Weekend Update

There is no mail today due to MLK Jr. Day, but I had a few requests waiting for me when we returned home after being away for the weekend.

The returns included nine more team cards, six of which were returned with their first signature.  I am getting a lot of team cards signed, but not many have more than two or three autographs on them, so there is a still a long way to go on them.

I also received a couple Exhibit cards back, both of which have stats on the back.  I don't try to hard to collect these but enjoy sending them out when I come across them.  Maybe I should send out a few more.  They fit perfectly in the small SASE, so there is no special work needed, and no additional postage required.

The Duffy Dyer request was sent last June, the longest wait I've had for a while (211 days).

Here they are, in no particular order:

The Mail Backlog is Resolved

I received all my mail today, including a couple small packages containing some purchases and a return from a private signing.

My only ttm return today was from Joe Moeller, who generously signed his 1967 Topps as well as the 1963, 1965, 1971 and 1972 Dodgers team cards.

I received a private signing return from Kurt Bevacqua, who signed his 1972 Topps and the 1976 Topps Bubble Gum Blowing Champ card.  He charges a premium to sign this card ttm, but I got this one signed slightly cheaper.  I suppose once I add in the bubble envelope postage, it was probably the same cost or more.

Finally, I received a 1983 Topps Super Veteran card signed by Rod Carew that I bought from Millcreek Sports on eBay.

My Mail Taken Hostage

I hadn't received any mail since last Thursday despite there being plenty of ttm returns in my daily Informed Delivery emails.

I began to suspect that perhaps the mail carrier wasn't delivering due to the snow buildup at our shared mailbox in the neighborhood.  Sure enough, one of my neighbors had called and was told exactly that.  I had seen the neighbor who lives immediately next to the mailbox snowblowing around it, which looked like a tough job, with plenty of snow blowing in her (yes, "her", I don't know where her husband was) face while she was doing it.  I feel guilty now and will make an effort to dig it out once in a while myself.

My neighbor also told me I could drive to the post office to pick up my mail, which is what I did.  I received all but one of the sases that were in the last few Informed Delivery emails.  Hopefully after tomorrow I'll be all caught up.

I received nine team cards back and have other cards waiting on several of these to send on to the next player.  The returns include Orioles team cards from 1961, 1963 and 1965.  I have the 63 and 65 already signed by Brooks Robinson, and only Brooks Robinson.  I also have the 61 out to him now.  Maybe if I get stuck and can't find other players to send them to, I'll finish them off by having Brooks sign them and then retire them.  Then I'll have copies with just him on them, as well as true team cards.

All of these cards are ttm returns, except the Max Kepler 2020 Topps Heritage Real One auto card, which I bought on eBay.

I sent out another 1991 Twins World Series poster to a private signing.  This time to Chili Davis.  I also finally broke down and sent a 2008 Goudey to be signed by Eddie Murray.  It will be a while before those come back, but I do have some other mail-in signings that may arrive this week.

Here are my returns since last Thursday:

First Returns of 2023: Jack Curtis and Larry Stahl

I sent out a handful of requests to kick off the year and also received two.

Jack Curtis signed his 1961 Topps high number card as well as the Braves and Cubs team cards from 1963.  It looks like he had some issue with the pen on the Cubs card, which unfortunately, I've seen a lot of lately.

Larry Stahl signed his 1971 Topps high number card, as well as the 1965 Athletics and 1971 through 1973 Padres team cards.

His individual card from 1971 is a nice upgrade to the one he signed for me previously, for both the card itself, as well as his signature.

As I start 2023, I plan to keep my spending under control as much as possible.  I'm going to try to limit my private signing participation to either bargain prices, or for items/players to help me with some of my more important sets, such as the 1991 Twins World Series poster set, for example.  I bring up this specific example because there is a Chili Davis signing soon that I will be sending in to.

I have a lot of cards and baseballs as well as over 400 stamps, so I should be able to keep busy without spending too much for a while.  I plan to continue to focus on some vintage team cards, and some of my sets such as the 1975, 1978 and 1983 Topps sets, and can include cards from other years with those requests, such as 1976, 1979, 1980, 1985, etc., etc.

I hope to add at least a handful of signed baseballs to my collection and have a dozen or so unsigned balls around here somewhere to get me strarted.

2022 In Review

I didn't have any specific goals for 2022, but I ended up sending out 481 requests, the third most in the 19 years I've been sending requests through the mail.  So far, I've received 427 of those back.

I don't know exactly how many cards I received, but if we estimate that I average 3 cards per request, and I received 427 returns, then that's 1,281 signed cards.

Not all of those requests were for cards, but the vast majority were.

I did get some bobblehead signed ttm, which I really hadn't expected to so, but once I learned how to remove the head and mail them as you would a baseball, it made things much easier.  I received bobbleheads signed by Jim Perry, Brooks Robinson, Orlando Cepeda and Bill Mazeroski.  All at prices way lower than if I had sent them in to a private signing.  I have reattached Cepeda's head to the bobblehead but haven't taken a picture of that yet.

I think the best card I received would probably be Juan Marichal's rookie card, his 1961 Topps.

I continued to add the generous-signing Hall of Famers to my collection including Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Rice, Juan Marichal and Bill Mazeroski.  There are probably a couple more I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.

I focused on some of my sets, including the 1975 set which is what I've started most recently.  I've really slowed down on some of the sets I've worked on the longest, including the 1958, 1961, 1963, and 1965 Topps sets.  I did make more progress on the 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1978 sets, in addition to the 75 set I already mentioned.

In regard to the 1958 set, the only remaining living players that I still need are Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax.

After several years of not having my collection available to view online, I decided to pay for hosting again.  It is available here:

https://www.thedroidtrader.com/autos.html

By the way, I also collect vintage Star Wars toys.  My collections includes many toys that I had as a child, and those are noted as "orig. owner" in the listings.  My vintage collection can be viewed at the link below.  It does not include the toys I own from 1995- to present, just 1977 - 1985.  I don't buy many toys these days, as I've been priced out of the market, especially since I have a pretty good collection and the remaining toys I need are the rarer, more expensive ones.

https://www.thedroidtrader.com/starwars/starwars.html

I apologize for the awkward navigation.  When you scroll down in the left frame to click on a specific item, you then need to scroll up in the right frame to view it.  Someday I'll fix that if I can figure out how.

Anyway, in summary, I added a lot of signed cards to my collection in 2022 and a handful of bobbleheads I never thought I'd have.

For 2023, I hope to send out a wider variety of items, including baseball and magazines.  I say that every year though.

Good luck in your collection in 2023 and thank you for reading my blog.  I don't have a good idea of how many readers I have, so I'd appreciate a quick email to droidtrader@gmail.com just to let me know you're a reader.  Thank you!