TTM autographs received: Ross Baumgarten

The former big league lefty signed my cards in about three weeks - for most part, it doesn't matter as long as I get a card inked up, but it is noticeable in-hand where sometimes an autograph signed on a card [1981 Donruss] ends up kind of bleeding into the darker or more cluttered image used.

Maybe the card was signed as it was, where there were no obvious blemishes or smears - but it just doesn't stand out.

TTM autographs received: Al Oliver

This return is probably my success of 2022 just because I wasn't sure if it would make it back to me - after sending out a request last August, I kept waiting and wondering what had happened to my cards and the $20 I sent.

Because Oliver was a fee guy, I thought I would get a quicker response - but it wasn't until the end of December until I finally got my cards inked up.

Maybe it was kind of ironic that this was part of the mail held at the post office while I was out of the country - but it wasn't bundled with the other pieces of mail I got, but a straggler that might have been found a day or so later.

TTM autographs received: Rick Monday

The former big league outfielder and longtime broadcaster signed my cards in about a couple of months c/o Los Angeles Dodgers - he is known for saving the American flag from being burned by a couple of protesters when he was at Dodger Stadium as a member of the Chicago Cubs back in 1976.

Besides his flag saving heroics, Monday was also the first ever MLB draft pick in 1965 and had a 19-year big league career - hitting 241 home runs with a .361 on-base / .443 slugging and an OPS+ of 125, which meant he was about 25 percent better than the average MLB player.

TTM autographs received: Rick Manning

I had an oddball 1980 Topps Supers photo card of Manning, purchased from a card shop to see if I could ever get it signed in-person - the opportunity never came to fruition, but I decided to dig it out to send through the mail in 2020.

However, my request was sent back to me 'return to sender' and wondered what happened, when it seems like he's been a reliable signer - to piece things together after the fact, I sent to an Arizona mailing address when Manning was probably back in Ohio, working as a color commentator for Cleveland games during the MLB season.

In the offseason, I tried the Arizona mailing address I had for him again - after 2 or 3 weeks, I finally got my items back signed.

TTM autographs received: Buck Martinez

The 17-year big league catcher and longtime color commentator signed my 1983 Topps card and my 1985 O-Pee-Chee posters insert in about 5 months - I probably found the oddball insert at my old card shop and thought it would be something just a little more unique than a regular card to try and get inked up, even though it was folded up and may not be as handy.

Considering everything, I probably stopped doing in-person years ago where I might have seen Martinez - however I took a chance in seeing if I could mail something out to him at the beginning of the abbreviated 2020 season.

TTM autographs received: Gene Richards

Former San Diego Padres outfielder Gene Richards signed my cards in about a month - maybe it was just natural for guys expected to hit the ball with some skill rather than brawn to choke up on the bat, but the way Richards' hands are positioned looks so exaggerated on the 1984 Donruss and also the 1983 Topps cards.

Digging around, a little bit of trivia is Richards wore jersey #19 for the Padres - a number in team history associated in perpetuity as legend Tony Gwynn's.

TTM autographs received: Scott McGregor

The longtime Baltimore Orioles lefthander from the mid 1970s-1980s signed my cards in about a month - McGregor wasn't an overpowering lefty, but with the help of the teams playing behind him, was able to put up big numbers as a middle of the rotation starting pitcher.

I got a copy of McGregor's 1984 Donruss card to send out with my request - I might not bother trying and get more cards from the set signed like some people do with a particular brand/year of cards, but I really like how the 1984 Donruss looks.

TTM autographs received: Marvis Foley

Foley falls into a group of rank-and-file players I wouldn't have a reason to be particularly familiar with, but I ended up with three of his cards filed away among my Colorado Rockies cards - in case I ran into him at some point during spring training or maybe if he randomly helped out with the Rockies' California League team.

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.

TTM autographs received: Ed Ott

The former big league catcher and one-time Angel signed my cards in about a couple of weeks - the pair of 1981 Topps came from a box of loose cards featuring one-time Angels [either pictured as Angels or in another team's uniform] I still need autographs of.

Just to have an Angels card to send, I dug out another 1983 Topps card from the hand collated set I purchased several years ago - while I hope to keep the 1983 Topps set together, I look to pull the occasional card [that may be a little off-condition] to send out, while thinking about replacing the cards with 'upgrades' at some unspecified point.

A glitch in the Matrix

I saw a thread on Twitter about repaging a set numerically and rolled my eyes since I’m not really a set guy at this point - even if I was a set collector, it seems simple enough to where I can certainly make sure to have all the cards in order when putting them in plastic sheets.

Go figure I was digging out a 1983 Topps Don Robinson [#44] I couldn't find, where it wasn't where I assumed it was in my 1983 Topps set binder - I was wondering if the numbering was wrong or I was looking up a card that belonged to a different year of Topps cards.

Turns out card #44 was stuck behind card #43 and the Robinson basically was never placed in its own pocket - so for the work I did to put the set in pages, the order is actually out of whack.

I’m going to say I have a problem in hand, but I’m not going to worry about trying to correct things - it’s probably going to be the case where now I'm pulling cards from the book to include in TTM requests, so there is already a little uncertainty about keeping the set together.

I guess I'm not perfect and probably should live with this glitch - as long as I know what I’m dealing with when looking for a particular card.

TTM autographs received: Bill Virdon

I don’t know if Virdon was on my scratch the itch list, but I had a 1978 Topps [#279] buried under other cards, laying around loose for the longest time - I might as well send it out as long as the 89-year old [!] is still signing.

I may have gotten Virdon at least once before in the mail, though maybe not in-person - I vaguely remember being at the Pittsburgh Pirates team hotel when the team played an Interleague series in Anaheim in 2002 and saw him about to walk to the ballpark [maybe a mile or so away] instead of taking a shuttle.

It won’t be the case all the time, but I try to send at least a couple of cards out when putting together a through the mail request - so I figure to double up and send him a 1983 Topps [#516] as well.

TTM autographs received: Steve Renko

The longtime big league pitcher and one-time Angel signed my cards in about two weeks - the 1971 Topps and 1979 Topps were from a box of loose cards featuring one-time Angels [either pictured as Angels or in another team's uniform] I still need autographs of.

Just to get the TTM machine going, where I may have some mail to look forward to - I dug out cards from the misfit Angels box, to put together and send out some recent requests.

For my Angels all-time autograph collection, I prefer an Angels card, though that might not be the case as I try to go for quantity in tracking down any sort of autograph to count - I worried about not being able to send Renko an Angels card, but I pulled his 1983 Topps from a set I purchased and sent it with the two others.

A card shop find - a 1983 Topps set

During an out of town card shop trip , I was lurking in the junk wax / junk set corner, maybe looking for a junk wax box / junk era set to rip  - I guess I see myself as a hoarder or at the very least willing to rummage through a pile of crap to try and find 'something' to take home.

The last time I was at this card shop was in fall of 2017 and think I saw a 1995 Upper Deck Minors box for $15 last fall which was intriguing because regardless of how bad the content has aged - those mid 90s UD sets still look good.

However, there is probably lots of turnover - even if any particular box / set is just squirreled away somewhere else as opposed to someone actually buying it.

I saw some hand collated sets [junk wax era] on the counter closest to where all the junk boxes / junk sets are - this isn’t what I’m really looking for because the brown card boxes look ancient and taped shut, so who knows if there are just repacked garbage in there.

One of the store employees was explaining to an older collector that he just got those sets in and they did have the key cards - the older collector was looking for a run of old-school Topps sets.

I was lingering by, but the older collector was coming along looking for this and that - it felt like I kind of snatched the box with the 1983 Topps set [marked at $20] from just under his grasp.

Maybe the value has bottomed out, but old-school, pre junk wax era cards printed through the mid 1980s are still intriguing - it would be an impulse buy, but could I beat the price?

I really wasn’t about to mess with the set because who knows where it came from - even if the rookie cards of Ryne Sandberg [#83], Tony Gwynn [#482] and Wade Boggs [#498] would make the set seem like a no brainer purchase.

I have a PSA graded Sandberg and do prefer PSA graded rookies of Gwynn and Boggs - since there is some assurance someone looked at the cards to deem them authentic and assign a numerical grade.

For a price of a blaster, I could at least mimic the experience of going through the 35-year old cards like they came from unopened rips - maybe I could try to finish off my Topps team runs for 1983 with cards leftover for various, miscellaneous interests.

I actually took the time to put the set in plastic pages to see what a full set of 792 cards would look like in a book - during a few different times, I emptied out just about 90 plastic pages filled with assorted inserts and added the 1983 Topps cards.

To the naked eye the Sandberg, Gwynn and Boggs are presentable - maybe kind of examples I'd find in a more common showcase of cards at a card show or card shop.

The rest of the cards are probably in 'ex-mt' condition, with examples of cards - being off-center, miscut or otherwise having some sort of noticeable blemish.

I'll probably leave the misfit condition cards as fillers since I'm not a set guy - it's not really worth it to me to track down countless 1983 Topps so I can upgrade a random common here, a random star card here, etc.

TTM autographs received: Phil Garner

The longtime MLB player and manager signed my trading cards in about three weeks - I didn't know where I expected to see Garner in-person, but I've had his cards in my Oakland Athletics box for the past five years or so.

He was a special advisor with the A's, but I don't think he is working for the team anymore - because I was never able to get the chance to approach him in-person to get him to sign some cards, he became a 'scratch the itch' guy for me TTM.

More 2013 Topps - a couple of manufactured relics and a random Daniel Descalso base card

I wasn't going to be caught up in the new release hype of Topps' flagship brand but after browsing through eBay - the manufactured patch card set featuring Topps first cards / rookie cards of various star players caught my eye.

I ended up picking up two blaster boxes in addition to the 72-card hanger box I purchased at Walmart and pulled a Ryne Sandberg 1983 commemorative rookie patch relic in my first box - I've never pulled a Topps framed silk insert and while reprint cards have been sort of redundant, it's kind of neat to see various Topps first cards / rookie cards this way, from Willie Mays' first Topps card in 1952 to Yu Darvish's 2012 Topps rookie card.

Topps is definitely preying on collectors' nostalgia once again by using cards from previous years' Topps releases to come up with this 25-card insert set - however, the novelty of such inserts however is appealing, so I'll probably be caught up looking to pick up one or two more Topps Series I blasters than I already have.

In my second blaster box, I pulled a commemorative patch relic of Stephen Strasburg - not all blaster boxes will contain a rookie patch relic and while I'd rather have a rookie patch relic, this card features a nice, manufactured patch of the Washington Nationals' logo alongside a mugshot of the franchise's ace pitcher.

This Topps card [#190] is my early favorite of 2013 - it looks like Descalso's about to dunk [or in reality, caught in the air for a moment as he's trying to throw someone out of at first base].

Featured autographs - Rod Carew and Mike Witt

Rod Carew was signing for former Angels player Jim Eppard [the Angels AAA hitting coach at Salt Lake] throwing out the first pitch before the Angels game on Sept. 26 - I thought it was Eppard signing [I did realize as a coach called up after their season is over, Eppard still had to be in the dugout during the game] so I didn't bother to get an autograph wristband at the start of batting practice until an acquaintance came up and told me it was Carew doing the chore.

With a couple of other acquaintances, we hustled to get where the usher was handing out wristbands for the autograph signing - there was actually no problem getting an wristband because no one expected it would be Carew to show up.

During the game, I got my 1983 Topps Angels Leaders / checklist card with Carew and Mike Witt signed - though I wondered why I didn't have a better 'non-card' item to get signed.

I didn't want to be holding onto the card for while - knowing I still needed to get Carew on it in case he showed up to make an appearance somewhere.

Maybe if I hadn't gotten Carew before and/or was paying for his autograph - I'd think twice about getting just a card signed, but I was committed to finishing a multiplayer card already signed by Witt earlier in the season.

Topps Diamond Giveaway trade - 1975 Topps Dave Nelson

I wasn't particularly attached to a 1983 Topps Bill Madlock card in my portfolio - so I traded it for a 1975 Topps common just to get an old-school [though not quite a 1973 or before vintage] card into my Topps Diamond collection.

Featured autograph - Mike Witt

Mike Witt signed my card during last Friday's Angels game - I should have brought the 1983 Topps Angels leaders card to Angel Stadium a couple of weeks earlier, when I ran into the other guy pictured on the card and got his autograph.

Unlocked some Topps Diamond Giveaway codes

I was thinking about it lately and I hadn't gotten in on any Diamond Giveway action for the longest time - I ended up with about eight code cards [two pulled from packs] from the three 2011 Topps Value Boxes I purchased and wondered what to do with them?

I know I'd like to go to the Diamond Giveway Web site and enter the codes sooner than later - whether it is nefarious or not, there is a certain gambling element in play as you plug in a code and hope for something, anything of note.

I ended up entering two of the codes Sunday night and got a 1973 Topps Dave Marshall [who?] and a 1983 Topps Super Veterans subset card of Phil Niekro - maybe I should have save the rest of the unused codes to sell, particularly when the code cards are good for $3 or $4 each.

Chances are however, I'll probably end up entering the rest of the six four remaining code cards - after scratching in another set of codes Monday night.