Best decisions/biggest regrets as autograph collectors?

[ClementeFanOh]

I was at a National in the 1990s in which Wilt and Bill Russell were both
signing. I am a huge Wilt fan, and I passed up both players because the
lines were long and I prioritized looking for cards. Whoops... Trent King

[Kzoo]

Regret selling a few of my signed cards about 10-12 years ago when my interests somewhat changed. After waking up to what I truly love in the hobby, I've been back on the signed card hunt for the last 7-8 years and I sure miss my signed '47 Tip Top Berra and Spahn (^^I think Michael has it now^^), and my '52 Topps Mays.

I'm definitely thankful I didn't sell my '51B Mantle and '34G Greenberg.

This thread feels like a therapy session, as it's good to discuss our losses.

[theshleps]

Originally Posted by Kzoo

Regret selling a few of my signed cards about 10-12 years ago when my interests somewhat changed. After waking up to what I truly love in the hobby, I've been back on the signed card hunt for the last 7-8 years and I sure miss my signed '47 Tip Top Berra and Spahn (^^I think Michael has it now^^), and my '52 Topps Mays.

I'm definitely thankful I didn't sell my '51B Mantle and '34G Greenberg.

This thread feels like a therapy session, as it's good to discuss our losses.

I have the Berra. never had Spahn

[Scott Garner]

Great thread!

Many of you on net54 may know that I have collected tickets to no-hitter games and perfect games for many decades.
Currently I have tickets to almost 250 different games dating back to 1901.

I also love autographs, but for many years, I was uncertain that I wanted to get the pitchers of these no-hit games to sign their tickets, and instead keep the tickets in original condition. Tough collecting dilemma.

Along the way, I made the decision to get all of the perfect game tickets signed by each pitcher.

When opportunities existed, I chased down no-hit pitchers at Anaheim Stadium, Comerica Park and Jacobs Field and had them sign the tickets to their no-hitters.

I recognized that several no-hitter pitchers passing closed the door on the opportunity to get some of my no-hit tickets signed....
HOF'ers Warren Spahn and Hoyt Wilhelm as well as Lew Burdette come to mind.

A watershed moment occurred in 2006, when MAB Sports in NJ announced the Pitcher Perfect show.
Over 30 pitchers that pitched no-hitters and perfect games would be signing at this show.
The chance to secure so many no-hit autographs in one weekend was too much to pass up, so I flew to NJ and had a great time meeting all these pitchers.

I also became a huge TTM collector and sent letters to many of the no-hit pitchers and asked if they would sign their no-hit ticket.
Amazingly, this worked out very well.
In addition to subsequent shows that featured no-hit autograph signers, I am happy to report that of the 248 different no-hit game tickets in my collection, 174 of these are signed by the pitcher.
40 of these tickets are signed by pitchers that have unfortunately passed over the last 18 years.

Best decisions: Getting the no-hit tickets signed
Biggest regrets: I wish I began this quest sooner, as I missed some opportunities to get some of the older pitchers when I had the chance.