Willie McCovey Return

I received my 2008 Goudey signed by Willie McCovey today. I had sent this one in to an AtommicSports signing on March 20th. I'm contemplating sending in one for Eddie Murray, but it's pretty spendy. I think I'll send in '54 Topps to Berra and Ford first.

Some Returns and a Gift!

Today I received three returns as well as a gift from a reader of my blog!

Dave Hillman signed a 1957 and 1959 Topps for me.



Aubrey Gatewood signed his 1965 Topps.

Ned Garver signed his 1952 Topps and included a signed Diamond Signatures card. He also included a postcard about his book for sale, which I think I'll buy.


Finally, Art, a reader of my blog and fellow member of SCN, read my blog post in January regarding Dave "Boo" Ferriss. While at a card show, he came across a 1949 Bowman of Ferriss, which I have been looking all over for (look on eBay, there are none there!). He picked it up for me and sent it to me as a gift! How nice is that? To return the favor, I'm sending him a card as well. He's a Red Sox fan, so I've picked out something that I think he'll like. Thanks Art!

Ernie Broglio and Phil Cavarretta

Monday I received a couple of my recent requests back. Ernie Broglio signed his 1959 and 1960 Topps.

And Phil Cavarretta signed his 1954 Topps.

The Twins finally signed Mauer to a nice long contract. Apparently my boycott worked. I didn't want to have to play hardball, but it got the job done.

I've started reading the new Willie Mays biography by James Hirsch. I'm about 210 pages in (out of about 550). So far it's pretty interesting. More factual than any insight into Willie's personality.

Johnny Schmitz and Jerry Kindall

Two more returns today. One for me and one for my son.

I got back a 1952 Topps I sent to Johnny Schmitz just five days ago.

My son got back Jerry Kindall on a 1958 Topps in about 10 days.

I'm looking forward to the start of the baseball season. I'm not sure what the Twins are going to do to replace Nathan. I've also decided to not buy any tickets to a game until they sign Joe Mauer. I'm sure my little personal boycott will bring the organization to its knees. Maybe you'll notice those four empty seats in the stands. Those are the ones I would have bought had they signed Joe. There's still a couple of weeks left, so maybe they'll sign him. I sure hope so.

Mike Schmidt and Harding Peterson

At the last card show we went to, my son bought a few 1958 Topps to send out. I helped him identify those players that sign well through the mail. He sent out a handful of them already and today he got back Harding "Pete" Peterson.


I also got back a 2008 Goudey signed by Mike Schmidt from an AtommicSports signing. I finally broke down and paid for it and was able to get it done for less than $50.

Justin Morneau Return from Lojo Signing

Today I received items back from a Lojo Sports Justin Morneau signing. They don't provide a mail order service, but an SCN contact somehow arranged to do some mail order for them.

They weren't taking bats, but I sent in a ball, a jersey, and two mini helmets (one for one of my sons).

This sure beats standing in line for 4 hours and not getting him at TwinsFest.

About a year ago I didn't collect signed jerseys. Last year I bought a Mauer signed jersey. Then I got Nathan to sign one at TwinsFest and now I've added Morneau,

They take a lot of room to display, but I'm really starting to enjoy these jerseys. I hope to add Carew next month, and Killebrew and Oliva next year at TwinsFest. I'm not sure if I'll get any more current players, but I'm thinking about Denard Span.

Jim Perry Return

I finally have something to post about. I sent a John Wheeldon print to a Jim Perry signing. I was hoping to get this signed at TwinsFest, but Mr. Perry didn't attend as scheduled. I never heard why.


My son sent in his 1962 Topps Tribe Hill Trio already signed by Barry Latman.

Mr. Perry signs through the mail, but for the low cost of this signing, it seemed safer to send these items in rather than directly to Mr. Perry.

Very Slow Lately

I managed to send out about 5 ttm requests on Monday and my son sent out a few last week. I am expecting a few items back from paid signings including Justin Morneau, Mike Schmidt, Carlos Gomez and Jim Perry.

I also sent a 2008 Goudey to a Fred Lynn signing today.

Hopefully I'll start having items to show off soon.

Ernie Banks - 2008 Goudey

Today I received a 2008 Goudey signed by Ernie Banks from a signing at Jim and Steve's. It was delayed a few weeks but came back signed nicely. I also got a ball signed for a friend and it looks great.

I have a 2008 Goudey out to a Mike Schmidt signing and am planning a few more including Eddie Murray, Fred Lynn and Willie McCovey. This set is getting expensive.

I also received another 1954 Topps Whitey Ford today that I bought on eBay. It's an SGC graded card. It's the perfect condition for an autograph: no creases, decent centering, reasonable corners, but still graded as VG/EX, so it was affordable at $40. Do a search on eBay and see if you can find another in this condition. It's not easy. The last one I sent to Mr. Ford came back signed twice. I've decided to send another. I'll also send Yogi Berra his 1954 Topps next week.

New Jersey Displays

I bought a couple new jersey display shadow boxes from Michael's. The ones I bought are smaller than the old one I had bought at Hobby Lobby for my Mauer jersey. My wife was kind enough to help me pin my Joe Nathan jersey into one of the new ones.


We also took down the Joe Mauer jersey and put it into one of the new frames. Since the old frame was wider, I had to fill the holes left behind and hopefully can find some left over paint from the basement walls to toucch it up before hanging it up in the new display.

A Few Card Show Purchases

Today my sons and I went to the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club (http://www.tcscc.org/) show at the Valley West Mall in Bloomington. There were a lot of dealers there today. I picked up a handful of vintage cards that I'll send out. There's nobody in the lot I don't already have, but I"m starting to run out of guys I don't already have. I had to try to remember who were the good signers through the mail.

Included in the lot are a few 1952 Topps including Ned Garver, Johnny Schmitz, and Jim Delsing. After getting home, I discovered that Delsing passed away.

I also picked up seven 1959 Topps for $1 each.

We also stopped in Cedar Cliff Collectibles but none of us found anything there today.

Finally, a Return

It's been a while since I had anything to write about, but today I finally got something back in the mail. I sent a 1965 Topps in to a Joe Christopher signing that took place in late February.

Mr. Christopher doesn't sign through the mail, so I paid $15 to get this signed for my set.

I also sent in a 1965 Topps Albie Pearson to the same show promoter and hope to get that back in April sometime. I have identified a few 1965 Topps that I can send out through the mail to mediocre to poor signers ttm, and hopefully I'll find some time later this month to get those sent out.

Pro Shop "Bargains"

Back in November (see my post here), we stopped by the Twins Pro Shop in Roseville and were disappointed in the high prices of game used bats and Metrodome Banners.

My sons and I stopped by again over the weekend to find that they had cut their prices significantly. They had a game used David Ortiz bat that was used in April 2009 when the Red Sox visited the Twins. When we first saw it, they were asking $400. Ouch. They had marked it down to $100, so my younger son snatched it up.

I also picked up a game used bat belonging to Drew Butera. He's probably the Twins third string catcher now behind Mauer and Morales. At only $25, I couldn't resist.

I also couldn't resist picking up a few of the 2009 Metrodome banners. They were half of what they were asking back in November. I picked up Blackburn, Baker, Span and Buscher. Even though Buscher isn't on the team anymore, I picked it up because it was only $25, and the back of these banners have a nice "Twins Territory" logo with the same Metrodome logo that they had on the baseballs used there last year.





The colors on these banners are a bit different than the 2008 banners so they don't look great next to each other, but I'll probably swap them around depending on who's playing best during the year.

I wonder if they'll have Target Field banners for sale in the Pro Shops next year...

Supplies Have Arrived

I needed to replenish some of my supplies after TwinsFest. There aren't many places near me that I can buy things like ball cubes, card holders, and 9-pocket pages, especially at reasonable prices. And shipping is too expensive to buy small quantities online, so I buy in bulk.

I bought a case (10 boxes of 200 each) of Ultra Pro semi-rigid card holders, which is what I store each of my autographed cards in. I ordered these from a seller on Amazon.com, and only had to pay $6.49 shipping for the whole case. Most sellers on eBay are charging about $10 just to ship a single box of 200 holders, on top of $9-$15 for the holders themselves. I paid $11.50 per box, shipped. These holders will last me several years.

I also bought a case of Ultra Pro UV protected ball cubes from a seller on eBay. Ultra Pro also sells non-UV protected cubes, but I have decided that the extra protection is worth the extra dollar or so. A case has 36 ball cubes in it. I paid less than $2 per cube by buying the case.


I also ordered another dozen Rawlings Official Major League baseballs from autographsupplies.com. This was my first order with them and I was happy with it. I paid just over $10 per ball for a dozen. Some collectors use other, less expensive baseballs, but I prefer to only use Rawlings Official Major League Baseballs (romlb).

Basement Updates

I made a slight change to the basement in light of the current Twins roster.


I took down the the Mike Redmond Metrodome Banner and replaced it with the Delmon Young banner I had bought earlier. Redmond is with the Indians now, so I thought I'd make sure the wall reflects the current roster.

My 1965 Topps Collection

Yesterday I finally got done creating my page of my signed 1965 Topps cards. It's similar to my page of my 1958 set, and helps me keep track of those cards I have and still need. It's terribly tedious to create, but hopefully it's accurate.


You can find it by clicking here.


Some of my favorites include: Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Kubek, Dean Chance, Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson and Ernie Banks.


I have 340 cards signed out of the 598 card set. I'll never complete it, but I'm hoping to get 450.

Last of My TwinsFest Autographs - Sunday

Sunday's main goal was to get Jason Kubel on the game used bat I had bought. After taking Johnny to a couple of the shorter lines during the first shift, we joined my wife and younger son in line, even though there was nearly 3 hours before that shift started. During this time, my younger son went and played a few games, and my older son walked around the card show a bit.

Before the first shift ended, Johnny ran to another line for me. He got Denard Span on a 2009 Allen & Ginter, and got Jerry White and Scott Ulger on my team ball.



While waiting for Kubel, Young and Hardy, I decided to run through the second shift line which was Kevin Slowey, Alexi Casilla and Francisco Liriano.

I had Slowey and Casilla sign their 2009 Topps Heritage, and Liriano signed a 2007 Topps Heritage.Then we got back in line and waited, a long time, for Kuble, Young and Hardy. My wife was along, so I got two autographs of each of them. I had Kubel sign the ticket stub from his April 2009 game in which he hit for the cycle.


Young signed a bobblehead.


And I had J.J. Hardy sign another ball for me since the one I had got on Friday night was smudged.


My wife had Kubel sign my game used bat, Young a 2009 Topps Heritage, and J.J. Hardy, a 2009 Allen & Ginter.



We were some of the first to get through the Kubel line, so we had time to also go through another one during that session. I went through Blyleven's line to get a ball signed for a friend, and Johnny ran to the Joe Nathan/Carl Pavano line. He got Nathan to sign a 2005 All Star Game ball for me (and got Pavano on his hat).


Johnny and I spent the last session looking around the card show. David and my wife went through one last line, and my wife got Pat Neshek on a picture for me, and Jeff Manship on my team ball.





That wraps up our TwinsFest autographs for 2010. Things will really slow down for me now. I haven't sent out any ttm requests. I have a few paid signings that I've sent to, including Morneau.