Best decisions/biggest regrets as autograph collectors?

[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!

[Topps206]

I’ve thought of another good decision - 2020, as the world was being shut down, I sent in a Leon Spinks SI a private signing, and I’m guessing quarantine delayed the signing, but got it back signed a few months later. He was gone in February 2021.