Oliva, Sheffield and Walker

I had a good start to the week with a paid-signing return and two ttm returns.

I haven't sent to Tony Oliva ttm in 20 years, but I was seeing some returns on SCN and thought I'd give it a shot.  He appeared to be personalizing returns, even with fees enclosed, but it wasn't clear to me if all returns were coming back personalized.  I decided to send him his 1964 Topps, which is a card he shares with Jay Ward.  I hoped that the small space available for signing would result in him not personalizing, but I was wrong.  I enclosed $20 with my request.

I sent a Grand Slam print and four cards to a Gary Sheffield signing.  It was more than I wanted to pay but thought that if he got elected to the Hall of Fame, his prices would go even higher.  Unfortunately, he didn't do too well in the voting, and it appears likely he'll never get elected.  I'm not saying that he does or does not belong, I've given up trying to guess how the voters will vote on the Hall.  I'm happy with how my items from the signing turned out though.  I just didn't get an instant appreciation in their value :-)

Larry Walker has been signing through his charity for many years but earlier this year he sent out notes that he would continue to sign up until a postmarked date of October 25th.  So, I decided to send him a few items that I wanted signed but had been procrastinating sending in.  Each item was $25 to have signed.  Not bad for a Hall of Famer.

I can definitely feel my interest waning a bit in the hobby when the rookie cards I'm getting signed by Hall of Famers are from the 1990's, instead of the 1950's.

I just discovered, although it hasn't been a secret, that Roger Clemens signs ttm through a foundation for $100.  Do I send in a 1985 Topps?  He charges more than that at paid signings.  Sometimes way more, especially for rookie cards.  While he's a suspected PED user, he's still part of baseball history and I don't avoid players like him.  I just don't know if I want to spend $100 on him.  I do kind of work on the 85 Topps set, so it would be nice to have his card included.  I'll have to think about it.

I don't have the Mark McGwire card from the 85 Topps set signed yet either but would consider it if an opportunity arose that I thought was reasonably priced.  The 85 set was the last regular set I can remember to have any cards worth more than a nickel, so having the two most sought after cards from the set signed would be nice.

I don't have any Roger Clemens autographs at all, and just one Allen & Ginter signed by McGwire that I bought from Tom Orr.