Finally, a Big Day at the Mailbox

Since I have so many requests outstanding, I had anticipated a big day with lots of returns instead of the 1-2 per day I have been receiving.  I guess today was that day, with six ttm returns.

Camilo Pascual signed Ralp Lumenti's 1959 Topps (Pascual is pictured), the 1964 ERA Leaders card, and his 1964 Bazooka.  The Bazooka was signed in black while the others were signed in blue.  Probably because the Bazooka is so small, and he needed a very fine pen to fit his signature on it.

This was a very odd return.  He took the two Topps cards, and taped them face-to-face on one end, and put the Bazooka between them!  It appears he tried to make an envelope for the Bazooka.  Although he used Scotch, "magic" tape, the paper did get lifted off the two cards when I removed the tape.  At least it was on the back.

Ken Singleton signed a 1972 Commissioners Award (now called the Roberto Clemente Award) card along with Cecil Cooper, Steve Garvey and Greg Luzinski.  He also signed his 1975, 1982 and 1982 All-Star cards.

Cleon Jones signed his 1967 Topps All-Star Rookie Trophy card and both his 1972 Topps.  I included $30 with my request.  Jones is a very spotty signer and often simply doesn't return a request.  He has a 63% success rate on SCN.  

Over the years, I am lucky to be 3 for 3 with him.  I try to send right after I see a couple other successes which seems to work with him.  For other signers that are spotty, that's often too late and you just need to send randomly and hope for the best.

John "Blue Moon" Odom signed three cards; I believe with the blue sharpie I sent him.  His signature is so tiny to try to fit his whole name and nickname on the card.  I took a risk and sent one already signed by Johnny Bench but used PirateShip to send it tracked and insured both ways.

Rich "Goose" Gossage signed his 1982 Topps In Action card for a $10 fee.  He also answered a couple questions I asked in my letter.  I don't know if I've asked him questions in the past, but I was a little surprised that he answered them.

And my last ttm return for the day came from Dennis Eckersley, who signed a 1972 MVP Award card and added the year and league as an inscription.  I also included $10 with this request.

I received one purchase as well: a 2007 Upper Deck Goudey Graphs Joe Mauer card I bought on eBay.

I still have lots of requests out, so there could be more big days to come.

John Curtis TTM Success and Larry Gura Signing Return

Another day of returns trickling in.

John Curtis signed his 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978 Topps in a little over a month.

On the72, Mickey Scott has passed away, and Rich Hinto isn't a very reliable ttm signer, especially in the last five years or so.  I'll add that card to my stack of unfinished multi-player cards that I hope to get signed one day.

Larry Gura does sign ttm, and charges $10 per card.  I got a small price break by sending in more than five cards to a mail-in signing with Tom Orr, which helped cover the Pirateship shipping each way.

I can't see ever paying the fee for George Brett to sign the 1982 leaders' card, so that one is probably done.

Bill Mazeroski and Bobby Shantz TTM Returns and More Purchases

I received some great vintage cards today, both ttm and via purchases.

Bill Mazeroski signed his 1970 Topps and the 2023 Tops Living Set card for his $10 per card fee.

And Bobby Shantz signed his 1954 Topps and four team cards (1956, 1957, 1960 and 1962).  Mr. Shantz doesn't have a set fee, but I included $30 with my request.  It was a bit more than $5 per card, which I normally send, because I didn't have any $5 bills, and because I sent a lot of cards.

I bought a nice 1959 Tigers team card signed by Charlie Maxwell.

I was surprised I didn't have Tony Oliva on a 1973 Topps yet, so I jumped on this one signed nicely in blue sharpie and authenticated by PSA.

I added Ken Brett to my 1972 Topps set.  He was a good ttm signer but passed away nearly 20 years ago. 

Finally, I can't resist a nicely signed 1953 Topps and this time I came across one signed by Clem Labine.  The ballpoint signature has a nice vintage look to it.

Mr. Labine was also a good ttm signer but died in 2007.  I only sent to him once, back in 2003, when he signed his 1958 Topps for me.  I regret I didn't send to him more.  

I still haven't received my big day, where I'm expecting 8-10 returns at once.  Maybe I won't.  Maybe they'll just continue to trickle in one or two a day.  That's okay too.  It takes me a long time to catalog and post about my cards, so if I get a lot, I'm quite busy.  I never put it off to the next day because once I fall behind, I'm afraid I'll never catch up again.

FanHQ is having signings with both Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, so I'll be getting a handful of bobbleheads signed as well as a few cards.  Their card prices are a little steep, but they include bobbleheads in the lowest price tier, while most promoters charge their "premium" rate for bobbleheads, so I guess it evens out.  They also include Beckett Authentication for free, while most charge another $10 for it.  And they are super good about getting your item signed correctly.  I posted about it at the time, but I had sent in one of the 1991 Twins World Series posters to one of the players.  Shane Mack, I think?  I had requested it be signed in silver.  He signed it at the top in silver, and the pen wasn't working so it really looked bad.  Then, he signed it again on the bottom, so it was a mess.  FanHQ found a replacement poster, which isn't easy, and sent it off to another promoter's signing to get it done for me.  Impressive!

Jack Morris Bobblehead Return and Some Purchases

I received a Jack Morris bobblehead back from a mail-in signing that I'm not 100% happy with. 

The signature is fine (my photo is a little blurry), but I had asked for it to be authenticated which usually results in a sticker placed on the bottom of the bobblehead base.  I usually have a sticky note saying to sign the side of the cap in silver and to place the authentication sticker on the bottom.  I'm assuming I had that note on this one too, although I didn't take a photo of it before I sent it.

What I received was what appears to be sticker residue on the back of the helmet.  I'm guessing they put the sticker on the back of the helmet, realized it was supposed to go on the bottom and tried to remove it.  But they didn't put another sticker on the bottom.

So, I have a bobblehead that isn't authenticated and has some sticker residue on the helmet.  I sent a note to the promoter asking to have my authentication fee refunded.  I can't really blame the promoter for this error, as he isn't the one placing the sticker on it.  But maybe he should have noticed this before packing it back up to return to me.

I also received a few cards that I purchased from a fellow SCN member.  The Doug DeCinces card isn't hard to get ttm, although he does charge a small fee.  I probably spent about as much as it would have cost to get it ttm, but removed the risk of losing it or having it signed in black or smeared.

The other cards are from tough signers ttm, at least over the last couple of years.

1958 Topps X6 Purchase

Just as I clicked on the submit button on my previous post, my dog started barking at the UPS truck that had just pulled up to the house.

It's been quite a while since I added any cards to my 1958 Topps set.  I consider this my "primary" set, meaning it's the one I'm willing to spend money on more so than other sets, and a set that I will prioritize purchases over other sets if money is tight.

There is only one living player left that I still need, and that is Sandy Koufax.  A ttm success with him could be categorized as a miracle.

Most of the cards are available on eBay, with only a handful that are truly hard to find.  After this purchase of six cards, one of which is an upgrade, I need 85 cards to complete it.

I don't think I'll ever really complete it.  I find it hard to believe I'd spend the money on Clemente, or for the players that might be even more expensive due to their rarity, but of players most people have never heard of.

Anyway, it's fun to work on it and knock off a few cards here and there.

The one card in this batch that is an upgrade is Don McMahon.  It's not even a huge improvement over my existing card, so now I'm wondering if I added this one to the cart by mistake, thinking I didn't have it yet.  I really can't remember.  That's the problem with shopping at two in the morning when you're having trouble sleeping.

The other five cards are new to my set.  I have Johnny Temple's regular card, but now also have his All Star card.

The seller has some more cards I am interested in, but I had to draw the line somewhere.  I had a few more cards in my cart but had to remove a couple.  I used credit card points to help pay for a portion of this order, which is how I justify a large purchase.  Maybe next month I'll buy a couple more when I get more credit card points.  I guess until then, I better go spend a bunch on the credit card, so I get more points.