Gary Thomasson Return In Just Under a Year

One more return today to keep my streak going for the week.  When I saw the envelope, I knew it was an old request because the stamp on my SASE was not the typical flag forever stamp I almost always use. 

It turned out to be a return from Gary Thomasson, who signed his 1976, 1978, 1979 and 1980 Topps that I mailed to him on June 25th of 2020.

I bought a nearly complete 1983 Topps set on Ebay last night.  It looks like I will have to start sending out more cards from the 70's and 80's since I already have lots of cards from the 50's and 60's and unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of those players around these days.  I don't intend to try to complete the set and probably won't pay for many players to sign their card from it, but I like to have more than one or two cards to send to a player and I'll throw in a card from this set when I can.

I'm not really sure which set(s) from the 80's I really want to go after.  I have a near-complete unsigned set from 1980, and have unsigned, complete sets from 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1989.  I like the 85 and 87 sets and have been working on those casually over the years.

I have about 130 cards signed from the 1985 set, and about 100 cards from 87.  I only have a dozen or two from 86 and 89, so I really haven't made much progress on any of these.  Somehow, I have four cards signed from the 83 set.

The 1983 set I bought is supposed to be fairly high grade, although grade isn't too important to me. They get a little beat up in the mail anyway.  It's missing the Gwynn rookie, which is fine because I won't get that signed obviously.  It's also missing Fisk, one of the Johnny Bench cards, Gossage, Nolan Ryan, Bogg's rookie (which I already have) and Kent Hrbek, along with a few commons.  Other than Hrbek and possibly a few of the commons based on their signing habits, I probably won't buy any of the missing cards.

I like the design, with the full-sized photo, along with the smaller portrait of the player towards the bottom.  They also don't have a facsimile autograph, which I think makes it nicer to get real signatures on.

Here's the Boggs card I have, and which I will probably get signed.  I'm not sure what I'm waiting for.  Maybe someone to give me $20 for his fee.  I should probably get it to him before he raises his prices.