of it, but that it's fine and I can keep it.  Nice!


I sent this card to Wes Stock in 2014, but then never sent it to anyone else.  Williams had passed away by then, but Irv Noren was still with us.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Yount Mail-In Signing and Dave Pagan Returns

Dave Pagan lives in Canada, so it took about a month on the turnaround for this request.  He signed his 75 Topps, as well as the 75 and 76 Yankees team cards.



And I received a Robin Yount magazine back from a Chris Rifon signing earlier this month.  I had him sign a 1982 Sports Illustrated with JSA authentication. (I removed some of the address on the label digitally to avoid having some random person's name and address on my web site)

 


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

John Lowenstein Private Signing Return

Today I received some John Lowenstein cards from a mail-in signing.  A couple of the cards were signed using a dying sharpie, but not too bad.  I know other people who got some cards back that were signed in a bad pen, then signed again over the first signature with a better pen.  Ugggh.  I'm surprise the promoter even bothered to send those back, and with no note or anything!

Anyway, I'm happy with these.  Lowenstein is not a good signer ttm so this was about my only chance to get some of my set cards done.  I paid about $10 each.





Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Dick Green and Frank Tepedino TTM Returns

Only one of these sases showed up in my Informed Delivery email, so receiving two was a nice surprise.

From that email, I noticed the sase had a stamp design on it that I used from April through August last year, so I checked my records to see who it might be from.  There were only a couple returns still outstanding, but none of them were sent to N.Y., which is what the postmark said on this sase.  I thought maybe I forgot to log one, but nope, it was from Frank Tepedino, who signed his 1971 and 1975 Topps, but not the 1991 Wiz Yankees card.  He returned that card but didn't sign it.  I had sent to an address in South Carolina.


The other return was from Dick Green, who signed his 1971 and 1973 Topps, as well as the 1975 ALCS card.  



The 71 and 73 are nice upgrades to cards he previously signed for me in ballpoint.


The 1975 card has some controversy surrounding it regarding who is actually pictured on it.  Despite having a fairly good look at the face of the player, it's hard to tell if it's Dick Green or Ted Kubiak.  I posted this question on SCN and there was no consensus.  I had asked Dick Green in my letter to him if he thought that was him in the picture, but he didn't respond to my question.  It's very likely the picture isn't actually from the ALCS.  Look how empty the stands are.  That's very unlikely for a playoff game (even if it is the A's).  Sidetrack: I can't believe the A's are going to move from Oakland.  It just doesn't seem right.

I will send off another copy of this card to Ted Kubiak just to be sure.  I just got a return from him about a week ago though, so I'll wait a while before bothering him again.

I regret I didn't notice that the sliding runner is Brooks Robinson earlier.  It would have been great to have this card signed by both players.  Or maybe, all three players?

Monday, March 11, 2024

Tricked Again

After receiving three ttm returns on Saturday, I was anxious to open the three returns in my mailbox today.  One from Florida and two from Arizona.  I was sure at least one of them would be a spring training return.

There weren't any in that batch, but I did get some nice returns regardless.

Doug Camilli signed the 1973 Red Sox coach's card already signed by the late Eddie Kasko, as well as the 1961 and 1963 Dodgers team cards.  I had enclosed for $5 per card.



Rich "Goose" Gossage signed his 1983 Topps for his $10 per card fee.  I have 19 cards from this set signed by Hall of Famers now, but a very long way to go on the rest of the set.

Generous-TTM-signer Jim Marshall signed his 1961 Topps, the 1963 Pirates team card and the 1974 Cubs coach's card.



Also, I received a Gold Glove baseball back from Ryne Sandberg.  Several years ago, I sent him a regular baseball which he signed with blue sharpie.  I'm pretty sure I had enclosed a ballpoint pen for him to use with that request, so I knew there was a chance this ball might not get signed with the pen I sent.

But he signed it nicely under the logo as I had requested, with my pen, or at least some blue ballpoint pen.  I had asked him to add an inscription, "9x G.G." but I did not receive that.  I enclosed $20 with my request, which is very reasonable.  I didn't read anything on SCN specifically about a fee for signing baseballs.  According to the comments, he had signed a baseball anywhere from $10 to $25 but did not see any inscriptions being included for those requests.  I also saw that on some other returns, he used the blue sharpie on baseballs.


This ball took a while to get back to me despite just having to go from Chicago to roughly the Twin Cities here in Minnesota.  Between this return and some eBay shipments I'm expecting, I've seen several spending a couple days in facilities in Chicago.

Speaking of which, this 1972 Topps spent five days in the Chicago area before reaching me today.  This PSA-graded card is the perfect balance of cost and eye appeal for me.  I'm pretty surprised it's only a 3.  The centering is pretty nice, and the corners are pretty good too.  The bottom right corner has a ding but it's pretty hard to see.  Even at this low grade, it was still a $30 card!  It's a high number, and the rookie of stars Ben Oglivie and Ron Cey.  This Bernie Williams, not to be confused by the much younger Yankee, only played about four years with a lifetime batting average of .192.

All three of these players are still with us.  Ron Cey signs via J.D. Legends Promotions, which is where I'll send it first.  Ben Oglivie used to sign ttm, but now it appears that he just signs at shows, which he seems to do a couple times a year.  And Bernie Williams doesn't appear to have signed ttm since 2021, at least according to SCN.  I don't see any private signings with him in the past either, so he may be the tough one to complete this card.

Friday, March 08, 2024

Ken Boswell, Rickey Henderson and Bill Mazeroski

Today I received a mix of ttm, purchases and mail-in signing returns.

Bill Mazeroski signed a couple Pirates team cards ttm in about 17 days with his $10 per card fee.


Last year I sent in a 1969 Topps to a Ken Boswell signing.  Unfortunately, my card got overlooked and didn't get signed.  Mr. Boswell  is a tough signer the last few years, and the promoter that overlooked my card had some extras so I bought one from him.

And finally, I received my Rickey Henderson rookie card (1980 Topps) back from a Tom Orr signing.  I had this one authenticated by J.S.A.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Lou Klimchock and Ted Kubiak

I received two more returns today.

My return from Ted Kubiak arrived in a USPS body bag, appearing as if it had been soaked in coffee before being ripped and creased.


Somehow, the cards were still inside, body have obviously been wet.  Luckily, there doesn't appear to be any staining though.




My return from Lou Klimchock was less eventful, although it did get my hopes up that I had received a return from Arizona spring training.  I am still 0 for 29 on my spring training requests, which is frustrating.