Another collector posting on a forum I belong to worried about his request being MIA, but that wasn't the case for me and I'm glad my card was actually signed - for better or for worse, I didn't get any extra messages or notes added like I've seen with other posted returns.
Not that I try to play the death pool game or anything, but there might not be too much time left to get something signed by one of the all-time autograph signing greats - so like Roy Face, I whipped up a letter and put together a request [with $5] to see if I'd get back a positive result, sending a 1955 Bowman beater picturing Shantz with his brother.
I can’t account for the inevitable but I think I just keep on and see which guys to send to - maybe I think about the accomplishments of the person, not as someone to be objectified because they it might be their time NOW.
I’m worried about not being able to reach all the one-time Angels I can, because there is always someone who’ve I’ve never gotten before, much less heard about - if it's a vintage / old-school guy I have no card (s) for, I worry about picking up unsigned cards up online on a whim, having to wait for the cards to arrive and then try to send them off.
Due to circumstances, there maybe harder to get and/or simply ‘impossible’ players’ autographs I need - but an option would be to purchase as many of the rank-and-file guys’ autographs either on cards or possibly on cuts like index cards just so I can add to what I already have outright.
On the other hand, I want to send TTM requests to the one-time guys that are still living and can sign - relying on purchases may not be as natural for me and in the quest to build up numbers, I may actually get ‘faked out’ more often than not.
A fun fact was Walewander actually had a 12-game stint with the Angels in 1993, which wasn't on my mind as I put together a request for him - now, I can count one of his cards I got back as part of my Angels all-time autograph collection.
The next day, I was putting together my request for Davis and even took a picture of what I was sending - however in the rush to jam everything into an outgoing envelope to place in my mail box, things got mixed up and only after the fact did I realize I still had my handwritten letter to Davis.
I was sweating out this request, wondering if I'd be scolded for sending a letter to the wrong guy - what if I just didn't get my stuff back?
However, after four weeks, my cards came back signed and there was no note or anything - I was almost disappointed that I didn't get a reaction, though my best assumptions are the guys who have signed regularly for decades don’t particularly read their mail and / or have seen it all.
Maybe someone presumably helping Davis go through his mail, saw and pointed out my goof - but I did send Davis his cards and not another former player, so the intent was there to show my request was for him otherwise.
With MLB in-person autographs not really a serious thing for me the past 5 or 6 years, along with COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 - I wanted to see if I can track down former MLB players from the junk wax years [1986-92], who've ended up being scratch the itch curiosities for me.
After not knowing where they went and doing an extensive loose card dig, I felt like I might as well send out the cards I had originally put together a couple of years ago - including a 2016 Donruss [#151] and a couple of 1992 Upper Deck Cecil Fielder [#255] cards where the SDC makes a cameo.
The longtime relief ace for the Pittsburgh Pirates signed my two cards in blue ink in about a couple of weeks - I don't know if I've ever gotten the 92-year old to sign something in the mail and it makes me wonder if I should have Face when he was still relatively younger, 15-20 years ago.I had to whip up a letter and put together a request [with $5] - to see if I'd get back a positive result with my loose, straggler cards.
While I cannot believe a person who has lived as long as Face is still signing his 'fan mail,' I assume there is someone that helps him out [hopefully short of signing for him] - collecting all the requests sent, opening the mail and making it where Face takea a little bit of his precious time to sign items the easiest way possible.
I don't know what to make of it besides trying to store the odd-sized card in an 8x10 top loader and hope the applied pressure flattens the card out eventually - even if it takes a couple of years.
I was hoping that was a good omen for the actual card section that matters and sure enough, the shelves that usually resembled a Cold War era Soviet supermarket had been replenished with some actual baseball cards - there were no retail flippers looking to pounce at the seemingly fresh setup, so I was all alone by myself to take things in for at least a couple of minutes.
Maybe what sort of caught my eye were the supplies - since Ultra Pro makes their products in China, I'm not sure if there is still an obstacle to getting new batches of supplies through a pandemic.
However, the various things that hold and protect cards should be as important to the average card collector - there was a 5-pack of Ultra Pro magnetic holders [too bad they were 130-pt and not the 55-pot I usually like to use], a 4-pack package of penny sleeves and an 'odder' toploader combo.
Maybe these retail offerings were repacked from older, inferior stock - but for the moment, I was glad to see them in-hand.
As for actual baseball cards, I'm not sure if 'Topps Fire,' 'Topps Archives' or 'Topps Stadium Club' will ever be sought after 'for value' like the Bowman Mega Boxes, Topps Series 2 or Topps Chrome I've whiffed on - but after a long drought, the former are baseball cards to me just the same [TSC is always a 'fan favorite' in my book] and tried to see what combination I could pick up.
I don't expect to see this card section to be as fruitful in my next visit, but like a good boy scout, I only grabbed what seemed reasonable to me at the moment - a couple of blasters of 2020 Topps Stadium Club, a hanger pack of 2020 Topps Archives [I have a couple of blasters I'd ordered online that are still MIA after three weeks] and a hanger pack of 2020 Topps Fire.
I ripped through my little haul and go figure after finding an IP autograph card I got signed from 2019 spring training maybe the day before - I pulled cards of hot rookie du jour Luis Robert in both hangers and one of the two blasters I ripped.
I think I may have gotten McCarver's autograph once [or not] when he sort of made me follow him after a national TV broadcast [day game] at Angel Stadium about 20 years ago - he said he was running late [to catch his ride out of the ballpark to get to the airport] and then just didn't sign for me [I don't think I would have anything on me like a blank baseball or his actual cards].
Over the years, I have ended up with a couple of straggler cards of his, though it maybe harder to run into him in-persona dn I'm not really sure if he even responded to through the mail requests - the cards may have been pulled from my St. Louis Cardinals IP box to stay loose as I wondered about sending to him.
I have seen some sporadic successes posted on a forum or two, though I'm not sure if they are new or can always be trusted - as it goes, I took my chance and wrote him a letter with my cards [along with $20].
I think the correct distinction is while McCarver is not a Hall of Famer, he is honored by the National Baseball HOF in their broadcaster wing - I thought I had to sweat things out where I might not see my cards for a while and/or my money back at all, but my cards were signed and returned in about 10 days.
After being out for a couple of weeks, my first request to Meoli was sent back to me as 'return to sender,' which usually means I used an outdated or incorrect address - in some cases, an 'RTS' may mean my request was refused by the intended recipient, though that did not seem to be the case here.
I did some 'quick research' to find a presumably updated address and sent my request back into the wild - I finally got my card signed in about a week or so.
Though speculating can be a waste of time, it will be interesting to see if Trout can hit another 300-400 home runs and beyond - where he puts himself position to challenge the all-time home run record.
As far as Topps Project 2020, the values of individual cards have mostly settled below what they initially have sold for on Topps.com - I have two more Trouts [Naturel and Grotesk] I'm waiting on from purchases made at least a couple of months ago and decided to actually pass on picking up the last two Trouts released [Vides and Efdot].
While I've had the card for at least five or six years, I never thought about getting it signed until this year - I don't have many, if any vintage cards to round up, but it may be a novelty to send out a 60-year old card to someone still alive to sign.
As is it goes, my in-person autograph coverage has always been limited [pandemic or not], so there might not have been a realistic chance of seeing the baseball lifer - I saw Foley signed through the mail, so I sent the cards I had, including a 1981 Topps card I pulled from a pack break and they were finally signed in about a couple of weeks.
A fun Angels related factoid was Foley ended up the last batter Mike Witt faced when he threw a perfect game against the Texas Rangers in 1984 - Foley grounded out to the second baseman to complete the feat for the mid 1980s Angels pitching ace.
I was anticipating my results and hoping there were not any complications - because it’s a couple of 8x10s I sent and not just loose cards for his current TTM fee of $20.
The afternoon my photo mailer was to arrive, I hoped to meet the mail man as he drove by to deliver the mail [these COVID-19 pandemic adventures are getting too crazy] - but maybe it was too hot and I was thinking of something else in the small window of time when the mail man had stopped by.
I waited around and when I checked my mail, I found my photo mailer was crammed in the mail box - I had to fish my mailer out out delicately and while the thick cardboard envelope a little bent out of shape, my 8x10 photos survived enclosed a photo sleeve / backing board.