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.