I'm really happy to get this return back. Over a year ago I sent a 1963, 1965 and 1972 Topps to Mr. Rojas and he signed the 1965 and 1972, but didn't return the 63. He is a pretty good signer, but there appeared to be some question as to his correct address and many people were getting their requests returned to them.
I noticed that he was sending back some consistent returns so I gave it a shot and got back the 1963 and 1971 Topps I sent just a little over two weeks ago.
I received three returns today:
Don Ferrarese signed his 1955 Topps as well as the 1958 Topps Indians team card. I asked him why he wasn't on the card, and he wrote back that he was traded to the team during spring training. He also sent a signed and personalized picture, as well as a signed and personalized ad for his book.
Jack Heidemann signed his 1971, 1972 and 1973 Topps.
Finally, Ted Sizemore signed his 1971, 1973 and 1978 Topps.
I received two requests today.
John Boccabella signed his 1964, 1970 and 1975 Topps for me. I had previously sent the 1964 to Billy Cowan but received all my cards back unsigned in an unsealed envelope. I'll give it another try.
Gary Wagner signed his 1966 and 1971 Topps. Unfortunately, the 66 got smeared. For once, the card that got smeared wasn't one for the sets I'm working on, as the 1971 looks really nice.
I've got about 20 outstanding requests so I'm hoping the returns will be pretty consistent for a while.
Today I received a Gold Glove baseball signed by Mike Mussina for his $20 fee.
He included "7x", the number of Gold Glove Awards he won as well as his HOF inscription.
As I mentioned before, I used Pirateship.com to create a return label for my SASE so I was able to track it on the way to me. I really like that feature and will continue to use it.
Today I received a return from Dave Lemanczyk that I sent to him back in August. He signed his 1976, 1978, 1979 and 1980 Topps for me.
I sent out two baseballs to be signed recently and decided to try pirateship.com. The nice thing about that site is that you can print return labels (if you request that service be added to your account). That way I don't have to guess how many stamps to add to the return package and it also includes tracking. You also don't have to pay for the postage on the return unless it actually gets used, so if you're sending out a long shot request, you haven't wasted any stamps. There is a 25 cent charge for the return label though.
Today I received the first ball back, signed nicely by Harold Baines on the sweetspot and with the HOF inscription I requested. I included $20 with my request and am really happy with how it turned out.
The other baseball I sent was a Gold Glove ball to Mike Mussina. That one appears to be on its way back to me as well, probably arriving on Monday. I'll still need one more signed ball after that one to reach my goal of five for the year.
I finally received the package I was waiting on last might, about 7:30 p.m.
I purchased five signed 1971 Topps from Mickey's. These cards are from deceased players, tough signers, or were cheaper than buying the card and sending to the player.
The lot included:
Rod Gaspar - Mr. Gaspar charges $5 per card to sign, which is pretty reasonable. But I bought this card for less than that.
Bob Heise - Mr. Heise signs for free, but his 1971 Topps card is in the high number series (#691) and I was able to buy this signed card cheaper than an unsigned card.
Ed Kranepool - I recently had a failure when I sent to Mr. Kranepool as he now charges $10 per autograph. I was able to buy this for less than half of that.
Milt Pappas - Mr. Pappas passed away in 2016 and was charging $10 per autograph at that time. I was able to buy this one for $3.
Jimmie Price - There hasn't been a success from Mr. Price since May, so I decided to go ahead and buy this card instead of taking the chance of sending to him and never receiving it back.
I sent this request to Jeff Newman back in August. He signed his 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1985 Topps for me.
My Informed Delivery email this morning also showed another return, but that one wasn't in the mailbox. Hopefully that one will show up tomorrow. There was also a package that was supposed to be delivered that wasn't there and Informed Delivery still shows as Out for Delivery despite my mail being delivered already. Sometimes they deliver packages separately, but I'm not sure why. Yesterday they delivered a package to our doorstep sometime in the evening even though it was a postal holiday.
The mail has been a bit odd lately, but in general I'm still receiving everything in a reasonable amount of time.
I received one return today. Ken Holtzman signed his 1971 Topps in about two months.
I only have a handful of requests out now so unless I get a bunch out soon, things will really slow down for me. I hope to send out a few requests with baseballs or magazines instead of just cards.
I received two returns today and one failure. I had sent a card to Ed Kranepool but he is charging $10 per card now and sent my card back unsigned with a note stating his fee.
Tom Egan signed his 1966, 1971, 1973 and 1975 Topps.
And Gary Ross signed his 1971, 1973 and 1978 Topps.
