At 91 years old, Whitey Herzog still has a pretty nice signature! Much like Jim Marshall, who is 92 and returned my cards a couple days ago.
Mr. Herzog signed his 1959 and 1962 Topps in just seven days for his $5 per card fee. Not bad for a Hall of Famer. I keep telling myself I need to send him a ball to sign but I never seem to get around to it.
I received three returns today, which is a bit surprising because I don't have too many requests out right now.
Terry Harmon signed his 1969 and 1973 Topps cards as well as the 1972 and 1973 Phillies team cards.
Jim Marshall signed his 1958, 1959 and 1961 Topps cards as well as the 1961 Giants team card.
And 92-year-old Bob Skinner signed his 1966 Topps as well as the 1958 and 1963 Pirates team cards. I think the 58 team card is ready for retirement as it's getting pretty messy at this point. This year isn't great for team cards anyway due to all the text on the front of the cards.
I received two returns to kick off the week.
Gary Neibauer signed a 1972 Topps Buy Back card as well as the 72 Topps Braves team card.
And Ray Crone signed a 1954 Johnston Cookies card.
I like these uncommon cards. A couple years ago, he signed a 1955 Johnston card for me.
A few weeks ago, I received a return from Camilo Pascual, who signed a 1980 Fleer card commemorating the 1965 World Series featuring the Twins and Dodgers.
I sent that card off to Claude Osteen and received it back today. Osteen and Pascual faced each other twice in that World Series, with each of them earning a win.
I think this is the only card I have signed by opposing pitchers. I have a few other World Series cards from the 1980 Fleer set and I think I'll see if any of them would work to have opposing pitchers sign them. Hopefully, the pitchers are still with us.
Mr. Osteen also signed the 1963 Senators team card, a 1974 Topps and a 1975 Topps Traded card.
Just one return today. Frank Kreutzer signed his 1964 Topps White Sox Rookie Stars card already signed by Bruce Howard, as well as the 1963 and 1965 White Sox team cards, which were already signed by several.
Yesterday I received a couple ttm returns.
Al Ferrara signed his 1965 Topps, already signed by John Purdin, and his 1971 Topps for his $10 per card fee.
And Sonny Siebert signed a couple 1966 leaders cards and a 1967 Topps, already signed by Sam McDowell.
I have not sent out many requests at all this month so it will be slow for a while.
Today I received a 1975 Topps signed by Tom McCarver that I bought from Tom Orr on eBay.
And Phil Roof was kind enough to sign his 1966 and 1971 Topps, as well as three team cards. He also briefly answered a couple questions in my letter.
I received one return Friday. Reliable-signer Felix Mantilla signed his 1960 and 1964 Topps for his $5 per card fee in just under a month.
Last summer I sent a few cards to a Rico Petrocelli mail-in signing, including this 1965 Topps. For some reason, he wasn't signing his rookie card at that signing, so after checking that he'd sign it, I sent it to another singing last month and just got it back today.
I didn't ask for the Red Sox Hall of Fame inscription, and on a multi-player card there isn't a whole lot of room for it. I guess I'd prefer it wasn't there, but it's not a big deal.
I received twp ttm returns and one private signing return today.
The private signing was with Vic Davalillo, who lives in Venezuela. So this signing was complicated and took a while. I'm happy to have the opportunity, but I'm a little disappointed that the pen seems to be running out of ink so it's not a very strong signature. Oh well.
I received a ttm return from Ken Holtzman, who signed his 1975 Topps. He only signs one per request, and uses ballpoint. It's a pretty messy signature, but not any worse than most of today's players. He has a private signing coming up that was more than I was willing to pay. I'm hoping someone posts a return from this signing so I can see if he has a different signature when he's getting paid for it.
Finally, Woody Woodward was kind enough to sign his 1964 Topps, a 1965 Braves team card, and the 1971 and 1972 Reds team cards.
I didn't receive and ttm returns today, but I did receive a purchase and a consignment return.
The consignment return was from the 2023 Cooperstown Hall of Fame Classic, where an SCN contact was able to get Brian Dozier to sign three cards for me, including the 2015, 2017 and 2018 Topps Heritage cards. I paid $10 each to get these done.
The purchase included 11 different signed 1961 Topps cards from another SCN contact. I have been buying a few lots from this contact as he has had some very reasonable prices on some vintage cards as well as older players on newer cards, such as the archives cards I posted about a little while ago.
I already have all of these cards signed. At least one of these is an upgrade to my existing card, but I also have multiples for many of these players. I just couldn't resist these at a little over $3 each, including shipping, which is less than I could have gotten these ttm (if the payer were even still alive).
