Best decisions/biggest regrets as autograph collectors?

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by theshleps

Agree with Billy. Signed cards I need that I passed up for being $2000 or so not that many years back are 10,000+ now and I will never fill those holes in my collection I am glad I bought that Bowman rookie from Keating maybe 6 years ago for $4000. Alittle paper loss on front but who knows what it would go for now. That was the most I ever spent at that point.

When I used to set up at shows with Kevin, I felt sorry for him sometimes when he would get almost nonstop and borderline abusive price resistance from collectors and he would spend hours trying to explain to them how rare a lot of this stuff was, how hard if not impossible it would be to replace it in his inventory, and that they should jump at the chance to buy it if they really liked it. Today I doubt there are many guys who paid attention and pulled the trigger who have any regrets about it.

[bnorth]

For me it was getting this extremely rare Promo P4 Diamond version signed by Billy Ripken. This is not the B1 version one found in the comic book. Sadly I can't remember who the amazing fellow member was who made it happen. Over the years I have posted some silly rare 89 Fleer Billy Ripken cards. Because of that the awesome gentleman PMed me and said he was going to an event with Billy and asked if I would like him to get a card signed for me. Not only did he have Billy put my name on it he would not take anything for doing it for me.

[Topnotchsy]

Biggest regrets:

1) I was able to get a 1931 US Tour of Japan ball for a great price. The ball had a beautiful Lou Gehrig signature. A few years later, I sold the ball for a $1000 profit. I've sold many items I owned and find that I miss almost none of them. At the top of that short list is this one.

2) A few years back at the Atlantic City Nationals, a dealer randomly asked me if I wanted to buy a Gehrig signed photo. I think it was $2950 or so. It was a great looking piece. I'm not sure whether it was a Type I photo but it was obviously vintage. I passed instinctively as I was thrown off by someone randomly offering me an item. I'd love to have that one.

The positives remain to be seen. I bought a few items with eyes towards players making the Hall of Fame. Still waiting...

[prewarsports]

I sold a handwritten letter from Bud Fowler to Charles Comiskey in about 2019 for $10,000 thinking "If this guy was ever going to make the Hall of Fame he would already be in." They changed the election rules and he made the Hall of Fame the next year. At least it is on display now at the Negro League Museum so people can enjoy it, but it hurts a bit.

[Topps206]

I think another good decision I can add was getting Pete Rose on a Sports Illustrated cover in Cincinnati in November 2023. He left us not even a year later.

He was on a bunch of them, and I'd have liked to have gotten others signed, too, but his April 8, 1974 edition is not only my favorite cover of his, it's my favorite SI cover period.

R.I.P., Pete.

[Steve D]

Back in the early 1980s, I worked at a card store in San Diego, CA. A relative of a former major leaguer, if I remember correctly, George Cutshaw, brought in some baseballs that George had received during his playing days.

The balls included a single-signed Ty Cobb, a Honus Wagner, a Jim Thorpe and a Babe Ruth. Also included was one signed by both Cobb and Wagner, and one I think signed by Ruth and Thorpe. I was around 20-21 years old at the time, and couldn't afford them.

The store owner put an ad in SCD, and sold the single-signed balls for I think, $300 each, and the dual-signed ones for $600 each.

It still kills me to this day!

Steve

[Steve D]

One other regret is a 1941 LIFE Magazine that I had signed by Ted Williams.

Back in 1981 or 1982, Ted was a guest speaker at a sports banquet in San Diego. I caught up with him as he was walking through the parking lot of the hotel/convention center, and he signed the magazine, with a beautiful, BIG signature; I couldn't have been happier!

Fast-forward to the early 1990s. I had never been happy that I wasn't able to properly display the magazine, as back then, there was nothing that would hold a large magazine the size of LIFE. So, I reluctantly consigned it to, get ready for it..........Coaches Corner! Back then, they had huge 20-page auctions in SCD. Well, I sent it to them, along with some of the 1980s NIKE posters that I had gotten signed, on consignment.

I basically got next to nothing for any of the items.

Oh, another item I consigned at the same time to CC was an old Chesterfield Cigarettes LIFE Magazine ad that I had gotten signed by both Ted Williams and Stan Musial.

Steve

[Polarboy]

Originally Posted by Steve D

Back in the early 1980s, I worked at a card store in San Diego, CA. A relative of a former major leaguer, if I remember correctly, George Cutshaw, brought in some baseballs that George had received during his playing days.

The balls included a single-signed Ty Cobb, a Honus Wagner, a Jim Thorpe and a Babe Ruth. Also included was one signed by both Cobb and Wagner, and one I think signed by Ruth and Thorpe. I was around 20-21 years old at the time, and couldn't afford them.

The store owner put an ad in SCD, and sold the single-signed balls for I think, $300 each, and the dual-signed ones for $600 each.

It still kills me to this day!

Steve

$300 Ruth?! Man I wish I could go back to those days!