Autograph theme collection woes or victories

Thought i would try to get some chatter going on the topic of autographs. I know a number of you are collecting themes in your autograph pursuits. Perhaps you are chasing all of the Expos players or want the 1986 Topps set or only collect German born players. Share with us your themed collection and also what items have eluded you or have been the toughest to obtain.

I won't go into great detail here yet, but my biggest themed collection is my Dodgers. I will pick up any signature of a player who appeared in a Dodger game and will even pick up players who had time with one of their farm clubs, but prefer those to be in minor league uniforms of the Dodgers teams.

In addition to that, i have been trying to get all of the Mariners cards signed from 1977 to 1986, although I have added numerous newer cards, but not all.

I have run into a fair number of really tough to find players or cards from both of those themed collections and it never ceases to amaze me as to how many lesser known players are so elusive! It's hard enough to land the big names because they are either so popular and/or expensive, but when you can't find the guy who only played 6 innings (but is still alive and well), it makes you wonder. What is the big deal in signing a signature for a fan or collector for these guys and why would they not want to revel just a little in the fame of such a short lived moment in the spotlight. I'd like to believe that if it were me, I'd love to have fans or collectors want my autograph (even if it was to sell!).

One recent Dodger story that I stumbled upon today and had never heard before drives this point home further...

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...is-autograph-is-more-valuable-than-babe-ruth/

Yeah, I read that story the day they posted it and my first thoughts were "I'm guessing Curt will get his Noe Munoz before he gets a Smyres"

I know what you mean, my friend. I recently picked up a Larry Howard sig in an auction. Yes, the former Astros backup catcher in the early '70's. Larry was 25 years old when he got the call to come up to Houston in 1970, and played his last major league game in 1973 for the Braves. Larry has never done a show, and has never been to any reunion event. Larry has never done TTM and no one knows where he is...not even Jack Smalling...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/sports/baseball/11address.html?_r=0

Hi Curt:

Great topic,.....at least for me it is. A few years back I decided to try to collect an autograph of every Puerto Rican baseball player who played in the Big Leagues. To my knowledge there have been around 360 Puerto Rican players in the MLB. As of today, these are the ones I'm missing:

Carlos Bernier (1953 Pirates), died in 1989. I have seen a handful of documents signed by him. Could eventually get one myself. Very expensive.

Hiram Bithorn (1942-1947 Cubs, White Sox), died in 1951. Have seen a few of his autos, and actually SP Legendary Cuts made a cut auto of Bithorn a couple of yeas ago....it sold on EBay for around $1,000.

Miguel Fuentes (1969 Pilots), died in 1970. Mr.Fuentes died in PR the Winter after making his MLB debut. I have seen one signed baseball by him.

Canena Marquez (1951-1954 Braves, Cubs, Pirates), died in 1988. A few of his autos show up on EBay three or four times a year. I'm sure I will eventually get one (for around $100).

Sam Parrilla (1970 Phillies), died in 1994. Very rare auto to find. I have seen maybe two index cards signed by him.

Jim Pena (1992 Giants). Relatively young. Don't know why there aren't more of his autos out there. Recently saw one but couldn't get it on EBay.

Juan “Chito” Rios (1969 Royals), died in 1995. Again, not many of his autos out there. I have seen a picture or two signed by him and a few index cards.

Carlos Velazquez (1973 Brewers), died in 2000. I have never seen anything signed by him.


If you ever find or see any of those Please Let Me Know.



Luis

Still no Munoz! There is one, on a rackers type customer card, for $30 obo. tough, but not worth $30 to me. I thought about offering $10, but 1/3 offers usually are not looked upon with much seriousness or appreciation.

Great stuff Jim and Luis. That is exactly the kind of conversations I was looking for.

There may be a handful of people looking for Larry Howard autographs, but his story is probably known to very few beyond those doing that search. It would be fun to know more about these elusive players and why they don't sign.

I know the foreign born players tend to be more difficult because they traditionally return to their homeland eventually. Unless they are well off though, i wonder why more don't exploit the popularity of autograph collecting to earn some extra cash. Even if they charged a few bucks, I'm sure there would be interest out there to warrant doing it. If not for free, charge $3 for a signature and that adds up over time.

Thankfully many are willing to accommodate the fans and for no charge as well. Sadly, some of these guys are giving away free money to crafty sellers. Imagine if Bobby Doerr, for example, asked for $5 per sig? Requests would plummet greatly I am willing to bet.

Here is the White Whale for many Mariners collectors...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_McLaughlin

His is one tough sig...for obvious reasons.

The story about Clancy Smyres reminds me a little bit about Jesus Vega, who is from PR and played for the Twins for a few years during the '80s. According to our friend Javier (Mr.JS36) Mr.Vega still coaches minor league teams or "town teams" in PR and is very pleasant and very approachable to the fans.......until someone asks him for an autograph......his demeanor changes and he seems uncomfortable.

I also know of Roberto Rivera, who pitched for the Cubs for 5 innings in 1995. According to another BENCH member JJVazquez, Mr.Rivera refuses to sign anything. I was fortunate enough to find an index card signed by Mr.Rivera from 1995, but I'm still hoping to have him sign his 1995 Pacific card for me at some point.

And Edgar Diaz, with whom I played high school baseball in Caguas, PR. He played for the Brewers in the early '90s and I have seen nothing signed by him on EBay. To this day, I always take a bunch of his cards with me when I go back to my hometown, in case I run into him.

Good stories. There are plenty of those guys out there it seems.

I have a McLaughlin card. It was actually advertised as the guy in the middle (Biercevicz or something close to that) because he signed it across his picture. I have another copy of the card signed by Bud Anderson, who did the same thing. Now i just need one signed by mr. middle himself!

Ricky Wright is one of my recent white whales. i have his signature now, thanks to a team autograph sheet, but I really, really, really want that nice action photo 83 Fleer card. Of course, Mike Marshall is another, but there have been enough of his cards signed recently (Chris Potter), although the prices are still $150-200 per auto! No thanks!!

I still am missing Noe Munoz, Manuel Barrios, Will Brunson, Chance Sanford and a few other recent "blink and they were gone" guys. I just have not seen too much signed by any of them. For the 50s, I still need Rod Miller and Bob Giallombardo, both still alive and apparently quite elusive although i have seen copies of both of their signatures for sale at prices I could pass up w/o too much pain.

Excellent thread! Thanks for starting it up.

My collection focuses on SF Giants autographs, with me attempting to get a certified auto of anyone who has played 1 mlb game with them. I have pretty much all of them, the only one I may never get that has a cert is Masanori Murakami. He only has one and its rarely seen and super expensive. I dont do TTM but my IP SF Giants collection has to be one of the best out there.
A different themed collection would be my felony certified autographs. For a while I was getting a cert of any pro athlete who was convicted of a felony. I have since narrowed it down to personal preference since so many football players are getting into trouble. I prefer big-crime guys such as Aaron Hernandez, Jayson Williams, OJ Simpson, Chad Curtis, Cecil Collins, Rae Carruth, etc.
As for tough signatures I never got even though I saw these guys several times with nobody around- George Hendrick doesnt like signing but will talk to you about anything else. Terrell Lowry...scrub mlber at best, and I can't say one positive thing about him.

Autograph theme

Besides collecting an autographed card of every player who played for the Nationals (if they played for the Nats for three years I need three autographed cards), this even includes Yunesky Maya who pitched 1/3 of an inning this year, I am attempting to get each National's yearbook signed by everyone pictured in them, so far the 2008 is my only yearbook completely signed.

I had not heard about Chad Curtis, so checked it out and see it just happened. Got him as part of the dodger collection. Sounds like maybe he'll be heading to the big house and may be tougher to get. Not sure if they allow that sort of thing or not.

i'm surprised Murakami wouldn't have other autos, as he was that groundbreaker type icon. Maybe he has no interest of the card makers aren't thinking about it. I bet it would be a huge draw.

That is a lofty goal on the yearbooks, Mike. So you get a card signed for each year a player plays? is that any card or a year specific card?

Nice discussion guys, my collection is focusing on players that have played in games I have been to in person. I have the list up to date through last year, just need to add the 4 games I went to this season and I'll be set. Unlike the Nats collection for example I've seen Prince Fielder in 21 games, but am only looking for one auto. List numbers in the 900's now and I just posted the needs for it. Some of my white whales are sure to be guys like Houston Jimenez, Cory Lidle, Luis Sanchez, and Albert Belle.

Most of you know that for a long time I was very active in putting together the all-time Mariners roster. About a year ago I decided to break up the collection. I did this for a few reasons, only one of which I was prepared to go public with at the time. 1. With only about 25 autos to go it was getting extremely difficut to find pieces for the collection, and when I did people were asking fairly ridiculous prices for them. I was quoted $30 for a Bob Wells over at SCN. At that rate I just couldn't keep it going, the thrill of getting the auto I needed was gone as it became a chore to try to find the money. 2. My wife had cancer scare and need surgery, thankfully it ended up being not to serious but I still needed to purge some to help with bill. Since then she has also had heart surgery, she just loves to go under the knife

I do still collect the following sets.
1964 Topps (just what I can get, I never expect to have the complete set nor am I really aiming for it)
1973 Topps (Same as above)
1974 Topps (Same as above)
1990 Leaf (Going for the complete set, I'm very close to 50%, it's fun a rewarding)
I'm also just starting and will take more seriously when I finish 1990 Leaf
1990 Bowman
1991 Topps
1991 Stadium Club
Thinking about 2004 Topps & maybe a newer Heritage set, just so I can get some nice gaps in years.

It seems like a lot but since I collect very little except TTM stuff anymore most of my resources autographs, so with this much to work on I should keep pretty busy. I'm a low stress collector, if it takes me 30 years then so be it. It's all going on ebay when I die anyway.

Ed sorry to hear about the heath issues. That can certainly put a damper on anything you have going on outside of that issue.

I still wouldn't mind helping relieve you of a few select M's autos if you still have any, especially since the collection was broken up. I went to your Seattle auto site recently and it looked like many (if not all) scans were gone.

I've said it before, but watching you collect yours and kind of remembering the fun of the old Kingdome days got me in the hunt of the older M's cards and i have since nearly completed many of the sets in the 77-86 range, Topps, Fleer and Donruss, but it seems the Mariners have a disproportionate amount of elusive signers from those ****** years. I still need a number of different cards or sometimes just one more for the likes of McLaughlin, R. Craig, R. Walton, K. Allen, B. Brown, Zisk, D. Collins, M. Stanton, B. Stoddard, Barojas, etc. You were my inspiration.

I have not verified, but I think I now just need Lis and Collins from the 77 set. You can also toss in Busby from the team/coaches card too, as I have all the other players on one or more of that card. I might need the C. Lopez rookies still, but I may have nabbed it.

For 78, I believe the only missing player is Kevin Pasley on that rookie catchers card (with Lance Parrish, Dale Murphy & Bo Diaz), who is also missing from my Dodger team set of 77 (also included Murphy)!