Dave Duncan TTM Return

The returns are trickling in.  It's not surprising because I haven't really sent that many requests.  I have sent into a handful of private signings, so I'll be getting a few nice returns from those.  My goal of spending less this year isn't going too well so far.

Today I received a very quick (8 days from Minnesota to Arizona and back) return from Dave Duncan, who signed his 1968 Topps and the 1965, 1972 and 1973 Athletics team cards.  The 1968 card is a classic Topps airbrushing card.  The A's moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, so he was probably wearing a Kansas City cap and they had to hide that.

I'm sending out a lot of team cards it seems, but I don't have too many that have more than three signatures.  For some of the older cards, it's just because there aren't many players left from that team.  For the team cards that still have a lot of living players that are good signers, it takes time to send them out to a player, who might take two or three weeks to sign and return it, then it's off to the next player.  I've got a stack of cards ready to send out once a different player signs and returns it.  And some of the cards in that stack are waiting for the same return.  I think I have four cards waiting on a return from Russ Snyder, who will hopefully sign an A's team card and a couple of Orioles team cards.

I also sent the 1972 Topps that Cecil Cooper returned recently off to Carlton Fisk to sign.  I have Fisk alone on another copy of that card and will keep it as-is, but also wanted one with all three signatures.  Fingers-crossed it doesn't get bent, smeared, or lost in the mail.

Even on cards like that, with some value as a raw card and more value with a couple signatures on it, I send in a plain white envelope, with no card holder, no cardboard protection, and no index cards (which I don't think help at all).  I've had more problems in the past with players signing the holder or the signature getting smeared or the card bent while the player tries to return the card into its holder.  At 80-90 years old, cramming a baseball card into a semi-rigid holder probably isn't very easy.