Dan Lynch (Down to 2 Autos for my 1946 to present collection)
 

Picked up this 1948 Team Signed Chicago Cubs baseball with a Danny "Dummy" Lynch auto on it. Lynch played a few games for the Cubs and died at a young age in a car accident. Lynch worked as an attorney after baseball, so it is kinda strange that it is so hard to find his autographs. This is only 3rd one I have seen. I now only need 1949 - 1950 St. Louis Browns Ed Albrecht and 1955 Washington Senators Wence Gonzalez to complete my 1946 to present debut MLB players collection. Any help with these last 2 is appreciated.

Update - Just picked up Albrecht and Gonzalez. WOW

Great pickup! Best of luck with the Wence and Albrecht...two pretty tough signatures!!

Is it now up to 3 with Matt Harvey's performance last night? It's sure nice to see a good crop of kids coming up and playing well.

Actually already have Harvey :) Thats what makes this so challenging that each day there is some one new who debuts.

But I have some incredible news. I just worked out a deal to purchase Albrecht and Gonzalez. I now have every single player who has debuted in Major League Baseball from 1946 to present. It has taken me about 13 years and have made some amazing people in this hobby and learned so much about the history of baseball.

Thank you to all those who have helped me over the years.

Honestly,

That is a feat of legendary proportions. Well done sir!:)

Very cool. This is one great and never ending project. Best of luck keeping up with all the new players that will be coming up.

How many autos are in this amazing collection? And how much are you scrambling each September when teams expand their rosters?

First Off. Congrats and Holy Schnikees!

I have a couple of questions for you.
Why 1946? Is it your birth year?
How do you handle doubles created by multisigned items? For instance, if you bought a 1961 Yankees ball in order to get, say, Duke Maas, would you then sell the other Mantle/Ford/Skowron/etc items to raise funds for the next item.
What's next? 1945, 1944, 1943, etc.?

In response to some of the questions I have been asked, there are 9955 players who debuted between 1946 and 2011.

With regards to new players, I look at http://espn.go.com/mlb/debuts everday to see what players made there major league debut. I then look through my minor league autographs to see if I have them. If I dont I write to the player in care of the team. I usually wait about a month for them to respond and if not I buy the autograph. For instance last night 3 players debuted, I have Matt harvey and Starling Marte, but need Jim Henderson, so I will write to him this weekend. So technical it will never be complete.

Why did I start with 1946? Well around 2000 I started writing to players. I had purchased a debut list from Jack Smalling, which has what players debuted every year. Every time I would get a player back, I would mark him off my list. Over time, I realized more players were alive from 1946 on so thats what I concentrated on. At one time or another, I have written to every living player.

With regards to multi signed items, I prefer single signed. The majority of my collection is single signed, but with the last 10 autos it has been very hard to find on single signed, so I have started buying them on anything I could find. I have 4 autos on team signed balls, and I believe 3 on album pages, the rest are all single signed. If I was able to find single signed items of that player, I would sell the multi signed.

Whats next? I am presently working on a signed 1969 Topps set which I need 36 completely signed cards for. I have begun purchasing autos of the 1940 to 1945 debut players so I am sure I will concentrate on that more as well.

There are just so many things out there to collect, but only so much money to spend : )

JimStinson
 

Andy Varga from 1950 is a bit on the tough side too

I have Andy Vargas actual signed social security card