favorite thru the mail autographs

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by w7imel

Never had a race driver not send me back my item signed except Emmerson Fittipaldi.

Great to see another collector into racing. Racers are nearly universally awesome when it comes to autographs. When I was a a kid, I faithfully wrote to nearly every NASCAR Cup and Busch Series driver via their team headquarters, and I don't recall ever having a failure of a racer through the mail.

[mcgwirecom]

I was 10 when Hank Aaron broke Ruth's record. I wanted to get his autograph and as many will know baseballs were not so easy to come by back then. I had never seen an MLB baseball for sale anywhere. So we played with junk balls bought for $1 at the Woolco. Anyway I had a ball that had one red panel and one white panel we used a lot. I mailed it to Hank Aaron care of the Braves and I included a pen, $2 for return postage and a fan letter written by me. I also asked that he please sign it himself and not his secretary. LOL. I did get it back and signed with my $2 intact! I still have it today although it has faded almost to oblivion (plus the ball was beat up too).

[Republicaninmass]

I have fond memories of writing to the 1952 topps players. I've kept all the correspondence for my Provenance Some of the best were players who wrote back "thanks for remembering me". George Shuba's son had his dad sign my 1952, but wrote back "Please don't bother my father any more, he is old and tired". Also, letter begging players to sign, and sending as much as $20, and later years $50, to try and get them to sign. Countless Return to Sender, plain "REFUSED" scrawled on my envelope.

I was always a little sad when I read about one of the 52 topps players passing, although most lived long lives by the time I got around to writing to them. I was shocked to see Al Kaline was still signing through the mail rather cheaply, albeit many years back. I sent him a 55 topps, not realizing his Rc was 1954!

One of the oddest was Frank Sullivan, a no name Red Sox from 1955 topps. He sent me back the card and I was shocked he requested a $10 donation! This was time when many players were free, but I'd send them $5 as a courtesy, which most would return. Being young, and a Smartass, I sent Mr Sullivan his request back, without a donation, and wrote "You simply weren't that good". I'm sure this is when the TTM craze really blew up around 2007 or so and any living players were inundated with requests, but it struck me as a high price from someone I had never even heard of.