Info about Bill Zekus collection ???

[mschwade]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Just in Northern California I know of at least 3 baseball autograph collectors who were trying to "get 'em all" and though I've lost touch with them I think they are still around.

When you say Get Em All, how far does that go back? Certainly, there has to be some kind of limits, right?

[JimStinson]

"Get em All" meant 1876 the initial formation of the National League till the present. Anyone that ever appeared in a game.
Strange as it sounds you could actually take on a project like that back then, because there were less collectors and more "Stuff" ALOT cheaper too.
Although I seriously doubt that anyone ever GOT EM ALL , Even with Trump's wallet it would simply be impossble, even then

[Tom Hufford]

Bill Zekus was one of my earliest and closest friends when I got started in my autograph hunt, about 1969. I'm not sure how I came to know him, but it was probably through Jim MacAllister.

Bill's collecting interests were in three categories - 1. Every player who had ever played for the Dodgers; 2. Every Hall of Famer; 3. Every player who reached specific statistical levels, like 175 wins, 300 home runs, 2000 hits, etc. I don't remember the specific numbers, but in effect, it was all the players who appeared in The Sporting News' Daguerreotypes (sp??) book. Bill also wanted to acquire 3 items on each player - a signed photo, a signed gum/tobacco card, and a flat item such as a 3x5, signed check, business paper, etc.

So, if Bill happened to run across a tough signature that didn't fit one of his criteria, he was always willing to trade. Thing is, it was hard to find something from his wantlist. I learned that the hard way, though. About 1970, while trying to track down "what ever happened to" players that weren't listed as deceased in the new Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, I located the son of Wallace Oakes Clement, who played with the 1908-09 Phillies and Dodgers. His son completed a biographical questionnaire on his dad (who, it turns out, had died in 1953) - and he sent me his dad's signed Social Security card. I told Bill about it and he went nuts, knowing that I had a Dodger autograph that he needed. He ended up offering me an album page signed by Jack Picus Quinn in exchange for the Clement SS card, and I did it. After all, Quinn won over 200 games, pitched into his late 40s, etc. Over the years, though, I ran across numerous examples of Jack Quinn, and never another Clement (that stood to reason, his son had given me the only one he had!). Of course, Bill was never interested in trading it back to me - and it took me over 30 years to get the Wally Clement SS card back (after Bill died).

The first autograph collection I ever purchased was a joint deal with Bill in about 1971- we purchased the collection of Roger Christensen, who I didn't know, but Bill told me Roger was going into the military and wanted to sell. Bill said the price was $600 (I believed him - and still do), so I sent Bill $300. I have no idea how I came up with $300 - I was in college, had a job mowing grass at a church for $30 a month - so that was a huge purchase for me. Roger sent the collection to Bill, we agreed to split the HOFers first, then the rest of the collection. Bill split them up, and sent me a box full of stuff - including a 3x5s of Cy Young, Fred Clarke, Bobby Wallace, and cuts of Ban Johnson and Lou Gehrig - the first example I'd had of each. I don't remember exactly what else I got, probably 1,000 -2,000 3x5s. I have no idea what Bill took out before sending me my half - but looking back, I see that I got my money's worth. And, later I got to know Roger Christensen, too.

Bill was a insurance agent in Fishkill, NY, just north of NYC. He had a teenage son who was struck and killed by an auto in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and as you can imagine, that really affected Bill. I sensed that he lost most of his interest in autograph collecting after that. Not long after that, he relocated to New Port Richey, FL, where he lived the rest of his life. We kept in touch up until his death, on June 21, 2001, but really didn't do much autograph-wise during the last 15 years or so.

I think I only met Bill in person three times - at the HOF induction weekend in Cooperstown in 1971, 1972, and 1974. I was surprised several months ago when someone posted an article about Bill Mastro selling a T206 Wagner on this site - and there was an unrelated photo that included Bill Zekus and myself. I'll try to add a link to it here:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=150405

In the second photo from the top, on the left, that's Bill Zekus in the center, I'm on the right, and I have no idea who that is on the left. Someone (I don't know who) must have taken this photo at Cooperstown (I'm guessing its 1974) - obviously we were getting balls signed by the players in attendance, and were comparing our successes.

I miss Bill, and wish everyone on this board could have known him.

[thecatspajamas]

Tom, Thanks for sharing the memories!

Just thought I'd re-post the photo you referenced above here for simplicity's sake:

[JimStinson]

Great photo...! Thanks for posting that Lance.

Tom, Thanks a million for your post. I never knew that Bill lost a son in an accident, I seem to remember his having a teenage son in the 1980's when he was in New Port Richey and I think a daughter

Your story about Clement vs Quinn was funny because another collector who now lives in the north west used to tell me ...Don't even TRY to get the better of Bill in a deal, he'll always win (smile), I remember one time he "got" me, I had started buying collections at shows and was always scrambling for Dodgers stuff to trade him because he was a veteran and I was new. And I had a beautiful signed photo of Hugh Casey, of all the stuff I brought it was the only thing he was interested in and I kinda scratched my chin and said $10.00 ??? Casey never threw a fastball quicker than that photo ended up in Bill's "Trade" stack.

Another story that came to mind was his telling me about getting a phone call one day in the 1960's and a gentleman who knew nothing about autographs was about to buy a large collection of signed baseballs and could he pay Bill for the day to look the baseballs over and make sure he was getting a good deal and they were legit. Bill agreed and a limo showed up at his house the next day and he and the man went to look at the collection. After looking it over Bill told him he thought it was a good deal but not nearly as good as his signed baseball collection, only his wasn;t for sale the guy wanted to look anyway and to make a long story short, The guy who's name was Ewing Kauffman bought both ball collections.

[JimStinson]

I had completely forgotten until I saw the picture of Bill and Tom,,,I wrote this article about Bill back in 1995.

[Scott Garner]

Many thanks to all that contributed to this thread. This was unbelieveably entertaining and interesting!

[JimStinson]

Does anyone remember by chance the name of the old time collector who used to actually track down and visit many of the players personally? he was the fellow that visited Swede Risberg in the hospital and bought him some kind of fancy razor as a gift and then asked him to autograph a ball and some 3x5's , Risberg threw the ball in the bedpan and told him he didn;t sign autographs. They ended up talking for a couple hours and Risberg took a liking to him. He was in the military on leave and was dressed up in his army clothes. He left the unopened pack of 100 3x5's with Risberg and asked him if he felt like signing a few during the night he would appreciate it, if not he said his bus (or train) left the next morning and he'd drop in to say goodbye. The next morning he visited Swede again and not a word was said about the 3x5's. before he got ready to leave Risberg reached in the drawer and handed him the 3x5's , he had signed ALL ONE HUNDRED , whenever I see a Swede Risberg autograph on a 3x5 these days , thats where they came from.