I have been known to collect a lot of stuff.
if anyone out there would like to share I’m interested in knowing what some of you guys collect from the sublime to the eccentric.

For example on the eccentric side I collect post cards - not written on and book markers - cool ones. I must have between 200 to 300.

I forgot - this is a non sport subject…. I can delete it.

No reason to delete the topic. It’s actually interesting. There are a few threads on here that are not baseball oriented. Years ago I started one asking people “what are you reading?” It still is around.

I collect coins. I prefer 19th century United States coins but I have many old foreign coins too.

Posted by winnetka1 on 6/26/2023 6:52:00 PM (view original):
No reason to delete the topic. It’s actually interesting. There are a few threads on here that are not baseball oriented. Years ago I started one asking people “what are you reading?” It still is around.

I collect coins. I prefer 19th century United States coins but I have many old foreign coins too.

Thanks. I thought more people would chime in.
they collect wis baseball teams.

I have a coin collection too. I have an 1804 half penny and 1814 penny and lot of other stuff - buffalo heads and Indian Pennies and silver ww2 Pennie’s and silver dollars - lots of uc and proof sets etc.
not very very valuable but nice to have.

I had an uncle with the stamp collection and coin collection like the uncle Bob Dylan refers to in a song from an early album.

he developed multi million dollar collections by studying ( he was a genius ) he would get a rare stamp worth 500 thousand for 20 dollars at flea markets. Mr Wilson on steroids.
I think his 2 collections were worth about 10 million.
it was all about the stuff he would legally steal at flea markets.
I think my combination collections are worth about 5-thousand unless I have rare stuff I’m not aware of.
I have collections of other things that have the real money.

I have real legitimate collections of everything under the sun which caused me to have to upgrade my homes and move a few times.

So I bet I collect just about anything anyone mentions.


Sometimes I try to give some to friends but Shmata shmata shmata I can’t give it away on Seventh Avenue shadoobie.

Oh - I know that you have a massive book collection.
me too. Everything just about but my best subcollection is history ( mainly American history ).

On Monday I picked up the new Joe Biden book about his Dad for 5 dollars and it had an autograph plate in it. At the same library about 3 years ago I got a Nimmy Carter book for 50 cent that was autographed.
I say that I have a 6th sense.

over the years I have become an amateur autograph expert.

If anyone wants to discuss autographs I’m happy to go there.

I bought a collection of old horse racing programs and inside many of them are autographs of jockeys. Many famous jockeys but they are not worth money. I like them for sentimental reasons.

my two favorite autographs are from a professional golfer and one from a great soldier from WWII. Charlie Sifford was a black professional golfer that was not allowed to play in a PGA tournament until the early 60’s. There was a rule that stipulated that only white golfers could play. Charlie eventually got to play and in the early years he was confronted by virulent racists in nearly every tournament he entered. He wrote a book about it called “Just Let Me Play “ . I brought the book to a senior golf tournament back in the 90’s and asked Charlie to sign it.

the Band of Brothers was a series on HBO in 2001. It is a true story of the heroic actions of Easy Company of the 506 PIR of the 101st Airborne. The commander was Dick Winters. . I wrote him a letter years ago on Veterans Day and he was kind enough to write me back.

Posted by winnetka1 on 6/27/2023 10:24:00 AM (view original):
I bought a collection of old horse racing programs and inside many of them are autographs of jockeys. Many famous jockeys but they are not worth money. I like them for sentimental reasons.

my two favorite autographs are from a professional golfer and one from a great soldier from WWII. Charlie Sifford was a black professional golfer that was not allowed to play in a PGA tournament until the early 60’s. There was a rule that stipulated that only white golfers could play. Charlie eventually got to play and in the early years he was confronted by virulent racists in nearly every tournament he entered. He wrote a book about it called “Just Let Me Play “ . I brought the book to a senior golf tournament back in the 90’s and asked Charlie to sign it.

the Band of Brothers was a series on HBO in 2001. It is a true story of the heroic actions of Easy Company of the 506 PIR of the 101st Airborne. The commander was Dick Winters. . I wrote him a letter years ago on Veterans Day and he was kind enough to write me back.

Me as well re sentimental value.
The financial worth is of only secondary interest.
It is all about the intrinsic heart felt feeling that you get.
The story about Charlie Sifford was phenomenal.
On the one hand, it is great to be able to lend one ‘s humanity to another and on the other hand it is horrible and sick that other people and events have compelled all of us to realize a choice of how to live and be and to recognize a responsibility to others who have never lived on a normal and level playing field and ill leave it at that!!

But the history and humanity even without the meetings endow certain autographs with a power of great sentiment and connection.

The autographs I got in person are special but going just on superstardom the 5 best as far as I am concerned from my collection not in order are

1. Marilyn Monroe - canceled check to her housekeeper
2. Humphrey Bogart - green ink signed with incredible effort for beauty and legibility.
3. Elvis Presley on a rare photo. Again - signed with careful perfection
4. Ty Cobb - green ink - perfect signature
5. Rocky Marciano - on a handbill for a show he was speaking at.
again really nice signature.

My collection covers baseball basketball hockey football boxing wrestling some golf and tennis movies and tv some history.

The vendors I have purchased from are nationally known and a few are used as experts by the FBI for autograph fraud cases ( I do have Barry Bonds signed around 88-92. ) before he got a big head.
Not a great signature mostly the first and second B. That was his signature at one point of his career.
There are some athletes that had evolving signatures. He was one and Mantle was another. ( I have several Micky Mantles ).

The hobby is mostly dead and a main reason is the advent of the scribble or graffiti signature.
Those signatures are mostly 1990 on.
NO SENTIMENTAL VALUE and who knows what is and isn’t real anyway.

In “the olden days” signers were honored and took great pride in their signatures. That is really true.

Legible autographs are the best. Arnold Palmer passed on good advice to many young up and comers on the PGA tour. He told them to make their autograph legible so people can recognize the name. Every Palmer autograph is carefully written and beautiful. His autograph is distinctive and is part of his brand. I got a Jack Nicklaus autograph on a U.S. Open program for my daughter. I had to squeeze past a sea of fans and could only get my arm out enough in hopes that he would grab my program and sign it. My daughter was getting crushed by the people pressing closer to the ropes. It was worth it. A perfectly legible and beautiful autograph with a sharpie.

You are correct, sir.
Back in the day fans would send players things to sign and players would mail them back.
Having a blank post card sent to a player via the team and it being sent back postmarked side and then the other side being signed would tremendously increase the authenticity reducing any possibility of fraud of course. Usually the fan would complete the side going back to him. The fan would prepostmark.

Sometimes the the side sent back to you would be filled out by the player if left blank. I purchased for my collection a Jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio that are post card autographs. I have others I can’t remember at the moment.



On golf - I only have a few but my number one goal was Arnold Palmer. He was a very very generous signer just like you would have hoped.

The nicest guys I met in real life ( not a line ) were Hal Greer, Ruben Amaro Sr. Bobby Bonds Dick Allen.Maybe it was a bad day but Richie Ashburn was very brusque.
I met legendary sports announcer Bill Campbell at a book signing and he was nasty or he was constipated - he was about 85.
I never liked to stand in a long line but when I did the player was always very gracious.

I think that the only fan / celebrity bonding and autograph experience left are the comic con and tv show stuff. There are mutual love affairs there and a lot of horror actors show up there.
re horror - I have a beautiful Bela Lugosi signed in blood ( kidding ). But very good signature.

Favorite dupes - people paying for Babe Ruth signed with a sharpie. Sharpie markers were not sold in public market until 1964 and invented in 1952.

Never ever buy anything involving autographs on EBay or similar outlets.

Baseball cards!!

My favorite things to collect are N172s

Posted by Got_Worms on 6/29/2023 1:39:00 PM (view original):
Baseball cards!!

Got it got it need it got it need it got it got it.
I also have old basketball cards which are cool.

Posted by TulsaG on 6/29/2023 3:16:00 PM (view original):
My favorite things to collect are N172s

Flight tracking histories?
Me too.

kidding. Those are very rare cards and a very cool thing to collect. Kudos.

Those were the days when baseball players looked like Wyatt Earp.