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A CPA and his HOF Baseball and Entertainment Collection (Photo Heavy)

Hi All,

I haven't done this before, but I wanted to share a specific project I have been working on for the last couple of years that I'm excited about. Hopefully, some of you find it interesting.

I am a CPA in public accounting with a tax background. A few years ago, a friend of mine was telling me about a signed check he had of Gene Roddenberry and dug it out to show me. The check was made out to Franchise Tax Board, which is the income tax authority for the state of California. Me being a tax guy, I thought it was pretty cool. So, I thought it would be fun to see if I could track down checks of baseball hall of famers and other celebrities I liked that were made out specifically to either the IRS/US Treasury or state tax authority. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were checks out there and have been slowly building and adding to my collection.

For the baseball hall of famers, I decided to pair the checks with a HOF plaque postcard and Perez Steele postcard (for those who have a Perez Steele postcard). My wife is crafty and did all of the matting and framing for me. Below is part of my collection that is on display in my office. I will also share some of the specific ones on the wall that I particularly love.

This is my oldest check. It was a check issued by Max Carey in 1927 to the Collector of Internal Revenue. What's neat about this check was that it was issued while he was still playing. $245 was a lot of money back in 1927.

One of my better ones - Joe Dimaggio, made out to Franchise Tax Board.

This one was interesting. I found this check of Jim Palmer. It was made out to the US Treasury for a corporation of his. The interesting part of this was that the seller turned out to be Jim's ex-wife (his 2nd wife), who was selling a bunch of Palmer stuff.

I hate the Dodgers, but I was able to find Walter Alston's 2nd quarter 1983 estimated tax payments for both federal and state. I found them at different times too.

On to entertainment, I love old horror movies and was extremely excited to find a Vincent Price. This check represented his 4th quarter federal estimated tax payment for the 1975 tax year. Incredibly, his estimate was for $50,000, which implies he paid $200,000 of estimates that year. That would have purchased a Fort Knox load of 1975 Topps cases. Needless to say, he made a ton of money.

Finally, the check that started the madness. My friend ended up selling me the Roddenberry check after I told him that his check inspired me to start my project.

Other checks on my wall include:

Johnny Mize
Enos Slaughter
Harry Hooper
Bud Selig (check is a Milwaukee Brewers check from when he was in the ownership group)
Joe Sewell
Edd Roush
Jack Haley (the Tin Man)
Adam West

I have also picked up checks of others that I still need to frame and figure out how to display. This has been a blast and has become a fun conversation piece when I see clients and you never know who they will gravitate towards. I had an older lady come in earlier this year and out of nowhere she says, "Is that Walter Alston?" Turned out, she was a huge Dodgers fan and used to go to games all the time when she was younger while he was the manager and while she lived in Los Angeles. It was funny that, out of all of the pictures on the wall, he was the one she picked out.

If you've stayed with me through this whole post, I hope you find this interesting. It's been a lot of fun. There are a lot of checks out there, but finding specific ones has been challenging. But, for us collectors, a lot of the fun is the hunt.

Comments

  • Stone193Stone193 Posts: 24,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow Aaron - this is just about the nicest thing I've seen this year!

    I really like the way they're framed - and if anyone has never done? It can get quite pricey.

    With Joe and the "franchise tax?" Sounds like he was incorporated - I know before retiring, when I did my corporate tax return, there's one that was a franchise tax form to the state of Texas.

    I see the Tin Man - I think I remember that Buddy Ebsen was the original but the makeup made him sick?

    I enjoyed viewing - I'm thinking - maybe - the Carey is my favorite of the ones you posted.

    Mike
  • Air23GOATAir23GOAT Posts: 84 ✭✭✭

    I've never seen a collecting project like this. Random but also suited to your job. I dig it. Do you have a celebrity wish list?

    I'm all about that Jordan stuff. Cards, stickers, posters & whatever else is cool. The rarer the better. And always in a PSA 10 if I can help it.
    Any other big Jordan nuts out there let me know.

  • 70ToppsFanatic70ToppsFanatic Posts: 2,103 ✭✭✭✭

    Very well done!



    Dave
  • jay0791jay0791 Posts: 3,508 ✭✭✭✭

    super nice

    how do you find and obtain the checks?

    Collecting PSA... FB,BK,HK,and BB HOF RC sets
    1948-76 Topps FB Sets
    FB & BB HOF Player sets
    1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
  • perkdogperkdog Posts: 29,352 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing

  • lahmejoonlahmejoon Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭

    @Stone193 said:
    Wow Aaron - this is just about the nicest thing I've seen this year!

    I really like the way they're framed - and if anyone has never done? It can get quite pricey.

    With Joe and the "franchise tax?" Sounds like he was incorporated - I know before retiring, when I did my corporate tax return, there's one that was a franchise tax form to the state of Texas.

    I see the Tin Man - I think I remember that Buddy Ebsen was the original but the makeup made him sick?

    I enjoyed viewing - I'm thinking - maybe - the Carey is my favorite of the ones you posted.

    Thanks, Mike!

    Thankfully, my wife is good with artsy-type projects, so we saved a ton of money doing the matting and framing ourselves.

    For Joe DiMaggio, this was just a normal income tax payment to the state of California, since he resided in San Francisco. The Franchise Tax Board is our income tax collection agency, just like the Texas Comptroller is the agency that would collect franchise tax in Texas.

    You're totally right on the Tin Man. The makeup made Buddy sick, so he had to be replaced.

  • lahmejoonlahmejoon Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭

    @Air23GOAT said:
    I've never seen a collecting project like this. Random but also suited to your job. I dig it. Do you have a celebrity wish list?

    I actually do have a wish list. Other than any baseball hall of famer being fair game, there are certain guys whose checks are more plentiful. Guys who have checks out there that I'm still searching for are Ted Williams, Ty Cobb (although, if I got Cobb, I don't know that I would want to display it because of how pricey it would be), Harmon Killebrew, Stan Musial, Harry Caray (I missed out on one of his), and Warren Spahn (there are checks from one of his companies).

    Celebrities whose checks are more plentiful that I'm actively searching for are Bob Barker, Lucille Ball (I recently acquired a Desi check, so I'd love to pair his with hers), Walt Disney (which would throw me back several thousand, so I'm not in a hurry to pick one up), and Bill Bixby (random, but I also love the Incredible Hulk).

    Nobody is really off limits - if I end up finding a check of someone and I think it's cool, I will pick it up, if the price is not astronomical relative to what checks usually go for. There are checks out there, but the sellers have them listed for way more than what checks typically go for. I'm willing to pay a little more if I find a check, but don't really want to pay double or triple the normal going rate, eventhough what I'm looking for is pretty specific.

    More recent pickups that I still need to frame, other than the Desi Arnaz that I mentioned before include:

    Ray Dandridge
    Buck Leonard
    Bill Dickey
    Carl Reiner
    Ed McMahon

  • lahmejoonlahmejoon Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭

    @jay0791 said:
    super nice

    how do you find and obtain the checks?

    Believe it or not, eBay. If you do a search for signed checks, there are 11,000 hits. Checks can be a pretty affordable way to pick up autographs. I usually compare signatures to authenticated examples just to be safe, but the odds that the check is actually signed by the person is pretty high, so it makes authenticating (at least for more common signers) irrelevant. That said, if I pursued getting a Walt Disney check, I would probably want to buy it authenticated or pay for a review before buying it, since they are really expensive.

  • JBrulesJBrules Posts: 2,116 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Very cool project for sure. Thanks for posting it!!!

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