I hope it's not a permanent change, but as slow as I've been with this hobby, my updates may become less frequent.
Over the last few days, I received a couple ttm returns and some paid signing returns.
Ted Bowsfield, who is a ttm hall of famer, signed a 1959 Braves team card, his 1964 Topps and a 1964 A's team card. I am wondering now why I sent the Brave's card. He never played for the Braves! It's kind of funny he signed it, but after all these years, he probably has seen a lot of very odd requests and sending the wrong team card doesn't even stand out as odd anymore. So, maybe I've got a 1 of 1 card now. I probably confused it with another player I was sending out that evening.
Galen Cisco, who is another stellar ttm signer, signed three of his cards. Oddly, one in black, and the other two in blue. I did ask for him to use blue ion my letter, so maybe he noticed that after signing the first one.
For signers like Bowsfield and Cisco, who are great signers and have a lot of cards, I will sometimes send them a bunch of cards, a pen, and some cash inside a bubble envelope, with another return bubble envelope. This almost always guarantees signatures in blue (but not always), gets a bunch of cards signed at once (like 5 - 8 cards) and the cash hopefully makes the hassle worthwhile for them.
But postage is getting pretty expensive, and the round trip for that type of request will be $11 - $13. So, I have tried on a few occasions to request that they use a blue sharpie in my letter for a regular ttm request of 2-4 cards, and hope they have one on hand. In this case, it looks like it may have helped, at least on two of the three cards. It doesn't always, but there is less risk with the lower postage rate and fewer cards. I have been trying to upgrade cards from guys like these if I don't have a nice blue sharpie signature on a particular card yet.
This reminds me of my requests to Ted Kazanski. He typically personalizes one of the cards you send him. Every time I would include a 1957 Topps, he chose that card to personalize. I wanted one copy of the card signed, but not personalized. I didn't want to just ask him not to personalize because I thought that might be rude. After sending four different requests containing a 1957 Topps, I decided to just include two copies of the card in a single request, and as predicted, he personalized one of them, but I finally got my clean copy.
I also received a few paid signing returns. Johnny Bench signed three of his 1968 Topps rookie cards for me. I was undecided as to the placement of his autograph on the card, since there isn't a lot of room. I already have one of these cards signed under his face, but I see a lot for sale that are above his face. So, I decided to have two of each. I hope to get them authenticated and graded, and have one of each signing location graded a 10.
It's pretty hard to find this card well-centered, and off-centering is a big pet peeve of mine, but I did the best I could. I've complained about this while looking for a decent 68 Topps Juan Marichal card, but I also think the 68 set used a softer cardboard, because corners are always pretty bad on this set. I'd love to know if anyone else thinks this too, or if it's just a small sampling of a couple specific cards I tried to acquire that made me think this.
As usual, these cards graded between 2 and 4 before I cracked them open. I find that grade to be the range that is affordable with decent eye appeal left. I don't mind if an old card looks old, but don't like any tape, or significant creases or tears. I can also accept a little writing on the back of the card, and might even tolerate it on the front if it meant the difference between having the card or not having it, due to the cost. I think the best value can be found with cards that have pinholes in them. I have a 1958 Topps Sandy Koufax that looks like someone pinned to their bulletin board. I think it's awesome to think about that little kid back in the day who was excited to either pull that card from a pack or traded for it from a friend, and then wanted to display it in their bedroom. Also, I can barely see that pinhole unless I look for it. PSA automatically gives a card a grade of 1 if it has a pin hole. My Koufax card would probably grade a 3 or 4 without the pinhole, so I think it was a huge bargain. I paid about $68 including shipping, and I think a PSA 3 in otherwise similar condition would be $150 - $175.
But I digress. Sorry about that.
I also received a 1975 Topps rookie card signed by Robin Yount. I have one already, which received an autograph grade of 10, so this one will go in the vault after getting authenticated, to be traded or sold when I have a need.
Here's my existing copy after authentication:
I think this new copy is on a nicer card, so it might be the permanent one for my collection.
I actually like his 1976 Topps card more. I'm just not crazy about the brown and orange on the 75, and there's a radio tower in the background on the left that always makes me think there is some gum or wax or something on the card.
Finally, I received three cards back from a Mariano Rivera signing. He is a bit younger than most of the non-Twins players I collect, but I felt like since he's a Hall of Fame member, he should be well-represented in my collection. Due to the years he played, there aren't a lot of his cards that I like. And his rookie card is far from being my favorite. He looks like he's about to play a round of golf on this 1992 Bowman. If it weren't his rookie, I would not have chosen it.
The other two cards are from sets that I really like. I have not worked nearly hard enough on the 2000 Fleer Tradition sets, but I really like it. It's very reminiscent of the 54 Topps set, which is right up there towards my favorite set of all time. And the 2007 Topps Heritage is a tribute to the 58 Topps set, which is my favorite vintage set for autographs.
