So I went to a big stamp show last weekend and bought

[steve B]

Autographs!

I don't buy them often, and almost never when they cost some actual money. But one of the dealers had just bought a huge collection that belonged to Elten Schiller who was a Padres executive. He also collected stamps and wrote a book on baseball stamps and autographs.

I also got some AS covers done on odd items. Team stationery, promotional brochures,

There were more than a few I couldn't resist, Probably should have spent more than I did.

Top one - Sheffield, Tony Fernandez, Benito Santiago, Tony Gwynn, Fred Mc Griff.
Middle - Joan Krok
Bottom - Shane Mack, Lee Sung (Played for Korea)



Top Tim Raines
Bottom, no sig, but on the AS Brunch ticket



Top - Don Davidson - Astros travelling secretary

Bottom - Glenn Davis, Dave Smith, Kevin Bass, Mike Scott, Hal Lanier. Astros All-Stars




More tomorrow.

Steve B

[Michael B]

Steve,

The secret is out. Stamp shows are one of the best places to find sports autographs and related postal items. You can find quite a few sports related covers at relatively low prices if you know where to look. I have done very well at such shows. I know there is a good one at the Sheraton in Boxborough at least once a year. There is also a fairly good paper show at that hotel. I would go when I lived up in Mass. I am from Waltham and also lived in Walpole and Worcester.

[steve B]

Yes, Boxboro is the show I went to.

Most stuff I see that's baseball is rather ordinary. And they've caught on to pricing a bit.

This collection was amazing, at least the bit of it I saw. A boxful of AS covers, many signed. And another box that I only skimmed that was multiples of some HOF players signed on Induction day or other related covers. Like 10+ Drysdales. A lot of the covers were the ones from smaller cover makers.

The 84 postcard has a foreign Disney baseball stamp fdc on the back as a cachet, and is numbered out of 250, a fairly large number. Some of the others were /50 or/100 some even less.

His pricing was very reasonable.

Steve B

[steve B]

I've often bought stuff at shows for other things.

First baseball silk came from a coin show.

And I went to a restauraunt china show and bought cards and a Cubs coffee cup that was probably an office or vip item.

And stamps, and bottles and other stuff from card shows.

One of my few other autographs came from a mall craft show.

Steve B

[Michael B]

I also find nice items where I would not expect to find them. I found a Johnny Evers 1939 baseball signed cover at Brimfield for $10. That Boxborough stamp show. along with the Ephemera Society show have been the sites of my biggest finds. Most of the stamp dealers do not put out their 'autographs'. I was walking around that show and a dealer asked me out of the blue if I was looking for autographs. He pulled out a box of interesting items. At the time I was collecting and selling a lot of Civil War signatures. I pulled out a full handwritten letter by a Confederate General who was killed in Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. The dealer had it well identified but terribly underpriced. Sold it to a collector at the Gettysburg Civil War show about a month later for 10 times what I paid for it (low 4 figures).