Signing Returns (Disappointing) and a Goose Gossage TTM Return

The highlight of the day was a return from Goose Gossage, who signed his half of the 1979 Topps Leading Firemen card as well as his 2025 Allen & Ginter.  He always does a great job.  It looks like he will sign for $10 per card, but the fees people on SCN include vary between $10 and $25.  I included $20 per card just to be safe.  

I have at least one more card I'd like to get signed by him and that's his 1982 Topps.  I have his "In Action" and "All Star" cards signed from that set already.

I also received returns from three signings from the same promoter that I think were done in Mexico, but I'm not 100% sure on that.  Three signers that don't sign ttm so these signings are great to fill holes in set collections.  It's odd how affordable the fees are ($10 per card), yet signed cards sell for significantly more online $30 plus for many of these cards.

I sent in a single card to Orlando Sanchez, a 1982 Topps, which turned out nicely.

I sent five cards to their signing with Horacio Pina, which also turned out nice.

I sent in 10 cards to their signing with Vicente Romo, which included cards from many of the sets I work on, as well as a duplicate 1971 Topps, which is a high number card.  I bought a nice, graded copy of the card for over $20, and also ordered a lower quality card as a back up in case the nice one didn't arrive in time.  They both arrived, so I included them both.

Unfortunately, not only were both of the 1971 Topps cards smeared, but the 1972 and 1975 Topps were also smeared.  4 of the 10 cards were smeared.  The most disappointing part is that the promoter simply returned the cards with no note or anything to acknowledge the situation.  They had to notice that these were smeared.

Other promoters I've worked with in the past under similar situations at least included a different signed card to try to compensate for it.  And I've had two incidents with Fan HQ, where they went WAY out of their way to correct a signature, at their effort and expense, which far exceeded my expectations and I would trust them with any item in the future.

Anyway, I've reached out to them on SCN and can see that they've read my message but haven't replied yet.  I'm guessing I'm not the only one who received smeared cards if nearly half of mine were.  Here's a better view of the affected ones.